I read a whole bunch of reviews prior to purchasing a DC23 last year because of the price difference, and was taken by the raves about how much the new vac picked up on purchase. The most negative stuff I found related to the quality of plastic used, the awkward wrapping of the hose for storage, maybe a few comments about the head not standing on its own, things I didn't think would be that big a deal. I paid the premium price based on the marketing of the unit (an engineer doing things properly), thinking that if it didn't live up to the hype it would've been noted online. I expected to be delighted by this vacuum. I wasn't.
After just about 6 months use:
Plus
- the canister does collect amazing volumes of stuff from floors, and it is cool to observe it doing so, but I note that it is now cleaning up after itself, so to speak, and so it isn't another brands shortcoming... Still, noteworthy performance.
- I find the power head and floor attachments to be pretty good.
- the power cord is really good at rewinding. No seriously, they got this much better than my last vacuum. Not too strong that it could be dangerous, but strong enough to be efficient. I like it a lot and I hope it works like this for the life of the product.
Overall does vacuuming like a vacuum.
Minus
- I empty the canister every single use, as it looks quite full which is not something I ever worried about previously. I can live with that, but I've never seen anyone comment on how awkward emptying the canister into a garbage can is. The entire base kinda flops down and usually releases a cloud of dust no matter how carefully you open it. I live in an apt with a light colored carpet so when I empty it I invariably reinstall the canister and re-vacuum the area I just did to clean up the dust.
- The clear plastic is kinda "cheap", as some have identified, being more lightweight than my last vacuum, but more troubling to me is that the hose is very lightweight too. I feel I have to be careful not to step on it lest I crush it permanently. This vacuum cost almost twice as much as lesser models with better hardware (@$600 in Canada, compared to @$300 for competitor sale models), so I'm not impressed with this level of quality.
- The power head doesn't stand on its own, as mentioned, and it turns out that this IS annoying to me. Canister vacuums have done this for more than 20 years that I've been aware of, and the dyson engineers dropped or forgot this because they didn't do analysis of how people would use the product...? Or dropping the handle to the ground was a perverse operational cost/benefit decision of some type? Also the lack of a power switch on the handle turns out to be ergonomically annoying too...
- The hose, as someone else mentioned here, comes off the unit clockwise instead of being centrally located. I imagine this improves the airflow, probably a good thing for suction. But, together with the narrow wheelbase, it is occasionally awkward to manoeuvre (counterclockwise in tight quarters) and sometimes makes the unit tippy compared to my last unit. I actually unhooked the hose from a support so it would manoeuvre better.
- I almost never do the wrapping of the hose on the base for storage as shown in the marketing pics because the hose is so rigid and time consuming to do "proply". And then if you try and move the unit with the hose wrapped and head on it is quite awkward. PITA ergonomically. I just put it away with the wand compressed (good feature) and power head on and the hose laying everywhere.
- This lead to my next beef, which is I bought some accessories including a "soft brush" to do blinds. Made of the same dyson plastic, functional but not impressive, and I observed at the time that storing these accessories was gonna be a nuisance, as they don't fit on the unit. They naturally ended up on the floor of my closet and a few times the lightweight hose was left on top of them. The bristles warped from the weight of the hose in a short time and can't be straightened. Again, reference the cost of these things, and I am disappointed that the nylon in the brush is cheap and insubstantial. I've never had accessories do this. I believe they have used the wrong brush material for accessories of this type.
Bottom line: an ok product for its core function, charging too much for the value provided in my view, and not nearly as substantive qualitatively as I would've thought a consumer good at this price point would be. I rate it a 3, by which I mean I might not buy another one of this vintage, quality and price; I wouldn't put it out of the running, but I'd look closely at alternatives. Dyson needs to address the ergonomics and quality values of this product to perform up to its marketing hype.