Dyson Animal Reviews

Several years prior to purchasing our current vacuum cleaner a refurbished Dyson DC07 Animal, we purchased an Oreck XL Deluxe. I don’t know exactly the differences between their ‘Deluxe’ and non-deluxe model but this one came with the portable vacuum cleaner and attachments.

I had seen the commercials over the years, was impressed with the lightness of the unit plus, how many vacuums do you know that can pick up a bowling ball? Though in hindsight I never have found anything close to a bowling ball that needing vacuuming (please, no emails; I understand why they lift a bowling ball in the commercial).

I found a good deal from a very reputable dealer on eBay and had the vacuum in a week.

It is indeed the lightest vacuum we have ever owned. No problem having the wife or kids carry this one up and down the steps as needed. The handle on it was very well designed in my opinion and overall, the vacuum was easy to use, seemed like it did it’s job well and never hinted at spewing dust when first powered on. Perhaps we finally found vacuum nirvana after killing ourselves toting our Kirby heritage around for so many years?

However, after using the Oreck for several months, some things really began to annoy me.

• No shutoff for the beater bar. Many times I would sneak up on that unidentifiable foreign object on the floor that was about to meet its demise, only to have the Oreck promptly fling it out of the way to live another day.

• The design of the head is similar to a (sideways) shoebox and therefore had trouble fitting under low pieces of furniture, tables and sometimes beds. I wish they would have made the beater bar area slimmer to fit in tight places.
• No attachments on board! At first I thought having the separate portable vacuum would be great for car cleanups, etc. - it is - but what a pain when the dedicated room, floor or house cleaning day came along and I wanted to efficiently (as in quickly) clean an area. Switching back and forth from the Oreck to the portable was a pain. After awhile I learned to do the high walls, etc first with the portable and then the floors with the Oreck but…
• One - I found the portable somewhat of a pain to use. First of all, the thing has to sit on your shoulder to be effective because the hose and extensions are not that long to be useful if carrying the portable in your hand. Of course, the up and down or side-to-side motion you make to vacuum a wall or wall/ceiling joint would cause the strap to slip and the vacuum to try and fall off my shoulder…
• Two - since there’s no way to carry any of the extension tools conveniently I constantly had to try and remember where I last used the tool I now needed - and go get it. This made easily switching tools while doing the job almost impossible. And the frustration of needing a tool only to find it missing and then having to first find the last person who used the tool….. well, you know where this is going. Needless to say, it made for some very frustrating times using the vacuum.
• Three - Doing stairs turned out to be a royal pain in the $&$&. The hose is somewhat stiff so it tends to stick out quite a bit from the portable. Imagine having the portable on your shoulder, trying to bend over and vacuum (while keeping the strap on your shoulder), and then having to fight the hose to get the tool at just the right angle to do the job. Again, very frustrating at times to use. Not to mention the backache from constantly having to bend over while vacuuming. And…
• Four - The cord was never quite long enough. I could not vacuum an entire room with the portable without having to move the plug. And of course the cord is behind me and totally out of my mind as to how much I have left before "tautness" and going into immediate survival mode just trying to keep the now pulled off my shoulder vacuum from crashing onto the floor.
• Over time the Oreck, which in my opinion is very cheaply made, started to show the effects and wear and tear from regular use and the handle started getting loose where it mounts to the vacuum head. I realize now they provide annual checkups on the vacuum so perhaps it’s not that big of a deal.

We eventually got rid of the Oreck - donated it actually - but kept the portable unit. Not sure when the last time we used it was but we have it.

Now, this article is titled Dyson vs. Oreck and I’ve yet to really compare the Oreck to the Dyson. I feel I’ve covered the Dyson vaccums in sufficient detail elsewhere on this site but, will tell you in comparing the two against each other, this is what comes to mind.

Weight: Oreck wins hand down. Eight Lbs vs. almost Nineteen on the Dyson vacuum.

Cleaning Ability: Bare floors can be a pain with some models of Oreck because of not being able to turn the beater bar off. And, plain and simple, the Oreck has a bag. The bag is porous and will get clogged with fine particles as you use it, depleting airflow. It’s a simple,yet important fact. Advantage Dyson.

Ease of Use: Dyson hands down. Yes the Oreck is lighter and easier to tote around but trust me folks, not having all the tools you need to clean an area all at once is a pain. The Dyson keeps the major tools right where I can get them easily. I can transition from vacuuming the walls to the floor to dust-vacuuming a table very quickly with the Dyson and this save me time. Nuff said.

