Dyson DC28 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner Owner Review
DC07 Vs DC28
A few years ago I owned an arcade that destroyed vacuums. I tried everything from my parent's Rainbow canister vac from the 70s through virtually every relatively inexpensive vacuum on the market. My arcade destroyed them all. Except the Rainbow; it just died of old age.
Finally, while walking down the aisle at Sam's Club, I looked at the Dyson DC07 and said to my wife, "Well, it's expensive, but I'll give it a try." It worked. It kept working for years. We couldn't kill it. I started using it for stupid things--vacuuming tokens out of games, sucking screws off the floor of the tool room, and similar insane things. It kept working.
Eventually the Cyclone Assembly got cracked. I put some duct tape on it. Real duct tape--the metal stuff--not the crud you make wallets out of, ok? It kept working. Finally the bottom of the bin assembly cracked and the bottom would fall off when you released it to empty. I dealt with it.
The arcade closed, I brought it home and kept using it. Finally, something like 7 years later, the top of the bin assembly finally broke. When you released it to empty, the entire bin fell apart. That finally was the breaking point--it was time for a new vacuum.
Right then, Home Depot emailed me an offer for the DC28 Animal Upright for 25% off. I couldn't resist. I bought it, it showed up, and it was awesome. It had more suction than I remember the DC07 having when new.
However, I didn't like the way the wand released on the DC28. Unlike the DC07, which released the entire handle and wand and left nothing hanging loose, the DC28 left a thin curved piece of plastic behind.
It seemed to be working, so I kept going. However, by the third use I noticed that the curve of plastic was bent. By the time I finished vacuuming one room and a hall, it had broken off. I returned the unit to Home Depot. The return was easy. I'd been a little worried, since I bought it online and returned it to the store.
We looked at the other Dyson models in the store. Most of them had wand releases that were much more like the one on my old DC07. We haven't replaced it yet. I'm torn between just buying all the parts and fixing the old DC07 and trying a different new Dyson.
Overall, I love Dyson. It just happened that this one model had a fatal flaw: the way the handle and wand detached. Pick a different model and you should be fine. And yes, despite the problem, I'm still a Dyson supporter. I've done things to my old DC07 that would have destroyed anything but a shop vac. I probably could have destroyed most shop vacs doing what I did with my Dyson.
