Customer Reviews

Dyson DC25 Blueprint Upright Vacuum - Limited Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With all the hype that has surrounded Dyson vacuum cleaners since their introduction several years ago, there is one predominant reason why I've never purchased one before now: Not everyone is thrilled with the idea of buying a purple or caterpillar yellow vacuum cleaner, no matter how good it may be. So you can imagine my surprise when I happened upon the Dyson DC25 Blueprint Limited Edition model. The color of the machine is predominantly white and lacks the flashy color scheme of Dyson models past. However, it is still a vision to behold and the departure from the in-your-face color schemes makes more of a design statement than offering the same vacuum in Candy Apple Red. Why this is a limited edition color perplexes me, and why I was willing to pay more for the Dyson DC25 Blueprint model versus the regular Dyson DC25 model is only justified by the fact that I don't want my vacuum to look as though it belongs out in the garage with all my DeWalt tools.

Out of the box, it is worth noting that the instructions and owner's manual are wrapped around the main body of the vacuum causing them to be wrinkled and deformed instead of nice and flat as one would expect. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but the vacuum is not inexpensive and one does expect that the documentation should be better preserved. Assembly was easy. However, there remains some curiosity surrounding one of the provided attachments. As per the verbiage on the box, the Dyson DC25 Blueprint comes equipped with the MINI FLAT OUT HEAD attachment that serves to clean under low furniture and appliances. However, there is no mention of this attachment anywhere in the documentation and, more disappointingly, there isn't any place to attach this tool directly to the vacuum for storage. On Page 8 of the Operating Manual in the "Assembly" section, the third notation states, "Attach tools to the side of the vacuum." It appears to me that of the two attachments that come with the machine, there is place to store the small tool only. This means that whenever you're vacuuming and you decide you need to use the MINI FLAT OUT HEAD, then you either have to have it on your person or you have to return to the pantry and dig up the attachment yourself. Not good design.

But how does the Dyson DC25 Blueprint Upright Vacuum work? I have three floor types in my house: Tile, low pile carpet and deep pile carpet. The vacuum, which features the Dyson Ball, maneuvers very easily on the tile and low pile carpet and the suction is very good. You can practically take a 90 degree turn with this thing! The brush head is not as wide as my older vacuum, so for those of you that are used to a wider vacuum, expect to move your arm back and forth a lot more.

When you move to a deep pile carpet, note that there isn't any way to adjust the height of the brush head between different carpet heights. In one regard, it makes switching to different floor types easier. However, the vacuum is not as maneuverable in the deep pile carpet as it is on the tile and low pile carpet. I noticed also that the brush seems to struggle on the deep pile carpet under certain situations, i.e. when first starting or when making sharp turns. Another observation is that when I completed vacuuming in the deep pile carpet rooms and I placed the vacuum in the upright position to wheel it out of the room, it does not wheel out very easily and practically drags.

I've not had the vacuum long enough to discuss filter cleaning. However, for those interested it does have two filters and Dyson recommends cleaning them with water monthly.

THERE IS ONE THING I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE ABOUT THIS VACUUM, and that is the length of the power cord. It is only long enough to vacuum one room. With my older vacuum, I was able to plug into the outlet in the hallway and vacuum three bedrooms and the den without ever unplugging. With this vacuum, I have to unplug it each time I enter a room. For those with larger than average Master Bedrooms or Family Rooms, it will be necessary to switch receptacles to complete your vacuuming.

In conclusion, the vacuum does have great suction power as I had imagined it would. However, with the hat trick of inconveniences (insufficient tool storage, brush width and power cord length), the job will take longer even though the vacuum is more maneuverable. Had those items been addressed properly in the design stage, I would not hesitate to give this vacuum a 5-star rating. As is, I do not think anything above an average rating is merited. There is room for improvement.

Purchased this to replace my Eureka Pet Lovers vacuum since it wasn't picking up the fur good enough. Was a little skeptical about spending so much money on a vacuum, but I'm glad I did. This vacuum is AMAZING! Not only does it have great suction and can be used on both carpet and wood floors, it's also easy to manuever thanks to the ball technology. The brushroll is capable of being removed so you can easily rid any hair or string that may get wrapped around it during vacuuming. The best part is the ease of emptying the dirt from the canister. Just a push of the button releases the bottom so all debris fall straight into the trash. No need to replace any filters with this vacuum. A simple removal and rinsing in cold water every 3 months is all it takes to keep this vacuum in great condition.

