Woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown! (Dyson DC04)

Member Name: lulubelle

Product:	Dyson DC04
Date:	24/10/03 (830 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sucks well

Disadvantages: un-user friendly, heavy, parts break easily

I bought my Dyson DC04 two years ago on the recommendation of absolutely everyone I know who's bought a Dyson cleaner. I liked the idea of not having to change bags as my previous vacuum cleaner was 25 years old and I had great difficulty buying bags that fitted.

Unfortunately, I bought it over the internet so had no idea of firstly, how heavy it was going to be and how un-user friendly. When it arrived my first thought was how much it resembled the Fisher-Pryce toys my kids used to have - bright colours and lots of small plastic parts.

The assembly instructions were very complicated and it was necessary for me to call the help line in order to just put it together and turn it on! Once fixed I turned it on and set to work. My first impression was that it was a wonderful machine - cleaned right up to the edges and I could certainly see all the dust and grime which proved it was sucking good! However, my enthusiasm rapidly wained when I found that it didn't get under my radiators and I had to use the tools to do so. Then I found that using the tools wasn't too simple either. The DC04 has an extremely long cord which has to be completely unravelled in order to use the hose which then somehow frequently manages to get itself under the cleaner and get sucked up, which quite frankly can be quite dangerous as the powerful suction into the machine has sometimes stripped the plastic covering from the cord.

While the tools were out I decided to vacuum the stairs. When I got half way up and the attachment cord was stretched to it's limit I decided to carry on by taking it upstairs and vacuuming down for the final part, but I found that the machine was too heavy for me to carry and had to wait for my husband to come home to do it for me.

Then finally, when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I rewound the cord (or tried to) - the plastic part which the cord winds around at the bottom isn't fixed, so if it'
s not pushed right down into it's socket, when the cable is half re-wound, the part becomes loose and the cable becomes attached at the top and detached at the bottom!! Completely and utterly frustrating!

In the two years I have owned the machine I've twice had to take it to be repaired - not a suction problem, but plastic parts breaking. In the 25 years I had my previous machine, no repairs were necessary.

In short, this machine makes me frustrated, angry and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it out in advance.

Summary: