It's a Mighty Beast (Dyson DC07 PL)

Member Name: shroud

Product:	Dyson DC07 PL
Date:	26/09/07 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cleans deep down, going beyond the surface dirt, restores life to old carpets

Disadvantages: suction so strong you can get pulled over when using the wand if unwary, jet engine sound

I have been after an upright vac for the past year ever since we moved house. Previously, I owned (and still do), a Dyson DC05 cylinder model. While it worked well, it lacked a rotating brush bar for carpets, and for downstairs storage, I really preferred an upright silhouette. Having moved to a house with a mixture of floors, I was keen to get one that could tackle the deep pile carpet and the mess of two cats, two small children, and the mess and dirt hubby brings in as well from the outside as well as from his workshop. This was a more herculean task than one might suppose, as I also have an extreme dust sensitivity, so a true HEPA filter and an easy to open bagless bin was also strongly preferred. Having spoken to the resident vac expert on here, I was still undecided. My price range was not great, so we both thought a Dyson was out of my reach. That is, until one day as I trawled Ebay, a reputable Dyson dealer appeared upon my screen, selling completely refurbished Dysons for within my price range!

I hit the BIN now button, and a several days later, I had this mighty beast in my now seriously grubby carpet, as my young son had managed to kill my DC05 with some seriously rough handling (he broke the switch, so it is repairable, but enough about that). I opened the box and using the instructions downloaded from a manual website, went about assembling it. This was not scary at all, as it merely entailed putting the wand into the hose and clicking it in place. The wand is removable anyway, as the hose will go onto either end for cleaning using the wand.

This is now one of their older models, so I cannot tell you how it compares to one of the newest current models, but I can tell you it packs a mighty punch to dirt, especially when compared to my DC05. This says a lot, as people were always asking to borrow that one as it outperformed their normal vacs by quite a bit, even without the brush bar. Unlike the DC05 and earlier models, this one does not have a single cyclone. Oh, no, they packed EIGHT cyclones in. Now, I will be honest I had thought that was just a bit of hype, and possibly added a few bits of extra sucking power, but, boy, was I wrong! It sucks so hard that I had to really push to move it across the carpet. It is a bit heavy anyway, but turn on the motor, and it sucks for dear life. So much came out from the hall carpet and the lounge that I had to empty the bin as it filled up. It pulled up all the surface dirt, all the ground in sandy fine particles, and actually restored the nap back to my shag pile. It looked so good, my window washer thought I had got it shampooed.

Emptying the bin was a neat affair. No taking the lid off and hoping to not dump it on yourself anymore. Simply unclip from the body with a simple push of the button, and empty either directly into the bin or into a bag by a mere click of another button. This allows the bottom of the bin to flip open, and the contents slide out without a fuss. You then simply close the bottom up, and reclip back to the body. Easy peasy, and no messy hands or clothes after!

After doing the downstairs, it was time to turn my attention to the stairs. To do this, I had to sit the vacuum at the bottom of the stairs, facing backwards to the stairs. I then unclipped the wand from the body via the large push button at the top of the body where the handle rests, and pulled out the wand, took the swivel headed stair tool from its snap on place on the side of the body, and turned it back on. I quickly began to see just why Dyson put the warning on the wand about taking care as the hose is often pulled back in by the strong suction. The suction is so strong, it was like fighting a gale, literally. it was well worth it, though. As promised, it got all the fine at hairs, surface dirt, and the finer sandy particles out once more. This was no mean feat, as the hall and the stairs are covered in a 1970's short plush pile sort of carpet, and brush bars alone cannot sweep it out, though this hungry monster could suck it up. When I finished, I looked at my instructions once more, as it had came to my attention that while this model of Dyson automatically adjusted it's brushbar height according to the height of the carpet being cleaned, I did have to manually stop the brush bar if I wished to use it on delicate rugs or hard floors. I wished to do my kitchen floor, which is laminate, so had a quick look to see what to do.

This too was a very simple task to do. On the front of the head is a dial. It has positions marked OFF in large capitals, off in smaller capitals, and ON in larger capitals. The middle position of off in the smaller letters is the default position. Basically, this means that when the vacuum is upright and not tilted back to actually use, the brush bar is automatically switched off. When you wish to do carpets, you tilt the handle back in the normal manner with uprights since time memorial, and make sure the dial is set to ON so that the brushbar turns. If doing hard floors, delicate carpets, or rugs, you turn it to OFF in the large capitals, to switch the brushbar off. I turned it to OFF, and began vacuuming up the kitchen, watching the kitty kibble skitter across the floor from several inches away, probably silently screaming as it went. Do be very careful when doing rugs, though, due to the extreme powerful nature of these cyclones. I made the mistake of taking this upstairs to do my daughter's room, where she has a thin old rug type carpet from the 1960's (yeah, ok, we have not totally redecorated yet!).This carpet had a tear about 12 inches in diameter already, but when the machine sucked the edge into the vacuum, it became MUCH larger, as I had to turn it off and fight the beast to give it back. The last time I had something so tenacious when I had a dog and it had stolen a pork chop off the counter! Oh well, we were going to put laminate in there anyway!

While I was doing her room, I found the onboard crevice tool (it snaps onto a spot at the rear of the body) was quite handy. It is one of those long flattened tube type attachments that lets you get into awkward corners and down the backs of sofas and what not. In this case, I was able to use it to get under her computer workstation where forbidden snacks had mysteriously been able to leave a horde of crumbs behind. I also found the upholstery tool (snaps onto the side just as the stair tool does) quite handy. I used it to give her cushions a go over. Other available attachments for this are a mattress tool, which i hope to get as it would be quite handy. It also stores on board and has an almost squeegee type appearance. It goes over the mattress, sucking up old skin and dust mites as it goes, which is a boon for allergy and asthma sufferers. The other available tool is the grooming tool. This name is a bit misleading. as it is not a tool for grooming pets or anything like that. Rather, it is merely a tool designed to work with their Zorb dry cleaning carpet powder for maximum impact using the same. You can also get a car cleaning kit with a small turbine head on it meant for smaller places and which fits upon the wand.

It has a lifetime HEPA filter, as well as a filter made of a plastic outer ring with a densely woven fibre base. In this sits a spongy filter that is hand washable. To wash it you must only wash under running water and no detergents, and place to dry away from direct heat. The directions for this are pictorial on the outer plastic ring, which recommends placing them under a radiator to try. These filters only need washing twice a year, and there is a place to circle your two chosen months to do this, 6 months apart. You can always do this more often if you wish, but it is not strictly necessary for the functioning of the machine. I should add here that it is quite easy to tell if something gets wrapped round the brush bar. I amanged to get some yarn wraped around it (when I helpfully widened my daughter's carpet tear), and the raor changed to a godawful clatter that told me in no uncertain terms that it was most unhappy. I turned it off, and remedying the problem was also a breeze. One simply puts it face down, turns off the outlet it is plugged into, takes a coin, places the coin in three little slots on the sole plate, turn counterclockwise to unlatch them, and use a pair of scissors to arefull cut through the tangle and pull it off the bar. Then pop the sole plate back on, turn the slots with the coin back the other way to fasten it back on, turn the vacuum over, and it's done!

All in all, I am quite pleased with my purchase, and can really recommend this machine with a few caveats. It is heavy, so I would advise getting this model only if you do not need to carry up and downstairs, especially as the upright shape makes it rather awkward to take up a a flight of stairs. This is not an issue for me as we are repairing the switch on my DC05 (which, yes, Nar, I will get an air turbine head for), so will be using that upstairs exclusively. If you are elderly, or otherwise lack upper body strength, due to the pulling power of the suction, I cannot recommend it. I am used to it now, but I can tell you that I still burn quite a few calories vacuuming up, and am more than ready for a well deserved break afterwards. My husband is quite strong, and even he had found it cup of tea inducing immediately after, and he only did the downstairs! Having said that, many of today's uprights are strong enough that you get a good calorie burning workout, so we might have been spoiled by having a pull along canister before that merely followed us obediently. The results have been great, and I could not wish for a better performance overall, especially with such handy features. The HEPA makes a huge difference, with our breathing greatly eased, and the brush bar's self adjustment makes going from room to room a breeze as I can simply vacuum over the threshold and onto the change of carpet types and height without faffing about. If the features appeal, but the weight and suction issue is off-putting, then my suggestion is to go for a newer model, as they are now lighter in weight, with similar features, or go for a canister type. As for me, well, now I get to work off that chocolate!

Summary: Strong and mighty beast gobbles all the dirt on all types of floor, .

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Cleaning/Maintenance: