Bosch vs Dyson (Dyson DC14 All Floors)

Member Name: mosaic369

Product:	Dyson DC14 All Floors
Date:	29/07/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good suction, long telescopic reach, easy emptying of bin

Disadvantages: Filter needs regular maintenance

When our old Bosch vacuum cleaner finally packed up a few weeks ago, we knew that our next one was going to be a Dyson. When we decided to buy the Bosch Extraxx 17 some six years ago, we were also considering a Dyson but eventually chose German over British engineering, but from time to time we were wondering whether we should have bought a Dyson instead. Not that we weren't satisfied with the Bosch, I hasten to add. It was a fairly good machine, however, we would have expected more than six years of service from something of its calibre. When it first broke down a few months ago, we even bought a replacement part for it, but when it broke down again with another unrelated problem, we knew it had had it and it was time to replace it.

My husband put me in charge of finding a good deal on a Dyson, so I got online in search of special offers. The best deal I could find was the Dyson DC14 all floors from Argos for £189.00, originally priced at £239.00. There might have been some better deals available from independent online retailers, but it was important for us to find something that was available for immediate pick-up as we had some urgent vacuuming to do around the house and we couldn't have waited for weeks until delivery. I quickly checked the online reviews about this model and found that the vast majority of consumers were satisfied with the product. Nearly all reviews praised the DC14 for having good suction, but there were some concerns about noise and weight. Some people thought that the noise was unbearable and the unit was too heavy to carry up and down the stairs. Though I didn't like the sound of this, years of experience of making purchasing decisions based on reading product reviews have taught me that people can have different perceptions about certain aspects. What might be unbearable for some, may not bother others. Reading negative reviews have not stopped me from buying a product in the past, as long as the positive opinions were in majority. It's all about making informed decisions. Luckily, you can always take the products back if they're not what you expected. So, despite the possibility that the DC14 may be too noisy and heavy to use, I reserved a unit for my husband to pick up on the way home from work and anxiously waited his return so that we could test the Dyson in action and see if it was all it is cracked up to be.

I was actually out when my husband got home, and he had just finished assembling the unit when I got back. I assume it was easy to assemble, otherwise he would have been on about it all evening. The first thing I noticed when I lifted the DC14 was that it actually weighed less than our old Bosch, so the concerns about its weight turned out to be irrelevant to us, however, I can imagine that people who have been used to handling a lighter unit might find it a bit heavy at first. It weighs about 8 kilos, compared to 9 kilos of the Bosch. I was also eager to find out about the noise it made, so we turned on the machine and I braced myself against the "unbearably loud high-pitched noise" some people mentioned in their reviews. Frankly, I couldn't see - or rather hear - what all the fuss was about. It is a vacuum cleaner after all and it's bound to be noisy. It is no noisier than any other vacuum I have had the chance to work with. So, with the two main concerns out of the way, we tested the new machine to see what else was different compared to our old Bosch.

ADVANTAGES OF THE BOSCH

According to my husband, who's an engineer, the Bosch seemed better made - more robust, less plastic and better designed - but let's not forget that it only had a six-year lifespan, which shouldn't be too difficult for the Dyson to beat. Only time will tell.

Unlike the Bosch, the Dyson hasn't got a recoil function to retract the power lead. Instead, it has the conventional lead "storage" where you manually wind up the cable around two pegs. Having got used to the retract function on the Bosch for years, I will definitely miss this.

With the Bosch, using the wand around the skirting and in narrow spaces was a matter of pulling it out and putting it back in a flash. With the Dyson, this manoeuvre is a lot more complicated and troublesome. You have to complete at least three actions to take it out and another three to put it back in. This will be difficult for me to get used to, and I can imagine I will start skipping doing the skirting altogether as I haven't got the patience to get the wand in and out as I go around vacuuming.

The suction on the Bosch was more powerful at 1700W compared to 1400W on the Dyson. The difference is quite noticeable in that the Bosch was more difficult to push around when it was sucking. The Dyson glides easier, but I wonder if it produces the same results. It doesn't seem to leave the same depth of suction marks in the carpet as the Bosch used to. Whether the Dyson will be more successful at not losing suction over time is yet to be seen. The Bosch did lose some suction when the filter became clogged up and my husband used to remove the fluff from the filter manually once in a while, which made it work efficiently again. Emptying of the dust bin is as easy on the Dyson as it was on the Bosch as they both seem to operate with a similar mechanism.

The Bosch also had the all floors function, which lets you choose between carpeted and hard surfaces. The idea is that the brush is disengaged when vacuuming hard floors, so as not to scratch the surface. The switch to operate this was close at hand on the Bosch, while on the Dyson you have to bend all the way down to reach it.

ADVANTAGES OF THE DYSON

Unlike the Bosch, the filter on the Dyson is washable, which should make the procedure of cleaning it easier, but without regular maintenance, the filter will clog as I can already see signs of this after just a few weeks' use. It is recommended that you clean the filter every six months, but at this rate, I think it will have to be done more often than that, perhaps every two or three months or so.

By far the best feature of the Dyson is the long telescopic function, which can reach all the way up to the top of the stairs without having to balance the whole machine on the stairs like I used to with the Bosch. This is not only more convenient, but a whole lot safer too. Big thumbs up for that!

The extra attachments are housed on the unit, so they're always at hand when you need them. However, you may find that these drop off from time to time, so I only carry around the ones I actually use.

The power lead is long enough to reach anywhere in the house without having to change power points, except when going upstairs or downstairs, obviously. With the Bosch I used to find the cable was just a bit too short to reach everywhere.

The Dyson has a 5-year manufacturer's guarantee, which is quite generous, I think, considering that our Bosch didn't last much beyond that. I can imagine that some people would want to change their vacuum cleaner after 5 years anyway, so it's almost like a lifetime guarantee in that respect.

All in all, my first impressions of the Dyson DC14 are quite favourable, even though it had to live up to the Bosch standards. But we've only had it for a few weeks, so it's early days to assess its durability. If anything happens to change my perceptions, I promise to come back to update this review. The Dyson DC14 is not perfect, but neither was the Bosch extraxx 17. Maybe if they took the best features of both, they could build a vacuum cleaner as close to perfect as possible.

Summary: Not perfect but good enough

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