Dyson DC14 Full Access - Love the vacuum, hate the Mini Turbine Head

First of all, I will suggest that you go to the Dyson website and read everything you can about how they work, what the various models do, and what you should expect. This is the Dyson US website: http://www.dyson.com/

This is the only vacuum with the Root8Cyclone™ technology. A number of years ago the WindTunnel vacs came out on the market and were actually derived from one of Dyson's expired patents. He's had a lot of them through the years having gone through over 5000 prototypes on the way to the newest DC14 models. These vacuums are like no other... anywhere.

I have owned a lot of vacuums through the years. I have owned a Kirby (over priced upright, heavy, and not a very good vacuum), two Electroluxes (excellent canister type vacuum cleaners), and two Eurekas, one hand held and one upright (fairly good vacuums). So, I've had a lot of experience with what works and what doesn't. Also, I have used both cannister and upright vacs.

I was in the market for a new upright for my wife to use as it would be easier on her rather than to have to drag the cannister vacs along. I checked Epinions and then read everything I could find about the current crop of vacs.

After careful consideration and much reading on the Dyson website I knew I wanted a Dyson vacuum. I decided to purchase the new Dyson DC14 Full Access available only through Best Buy stores starting in October. It comes with an extra HEPA filter, the Low Access Turbine head and a crevice tool for those hard to reach areas. There are also a few other small cleaning tools.

I have two beagle hounds in the house so having a good vacuum is a necessity to keep the never ending supply of fur cleaned up. I wanted to have both of the accessory turbine power heads that Dyson manufactures including the Mini Turbine Head. The Mini head would be particularly useful for taking the fur from my recliner chair. I found the Mini Turbine Head for sale separately at Sears for $69.99.

The Dyson DC14 Full Access was purchased from Best Buy for $529.99 + tax and I decided to also buy the extended warranty for $48.99 just in case something bad should happen. Upon arriving home with my new vacuum cleaner I immediately started to take it out of the box. They even put good instructions on the box on how to properly open the box! Everything is well packed and no damage was found anywhere. In a matter of a few minutes I had the vacuum ready to use due to the fairly good quick start guide that has plenty of diagrams of what to do. I did become momentarily confused when I couldn't find where the one onboard tool was supposed to store. I opened up the main owner's manual and found that the diagram on the quick start guide was somehow mirror-imaged and it was pointing to the wrong side of the machine. No wonder I couldn't find where the tool was supposed to store!

I switched the vacuum on and put my foot on the power head as shown in the manual in order to pivot the head down while I lean the handle backwards. (Suction is diverted through the accessory hose while completely upright. The suction goes to the power head and the brushes spin whenever the head is pivoted down and the handle is back.) I decided to test the vacuum on the nearly new carpet we have in our living room. Immediately I could see what appeared to be small "dust bunnies" collecting inside the "Clear Bin" where the dirt goes in this machine. I could hardly believe the amount of dirt and fur that was in that carpet! After all, we've been regularly vacuuming with one of the Electrolux vacs. How could we have so much dirt? Cleaning the Clear Bin is so easy I wonder why nobody ever came up with this in the past. You grasp the handle on the front, press a release button and the whole works comes off in your hand. You place the bottom of the Clear Bin in the trash can and press another release button. The bottom swings down and the dirt drops right out. There is no mess and no dust gets spread around. The DC14 is simply amazing. I've never had such a good vacuum in my life. It's wonderful!

I decided to try out the Low Access Turbine head. That works just fine too. It's not extremely powerful, but it does the job. I then decided to try out the Mini Turbine Head on my recliner. Immediately as soon as the spinning brushes contacted the fabric they stopped dead! I tried everything I could think of and still the brushes would not keep spinning. I called the customer service number listed in the owner’s manual for the DC14. The gal walked me through disassembly and reassembly of the Mini Turbine Head. She walked me through disassembly and reassembly of various other parts on the DC14 itself. She even had me try removing the gaskets in the Mini Turbine Head allowing more air to leak by hoping to lower the suction power of the head so the brushes would keep going. Nothing we could do would make those brushes keep on spinning. Touch the chair fabric and the brushes stop... every time. She finally told me that she will mail be an older version of the turbine head and I can see if that one will work for me. Hopefully it will be half as good as the Kirby turbine head I still have and have been using with the Electrolux. That one works no matter if you push down on the brushes. The Dyson Mini Turbine Head is a completely worthless joke and I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy it. Dyson needs to go back to the drawing board with that one for sure!