14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Dyson DC17 Animal Absolute - not all it's cracked up to be
Date of Review: Mar 8, 2008
The Bottom Line: Worthless for hard floors and if you want to use the extension hose/hand held tools. Save your money..check out the competition.
I drooled over wanting a Dyson Animal for a couple of years, finally got some extra $ and bought the DC17 Animal Absolute (has the extra hand tools, carpet tool, an motorized small brush for cars/stairs).
I have three dogs - a lab, labradoodle and samoyed..so plenty of dog hair! My house is mostly carpet, but I have a large tiled room, the kitchen and bathrooms are also tiled. I needed a vacuum that would work on carpets as well as tiled floors. My car is constantly full of dog hair. The DC17 Animal Absolute seemed like the perfect solution....
The DC17 works great on carpet, but doesn't not get edges well and the profile doesn't allow for vacuuming under coffee tables, etc. - even part of they way. I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the DC17 on tiled floors, it just didn't seem to pick up dirt, grass, etc. Using the expandable hose and was a constant fight (and just to exasperating); The carpet tool and carpet cleaning items were a joke; the motorized brush for the car/stairs also worked poorly...to the point it was easier to use the crevise tool or non-motorized tools...but only after constantly trying to pull that darn hose.
I finally packed it all back and took it back to where I bought it..it just wasn't worth near the $ I paid for it. I was really disappointed.
I ended up buying Sears Kenmore Progressive upright bagless 36932. It has all the features of the Dyson, but they all actually work without a struggle, plus it does great on the carpet. Consumer Reviews shows this as good or better than the Dysons - and for more than 1/2 the price.
If all you have are carpets, then go ahead an buy the Dyson, if you have to use the hand tool, and have carpets, wood/tile..then it isn't worth the $. You'll be buying something else do do the floors!