Durability: Though I never broke the Oreck, and both vacuums are plastic, the Oreck is much cheaper looking and just not as sturdy in my opinion. When a friend of mine bought his Dyson several years ago, they included a piece of the ‘plastic’ in the box to should how tuff it was. He simply could not break it with his bare hands. The Oreck we had on the other hand, was made of a much easier-to-break plastic material. I would be leery of our Oreck surviving a tumble down the stairs whereas I know form my friend that the Dyson can (and has).

Cool factor: OK, not a big consideration I know when it comes to a vacuum but hey, in my opinion, the Dyson just looks cool, high-tech and 21st century.

I know Oreck sells a ton of vacuums and a lot of people are happy with theirs. For me and this family, we just never warmed up to actually using it and were pretty happy when we replaced it.

In my last post, I gave a little background about the vacuums my wife and I have owned during our marriage along with how I discovered the Dyson Animal vacuum.  Today I like to share some of the features and benefits that I’ve discovered over the past 2+ years of ownership and why I think the Dyson vacuum Animal is great if you own pets that shed.

Dysons won’t clog - In 2 years, I’ve managed to clog my Dyson vacuum once - and that was this past Christmas when I decided to vacuum up all the Christmas tree needles.  Bad idea.  Still, it was a very simple process to take off pieces and parts of the Dyson to clear the clog.  This means less time spent clearing out jams and less time cleaning and more time vegging.

Dysons SUCK - I am amazed at the sheer sucking power of my Dyson Animal, no matter how full the canister gets. The vacuum has never bogged down once.  It is really noticeable when the canister is almost full and I pop an attachment onto the vacuum hose. 

If you own a bag vacuum, you can probably relate to this - the bag is half or almost full and you pull the hose out to use an attachment and the hose just does not want to extend. You really have to pull on the dang thing to get any reach at all and normally you’ve got this little stub of a hose to use and the vacuum following three feet behind.  I never have that problem anymore with the Dyson.   Again, less time messing with the vacuum (and cleaning) and more time doing whatever it is that I do.

Hose Reach - I can set my Dyson Animal at the bottom of our stairs and do the entire stairway without having to move the vacuum once. This was such a great feature to me. Pre-Dyson, I did half the steps going up and then had to move the vacuum to the top of the landing to complete the job.  What a waste of time! With my Dyson, I’ve got a 17′ reach and it’s a ‘true’ reach.  In other words, no matter how full the vaccum canister is, the hose is very easy to extend all the way out to its full reach.

Another advantage is I’m able to extend the hose and reach all the walls and ceilings quickly in one pass instead of having to stop every few feet and move the vacuum.  Having the crevice tool within easy reach (it’s mounted on the handle) means it’s with me at all times too.

Simple to dump the canister - It is so nice to finishing vacuuming, pop the canister off and go dump the contents into the trash can. no more nasty dust particles flying around when I turn on the vacuum and it really is a good feeling seeing just how much dirt was picked up during vacuuming.

Pet Owners - We have a "shedding machine" in our Golden Retriever dog. She sheds 24/7 no matter what the season of the year. The Dyson Animal includes a Turbo Tool 
that is a great tool for vacuum your furniture when those pesky pet hairs won’t come up with regular vacuuming. I had one of these turbo brushes with our Hoover Windtunnel but everytime I used it, I get the dreaded "shrinking/pulling" hose.  I also noticed with the Hoover’s attachment, that the RPM’s of the tool would fluctuate based on how full the bag was.  Sometimes, the least amount of pressure on the tool would stop it.

With the Dyson’s Turbo Tool - or Mini Turbine head as they call it now - the RPM’s stay more consistent and the hose does not pull. I find it very effective on our couches and chairs. But I have to be honest, I hardly use it because the Dyson has so much consistent sucking power. I find i can normally use just the carpet cleaning tool too get the furniture stripped of dog hair. 

As a side note, the Tool is nice to use in the car with carpet cleaner, etc. I can use it to really scrub the mats or carpet or seats.

Well, that’s about it for this post.  I’ve got a few more things to share with you in the next post and maybe even a video or two. 

If you’d like to check out the Dyson line and some absolutely fantastic online deals, including remanufactured deals saving you 25%- 35% (with free air shipping!), you can go Dyson vacuums.

See ya,
Randy