The only negative thing about this vacuum that I found was the expandable wand. It's not the easiest thing to detach from the vacuum. It also causes the vacuum to fall over if you're using it and moving around a bit (the hose doesn't expand enough). Other than that is't a dream come true. It picked up cat hair that my other vacuum didn't have the suction/power to do. Definitely recommended for anybody who owns a pet or just wants a vacuum that will get the dirt out of your carpet that you didn't even know was there. Thank you Dyson, this product is amazing!!!

This is the first vacuum my wife and I have bought in nearly 20 years. We have been looking for a while, as our old, yes, nearly 20 year old Electrolux, was finally dying.

This unit arrived the other day, and I must say, overall, we are both fairly impressed. The design is magnificent, and the overall performance of the unit is very good. The suction is great, but really no better than I remember the Electrolux being when it was new, so we will see how it fares over time. The ball system works, much to my surprise, even better than I thought it would. Initially, I figured it was just a gimmick, but it really does make maneuvering, especially in smaller rooms, effortless.

Rather than ramble on about how good the things is, I just wanted to make a not of what I don't like:

- The cord should be longer. We live in a 2500 square foot 2 story colonial. With our old vac, we could do an entire floor without switching outlets. Here, a switch mid floor, or more often is necessary.

- The included attachments. The brush is a joke, except for maybe getting into tight areas. The stair\furniture tool is too small, and the included flat floor tool will probably never be used. Will probably end up buying a bigger brush, and the beater head attachment for stairs and such.

- Feels a bit "plasticy" for the price. Our old machine was made of plastic, but it was "solid" plastic. Kind of like the difference between the plastics used in a Kia vs a Mercedes.

Those few points are really my only complaints. Otherwise, It think it is a great machine. The bagless system is nice, and even in our larger home, we did not have to empty it mid-way as others have noted.

Lastly, the price. I would have given 3 starts if we paid $529, just because that is obscene to me. We wound up buying it at Bed Bath and Beyond. They did not have it in the store, but, their web site had it for $399. We ORDERED it at a local store, and were able to use one of their 20% off coupons, bringing the total before tax and shipping to $320! At that price, this is the best thing since the invention of the vacuum itself!

I've owned a Dyson DC-25 for over a year and a half now. I was curious to see how the Blueprint differs from the standard yellow DC-25 and/or the DC-25 Animal (in purple). The answer appears to be: just the color. This "limited edition" blueprint model is just like a limited edition car: it's the standard vacuum, with a different paint job and the addition of an extra tool, equivalent to the upgraded interior of a limited edition car. That may or may not be worth a few dollars more than the standard yellow model. I'm not sure either of them is worth up to twenty percent more than the Animal model.

In all cases, you'll be getting a really good, albeit slightly overpriced vacuum cleaner. The highlights are great suction, easy clean-up, easy to handle.

I get great results, as long as I keep emptying the trap after each use. I'm always amazed by how much stuff this vacuum picks up. However, if you don't empty the trap regularly, you will find performance goes down pretty dramatically. I cover my 1250 sq ft apartment in one emptying. I wouldn't go much more than that without emptying, though, which probably means a lot of you will have to empty a couple of times.

Fortunately, emptying couldn't be easier. Press a button to release from the vacuum. Press another button to empty over the bin. Shake it and you're done. I've also cleaned the roller, which is *much* easier than a standard vacuum, since you can completely detach it and just unspin or snip the hair off. I've cleaned both the filters. That's a bit of a pain in the neck. I've only done it twice, whereas they recommend every 3 months. The top filter is easy to get at but the one inside the motor is a bit of challenge. Plus it takes a full day to dry out the filters again, so you don't have a vacuum for 24 hours. You can buy spare filters, but they're pricey. I'm not sure what good cleaning the filters does since they don't look that dirty, but I don't want to invalidate the 5 year warranty.

Lastly, this thing handles pretty well. It's lighter than most early model Dysons. Don't bother with the heavy and ineffective hand-vac. They're still working out the design kinks on that one. Likewise, I think the extra capacity of this one is worth the weight and price over the DC-24. It steers very well, although doesn't quite swivel on a dime like you might expect.

So what's bad? Well, the cord length is short and non-retractable, build quality feels just a little flimsy in places (eg, the "lid" of the handle sometimes opens in the middle of vacuuming, routing the suction out of the top of the vacuum instead of out of the bottom!), and it's still pretty heavy.

It gets four stars for great cleaning without any bags or filters to replace. It loses a star for not being perfect - for that kind of money it should be!

I have had this for a week now and have been very happy so far. Compared to some of the old vacs I have owned (5+), this is the best one so far!! It meets our main requirements of being lightweight, powerful/efficient at what its supposed to do and versatile. This is an extremely well designed product and a good looking one as well! Its definitely the BMW of vacs!!! With its swiveling head. long cord, one-pass-picks-up-everything power and light weight, I was able to finish the job in less than half the time. Moreover it does such a thorough job that I probably won't need to use it quite as often. The attachments are quite useful as well. Great product, big fan now!!!

Recently we decided it was time to replace our 10-plus year old Kenmore Progressive canister vac. We have a dirty dog, a cat, a child, no mudroom. Our floors always felt dirty even after we vacuumed. I hated the Kenmore--it was heavy, always tipped over, and generally a pain, it was hard to find bags and parts given its age without a search. My child's allergies, though not severe, seemed to be worse. We had repaired the motor once.

Vacuums have evolved quite a bit since we were last in the market for a new one. So many "pet hair" vacuums to chose from. I also was attracted to the idea of an upright with an easy to use hose and attachments. After some "research" I settled on the Dyson DC25 because of its allergen removing properties, the ball, the suction (far better than my Kenmore) and the 5 year warranty/never needs new parts claim.

The DC25 vacuums--All Floors, Animal, and Blueprint are identical except for the attachments. I bought the Blueprint ($529) because it was on sale at Best Buy for $400. (The All Floors retails $500; the Animal $549). I figured the money I saved I could use towards attachments.

I vacuumed right away. I liked the suction and I especially liked the attachments. My house felt cleaner. The next day I used the vacuum to further clean mattresses and dusting. I noticed that the hose kept slipping from the attachment point on the wand. The hose is held in place with two plastic nubs. I pushed it back in, same problem. On closer examination I noticed that part of one of the nubs seemed to have broken off. Not a good sign. I called Dyson; the rep told me to take it back to Best Buy (BB has a 30 day return policy). The rep was certain this was a fluke, that the hoses go through all sorts of testing. I exchanged it for another one (the last one on the shelf). Two days later the same problem! My husband wanted me to return it. I really liked the vacuum and wasn't ready to return it because I knew there were no more left at that price. I called Dyson. THe rep said they'd send me a new hose; said I should get it by the end of the week. In the meantime I was using duct tape to hold it together. Well I didn't the hose receive by the end of the week. I called the following Monday. This rep put me on hold, then told me "there's a problem at the warehouse in NY". Said he'd re-order it and I should get it by week's end. Never showed. The following Monday I called Dyson for the third time. The rep told me the hose was out of stock and there was nothing he could do but send it out when it became available. After demanding to speak with a supervisor, he got back on the line and said a manager OK'd sending out the identical hose from the ALL Floors model (different color)to use until the Blueprint one came. At this point, I didn't have much confidence in Dyson. I had only 5 days left to return the vacuum to Best Buy. I requested that the hose be expedited; no can do he said. I explained I didn't want to be stuck with a lousy vacuum and not be able to return it to BB. I asked for a new vacuum to be shipped. Nope. I asked to speak with a supervisor. Was told they were not available right now. I said to him you just spoke to one!He was very customer-service empathetic--I'm sorry this has happened--but there was no action he could take to recitfy things. He said they'd gotten 20,000 calls since the holidays (this was in early Feb.) and the supervisors were stretched (now that tells me something!) He put me through to the supervisor's voice mail and I left my contact info. The next day I still had not received a call back from the supervisor. My husband and I decided to wash our hands with Dyson because of the lousy customer service and concern that any time we had a warranty issue we'd have to go through all this hassle.

We returned it to Best Buy the next day. The BB clerk was the same one who handled the first return. She remembered me and there was no problem returning it. I had even purchased a $70 attachment kit and she said she'd give me the money back on that since I could no longer use it. Thank you Best Buy!

