Dyson DC21 Bagless Canister Cyclonic Vacuum

I never really had any complaints about my old Electrolux canister vacuum, which I got used from my mom several years ago for the cost of repairing it -- $35. In fact I thought my vacuum was actually pretty good. After running it a half dozen times or so the bag fills up, so I know it's still picking up dirt and debris.

But even though I have always believed my vacuum to be of good quality and to clean my carpets well, it has never been able to effectively pick up the hair left on my carpets by my two domestic short hair cats. I did not blame my vacuum for this. I honestly believed that there was no vacuum capable of picking up cat hair from carpets, since it gets caught up in the carpet fibres.

I recently became a homeowner for the first time and I want to maintain value in my home. It's a lot easier to live with the idea of having cat hair embedded in the carpet of someone else's home. I thought that I was going to have to live with it, or engage in back-breaking labour with some lint brushes as I have used in the past in order to deal with the problem. The lint brush solution isn't perfect either, though, because it can actually cause some of the hair to become more tangled in the carpet.

Meanwhile, I started noticing the Dyson display at Home Outfitters when I went there to pick up different things for my home. The Dyson line of vacuum cleaners is certainly attention-getting. The vacuums LOOK like they're from the future. So I read the brochures and visited the web site a few times. I still wasn't convinced. But I started toying with the idea of buying one of these vacuum cleaners. Every once in a while a product does come along that is better than everything that came before it. A better mousetrap, a better vacuum cleaner, whatever. Dyson's marketing positions their line of vacuums in that role. The fact that they market some of their vacuums specifically for cleaning up after pets also had me interested.

Today, I opened the tank of my Electrolux to check how full the bag was and there was quite a bit of mold on the outside of the bag. The inside of the vacuum was dirty. I was suddenly tired of using this machine that is probably 30 years old. So I decided to really research the Dyson vacuums and see what people had to say, and if they got good reviews here on epinions, to buy one.

After reading a lot of reviews on the DC15 Animal, and a few on the DC14 Animal, I decided that if I was going to buy an upright, it would be the DC15. I was disappointed not to see any reviews on the DC21 canister vacuum, as the one thing that I kept thinking as reading the reviews was, "But what about vacuuming UNDER stuff?" Even though the DC15 reviews describe the low profile floor tool, that doesn't have a powered brush on it which, it seems to me, is critically important for picking up cat hair. It's doubly so because my cats LIKE lying around under the coffee table, under the bed, etc. Most of the cat hair is probably under the furniture, some of which would be a real pain to move. I've never used an upright vacuum cleaner before, and the only reason I was considering an upright now was because the DC15 Animal A) has 'animal' in the name and claims to be the best for cleaning up animal hair, which is what I really need out of a vacuum and B) I know enough about science to believe that Dyson might really have something here. So I decided to take a good hard look at the DC21 at the store and compare it to the DC15, and bring home whichever model I thought would work the best. I also resolved to buy it at Future Shop, which has a 30 day no hassle money-back return policy, just in case (it is a lot of money after all).

At the store, I looked at the DC15 for quite a while. Compared to the canister, it had a few pros. The front of the 'power nozzle' part of the vacuum has a channel for picking up large stuff, and it comes with the turbine tool included. The carpet care kit isn't a big deal for me. But compared to the canister, it isn't as maneuverable and it feels like I'm pushing around a lot of weight (remember, I've never used an upright before). The other thing is, with the ball, there are a lot of mechanical couplings involved in getting the air from the 'power nozzle' part into the bin. Lots of moving parts means lots of potential points of failure. I've already mentioned my concerns with cleaning under the furniture -- that's a huge minus for me. Even though the DC15 goes down surprisingly low, probably low enough to clean under the bed, there's no way it's low enough to clean under the coffee tables etc.

I also had concerns about the canister at the store. I thought that the junction points of the telescoping wand might reduce effective suction because of the small holes that are there. However with the vacuum turned on I could not feel any air flow at all around those holes. What I could feel was resistance to pushing the wand as the vacuum literally sucked it against the floor. The floor model had quite a bit of stuff in the bin which was not spinning around, and one of the salespeople I spoke to said introduced concerns that that meant effective suction was reduced -- but even so the suction was incredible.

I examined the power brushes of both the DC15 and the DC21 very carefully to see if there was any significant difference that would make the DC21 less effective for picking up hair. I could not see any. So after using both vacuums on the demo mat at the store, I decided to go with the canister because it a) is easier to meaneuver b) feels lighter and c) most importantly, allows effectively cleaning under furniture with a powered brush head.

Like many people, the first thing I did was do some vacuuming with my old vacuum. I put a new bag in my old vacuum and vacuumed my hallway, which is the dirtiest part of the carpet because the litterboxes are in a closet at one end. The vacuum picked up quite a bit, somewhere around 1/10 of a bag. Not bad.

