For the price, a great vacuum with lots of well engineered features

Summary:

Having been thru a few vacuums over the years, most recently a top of the line Oreck XL21, and before that a $350 Hoover self propelled model, I am pleased to say this one has finally exceeded my expectations. I don't have a problem spending $500 or more on a vacuum, heck the Oreck was $749 with the small canister vacuum, and I even considered a Kirby at close to $2000 but it just didn't work as well as the price would lead one to think. In general I will reference this review to my last vacuum, a well performing vacuum in it's own right, the Oreck XL21.

The basis of my purchases of the Dyson DC15 Animal to replace the Oreck is performance, not weight or ease of use, so let me be up front about this. In the end, I don't care if a vacuum weighs 40lbs, if it does what it's supposed to do, clean. My ultimate measure of what makes for a good vacuum is what it takes into it's belly after I run it on my carpet.

We are at the point now, with two adults, two small kids, a dog, a cat, and continuous "play groups" and other activities where vacuuming daily has become a necessity, and in some cases more than once. The Oreck, while light didn't quite pick up as well, especially when the bag was more than 1/4 full (which was basically after about 3 or 4 days of daily use).. with the Dyson concept, you never lose suction as there is no chance of using it with the "bag" too full.. you simply can see that the dirt has reached the line and you take the canister out to the trash bin (the best way is to do it outside where you keep your weekly pickup bin) and dump it out.

The box, which isn't very large came in via UPS from Dyson in perfect condition which is a credit for how well made the box is, especially since they don't ship it with in another box.. I unpacked the vacuum from the top end of the box where there was also various cardboard encased components to include the following:

-Mini Turbine Head (Animal model only)
-Low reach floor tool/attachment
-Carpet cleaning kit
-Zorb cleaning powder
-Zorb attachment
-DyZorb stain removal spray
-3 basic attachments which mount to body
-Warranty card and owners manual

There was basically no assembly required. You simply attach the hose extension handle to the hose as if you'd just used it with the reach tool, and bang! you're off and running..

Quality & Durability:
At first glance, the Dyson vacuums, be it their DC7 or this DC15 seem a bit awkward, flimsy and made of "cheap" plastic, but the truth couldn't be further form this. The plastic is an ABS plastic similar in spec to the plastic used in crash helmets and is nearly indestructible under normal or even harsh use. The hose itself, a high grade accordion style is also made of a durable polyurethane that seems like it will last a long time under multiple cycles of compress and decompress. The handle, which also doubles as the attachment for the wand extension for the various tool/attachments is partially made of the high grade ABS plastic and partially from what appears to be a matte finished aluminum tube. The fit and finish of all of these components is also very good, certainly better than I found to be the case in my Oreck XL21. The components all feel well made, and there are no sharp or poorly made edges to the plastics.

While some marketing material states the motor is a 12 Amp (likely Analog) motor, it is rumored on the newer generation models to be a 10-Amp total output between two motors, approximately 8 amps for the suction motor, and 2 amps for the dedicated brush motor external to the ball.
So along with a belt-less direct drive for the vacuum pump which is all housed with in the ball this equates to 10 Amps. Dyson claims 220 Air-watts of suction which is comprable to other large Dysons. However the DC7 and 14 models do have a bit more suction, even if overall performance is less due to the lack of a dedicated motor for the beater bar.

Performance/Ease of Use:
I took an area of the house and replaced the bag in my Oreck then ran the vacuum over this area at a set speed, then did the same with the Dyson and then inspected the contents of both. The Oreck, a decent little unit in and of itself picked up a bit of lint and dust, what one might expect from an area the size of where I vacuumed. The Dyson however appeared to pick up yet even more, which considering that it was run after the Oreck is amazing. I've read a few reviews in the past that worry that the Dyson is doing this at the expense of your expensive carpet since it has a powerful beater brush, but I did an adjacent spot with only the vacuum suction and no brush and it still picked up nearly as much, which puts this debate to bed in my view.

