It Sucks! Check out the Dyson DC28 Airmuscle™ Animal Vacuum
I recently got to test drive the new version of Dyson’s vacuum cleaner (the DC28 Animal) that’s specifically designed for pet owners.
Dyson engineers spent three years developing DC28 Animal with advanced Airmuscle™ technology. It combines three technologies: a powered cam, a pneumatic actuator, and a high-torque clutch – each precisely adjusting the cleaner head to thoroughly clean every floor surface. And, like all Dyson vacuums, it doesn’t lose suction.
I’ve always coveted the Dyson, but we’ve been waiting for our Oreck to give out before buying another. The Oreck is a good vacuum, very lightweight, and we’ve been happy with it. But I’ve been yearning for a Dyson if for no other reason to eliminate the need for vacuum bags. We always seem to run out of them at the least opportune moments.
Before the Dyson arrived, I prepared by saving up a couple of typical cat cleaning problems, including cat hair that’s super-glued to furniture, and cat barf. I hoped these would provide an industrial strength test.
I’m not really set up to do a fair side-by-side comparison with the Oreck, so this review is based on my impressions of the Dyson vs. a solid scientific A-B test.
With that said, this is one incredibly powerful vacuum. It sucks nearly everything in a single pass. The cat hair on the furniture was history in about 30 seconds.
“Rocky’s Lair” is an old settee that we leave for the cats to sleep on, and our Tuxie, Rocky, sometimes lives on it for weeks at a time. We put down blankets, but Rocky’s fur finds its way onto the back.
This has always been hell to clean. Vacuuming doesn’t work. We’ve resorted to using a wet terrycloth, scrub brush, lint-roller and spot-vacuum combo that takes about 20 minutes and never gets quite all the hair. Here’s what it looks like pre-Dyson:
And here’s the post-Dyson shot. The Dyson not only removed the fur, but it did so in only a single pass. Bam! Gone! I could hardly believe my eyes:
Next challenge: cat barf. We always seem to have some on hand, so I put the Dyson to the test. Bye bye, barf, it was gone!
I didn’t expect to get any big revelations, though, when doing routine vacuuming. The house had been vacuumed thoroughly five days earlier: how much dirt could there be to pick up?
And indeed, when attacking everyday vacuuming tasks, it was hard at first to tell whether the Dyson performed significantly better than the Oreck. I could feel the powerful suction as I vacuumed the cat’s bedroom and the hallway, but I wasn’t sure how to tell if the Dyson was doing a better job… until I realized that the cyclonic dirt canister was full. Here’s the dirt sucked up from one small bedroom and a hallway (the dollar bill is only there for scale):
Pretty disgusting, eh?
It was apparent that, although our Oreck was good at sucking up surface dirt, there was a whole other universe of dirt living within the carpet that the Oreck hadn’t touched, and a lot of it was cat fur.
So it’s safe to say that Dyson doesn’t stop at surface dirt. Pacman-like, it gobbles every dirt molecule, dust mite and cat hair from deep within the carpet and padding. This is a big boon to allergy sufferers and asthmatics like me who willingly suffer a permanent case of the sniffles for the privilege of having cats in the home. In fact, Dyson upright vacuums meet or exceed standards for effectively removing allergen-containing dust from carpets and are the first to be certified “asthma & allergy friendly™.”
We vacuum once or twice weekly, and change the Oreck bag once a month or so. I continued vacuuming the entire house, and had five canisters of dirt at the end of the cleaning… roughly the equivalent of about 1-1/4 Oreck bags. Subsequent vacuumings turned up less far less dirt, so I can only conclude that the first Dyson pass through the house got all the dirt the Oreck had failed to touch.
The only real quibble I have with the Dyson is that when I use the hose attachment, it’s a little uncomfortable from an ergonomic standpoint because the hose end offers a lot of resistance and doesn’t stretch out very far. I believe it’s a function of the newness and stiffness of the hose (or quite possibly, user error). It’s a very small quibble, though, and it would not stop me from buying the Dyson.
Also, if you’re petite or frail, keep in mind that this is one big vacuum (it weighs 20 lbs), and requires a bit of muscle to maneuver. This is the kind of vacuum that Tim Allen’s character on Home Improvement would love to own. I can practically hear him barking his approval.
BONUS POINTS:
- The sound did not phase the cats. More power does not translate into more noise.
- It arrived packed in a long narrow packing box that makes a purrfect cat tunnel AND the vacuum box, for a bonus cat tunnel.
We give it Five Stars.
DYSON DC28 ANIMAL UPRIGHT VACUUM CLEANER
Retail Price: $599.99 (Free shipping direct from Dyson)
Web: Dyson.com
Order by phone: 1-866-MY-DYSON
Specifications
Dimensions 42.1 in. x 13.5 in. x 14.3 in. (H x W x D)
Weight 20.61 lbs.
Suction power 245 AW
Bin capacity 0.61 gal
OMC! Me & mom have been reading all the reports that the catster testers wrote & mom wants this vacuum so bad!
Though she did nearly fall out of the chair when she saw the $600.00 price tag! Holy cats that’s a lot of money. But she has the feeling it is most likely worth every bit of it.
She’s never paid more than $100.00 for a vacuum so the sticker shock is huge. Maybe she can hint to the family to pool her Christmas pressies together. MOL
Mum used to have a Dyson and loved it but had to give it away (to her daughter) when she had breast cancer as it was too heavy to lift, especially up the stairs. She now has a Vax machine with a pet turbo tool and finds it very efficient and seems to collect as much cat hair and litter etc.in the canister as the Dyson did.
