Dyson DC14 All floors Bagless Upright Cyclonic Vacuum

I first heard about this from someone at work a few years ago, and about how they used their old vacuum on the carpet and then when over it with the Dyson and filled up the bin. Twice.

We got this in December of 2005 as a gift from my mother. It is the full kit that is only available from Costco. It is the silver and white unit with orange accents. It came with the usual tools: crevice tool, brush, upholstery, a mini turbine brush (curiously purple) and a hard floor tool.

This vacuum is amazing. It replaces a Hoover bagless cyclonic, and puts the old vacuum to shame. When used on the carpet I can t believe how much stuff it picks up. There is no height setting it automatically adjusts. While this unit is heaver that our older unit, it is easier to use due to the design. It has large rear wheels and the angle of the handle provides better leverage than our older unit.

It is very clear that this machine went through serious amounts of usability testing. For example, tilting the unit back to begin vacuuming only requires you to place your foot on either side of the unit to hold it in place and a gentle tug on the upright every other unit I ve seen requires you to step on a lever to release the upright. The bin is clear and allows you to see just what you ve picked up and is the easiest to empty I ve ever seen. Just take it out side and hold it over the trash can and push the red button. With a gentle shake the dirt falls out the bottom of the bin, then you close it up and go. Here are some other features I really like:

--The power cord is really, really long.

--The placement of the attachments where they clip on to the vacuum is well thought out they don t get knocked off easily.

--If you need to clear an obstruction, all the tubes are accessible to clean, without tools. Likewise, the main brush can be accessed and clean with only a coin to undo the fasteners.

--Likewise the bin disassembles for easy cleaning.

--The thing just looks cool. You can see all the parts and how it is put together.

Having said all that, I must admit that I initially found the whole wand, and hose setup a bit confusing. It is a bit complicated to get the hang of, but ultimately the design of the thing facilitates not having to either have a hose hanging on the back of the unit which is flopping around (like my old unit) or having a completely separate hose that you have to go get when you decide you want to use it. After using this for a few months we don t have and problems with the set up and the benefits of this configuration out way the complexity.

The mini-turbine brush works well, and you can turn the spinning brush off if you want to. Curiously, there is a latch release button on the unit that seems to have no purpose.

The hard floor tool works well, but I usually just use the regular vacuum mode and turn off the brush on the main unit by twisting the knob from carper to the hard floor setting.

I was interested to learn that the unit actually does include a filter. It is a HEPA filter to remove ultra fine particles from the expelled air, and apparently does not affect the performance of the unit at all. It is a lifetime filter that simply needs to be rinsed out every 6 months or so. The full kit version includes an extra filter so you can replace the dirty filter immediately, since the washed filter required at least 12 hours to fully dry.

I have to admit that I thought spending almost $500 for a vacuum seems excessive, $600 plus for some of them. But after using this for a few months I d say that it is money well spent. In this case you get what you pay for. As someone who is highly allergic to dust mites (really, had the scratch test, swelled up like crazy) I really appreciate how well this thing cleans and dosen t blow dust into the air.

This thing rocks. What a weird thing to say about a vacuum cleaner...