Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaners

It's now July 2008. The Dyson is great! And when I finally read the instruction, I realized I'd been needlessly suffering using tool attachments with the wand in place... the wand is removable!!! That allows easy access to furniture, stairs, anything. The really great thing is that the rotating furniture/stair attachment works fantastically when the wand isn't in the way... the rotating brush keeps going when doing our carpeted stairs and velour furniture. Cat hair is gone!!! I love this thing!

OK. So I just got it and only used it to vac my upstairs (without moving furniture... just a quick test) and it took me barely 10-minutes for about 1200 sq ft of hard floor. It cleans great! It's extremely quiet, which makes me think it might be broken since Consumer Reports (and some reviewers of the DC 14 all-floors) said it was noisy. But after using a Hoover canister for the past 20-years, this thing is fantastic. Don't let anybody tell you that it doesn't do hard flooring. I highly recommend this vaccuum. I'll give a futhher review after a few weeks of use (and when I've had a chance to use all the tools). Consumer reports also gave it a lower rating for ease of use, but I put it together and got it going easily without reading the manual (don't tell Dyson!).
p.s., the cat was scared, but nowhere nearly as freightened as he is with the LOUD Hoover.

We had been using a Hoover WindTunnel that we'd purchased five years ago from the factory store for 180. While it seemed to work reasonably well, it was just incredibly loud. And it was heavy and not so easy to maneuver.

What we like about this Dyson, which we purchased after reading an incredible number of reviews here at Amazon and elsewhere:

1. noise level, compared to the WindTunnel, is surprisingly quiet. We don't have to yell to hold a conversation while vacuuming.

2. Aesthetics. Going from Hoover to Dyson was like switching from Dell Dimension to Apple iMac.

3. Suction, of course. Every other review here which claims shocking amounts of dirt being picked up the first time is TRUE. Our landlord had steam-cleaned the carpet just a month before we moved in. It really was shocking to see how much was in the dust bin after the first vacuuming.

4. Ease of dust disposal. Really quite easy!

5. Not having to stock vacuum bags.


It's not a small sum to spend on a vacuum. However, we have a baby who's just about begun to crawl, and we convinced ourselves that getting a really good vacuum that can keep the floor clean was for the good of the baby. You can justify all sorts of spending when the baby comes! :-)

We were also considering getting an Oreck, but we weren't so satisfied with their XL Air Cleaner.