Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We are disappointed with the Dyson DC14. We fell for the enduring story of the persistent innovator and were wowed by the hand-is-faster-than-the-eye tool magician that could reconfigure the unit like a Transformer toy. We were impressed by how well it sucked up the sand on the floor in the salesroom. We even bought the $70 add on floor sweeper accessory. However using at our home is another story. This thing is very heavy and bulky. That makes lifting it up hard for even well-built men. Even though it rolls nicely, it's still hard to maneuver. The big plastic head is large and doesn't go under ANYTHING. It's hard to get the pieces apart and together to use it as intended. The quality of the vacuuming is influenced a great deal by the surface. For example, it's good on carpets with average tuft, but doesn't do well on industrial, low napp carpets like those with a lot of sand and dirt in our breezeway. Also when you run off of a carpet with fringe like some of our oriental style rugs, the fringe sets up a terrifying noise in the Dyson. On the carpet settings you can't use it on hardwood floors and conversely. This means you have to make two passes in rooms with a rug / carpet and hardwood or other hard surface. First do the carpet, then disassemble the unit to put on the accessory head to do the hardwood. The $70 accessory head is very hard to attach to the main extender tube/handle. It doesn't snap lock like other accessories. It's a "press fit" and very hard to get on square and even, which makes the head skid at an odd angle on the floor. Taking the extender out isn't obvious. Press the big yellow button. Slide the hidden end of the flex tube out of the extender. It snaps when its on the way out. Unsnap it. Then rotate the extender 180 degrees and snap it back. Presto. It now looks like a light saber on the end of an elephants trunk. The worst thing is the flex tube. Even though it is intended to extend about 17 feet, getting it to do so is just about impossible without bolting the Dyson to the floor. The spring inside the flex tube is way too strong (for no obvious reason). It you extend it even a little bit the vac tries to follow up. The main missing accessory for this product is a good old fashioned, fixed length (15'-20') flex tube so you can get to windows, doors and ceilings without having the vac chase you across the room. We do like the fact that it doesn't use bags but there are many vacs around now that cost $100 or less that have similar technology. The Dyson must be well intended for the time the developer put into this. We just don't think that they spend much time using their own products on a day to day basis. It's effective but very, very inefficient. It works but is hard to use. It's way to expensive.