Dyson DC17 Total Clean Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner

2 Comments

1. Cory Dzbinski says:

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   Ever since I starting hearing the hype from Dyson about their vacuums i’ve been skeptical. From an industrial design stand point they are works of art, but, the intended functionality remained in question. I’ve owned Hoover, Dirt Devil, Rainbow and Kirby. The Rainbow was the vacuum we had growing up and the water filtration really seemed to make sense. My stint with Kirby was a 30 day in home trial. The vacuum was incredible but I chose to save the $1800 I paid and buy something much less expensive (sub $100 believe it or not). That sub $100 vac was a Dirt Devil bag-less that frustrated me every time I used it. This time around I wanted to pay a small more for a excellent solid cleaning machine and after 3 weeks of research I narrowed by search to the following:
   
   - Kirby
   
   - Oreck
   
   - Dyson
   
   - Electrolux

   After another week of research I narrowed it to Oreck and Dyson. Oreck has a really cool program where you pay for 25% of the vacuum up front and then make monthly payments no interest for 11 months on the balance. This makes it simple to pay for a more expensive vac over time. I was leaning toward the Oreck DutchTech 1400B canister vac. Oreck’s top of the line. The total cost of the vac shipped was about $970.00. I had the vac in my shopping cart about 2 or 3 times over the course of a couple days but could never quite hit the buy button. The main reason being I wasn’t quite sure about pulling around a canister vac, the second was the price. I had seen refurbished Dyson’s on [...] for $209 in the past and that was less than just the initial payment alone on the Oreck, not to mention another 11 months of about $70 per month…so I held off. Another week passed and I noticed [...] had a refurbished Dyson DC17 platinum blue for $237.00 shipped. I had researched this vac extensively and knew it had Dyson’s newest Level 3 Root Cyclone technology for the purest separation and filtration of particles of all the Dyson vacs. I snatched it up figuring a $500.00 vac should be worth the buy at less than half price. 3 days later the Dyson arrived. Keep in mind that I have a house cleaner that comes every 2 weeks and cleans the house top to bottom so my place isn’t dirty, the carpets are well kept and it’s clean etc. The Dyson immediately had a field day with the carpets sucking up so much stuff that I had to wonder, did my ancient vacuum do anything at all??? The Dirt Devil was immediately tossed in the trash. The Dyson sucked up so much stuff it made me sick to look at it! Every aspect of this machine is truly everything that Dyson claims it to be. Zero suction loss, extremely well built, very smooth sounding motor, extremely high speed brush roll, no non-sense, simple to use operation, ingeniously designed attachments and tools, simple, smart operation and enough suction to pull your carpets from the floor boards! The Kirby was an incredible machine from two standpoints. Suction and construction. If I were in a vacuum demolition derby i’d take the Kirby any day of the week, it’s all steel and built like a tank. As far as suction goes, the two are as equal as you can measure without scientific equipment. My Dyson really fell down about 8 stairs tonight as I was vacuuming the stairs and not one part broke, it kept on sucking so it’s not brittle or prone to breakage under normal conditions. One thing I never liked about ANY of the vacuums i’ve owned is the smell you get when using them. They all just have that yucky dusty vacuum smell. The Dyson claims that stated the air the Dyson outputs is cleaner than the air it took in always seemed ludicrous to me. How could that be? I’m finally a believer. I’m not sure if it’s the filter in the Dyson or if there’s some sort of smell pack in there? If there is it’s certainly not stated, but the air the Dyson outputs smells very excellent and is just….I guess fresh. It’s hard to clarify but it does seem to eliminate any odors that may have been in the air before vacuuming. It’s pretty incredible…my best guess is that it does filter the air to be cleaner than it was before it got sucked it. Absolutely incredible.

   One thing I have to mention is the Dyson mini turbine head. I bought this separately. It retails at most places for $69.99 but I got it at Fry’s for $49.99. I was VERY skeptical about this and figured i’d be returning it the next day. If you’ve ever used a non powered brush roll (suction powered) you know that most of them stop the moment they touch carpet or anything for that matter. There is simply no torque to turn the brushes. Even my Kirby had an air powered attachment that spun brushes that weren’t excellent for anything. I couldn’t fathom how the Dyson could be any different but I figured i’d give it a shot. I thought well, as the company slogan goes, maybe Dyson is different? One word. Unbelievable!!! The Dyson mini turbine head is nothing sort of a remarkable piece of engineering. There is a tiny turbine that spins insanely quick from the suction and it must be geared just right. Honestly, the brush roll is really hard to stop and it keeps spinning as it brushes the carpet. It is possible to stop with your hand but not without some very firm pressure. Even then once stopped, you can feel the torque attempting to spin the brush roll. If you were blindfolded you’d swear it was electric motor powered…it’s honestly THAT GOOD. Combined with the pull out handle that extends into a full 3′ cleaning wand with 17′ hose coil, the upright now essentially becomes a canister vac and you no longer have to bend down at all to clean stairs or vacuum a small patch of carpet or hard to reach areas. The ergonomics and usability are world class.

   If I knew long ago what I know about owning a Dyson now, I would have paid full price for the machine ($500) and felt like I was getting a excellent deal. This vacuum is worth $1000…$2000 dollars. It’s simply an incredible cleaning machine that certainly needs to be classed up there with the Oreck and Kirby ultimate cleaning machines of the world. Way to go Dyson, you’ve made a customer for life.
2. Jeff Koski says:

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   I did a lot of research on a vacuum before purchasing this one. Our family could not be more pleased, our floors (hardwood and carpet) have not been cleaner. GREAT sucking power.