Dyson DC41 Animal New
- Radial Root CycloneTM Technology
- Cleaner head self-adjusts for optimal contact ? even on hard floors.
- Ball? technology steers smoothly
- Lightweight and durable
- 5 yr warranty
The strongest suction at the cleaner head
List Price: $ 500.00
Price: $ 500.00
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Frustration Free Vacuuming,
I know this will be long, so I will present this in pro’s & con’s, a summary of my background a little, a summery of my experiences, and then a more detailed follow up on some of those pro’s/con’s.
All in all, my wife and I are really happy with it. It’s only been the first week, so time will tell.
Some of the pro’s and con’s might appear to be double listed, as some are a plus and a minus.
PRO’S
* Sucks – pulls dirt out of somewhere where my last vacuum couldn’t find it.
* a bit quieter than any vacuum I have had…lower pitch as well. My wife and i can actually talk a reasonable levels when the vacuum is running.
* Vacuum head self adjust to floor, so no bending down to turn the @!#$ switch on most vacuums.
* Attachments lock into place, so they don’t come off when using them
* Dirt canister removes as one unit (no dirt on the floor), dumps out of bottom over a trash can
* Beaters/rollers (rolling brush that hits the carpet) stops rotating when the vacuum is in park, which also diverts the airflow to the hose.
* Beaters have a switch to turn them off – for hard floors
* Pulling on hose to clean with does not cause the vacuum to fall over
* Hose does not fight you to keep it extended, but does spring back when needed…not sure how they pulled this one off – looks weird.
* Feels lighter
* Wand is one piece, so you don’t have to assemble it to use it
* Lots of attachment options
* Filters are all washable, it says once every 3 months – after 2 wks, there was only the finest, and almost no dust…washed it just to see.
* LONG elec cord – 30+
* no wasted space, so the design looks cleaner (i.e. hose tucks into frame/handle)
* easy to unclog (see very end – 1.5 month update)
CON’S
* Wand is a bit awkward, length is a solid 3ft, and has to be removed to use tools with the hose
* Ball takes a little getting used to.
* Elec cord is not a self wind up
* Canister dumps out the bottom – not all the dirt comes out, but most.
* Most attachments are extra, meaning extra money.
* Smaller canister than most vacuums, but not bad either.
BACKGROUND
I decided to go with frustration free in the title, rather than the typical “this vacuum sucks”. I’m a guy, I think I’m typical in that I’m not a fan of vacuuming. I do it to keep the filth down…..my wife can see dirt better than I, either it’s in the genes, or men are better at ignoring things they don’t want to know about, cuz then we would have to do something.
At any rate, I’m always frustrated when vacuuming. Getting it out, moving it around, the endless back and forth. This is before you start dealing with attachments and emptying/maintaining the thing. I’ve been using bagless since they came out.
We have pets, 1 cat, 2 dogs, and others (but they don’t leave hair or dirt around). These 3 pets are also allowed to come and go as they please, so for the most part, vacuuming is needed to keep the hair down, and the dirt as well. As such, pet hair kills vacuums. Which is why the last few I have purchased have been Bissels. Especially the pet one. I had a Eureka once that killed itself in less than a year on dog hair (gets in the rollers, and burns the bearings up. I’ve liked the Bissels, but decided with a Dyson for a number of reasons based on reviews, plus I would rather buy one good machine, than a lot of mediocre ones.
MY EXPERIENCE
I’ve had the Dyson for a whole week, so keep in mind, mileage may vary. I’m actually rather impressed. We tend to vacuum weekly, though more would be better (white long haired dog, means you see hair the day after you vacuum on dark colored rugs). Our Bissel needed replacing, so I’m told, but it seemed to do a pretty good job…so I thought.
On opening up the box, I’m a guy, no need for instructions, the vacuum went together pretty nicely. No tools required. Snapped together like an expensive lego set. Though rather straight forward, and they include cheat sheets on the vacuum for those that didn’t open the instruction book. I didn’t time myself, but it took longer to get the parts out of all the packing material, than it did to assemble it….not that there was too much packing material.
On first use, a bit of dirt (and hair of course) came up. A bit more than I would have expected. I was impressed on that alone. I then vacuumed the next few nights. I was amazed at how much dirt came out of the carpet (same each time). I know dirt packs into the carpet, but geez.
Most vacuums it seems a chore to vacuum, in that you have to move back and forth while rotating the vacuum to move it across the floor. Basically I can move it around with almost no effort. The head is a little lower in height, so I can actually get into places I couldn’t before. One thing to…
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|Great, but has design flaws.,
The DC41 is a great product and is probably the best vacuum out there. But that hasn’t stopped me from noticing a few defects. There are really 2 major ones that nearly made me return this product.
The first issue is that they got rid of the foot lever that typical vacuums have to engage the beater bar. Instead you just force it down and start vacuuming and when you are done you just put it back up and it latches and stays upright. This is pretty neat but when you are putting it upright there are 2 distinct things that happen, it engages the wand hose and then it engages the lock that holds it up. The switch for the hose is much louder and happens first so this leads you to believe the vacuum is upright and to let go when it is not latched properly causing it to fall over if you are not quick enough to catch it. This makes me respond by putting it upright much more forcefully then I want to do to something I’ve bought for nearly $600.
The second main issue is the path the air flows to the motor. There are 3 zones in the canister. The air goes from the outer to the inner getting cleaner as it progresses. The outer one is for big debris and dust, and then air flows through those tiny cyclones on the top and deposits its finer dust in the middle zone. Finally after leaving those cyclones the air goes through the filter (accessible though the top of the canister) and down the inner zone to the motor then finally out through the filter in the ball. The problem with this is that when you empty the canister the dust can and will cross contaminate from the other zones and into the post filter, inner zone. This means next time the vacuum is started it will suck in that dust into the motor and the ball filter.
So here is the story of how I found out about this defect: to test out the DC41 I took it to a house that was very dirty (some parts had not been vacuumed for a year) and vacuumed nearly the whole house. I had to empty the canister 3 times. After the 3rd time the vacuum got clogged (A peppermint in the narrow hose tool) and it activated the thermal cutoff. After learning about the thermal cutoff and what it meant, I took apart the vacuum and cleaned out all the access ports. Also looked at the post motor filter and saw that it was absolutely filthy but the filter in the canister was still white. So the dust was bypassing the canister filter somehow. So I figured it was when I dumped the canister the dust plume went everywhere including back up into the part of canister that is meant to be dust free. That amount of dust can’t be good for the motor.
Here are a few more nit picks:
It feels a little harder to navigate then the DC25
I wish it had a light and something to automatically rewind the cord.
Sometimes it feels like it’s about to break in my hands.
The hose wand sometimes doesn’t extend all the way out of the hose and sometimes causes the airway to be blocked when used. I think the DC25’s wand was better.
It does not has a spot for all the tools.
The reason I decided to keep this vacuum is the active base plate, I have a lot of wood flooring in my house and I want to get as much dust up before I use the Swiffer. Using this vacuum I now only have to use one pad each time I clean with the Swiffer instead of several.
And the DC41 will not be facing that dirty house again so it will never be that full of dust again.
Here are few good things about it:
It has great suction.
It survived that dirty house.
Its cord is long enough that I can plug it in anywhere and vacuum the entire floor.
Ultimately I think this is a great vacuum but for $600 I expect the best with no flaws and this has 2 too many flaws for that price. Unfortunately I can’t find a better vacuum so I’m stuck with this one.
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