Dyson DC24 Bagless Upright Vacuum

Just purchased this vac last month from Target for $399.

 It only took 5 minutes to put together with no hand tools whatsoever once uncrated.  

 Its head width  is a little smaller than the Dyson DC25 by about 2 inches so I was a little hesitant to buy it thinking the smaller head would add vacuuming time to my vacuuming chores.  NOPE ! Its great. It fits into tight spaces my last vacuum wouldnt even think of fitting -especially in the bathroom around the toilet, end tables  etc. Highly manuverable ! I believe it actually saves me time. Usually on my old vac I had to disconnect the wand to vacuum such areas - the little dyson fits in and off you go. 

The ball design takes about 5 mins to get used to and then you are zipping around vacuuming things like a pro. It goes under beds , counters etc. better than my last vac.  The edge suction is also superior to my last vac picking things up nicely along all my baseboards. I vacuumed my entire house and digustingly got the cannister 1/2 full and I had just vacuumed days before with my 2 year old Eureka vac.  Thats a testament to its great suction.

The bagless see through cannister is easy to remove and empty in the trash with one hand - you dont have to touch it or get your hands dirty. 

The vac is also extremely light at around 12 lbs...my old vac was 22 lbs and a beast to lug around stairs etc. So you dont get fatigued. I would recommend it for seniors. It also stores in a smaller space out of the way.

It has a switch to disable the beater brush while vacuuming small area rugs in your bathroom etc. Unfortunately the suction is so good it will still rip the small rugs up into the vac. head anyway. Oh well - the price to pay for great suction. Thats my only complaint so far.

It came with 1 small non motorized hand attachment that I used to vacuum my couch crevices with. It worked  pretty well and the hose hookup is adequate and easy to figure out. 

The cord is of adequate length for my average sized home.  I usually like a real long cord and that is one of my buying points but I made an exception on this one - I think its  20 ft. and keeps the weight down. 

The vac has a stated 5 year warranty.

Update : FEB 2010 well 2 months into owning this vac  it still amazes me how much it picks up .......I have not regretted this purchase so far - its a great little vac. Its so light  I find myself picking it up off the floor and  placing it on my couch and love seat and vacuuming those cushions also. I just also realized it has a protective feature that if the beater brush gets caught up or wrapped up or around something it pops a safety breaker on the side of the vacuum head to keep from damaging the vac - pretty slick. You just push it in to reset it. 

UPDATE : APRIL 2010 this vacuum is incredible. It amazes me how full the bin still gets when vacuuming once a week. Dont want to jinx it but it is the best vac I have ever owned no regrets at all SO FAR. Just wish it had a longer cord.  

UPDATE ; MAY 2012 

The beater bar and drive cog in the vacuums head has stripped so the beater bar no longer turns. I think this happened because the little service door on the side of the vacuums head doesnt close robustly . Vibrations happen,  the beater bar starts intermittently moving laterally in the head , eventually skipping the drive cog to the point it strips both intermeshing pieces out. I have ordered a new head asseembly and beater bar for ~$110 online. Ps its been a week and a half and I still have no part - Dyson service parts arrive S L O W to the U.S. apparently . I am not happy about this failure...in two years I have $509 in a $399 vacuum....... hmmmmm but when it works it works awesome. Part arrived its fixed i am in love with this vac again ;).