Dog Hair Vacuum

I really think that if you can afford it the Dyson DC25 Animal vacuum is the best vacuum for pet hair. The first thing you notice about the DC25 is its light weight. It has an out of the box weight of about 16 pounds. Bear in mind that most canister and upright vacuums weight 20 pounds or more.

I have to admit that when I further inspected my Dyson DC25 Animal vacuum in the summer of 2009, I was dismayed. My goodness I thought, the Dyson Limited Company has completely lost its marbles. For one thing the DC25′s bin was significantly smaller than the other Dyson vacuums I owned. Dyson vacuums use bins instead of bags which are emptied after filling up with debris like dog hair and dirt. The long term cost savings of using so called ‘bagless’ vacuums can be substantial especially if you often need to vacuum your carpets due to the accumulation of pet hair and pet dander.

After overcoming my initial disappointment I decided to give the Dyson DC25 upright vacuum a whirl. I placed the DC25 on the spot I normally place my other Dyson vacuums like the Dyson DC15 or the DC07 before I plug in the vacuum, and you wouldn’t believe it, the power cord would not reach the power outlet. The Dyson Company actually thought that it would be a great idea to shorten the power cord when designing the DC25! Okay that’s it I thought let me at least do a test run before returning it. As I was stepping on the red foot pedal to begin vacuuming, I quickly retracted my foot for the foot pedal felt as though it would fall apart. I stood back for a few seconds and thought about how much money I had spent on a piece of junk, then in retrospect I thankfully decided to begin vacuuming flimsy feeling foot pedal or not. It actually took me more than a year and a half to publish this Dyson DC25 review because I wanted to see what happened to the foot pedal as time went by.

I started vacuuming a section of the carpet which had pet hair that had been forced into the rug by a dog that was shedding and sleeping with all four legs comically raised in the air. The results were stunning. The Dyson DC25 vacuum quickly removed the deeply embedded pet hair from the carpet. The suction power seemed to be greater than that of the DC07 All Floor and the DC15 Animal Dyson vacuums that were next to me. The ball that is attached to the vacuum head made it a breeze to maneuver the vacuum.

I confirmed that the Dyson Company had indeed managed to increase the suction of the Dyson DC25 upright vacuum by sprinkling some Cheerios cereal on the carpet then vacuuming them up. Dyson vacuums do have the problem of picking up objects the same size as or larger than Cheerios cereal. I believe that this is because you can’t manually adjust the height of the vacuum head. Don’t get me wrong, I think a vacuum that adjusts automatically to a carpet’s pile height is a great feature especially for removing deeply embedded debris like dirt, dog hair and pet dander. The DC25 was able to remove most of the Cheerios cereal on the carpet in one pass unlike the Dyson DC15 which fared relatively poorly and the DC07′s whose Cheerios pickup performance was much worse. Just in case you are wondering, the DC15 Animal and the Dyson DC07 All Floor vacuums are great vacuums for pet hair.

Emptying the DC25′s bin was a breeze. I just had to place the bin in a large plastic garbage bag, closed the bag with one hand then pressed the bin release button from the outside of the bag with my other hand and shook the bin slightly. I use this technique to prevent dust and other fine debris from flying all over the place whilst emptying the bin.

After emptying the bin, I continued my Dyson DC25 review by moving onto the dining room. Vacuuming under the dining room table was a joyous feat. Yes I can say that with a straight face. Many upright vacuums including some Dyson models like the Dyson DC07 raise their vacuum head when you try to fully extend the vacuum under a table. The Dyson DC25 will still efficiently vacuum the carpet even though it is in an almost 180 degrees horizontal position. What sets the Dyson DC25 Animal apart from other vacuums that can fully extend themselves is that with the DC25 you can easily turn the vacuum either left or right while it is in the near 180 degree position. I can’t begin to tell you how much time that feature alone saves me.

The accessories that come standard with the Dyson DC25 are extremely well made and thought out. For example the mini turbine head tool is specifically made for getting rid of stuck on pet hair on your stairs and cloth couch. But my favorite tool is the Zorb groomer which came as part of a free home cleaning kit. I need to keep my carpets constantly smelling fresh as I run a dog day care and boarding business. The Zorb groomer allows me to gently brush in baking soda into my carpets without clouds of baking soda flying and settling on my furniture (Please read my comprehensive article about how I manage to keep my rooms free of pet odor and how I vacuum my carpets.). I have heard people complain that extending the hose so as to vacuum stairs is a pain. I agree with them but if you continue using the Dyson DC25 Animal a number of times, the hose will relax and work as expected. I view Dyson hoses the same way I view some leather shoes; you just have to use them to break into them.

Since the DC25 Animal is a Dyson, you get a 5 year warranty (parts and labor). Also because of the way Dyson vacuums filter fine debris and particles they all receive the stamp of approval from the Asthma And Allergy Foundation Of America. Having used the DC25 Animal for more than a year and a half, I can report that the foot pedal has not given me problems and that the vacuum is still performing well.