This vacuum cleaner sucks... and the floor is made clean! (Dyson DC24 The Ball)

Member Name: Rocketeer007

Product:	Dyson DC24 The Ball
Date:	29/10/08 (454 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very good cleaning power, no need to buy bags etc.

Disadvantages: Needs to be emptied often

Dyson vacuum cleaners are supposed to be "The cleaner that doesn't lose suction"... Now, by that logic, you should be able to keep using the thing forever and have it just as effective when the canister is full as when it's empty, right?
Sadly not, and this is particularly noticeable on the DC24, which appears to have a fairly small capacity - about two goes round the house, in my experience, then it needs emptying.

On the other hand, emptying the DC24 is a breeze - just press one button to remove the canister, then press a second to open it (once it's over a suitable container, of course). Shake it a couple of times to get any loose dirt, and you're done.

The main selling point of this particular model is "The Ball" - rather than traditional wheels, this model has a large ball at the base (with the motor inside) that means you don't have to have the cylinder lined up neatly with where you want to go - making corners effortless! This does actually work - and is particularly noticeable when going up towards walls and doors; there's no need to get right behind it to push it forwards and back as with conventional uprights.

Sadly though, for edges, there are rather two many pipes around the foot of the machine to easily get into tight spaces like below a radiator or under a sofa, and this makes getting up to the edges a real pain sometimes. It's also asymmetrical - so you'll find that the left edge will often go right up to the wall, whereas the right one won't... this means instead of just vacuuming a hall in one direction, you'll end up following the wall around so that the same side of the machine is by the wall at all times.

The provided accessories include a crevice tool, a mini brush, and what I'm told is an upholstery cleaner - I use it for the stairs...
These all connect to the hose, which can be unclipped from the back of the machine.
There are two point of note about the hose. Firstly, the wand and hose are almost long enough to use this as a cylinder instead of upright... secondly, most of that length is in the wand.
This leads to an odd set of problems; for fiddly places, the wand is too long to handle, but the hose is too short to reach except at full stretch; most noticeable on the stairs.

With it's spinning brushes (that can be turned off for hard floors) and super-suction, the Dyson DC24 gets all floors very clean... for my somewhat cramped house though, I should have bought a cylinder machine.

Summary: Very good quality machine, but more suitable for un-cluttered rooms

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