Then I started vacuuming with the new Dyson DC21. I vacuumed about 8 linear feet (maybe 25 square feet). The very first thing I noticed was that the carpet actually LOOKED clean where I had vacuumed it. I turned around to look in the bin to see how well I was doing. I didn't expect to see much in there, as I started at the cleaner end of the hallway. I was surprised to see a huge cloud of cat hair spinning around in the bin! I dumped it out and kept vacuuming. The amount of dirt and (especially) hair that came off the carpet really surprised me, especially considering I had just vacuumed it with my old vacuum that I actually thought was pretty good.

The vacuum didn't pick up much hair in the rest of the hallway, which disappointed me a little -- I thought maybe the act of emptying the bin had gotten dust on something inside the vacuum and clogged it up. But no, when I started vacuuming the office there was another huge cloud of cat hair after vacuuming about 12 square feet. There just must not be as much cat hair in the part of the hallway past the office.

The story for the rest of my home is the same. The vacuum picked up a huge amount of cat hair. One of the reviewers for the DC15 said that she got enough hair to make a whole new cat. I'm not far off that amount. The other thing the vacuum did is pick up a LOT of very fine dust. The cat litter I use is wheat-based, and the dust from the litter, which gets tracked all over by my cats, is just like flour. Not the best thing to be putting on your carpet. But the Dyson DC21 really picked up a lot of it.

I know exactly how much it picked up because I emptied it into a fresh garbage bag. It picked up enough dust, dirt, hair, and debris to completely fill somewhere between 1 and 2 full bags for my old vacuum. That is a staggering amount for one vacuuming. I emptied it somewhere around 5 or 6 times. I'm not sure I needed to empty it that many times, but every time it got so full of cat hair that it stopped spinning around I emptied it just to be sure.

One thing I forgot to mention: this vacuum cleans right up to the edge. It sucked up little particles of litter, paper, and shredded cardboard that were right up against (touching) the baseboards that I would have to suck up directly using the wand after taking the power nozzle off my old vacuum.

Also, it really 'fluffs up' the carpet. I have a plastic mat with spikes in it to protect the carpet from my office chair. When I move it out of the way to vacuum the spikes have left little holes in the carpet pile in a grid. The old vacuum wouldn't touch these. The new vacuum 'fluffs up' the carpet and the holes are gone. The power nozzle really gives the carpet a workout. That's a good thing, because it needs to agitate the carpet to get it clean. The same 'fluffiness' is part of what makes the carpet look so clean. It's not tamped down everywhere from walking on it, as it would be even immediately after vacuuming with my old vacuum.

After dragging around my old Electrolux, I can say that this vacuum feels REALLY light. The hose is a lot longer and a lot more flexible and the vacuum itself has a much lower center of gravity. This leads to a lot less frustration. With my old vacuum the way to do a 180 was to literally pull up on the hose until the vacuum was standing on its end and then keep pulling until it fell down in my direction. A good way to bang up the walls. The DC21 just spins right around. It vacuumed under the bed and under the coffee table with no problem -- much easier than the old Electrolux. In fact, ergonomically, EVERYTHING about this vacuum is a milion times better than the old Electrolux. I never realized how much that stiff hose had to do with how hard it was to use that vacuum.

The vacuum has three buttons that you operate with your feet. One on the canister to turn it on and off, one on the canister to retract the cord, and one on the power brush to turn the brush motor on and off. They all work well.

The vacuum can be stored in a pretty small space.

It's quite a bit quieter than my old vacuum. The cats still hate it though :)

There are a few negatives.

First, the cord is quite a bit shorter than the one on my old Electrolux. That's bad. On the other hand it retracts into the vacuum with the push of a button. That is a feature that never really worked on my poor old vacuum.

Second, it's possible -- easy, even -- to make quite a mess emptying the bin. I have a Dyson root 6 handheld as well and it has a button you press to open the bottom, which automatically deposits all the dirt in the trash. The bin on this one does not have a hinging bottom. You have to flip it over. And to get most of the dirt out, you also have to shake it. The salesperson told me he did it outside, which is probably not a bad idea. This is probably the biggest downside.

Third, it is possible to get a kink in the hose if you twist it too much and start going the other way. Kinking the hose on my old Electrolux would have taken ... I don't know, being run over by a tank or pinched with the jaws of life or something. I think a kinkable hose is a natural consequence of having a flexible hose, and the flexibility of the hose is a huge plus. I don't even really think this is a downside, just something to be careful of when you're vacuuming.

Some people don't like the way these vacuums look. Personally, I think they are the best looking vacuums around, but even if you don't agree, who cares how good a vacuum looks? The thing that matters is how well they work and this vacuum REALLY works.

The way the collapsible wand works, the ends are thicker than the middle. It reminds me of those Japanese robots with huge forearms and calves and tiny thighs and upper arms. The thick parts are pretty thick. So if you were using an attachment, you might not be able to get it into areas as tight as a vacuum with a thinner wand. The hose does not detach from the wand.

The only thing I wish this vacuum had that the DC15 Animal has is the mini turbine attachment. But I can buy that separately if I find I want it.

At the moment, I think it's a great vacuum. I'll update my review after I've had it for a while.

I only gave it a 3 for durability because I have no idea how durable it will be in the long run. I expect it will be quite durable, and if so I will adjust the score up.

By the way, I paid $599 CAD. Today, that works out to $531 USD.