Incredible performance for the size

I had never used a Dyson before and my preconception was that they are massively over-priced for a vacuum cleaner. When my cheap cylinder cleaner finally packed-in I looked around for an upright that was compact but effective and this new DC24 model just caught my eye and I thought I'd give it a chance, though it was about £50 more than my budget. The Amazon deal was the best one I could find. When it arrived the next day I was shocked by how compact it really is. The performance is phenomenal though - it pulls up vastly more dust than my cylinder did and the motorized brush bar is a great advantage. The thing that strikes you most though is how well thought out the whole design is - the little features like converting the handle to a cleaning wand and the ease of emptying the bin are what really makes the cost justifiable. Buy one, you won't regret it!

Over-rated. Cleans well but flawed engineering

Yes, it cleans well but ignore the hype, it's no better than many other cheaper models now available.

Good points:
* Good"suck"
* Cleans carpets and wooden floors well
* You can see when it's getting full
* No bags

Bad points:
* It's quite heavy
* It's poorly engineered, in particular, the tools are very flimsy
* The hose splits very easily and is a pig to repair
* Spare tools are quite expensive
* Fitting new drive belts is frustratingly difficult (I'm a professional engineer!)

In summary, we got terminally fed up with ours after 2 years and threw it out with the hose split for the 5th time and the drive belt gone (again) and some of the tool connections damaged beyond repair. I can't imagine being built in China will improve Dyson quality. We've since bought a Vax which is far better built and cleans just as well. Shame, we wanted to buy British but this Dyson is a great concept with British Leyland circa 1977 build quality.

Henry sucks!

When I first looked at the reviews for Henry they were, as now, all glowing, apart from one woman who had written, basically, that Henry didn't suck! Steady...! Now, like you, I thought this was some middle class divorcee used to a top of the range Dyson and hence was expressing her angst through a poor review. Or, I logically summised, she had a duff one! But, she was right. In general, Henry sucks! Specifically, in terms of vaccuming power, Henry don't suck! And, no, I'm not a Dyson purchaser fallen on hard times. This is the most expensive vaccumer I have bought. Humorously, the in-laws talked lovingly of it, as most of the school cleaners have them and"they are so inexpensive"! Retro-liberal to buy one in other words.

Now, yes, I have to agreee, Henry is pretty substantial. In truth, when I got it out of the box it seemed to have a slight oiled look and feel to it, as if some craftsman engineer type had given it one last swipe, lovingly, with an oiled rag. It is heavy and well built, which is good, as confessing as I am to being a male vaccumer, I do occasionally boot the things out of frustration. So far Henry has survived.Impressive. Of course, yes, he has a happy smily face. My children loved him and welcomed him like a new member of the family and he arrived with a free gift for them - a Henry beach ball. All of which just makes you guilty when you loose it after it falls over for the umpteenth time after a gentle tug, or fails to glide round a curved sofa even though it's round shaped. Henry is irriating and as I hoover every night the mess my children make whilst my wife baths them, I become slightly sweaty as I contemplate what an annoying hoover it is. Sweaty and guilty in the sight of his happy happy face.Like he's mocking me...(just joking)

Now, another proviso, is that I have wooden floors and the odd rug. Yes,I know. Henry deals with the rugs okay and I have wondered if Henry was suited to carpets only, because on my floors he hardly bothers to suck anything unless you pick him up and show it to him, like some lazy dog that can't be bothered to lick up the crumbs becasue he's busy being too happy. Henry likes to push things around and whilst making a fair stab at dust or glitter (if it's directly in it's path) cannot suck much bigger, which let's face it is dissapointing. But, that's not the worse part because that loving engineer and his oily rag have cocked up something essential and made a terrible design boo boo. The lovely shiny metal vacuumer part with the brush on the end is slotted into a plastic hose fitting, heavy duty, but not enough. So, the plastic wears in contact with the metal and does not fit togther properly. So, as you tug Henry, he not only falls over as easily as Didier Drogba, but the hose detaches in your hand and after a few of these and a long day, you lay into Henry.

So, to summarise, do buy If you have carpets (and no pets, I would imagine!) and not if you have wooden floors. I guess, in a way he is built to last, which as I have mentioned is helpful, but the smiley face just seems to me to be there to keep you going after all those hours of vaccuming. Or something to aim for!

waste of money

I would strongly advise people not to buy this machine. It has to be kept on charge constantly and you are then rewarded with an amazing 4 to 5 minutes use. long enough for you to hoover one seat in the car or 2 steps on the stairs. It then has to be put on charge for another 3 hours before you can use it again. It is the biggest waste of money, buy a dustpan & brush and spend the remainder of the money on something good.

What a lifesaver, and so cheap too!

After nearly two years of misery using an awful Morphy Richards pod cleaner that utterly failed to vacuum up a thing, I was desperate for a new hoover but uh oh! No money. I thought I was doomed to a filthy floor forever when I found this affordable little gem on Amazon. Bought it, got it home and in a single swift vacuum it returned my disgusting carpet to pristine condition. It took up all the hairs, the fluff, the crumbs, all the annoying little specks of dirt - everything. Haven't tried it on wood flooring but it certainly does the business on my carpet - great suction, very easy to manouevre and nice and compact. The only drawback is that it is quite noisy but hey! It cleans like a demon! And for £31 what a bargain!!

Does what it is designed for...very satisfied

Reading the reviews I was somewhat reluctant to believe this machine would give me the results I had hoped for. But was I surprised! I was more than satisfied with the end result and had no problems with anything. It is easy to use and manoeuvre.The carpets came up clean though not like a new carpet but then I would not expect that. I would recommend this to anyone.

