January 5, 2004

12:27 PM

After living together for four years, my sig other and I are ready to take the plunge - and buy a good vacuum cleaner. We have a dog, she has allergies, I googled and quickly came up with the Dyson DC07 'Animal', which has 5 stars on Amazon but which costs $500. Simple? Well, other reviews, including some other Amazon reviews, say it's a bit of a dog, and one accuses Dyson of padding the reviews with their PR material. Has anyone used a Dyson, or the DC07? [More inside]
posted by carter to (23 comments total)

And other reviews again say it's great. Having read some of the negative reviews, there does seem to be something Stepford Wife-ish about the 5 star reviews. But on the other hand, it could just be a very good vac. But on the other hand, $500 is a lot to spend. But on the other hand, we really need to deal with the dog hair and dander, and the way these are trashing our landlord's carpets. But on the other hand, would Dyson really pad the Amazon reviews? Help!
posted by carter at 12:27 PM on January 5, 2004

Haven't used the Dyson, but I'll swear by the Miele products. I have two dogs and an infant, and this vacuum does the job.

In any case, do buy quality even if it's $500. I'm through with the $99 specials.
posted by jasons at 12:40 PM on January 5, 2004

Save $50 to a few hundred bucks for the same item on eBay.
posted by dobbs at 12:46 PM on January 5, 2004

I got one of those recently. It's rather early on for me to do a review but on initial impressions it looks good.

I did some searching around and couldn't see a great deal of difference between DC07 and the Animal version (the British Allergy Foundation recommend both models). You could save a lot by getting the non-Animal version - the one I got here in the UK was £170
posted by dodgygeezer at 12:51 PM on January 5, 2004

I'll second Miele products as an alternative. I've had two different ones - the regular "cannister" kind and an "electric broom" model - and they've both been terrific. I'd buy another Miele product in a heartbeat - well worth the premium you pay over the Hoovers et. al. that last a year or three and then start dropping plastic mystery parts all over the floor...
posted by JollyWanker at 12:55 PM on January 5, 2004

please note: anything by bissell should be avoided. i don't know if they make quality products or not, but management is not quality people. after accepting numerous tax breaks from the city and state over the years, bissell moved most of it's production out of the country and dumped a bunch of workers on the street. poor old silas would have been so proud.
posted by quonsar at 1:11 PM on January 5, 2004

It's apparently been discontinued, but the Panasonic Dual-Sweep is a great vac if you can still find one, and under $200. Comes in bag and bagless varieties and is, according to reviewers, as good as vacs costing twice as much. The only thing that annoys me about the vac is that the tool caddy falls off the body pretty easily.
posted by kindall at 1:22 PM on January 5, 2004

Consumer Reports (2/03) says:

...But our testing also suggests that some of the latest models are pushing style over substance.

An example is the flashy new Dyson DC07 upright, $400, an English-made model making its North American debut. The yellow-and-silver Dyson has the see-through styling you'll find on a growing number of vacs. It also has a series of air chambers designed to help remove soil and provide continuous suction, says the company.

But like nearly half the models we recently tested, the Dyson didn't excel on carpets, the cleaning consumers care about most and the one we weigh most heavily.

(It also mentions a design flaw that can cause it to fall on your foot, but an 11/03 update says that the model they most recently tested didn't have this problem.)

Their top rating goes to the Hoover WindTunnel Self Propelled Ultra U6439-900, and the Eureka Boss Smart Vac 4870 earned their coveted Best Buy rating.
posted by staggernation at 1:37 PM on January 5, 2004

Have you looked at the Consumer Reports recommendations? A number of their "how to choose" articles are available on the web free of charge, and it costs $4.95 for a 30 day subscription, which gives you access to their on-line archives (or you can use the on-line article index to check out articles at the public library). For low-tech stuff like vacuums and blenders I find them an invaluable resource to help make selections.