The Vax was about a quarter of the price of a Dyson – with the credit crunch there are always sale offers somewhere – and would strongly recommend it to anyone who can’t manage the weight of a Dyson.
So Dyson is offering a wonderful discount to Catsters for all this FREE advertising right?
Skeezy, the noise did not bother your ginormous ears??? Latte & Chase don’t mind the Dyson (Chase HATED the old vaccuum) but I am so scared of the high pitched noises. Now, we just have the regular old “Animal” so maybe that is it. The TM does most of our vaccuuming and the LL tangled w/ the Dyson the first few times she used it but she “gets it” now and you just have to get a good lead on the hose thingy.
With 3 cats and a rather small house, they Dyson really is worth the cost!!
Wow! That looks amazing. I hope that our kirby would stand up better than that!
OMC! TWO cat tunnel boxes! I wish mai primate had not just bought a vacuum, cuz it onlee came in one box.
I want one just so I can have the boxes. MEOW!
We have one of those. The Woman doesn’t like the hose thingy much either, but the vacuum works so well she puts up with it. After having to get a new vacuum just about every year, she says the price of the Dyson is worth it because it seems like it’s gonna last.
We have an Animal and we LOVE it. Mom tells everyone about it. She thinks that Dyson should adopt the tagline “We Really Suck!”
Meowm got one of these Animal things last year around this time and she LOVES it!!! We live in a small apartment, and with two cats and a long haired human, the canister gets plenty full. Plus who knows what is buried deep in the recesses of this carpet that has been here FOREVER! We hope everyone can get such a good vacuum!
Having spent several years in the housecleaning business, I’m rather particular about my vacuum cleaners.
Besides suction, does it:
1. reach under furniture,
2. transition between carpeting and hard floors easily,
3. have a hose that can reach at least half my stairs without pulling the machine over,
4. have a easy, mess free way to dispose of the dirt… (ie., does it have a bag). I HATE bagless vacuums.
Until Dyson comes up with a better disposal system, I guess I’ll just stick to my old Simplicity for a while longer.
Mum got a used/second hand Dyson DC07 from ebay for $150 including shipping and its great. We had the same experience the 1st time we used it and it picked up tons of cat fur the old cheapo vacuum missed and its a lot quieter and less scary.
Dyg, the Dyson does have good disposal system. The whole canister thingy lifts off when you press a lever and then you just hold it over the trash can and pull a release thing that flips open the bottom of the canister. Its easy and causes no mess. Try getting a used one cheap on ebay and you can give it a try and if you don’t like it you can resell it for what you paid.
Mom has had a dyson for about 4 or 5 years now. She got the animal one shortly after it came out, and she loves it. She says it is very easy to empty, and the suction on it is amazing. She got it at Target and saved about $50 off the price then, and has seen them at the warehouse stores for less also. She figured the price was an investment because the Dyson would last for years.
Tavi, Cody, Camie, Miss Jade and Gracie
My catfamily is a multiple catfamily and my mommy’s always taming feral babies, caring for special-needs, and doing hospice and post-op kitty care…needless to say they generate a lot of furs on the floors. But we could never afford anything like the Dyson.
Mom uses an old shop-vac and we make do best we can.
If we ever win the lottery we’ll get that super-vac Dyson and that’s a promise =)
How does it function on hardwood floors, tile, and linoleum?
We have the purple an’ turquoise Animal Dyson. It was pawesome when we had carpeting. Now it’s only used for suckin’ up furs an’ litter on the laminate floors. It does a furry good job on that task, too!
DMM
my family has this vacuum
its so wonderful for cleaning up after my three dogs, who shed like its going out of style, and it cleans up the litter my rats kick out of their cages. It also really helps to get pet odors out, since it gets so much more than regular vacuums.
I love this dyson DC 28. We just bought it Saturday at Bed Bath and Beyond. I was going to scrap my wall to wall in our 3 yr old condo. I am keeping it now. We cashed in our Citi card points and got $200 in free gift cards and I used a 20% off discount coupon I had from the mail. Thus it was $319. It is worth shopping around for. It is a remarkable cleaning tool. I can”t figure out how the attachments work. Nothing about the tools or extender wand in the very pictoral hand guide.
The Dyson isn’t expensive folks – the Rainbow does all this and more, at twice the price.
BUT- they last *forever*.
My first Rainbow was one Granma bought in 1960, mom got it handed down in ‘72, and I received (I begged shamelessly) in 91 – and it ran ’til 06 when it finally died and I replaced it with – another Rainbow.
If the Dyson does as good a job as the Rainbow, it’s NOT expensive.
I had a Dyson once. The motor burned out. I got new one of another brand for less than the cost of repairing the Dyson. Our recycling centre has as many dead Dysons as it has of all other brands put together. I’m not impressed with them. The idea is good, but they blow!
This sounds like a vacuum worth checking out.
And now, a plea to cat owners everywhere. Please, for the love of Mike, STOP using words like ‘purrfect’ and ‘pawesome.’ It makes upstanding citizens – many of us avid pet owners – spontaneously vomit blood.
thank you
the only thing is the suction is almost too good, when i go to vaccum my carpet if its too humid out it cant handle the thickness of the carpeting and makes a loud annoying sound. and if your carpets are older and not fully attached to the floor below then it sucked the carpet up and clogs it, once agian making the annoying sound.
I have a rainbow and i bought this vac…i will never use the rainbow again…….i couldnt believe how great this vac is