Mostly perfect!

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Dyson DC44
★★★★★
5.0
From 1 review
100.0% of users recommend this
  • Ease of Use

  • Durability

  • Style

  • Service & Support

  • Value For Money

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Trisha H's review of Dyson DC44

“Mostly perfect!”

★★★★★

written by Trisha H on 20/08/2013

We have two woolly dogs and also get a lot of dust in the house, so this Dyson DC44 fills a gap between a full size Dyson and a Vax cordless upright very well. Being able to dust all surfaces, skirting etc, and vacuum the hall and my workroom every day is a great help.
I ordered the toolkit to maximise its use, but was a bit disappointed at the size of the dusting brush: the larger one for the other models dusts larger surfaces easier. With our larger Dyson DC32, I find the flat dusting brush invaluable, and happily, that larger dusting head actually fits the DC44 Digital! I even dust the top of my printer and other delicate surfaces with the dusting brush, and it leaves no scratches.
One thing I really likes in the tool kit is the short flexible hose as it creates an articulated dusting brush as otherwise it can be awkward getting the brush flat on some surfaces/areas, and would result in more wear on the front bristles. This makes the dusting brush easier to use: machine in my left hand, guide the dusting brush/hose with my right.

This is certainly not intended to replace a full size powerful vacuum cleaner, nor is it designed to clean a whole house on one charge (unless it's a smaller property), but whatever flooring or surface it is used on, it does a really good job and suction is excellent.
For fast & frequent cleaning of the whole ground floor of a fairly large house with carpets and laminate areas, we use a Vax Life, but being an upright with no tools, it is limited to floors .. and it's a job it does extremely well!

The brush on the DC44 floor tool does need a coin to get it out for cleaning, but it's better than the screws that need removing to clean the head of the Vax Life.
I found a £1 coin fit into the slot best, and needs a firm turn to remove it. The actual brush needed a firm pull to get it out, and it definitely needed cleaning after three uses on carpets and picking up long hair. Putting it back requires the top to be returned to the lock position, and that needed a very firm turn before it locked into place. Most fluff and hair etc can actually be removed without taking the brush head out.
Access to the filter is very easy.
Emptying it is also easy and doesn't require a trip outside to the bin - being a smaller dust container, it's easy to empty into a kitchen bin. Do hold it over the bin though before pressing the catch to open it because it does spring right open.
There's a perforated cylinder inside the dust collector, and I have found that on occasion, very fine dust can clog some of these perforations. It can easily be cleaned though: once the dust container is opened, there is access to a red clip, and it pushed, it releases the outer bin from the machine, thus allowing easy cleaning of the inside - I used a dry washing up brush to clean fine dust from the perforations.

I almost didn't buy this DC44 because of the trigger for power rather than a proper switch, but in use have found it not a problem, even with arthritis in my thumb/wrist joints. I can see the logic with this type of trigger for power: as soon as you remove pressure, it obviously stops using power, so until you move elsewhere and grip the trigger again, no more power is used, thus giving maximum usage from each charge. It's surprisingly good on its standard power, and I haven't needed to use the maximum boost power at all.

Storing it on the wall was easy for us as we have a plug socket behind an internal door which is open all day, and it can't be seen, yet is conveniently placed and so very easy to take off the wall mounted base and use.
That base even has two slots on it for tools.
It takes 5.5 hours to re-charge compared with 1.5-2 hours for the Vax Life Lithium Ion battery, but just clipping it back onto its base starts the charging, so no need to remove the battery to place in a charger, and once charged the green light on the plug goes out and charging stops.

I found the stairs easy when used with the mini head as a handheld, and it picked up a lot of dust, fluff & bits.
I also find that it's far easier to get into hard to access areas using this, especially with the combination tool on the extension tube, and have vacuumed dust/debris from areas not normally done on a regular basis. Underneath my desk where all the computer wires & plugs are, it's easy to remove the dust using the combination tool supplied with the machine. Dusting skirting and corners etc is also very easy.

One thing I don't like is that the exhaust air blows from the back which is often blasting straight into hair & face, especially when used as a hand-held fr dusting, and when angling it to reach some areas, found it also blew paperwork off my desk. I suppose it wouldn't have been easy to design that to blow in any other direction though.

