Dyson DC40 Origin Upright Vacuum Cleaner, Red

Having owned several Dyson vacuum cleaners over the past 10 years, I have a particular fondness for them.Recently I needed a new Dyson to use at a new business location and found the DC40 on sale so decided to try one of the ball units.I love the small compact size and easy of moving this unit around, I know some people have complained about the weight or stress it puts on their wrists/arms to use, but had no such issues.Compared to DC14 & DC33's that I typically owned, I found the DC40 has less suction that the non-ball units.Also it has a smaller compartment so it needs to be emptied more frequently if you have a large area to vacuum or lots of material to pickup (such as animal hair).Because of the design changes, I found that I did not like the placement of the power cord which if I did not hold, would get in the way of my feet.Also the controls for releasing the hose and extension are tricky to use without disconnecting the hose or handle by accident.Would I still recommend this unit over cheaper options such as a Shark? Absolutely!!Having recently tried a Shark (Rotator I believe), I found a number of design issues compared to a Dyson (my guess is to keep costs down & to avoid violating copyrights or patents) that make them far less desirable to me.I found that the besides better suction, all of the Dyson units I have used worked much better in every way, had better ergonomics and offered superior filtration that prevented smells such as "dog" or "animal" odors from being discharged back into the room like the Shark did.So IMHO, you certainly get what you pay for with a Dyson. Yes, they are expensive, but I have found no benefit in spending the extra $150+ for the purple Animal units so save some money and get the basic yellow models.One last item, I have seen other reviews where users complained or had concerns about the Dyson pulling out carpet fibers and destroying their floors. What I noticed with most of these users is that they lived in apartments. I personally have never had this issue, but then again I do not buy the cheapest carpet possible like landlords do with rental properties.

I previously had a Hoover Wind Tunnel that I got off craig's list for $50. It worked great but it was bulky and when the belt broke on the brush roll, one of the screws was rusted to the bottom, I decided it was time for a new vacuum. I did a lot of research and read so much about the Dyson. I live in a studio apartment and thought this was convenient due to its size. There are a few things I don't like about this.First, the wand is too short. I get spiderwebs in certain places and the Hoover had a long attachment which made it easy to get into places behind the dryer and in ceiling corners to suck up the webs. This one is a royal pain. Too stiff and too short, often the vacuum plops over to a side.I spilled a glass of wine and went to my go-to remedy which I had done many times before with the Hoover: pour baking soda on the stain, let it dry and vacuum up the wine infused baking soda. I did this with the Dyson and there was baking soda wine mixture is in every crack and crevice of this thing. I could see it in the brush roll.. It took me two hours to get all the baking soda caked inside the brush roll holder and outside of the canister. I had to take it apart and use a toothbrush, pipe cleaner, paper towels to get into hard places. Isn't a vacuum supposed to suck it all into the INSIDE of the canister? If this thing was efficient, all the powder would not have visible through the plastic brushroll after I vacuumed the baking soda up, it would have ALL come out when I emptied the canister. It seems like half the baking powder went into the canister, the rest was sprayed up into various places within the vacuum. While I was cleaning outside the canister, I noticed a nice little crack in the plastic. I've had this thing five months and I've taken good care of it. My place is only about 400 square feet. I can only guess this happened one of the times the vacuum fell over when I was trying to reach the wand up into the ceiling corners.. That's pretty cheap.Yes, it's conveniently sized and designed but it's definitely lacking and not worth the high price tag. If I knew five months ago what I know now, I'd have gone with another manufacturer. Part of me wanted to give this thing a 2 not a 3 but I think 2.5 is probably more accurate and this is a generous rating.

Fantastic Vacuum!Couldn't be happier with it. Goes everywhere you need to it go, the detachable hose gets to all the hard to reach places and the suction is fantastic.