Great Product - Poor Customer Service

1st time I used it great.

2nd time I used it, it tripped the house fuse and died.

Sent it back to Vax. Still waiting for the replacement - 6 weeks and counting, and they still can't confirm when it will arrive.

Very Compact

After our DC04 gave up the ghost we decided to look around for a new vacuum - I like Dysons but my wife found the DC04 to be heavy and cumbersome. This new DC25 Animal is great - the same"Ball" concept as the DC15 but much more compact - not too tiny like the DC24 which would only be of use in a flat due to the tiny dust bin. The only downside with these latest Dysons is they have shorter power cables so you need to change socket for different rooms but that's just me being lazy. In short this is really powerful cleaner and with a 5 year guarantee should last a bit longer than the DC04.

great buy

Not normally one to leave reviews, but as this product was so good i felt i had to!
Bought this hoover today and was really impressed with how well it cleaned.
Dont think you can do better for your money!

Steam Mop

I bought this steamer at the Ideal Home Show a couple of years ago. I thought it would be a great idea as my house is all tiles and laminate. The sales man at the show said it would leave my floors dry enough to walk on immediately after cleaning. Well - No it didn't. My floors were sodden and I had to have all the doors and windows open to dry the floors. I paid considerably more for the mop at the show than it's for sale now and am very disappointed with it.

Does what it says it will!

We bought one these as a result of owning the more basic DC07 for our other home. The justification for the trade up was the acquisition of two kittens. We are not disappointed - the performance of this cleaner makes others look second best - the carpet and floors look and feel so much cleaner. Additionally, this model has a brush control switch (which the DC07 does not) so it's great for hard floors too. Yes, it isn't a featherweight cleaner but it works so well that that seems a fair price to pay for the performance it delivers. The choice of tools is great including a rotary turbo brush, and overall, it reeks of quality construction. Despite the kittens our home has never been cleaner thanks to the DC14 - unreservedly recommended - buy it.

This thing sucks !!

I have 17 parakeets in my flat, and I hate having to drag out the goddam corded big hoover to clean up seeds and feathers all the time. This Dustbuster really does a good job in sucking up all the mess (suckie, suckie- Full Metal jacket style), although like another reviewer said, I have to be careful what direction I face the exhaust. The crevice tool is stored onboard so it doesn't get lost, and just the right size for cleaning out sliding door tracks (every other vacuum attachment I've tried is just a little too big to actually fit into the groove). They need to figure out a way to store the little upholstery brush onboard, too.

The filter really does seem to keep dust from flying around. I ordered a replacement from Amazon to have it on hand, but I haven't needed to use it yet. This vacuum's easy to empty, and designed well so when you put it nose-down in its charger, stuff doesn't fall out like it did with older models.

Excellent value for money !

Excellent carpet washer, first used with just water to try it out on a cream carpet in the hallway. This machine picked so much dirt up and brought the carpet out like new.

The tools are excellent, all what is needed and easy to assemble.

The machine is quite expensive, but you do get 6year guarantee to if it breaks down, it will be replaced no problem.

Overall excellent buy, very pleased. Ideal if you have pets and children.

The vacuum-less vacuum!

As a fundamentally lazy person, I was so pleased at the prospect of having a light, easy sweeper that I could whip out to brush up even the smallest mess at the flick of a wrist.

I wondered whether this would be just another gadget and, ultimately, a purchase that would sit at the back of my pantry, never seeing the light of day.

In all truth be told, this really is a fabulous little gizmo. I don't bring the vacuum cleaner out nowadays for anything other that the most serious of spills. If I confess to all my slovenly sins, then I probably used to vacuum every week or so. Nowadays, I whisk the Gtech every day over the ground floor, and upstairs when I feel thorough!

It's a great piece of design - it does the job, and improves the expectation: it's so light that you whip it out for anything, it's rechargeable so it's no bother or a heavy cord, and there's no bag to empty either.

In a heavily shag-carpeted house, I think this might struggle. But for any other floors, and especially hard or laminate floors this is perfect.

Excellent service and great product

ordered friday night at around 11pm and arraived on monday before lunch. great product really works great. highly recommended.
thanks AMAZON

A very good attachment - worth buying!

I have found the Dyson soft dusting brush to work very effectively and gets the job done in seconds, not least because it's quite large - for all its ability to do delicate jobs as well. It does not mark my dining table which scratches at the slightest thing and there is no raging suction so it's possible to dust a pile of papers or similar without them disappearing into the brush. The joy of it is that dust actually goes into the vacuum cleaner rather than hanging in the air, waiting to resettle on the furniture the minute ones back is turned (very dark bedroom units - why did I do that?) No more shaking out of dusters every couple of minutes.

To gently disagree with the comments from A. Crosby"anneke999" on this page, my brush came with the usual three adaptors and the one with the triangle fitted my Animal DC14 Dyson - either by pushing ON to the metal tube or IN to the flexible hose - definitely no Sellotape needed!

The ads don't mention there's a strip of velour type 'fluff picker-upper' on the inside of the brush.

Once again, an efficient tool from Dyson which gets my vote!

The Best....

I bought this Dyson about 2 years ago. I had not owned a Dyson before, but after borrowing my daughters DC01, decided to replace my 'regular' vacuum cleaner with this model ( we have brick, tiled and wooden floors as well as carpet ).

Yes, it's a bit noisy, but it cleans SO well and is SO easy to use that I forgot about it almost immediately!

After 35 years of vacuums that don't shift cat hairs, sewing threads or fluff and only remove dust and dirt from the very top of the carpet pile, the Dyson's powerful suction was a revelation.

I still get real pleasure from using it.