PART 2:

Research for a new vacuum began. My mom told me she had a Riccar. I'd never heard about it but it got very good marks. It was also expensive--$800-$1000 range; a few mid level ones between $600 and $700. care available only through brick and mortar dealers. Long story short the local dealer in my area also sold Miele and Sebo vaccuums, also pricey. The dealer suggested a Miele over the Riccar because of it's reputation. Built to last 20 years, 7 year warranty, high quality, the #1 vacuum in Germany where they are manufactured. We purchased a Miele S2 series Titan canister. So lightweight.High quality parts, easy to pull around and much higher suction that the Dyson. 130 CFM versus 110 CFM. And it is so QUIET. My 8 year old child and my dog normally run from the room when I vacuum. My daughter happily vacuumed her room without sound cancelling headphones. And it is light enough for her to maneuver. Also, we have a local vacuum guy that services these vacuums for 30 years.

The dealer also had a few Dyson's on the floor. When I first walked in I told him about my problems with the Dyson. He told me they are a piece of junk. He said he used to provide warrannty service for Dyson's but had to give it up after 2 weeks because so many people were bring their Dyson's in for repair it was taking away from their regular clientele. He said his shop will still repair them but he doesn't work with Dyson anymore as a warranty servicer. When my husband went back to purchase the Miele, there were 2 people there bringing in their Dyson's for repair and very annoyed. Said they are junk and bring it in to this shop because the alternative was to send it to Dyson in NY for the work and Dyson required them to pay freight.

MY ADVICE: if you buy a Dyson be prepared for breakdowns and poor or bureaucratic customer service. Don't buy one online. Get it locally where you can try it for a while with a no-hassle return policy.

We got our Miele Titan for $600 and couldn't be happier. It's small, lightweight, but a powerhouse. Well built and our allergies are much reduced. If you're going to pay 500 for a Dyson it's worth the extra money for a Miele despite the extra cost for bags and filters.

I received this vacuum as a gift. I have been wanting a dyson for a long time and was really excited. I am not sure what is so great about this model, it does pick up and has good suction, but the hose wand is a little awkward to use. And the stair tool is tiny. The extra flat head doesn't seem to have a place. And the cord is very short. I seem to remember the dyson commercial stating that the reason dyson's don't lose suction is because they have no filters. This vacuum has two. They need to be rinsed out each month and left to dry for 24 hours. Hope I don't have an emergency mess in the meantime. I have only had it for a week, so maybe I will be happier with it eventually. Also, each time I have emptied the dust bin I had to pull the wad of dirt out by hand, it wouldn't come out on it's own. It has a very small bin, so it has to be emptied practically each time I use it. I don't think I would recommend this to anyone.

This is an amazing machine. It will revolutionize cleaning in my house, to be sure. Easy to assemble, even easier to maneuver, and 100% effective at both thorough cleaning and moving from one floor surface to another. It is not heavy, despite what you may read elsewhere, and does a better job of cleaning all of my floors than any other vacuum I've owned over the past 30 years. I'm now cursing myself for not buying a Dyson 14 months ago when I bought the last vacuum--which died and went to the curb last week, just out of warranty, of course. Shop around for a good deal (I shopped originally for the DC 25 all floor, but managed to get this new model for the old model's price from a hometown dealer). This vacuum is worth the expense. You will agree after one go-around in your home.

I've owned this vacuum for about a year now.

Pros: It lives up to it's name. We have dogs and have to constantly vacuum the home to not cause any allergic reactions due to the hair of our pets. Well with this baby, we don't have that problem. If only I could stop my pets from shedding...anyway, after vacuuming, my carpet looks really clean. For someone with allergies like me, just being in a dusty room will make me sneeze. But I don't have that problem with this. The suction is good enough for it's intended use...the home. It always amazes us how much dirt this baby picks up. I know having dogs doesn't help too much but we don't care too much because of our dyson. So far, only one of the parts have broken and dyson replaced it free of charge of course:

Con: Yes the chord is not too long. You can vacuum around 500-700 sq feet with the chord but you do have to disconnect it a lot to move to other areas. Also, the brush could have been designed a bit bigger to catch more.

That being said, I am very happy with the purchase. Since it comes with a 5 year warranty, I won't worry about parts or labor for that time...

I bought this in November. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 only because the length of the power cord requires moving the plug for vacuuming a few rooms. The catcher bin is small, but for me that is a positive since my family is more likely to empty it each time.

The suction is great, it runs so quietly that I can even run it during nap time with out waking 2 very easily disturbed toddlers. It goes around very smoothly and transition from vacuum to tools is smooth and easy. We love it and the best part is that it is so light weight that my 8 and 12 year olds can carry it upstairs on their own to vacuum their rooms.

I also like that it is more neutral in color.