Our Dyson History:
We started with a DC04 - this was the first Dyson we actually owned. From there, we went to a DC07, and our current Dyson is a DC14 animal. Why do we have the animal version when we have no pets? Well it's a good question and I'll endeavour to answer it in a minute.

Our DC04 lasted us well, it saw us through doing a LOT of DIY, and helpfully cleaned up everything from bits of old wallpaper to plaster dust, brick dust and more. It finally gave up one day with a sort of melting plastic smell and when my hubby took it apart he found that one of the Teflon parts had melted!

Our next was a DC07 - bought second hand for about £15 from a car boot sale it was probably a couple of years old when we got it and we had it a good three to four years ourselves.

And now... The DC14 (Animal)...

Why we Acquired a DC14 Animal:
Firstly with my husband starting his own business last year, he's been supplementing his income while getting things off the ground by fixing stuff. He's always been a regular Mr Fix It, and is a trained electronics engineer too, so taking apart things like vacuum cleaners, radios and amplifiers twiddling a bit and making them work again is something he's pretty good at. We've been given a number of 'broken' vacuum's which he's fixed and sold on, and in amongst these was a Dyson DC14 Animal. Well having fixed it (a £2 part did the trick), we offered it back to the person who'd given it to us, and they didn't want it having bought a new one & said sell it on, so rather than sell it, we decided we'd make good use of it to upgrade our own which was getting a tad tired, and sold our old DC07 instead. We felt this was a good idea as ours was a little old by now, and also, as we're both long haired even though we don't have pets, hair does have a tendency to clog vacuum brushes if we're not careful, so one designed to deal with pet hair would be good for human hair too we figured. That, and we do kind of like Dysons!

The Dyson DC14 Animal:
Most people have by now encountered a Dyson upright Vacuum by now in one form or another, so we all pretty much know about the cyclones and so on don't way. Just briefly though, the DC14 is an 1400 watt upright vacuum. It has lifetime Hepa filter, is designed to deal with pet hair, and is suitable for all floor types. It also has a 7 gallon collection bin, an extendable wand & 14ft hose and the wand (handle) can be removed and turned round so that the grip is in the right place when using it with hose extended. Ours also came with a beater attachment for using when the wand is extended, but this is an optional extra I believe.

Looks & Design:
The DC14 Animal is rather pretty - well certainly more so than our grey and lime green DC07. This has lots of grey, but it also has a lovely purple colour on various parts which I personally think is much nicer than many of the colour schemes they've used for the various Dysons. Other than this, it doesn't look much different from the Dyson's it follows on from really. It's still an upright, still has a flat foot (no big ball on this one), and the cable still winds up at the back of the handle. Overall it's pretty stylish looking for a vacuum cleaner really.

The casing is very much the same as the previous Dysons, the biggest difference is the dirt collection bin bit which is much better designed than before. Now, instead of having to remove it and tip it over to empty the contents out after use, now, you remove it, hold it with its base over the bin, and press a release catch which opens the bottom allowing the dust and dirt collected to just fall straight out the bottom. You then pop the base closed (it swings open and closed), and pop the container back onto the rest of the machine.

Manoeuvrability & Ease of Use:
This is an upright vacuum cleaner which is quite heavy to actually lift. But they have placed the lifting handle in a sensible place at the base of the wand and above the main body of the thing so it's not as bad as it could be. Add to this that one doesn't actually lift it very often, and it ceases to become as much of an issue.

In terms of moving it around the floor when it's turned on and in use, this is a very easy cleaner to use. It feels a lot lighter when you're manoeuvring it around than you'd think it would by lifting it. I'm guessing this is something to do with the design, but it really feels lighter than it is. It's also excellent at getting in close to the skirting board or edges of cupboards and things which I love as it means much less work for me as a quick once round will do most of the time and I rarely have to get the wand out unless I'm being really thorough.

We have a mixture of laminate, carpet and vinyl in our house, and the DC14 deals with all of them very nicely. One of the things that used to bug me a bit with the DC07 was how it could blow half the dirt away from it as it was going over the harder floor surfaces. This doesn't do this thankfully, and instead it really just sucks everything in quickly. The beater bar and suction seem to go right to the edges as I've mentioned so there's no worry about missing bits along the edges of the rooms and has made it speedier for me to clean the floors definitely.

My Thoughts:
As you've probably gathered by now I'm pretty pleased with my £2 Dyson DC14. It's so easy to use, and the improvements to suction at the edges, and how the handle can be inverted are a real bonus when using it. I do think it does pick up more hair and certainly picks up hair more easily than the DC07 did, and knowing my mum has one and a dog I can safely say it works on dog hair too (not that he's a particularly hairy dog).
I'd certainly recommend this to anyone who's got an older Dyson and is thinking of moving to one of these, though as I've not used any of the more recent Dyson vacuums, I can't say how it compares to the later models with the big ball feature. I don't think this struggles to turn corners at all personally, so I'll be happy to stick with this for a few years yet.