The maneuverability of this 19.85lbs unit is also amazing. You simply tilt your wrist as the people at Dyson say and it turns almost on a dime. I found it almost fun to use with it's head being made from transparent plastic, you can also see it doing its duty removing the small bits of dirt and dust from your carpet. No, it's not as light in the hand as the Oreck, but it still feels a lot lighter than other 20lb vacuums I've used, including the self propelled Hoover I had. The design of the ball drive is genius in more than just it's ability to maneuver, it also lends the unit to a low center of gravity which not only makes it roll easier, but also give one a ligher sensation in the hand when using it. The claimed figure I've read is 3lbs and I couldn't quantify it with any tests I did other than to say it did feel like 3 or so lbs in my hand.

I used the attachment feature for going under the bed, and found it's pure suction, and lack of a moving brush to be good, but not anywhere as good as the primary fixed head with the motorized brush. It did pick up the significant lint that was accumulated below the bed to my satisfaction but it worked better in the forward motion than in the return motion which made it a bit difficult to use if you are expecting a smooth glide in both directions.


Transition to hard floors is easy in terms of the pushing force you need to transition between both, as the ball has quite a bit of momentum which facilitates the transition. The only minus (and it's minor) is that you have to manually disengage the brush with a separate switch adjacent to the master power switch.

Which brings me to a minor fault. I think a 2-speed mode would have been helpful for rugs that are not quite large enough to remain put when you move across them.

The attachments and components all click in and disassemble with literally a snap, nothing binds or sticks.

By request, a note about "Zorb" and DyZorb: This was something I didn't expect to get with the unit when I ordered it, but I think the "Animal" variant comes with these 3 items. The first is the Zorb powder which is Dyson's own version of the carpet powder others sell, except it's a moist and has an orange smell.. it's sort of cold to the touch too. I imagine it's chemically activated and has some sort of sponge like properties. I found their claim to be somewhat accurate that it does indeed remove that small dirt that can usually only come out with a good steam cleaning, but it doesn't seem cost effective since the $12 bag hardly covers an area of 20 square feet. The area I tested it over was a recent spill that never quite cleaned up to my satisfaction and also had general high traffic discoloring. We have a off white (Cream) colored waffle pattern berber carpet which shows stains better than many other carpets. We've been using a combination of either the Bissle wed/dry system or spray on cleaners and towel dabbing to remove stains. In the case of pet stains, this has worked ok since the pet stain remover is formulated for urine, but when you spill something like tea, or milk, you are dealing with a different composition. Which brings me to Zorb. I tried it on my daughters recent chocolate milk spill which as I said above never quite went away after both a Bissle and spray treatment and after letting it abZorb for 30 minutes or so, I Vacuumed it up and to my amazement it appears to be gone. Time will tell if it rears it's ugly head again as I've found some stains have an uncanny ability to re-appear after being cleaned, but as of today, a full 24 hours later, it's still gone.

The DyZorb is a more powerful liquid version that is intended for immediate treatment of stains, and not ones that have "set in" so to speak. I've not yet tried it and will report back on it. Finally the Zorb tool is (form what I can see) a suction head intended to remove the powder, but I just used the main rotary head to remove the Zorb powder and it worked fine in my case. I priced replacements of the two, and Target sells both for $12.99 which isn't bad since the bag is rather large and can treat quite a few stains. Should you elect to do an entire room, I imagine you'd use the better part of the who bag.


My only problems with owning a Dyson are really probably trivial to some, but I consider them down points so I'm going to mention them. One is that as of 2002, they're no longer being made in the UK. I tend to think that expensive, luxury made items should come from labor markets where people are paid a fair and reasonable wage and environmental laws are of the highest level. If I'm buying a $25 radio, I can accept it being made in China, but a $600 Vacuum should be made in a 1st world market. Oreck, to their credit still makes their vacuums in the US. The other item I give kudos to Oreck for is having a retail store presence (though I think they've taken that too far to the other direction). If Dyson had a handful of corporate store in the major metropolitan areas, one not only could pop in to buy components, test them out, etc.. but one can also go in for warranty work or repairs without having to pack up their unit.

With that said, I will be giving this vacuum a 5 star rating.