(on preview - staggernation beat me to it!)
posted by anastasiav at 1:40 PM on January 5, 2004

CR also says:

A very good bagless vac, but has confusing controls. Hose longer than most. Noisy. Hard to push and pull. No headlamp. HEPA filter (washable): $17.50.

posted by staggernation at 1:41 PM on January 5, 2004

I love my new DC04 - it costs £149 ($270) and sucks like a [inappropriate smutty joke deleted].

I don't know about dog hair & dander, but it removed about a pound of impacted Shake 'n' Vac from my floor on first use. Like a colonic for carpets.
posted by dash_slot- at 2:09 PM on January 5, 2004

My wife swears by our bagless vac - its not one of the "major" brands, but it cost about $200 and she won't use anything but. I'll followup with the name and model once I either remember or get home and look at it. We're our our second, this time a cannister model. The first (an upright) was killed by trying to vacuum dog hair off the floor (we'd just shaved down our long-haired st bernard for the summer). We gave up on trying to get all of it out, and just went and bought another.
posted by mrbill at 2:13 PM on January 5, 2004

Found it. Made by Fantom, we originally had the Fury, and now I think we have the Lightning model. They'll run $175-250 at various places. We got ours (refurbished) at a local vacuum store.
posted by mrbill at 2:20 PM on January 5, 2004

My mother has curated for museums around the world and the vacuum that she has seen used in some special collections rooms (which need to keep pretty clean) is often the Rainbow. It uses water for a filter but it is NOT cheap at all. For those with extreme allergies, water filter vacuums are pretty much mandatory.
posted by gen at 2:48 PM on January 5, 2004

p.s. Needless to say, that's what we have and it's been running well for us for over 10 years.
posted by gen at 2:49 PM on January 5, 2004

Hoover only makes plastic junk these days. Beware. I was betrayed by consumer reports. My euro-buddy swears by Miele as well.
posted by mecran01 at 3:28 PM on January 5, 2004

In addition to Miele, I believe Sanyo (but maybe it's Panasonic) is the other name you can completely trust.

I've heard the non-Dyson windtunnel-style vacs are, in fact, Dyson-design vacs (the windtunnel is patented). If that is the case, they should all be equal given equal suction and beater-bar design.

That said, I've no idea whatsoever what the best vacuum available in North America is, despite really wanting to know. My old Eureka is on its last legs.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:25 PM on January 5, 2004

Nobody has mentioned the Oreck, which I consider to be among the best vaccum available. Despite being an upright with brush, I use it primarily on bare linoleum and wood floors, and it works.
posted by majick at 5:43 PM on January 5, 2004

I second the Rainbow suggestion. My mother and both grandmothers have used them for as long as I can remember. Somehow I ended up with an old one when I moved off to college and it's dealt with everything my roommates have thrown at it. The whole water filtration thing works great!
posted by asterisk at 9:42 PM on January 5, 2004

We have the Animal and love it. The difference between the Dyson vacuums is just attachments. The Animal attachment is very good at getting up hair and is really good on the stairs (easier to use there). I even use it to vacuum up most of the hair in my cat's bed! It's like a turbo brush, but since it's small you can't use it on your entire carpet (unless you have lots of patience).

The hose is really long but that's good. You can have the vacuum at the bottom of the stairs and vacuum up to the top without having to carry the vacuum up with you. It only elongates if you pull on it, so it doesn't get in the way otherwise (like our central vac, which is why we stopped using it).

The way the vacuum works is a bit confusing at first, but you get used to it. I think it's a really innovative design -- check out the website for how the attachments work (too difficult to explain).

Yes, it's a lot of money. But we don't regret it at all.
posted by evening at 5:41 AM on January 6, 2004

oh, about the reviews. It's a little like TiVo. You use it once and get so excited that you have to tell others. My husband doesn't mind vacuuming as much now, just because of the Dyson.
posted by evening at 5:44 AM on January 6, 2004

Wow, posts disappear into the archives quickly! Thanks, everybody; this is *very* useful indeed, and helps a lot.
posted by carter at 7:21 AM on January 6, 2004

Another vote for Miele, if you're still checking the thread. I've had two, and they're great.
posted by languagehat at 8:54 AM on January 6, 2004