Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm amazed by the positive reviews on this machine! I've had two Dyson cleaners before. The first one (bought in 1998 and still going strong in my son’s home) was bought after careful research. The second (bought 2006 and now in our holiday home) was bought on sight as I had the confidence of the wonderful first cleaner of which this was an updated version. This one: I read a few reviews that said it was brilliant cleaner though not a good canister capacity. That didn't bother me as I was used to having to empty the canister a couple of times per vacuum. The performance of the machine is every bit as good as I expected and it lives up to the Dyson standard i.e. the suction is very strong and it vacuums brilliantly. It's neat, compact (A false positive. Its size means it doesn’t caddy accessories well and it has the capacity of a matchbox) and moves around smoothly. That's it for the praise. Every time I use the cleaner I am torn between loving its performance and hating almost every aspect of using it. What's wrong with it? NB: We own a Labrador who sheds profusely. I vacuum once a week in high moult, once fortnightly in low moult. I have always vacuumed with this frequency, and the old Dysons were fantastic and so user-friendly. We only have 2 adults living here now instead of four, so technically there’s less dirt on the floors. 1. The wand is shorter than those of my old Dysons - it's too short even for me (5'4"). Don't buy this if you have a bad back. 2. The cord is shorter than before, so it has to be re-plugged more often (than the other two). 3. The hard floor tool will not move over anything but a hard floor - it flip flaps all over the place if I try and run it over any floor mats. Not so with the previous two Dysons - doing my kitchen, family, and bathrooms was a breeze as their HF tools happily ran over the mats as well. The continual head changing drives me nuts. 4. The hard floor tool doesn't vacuum efficiently if there’s any pet hair on the floor. Hair accumulates around the head instead of disappearing into the head, resulting in the apparatus resembling a Shih-Tzu-on-a-stick within minutes. This necessitates stopping every few minutes, removing the head and vacuuming IT with the open end of the wand, replacing the head and continuing. Infuriating! 5. There are no more carry-on pockets for tools on the body of the cleaner. The wand caddy carries the small accessories, but I have to keep carrying the HF tool all over my 4 level house as it won't fit on the caddy. Well, it sort of fits but it gets knocked off every 5 minutes. See point 3 to understand what a pain in the rear this is. 6. And now the most annoying part: the (expletive deleted) canister... Dyson's famed designing boffins must have all taken their annual leave en masse and/or suffered a gastro outbreak at deadline time, leaving the Work Experience kid to work out the specifics for this bit. I've used Dyson cleaners for approx 14 years; the bagless canister was simple to use and cleaning the filter every 6 months was easy. What's so bad about this canister? a) The dust capacity is so small that I wondered if the factory had put the "full" mark in the wrong place. I assume this is because there is now no filter. Even if I vacuum every week, the canister has to be emptied after every few rooms. When my Labrador's in full moult, the canister can only cope with one room at a time at best. I have to empty before I even finish in the family room. b) The dust build-up doesn't fill the canister evenly. From one angle it can look like there is barely any dirt in it, but if you turn it around you’ll see a peaked wedge of debris extending way past the “full” line. I have photos to show this. c) Emptying the canister… This is how the old canisters worked: the cyclone head came out of the canister, you tipped the canister upside down into the bin, clicked the cyclone and canister together and Bob's your auntie's husband. Emptying this canister could only be made more annoying if it squirted mace into your eyes every time you open it. The cyclone assembly is fixed at the top of this canister so the bottom hinges open to let the dust fall out. That's what's meant to happen. What actually happens: the canister bottom hinges open and nothing falls out. Now the scraping tool comes into play and poking about in the coagulated hair and dust eventually dislodges most of this into the bin/plastic bag/whatever. The remainder falls straight into the flapping base of the canister, so shaking, tapping and more scraping ensue, closely followed by blinking, choking and sneezing… then there’s that fine residue of dust all over your hands. See a) above to understand how (expletive deleted) annoying this is. I am like a severe hay-fever sufferer after I’ve vacuumed… sneezing, itchy throat, stuffed up nose. This procedure takes far longer than it did with the older models and involves constant rotation* of the canister to scrape all around the barrel. It’s easy to “empty” it only to find a clot of rubbish still wedged in it as you are replacing it on the machine. *The next gripe: the handle on the canister is tiny. I have very fine fingers but can only just fit two fingers part way into this little afterthought of a handle. My adult son can only hold the canister by one finger. With the cyclone assembly weighing it down, the canister is too heavy to be suspended by one or two digits for long, but as emptying it is not quick it becomes uncomfortable holding it while you scrape away at the contents. Don’t buy this model if you have long hair, pets with any hair, arthritis in your hands, hypertension, asthma, dermatitis or especially if you have anger management issues. Do buy this model if you live alone in a small apartment (preferably hi-rise), have no pets (Mexican Hairless dogs excepted), and you remove your shoes at the door. If you suffer from alopecia, so much the better. If this was my first Dyson, I would never buy another one nor would I recommend the brand. I’m think I’ll cut my losses and put it up for sale online. I’d like to say I’ll get another Dyson but I will do a lot more research first.