The two types of cordless vacuums we now have mean there's not such a frequent need to get the larger Dyson cylinder out, and I wouldn't be without either of those cordless ones!

After a few weeks daily use for various tasks, I'm very pleased with it and know that there are far less dusty corners and previously inaccessible areas! Very glad we got it!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

We have two woolly dogs and also get a lot of dust in the house, so this Dyson DC44 fills a gap between a full size Dyson and a Vax cordless upright very well. Being able to dust all surfaces, skirting etc, and vacuum the kitchen, hall and my workroom plus more every day is a great help.
I ordered the toolkit to maximise its use, but was a bit disappointed at the size of the dusting brush: the larger one for the full size corded models dusts larger surfaces easier. With my larger Dyson DC32, I find the flat dusting brush invaluable, and that larger dusting head actually fits the DC44 Digital! I even dust the top of my printer etc with the dusting brush, and it leaves no scratches.
One thing I would like is an articulated dusting brush as it can be awkward getting the brush flat on some surfaces/areas, and also results in more wear on the front bristles.

This is certainly not intended to replace a full size powerful vacuum cleaner - nor is it designed to clean a whole house on one charge (unless it's a smaller property), but whatever flooring or surface it is used on, it does a really good job and suction is very good.
For fast & frequent cleaning of the whole ground floor of a fairly large house with carpets and laminate areas, we use a Vax Life, but being an upright with no tools, it is limited to floors .. and it's a job it does extremely well!

The brush on the DC44 floor tool does need a coin to get it out for cleaning, but it's better than the screws that need removing to clean the head of the Vax Life.
I found a £1 coin fit into the slot best, and needs a firm turn to remove it. The actual brush needed a firm pull to get it out, and it definitely needed cleaning after three uses on carpets and picking up long hair. Putting it back requires the top to be returned to the lock position, and that needed a very firm turn before it locked into place.
Access to the filter is very easy.
Emptying it is also easy and doesn't even require a trip outside to the bin - being a smaller dust container, it's easy to empty into a kitchen bin. Do hold it over the bin though before pressing the catch to open it because it does spring right open.

I almost didn't buy this DC44 because of the trigger for power rather than a proper switch, but in use have found it not a problem, even with arthritis in my thumb/wrist joints. I can see the logic with this type of trigger for power: as soon as you stop vacuuming something, it obviously stops using power, so until you move elsewhere and grip the trigger again, no more power is used, thus giving maximum usage from each charge. It's surprisingly good on its standard power, and I haven't needed to use the maximum boost power at all - not even with bits of that woolly dog hair on carpets!

Storing it on the wall was fairly easy for us as we have a plug socket behind an internal door which is open all day, and it can't be seen, yet is conveniently placed and so very easy to take off the wall mounted base and use.
That base even has two slots on it for tools.
It takes 5.5 hours to re-charge compared with 1.5-2 hours for the Vax Life Lithium Ion battery, but just clipping it back onto its base starts the charging, so no need to remove the battery to place in a charger, and once charged the green light on the plug goes out and charging stops.

I found the stair carpet easy as a handheld with the mini head, and it picked up a lot of dust, fluff & bits.
I also find that it's far easier to get into hard to access areas using this, especially with the combination tool, and have vacuumed dust/debris from areas not normally done on a regular basis. Underneath my desk where all the computer wires & plugs are, it's easy to remove the dust using the combination tool supplied with the machine. Dusting skirting and corners etc is very easy.

One thing I don't like is that the exhaust air blows from the back which is often blasting straight into hair & face, especially when used as a hand-held, and when angling it to reach some areas, found it also blew paperwork off my desk. I suppose it wouldn't have been easy to design that to blow in any other direction though.

The two types of cordless vacuums we now have mean there's not such a frequent need to get the larger Dyson cylinder out, and I wouldn't be without either of those cordless ones!

After 3 months daily use for various tasks, I'm very pleased with it and know that there are far less dusty corners and previously inaccessible areas!
We've owned Dysons for some years, and always find the company very helpful with queries or problems.

  • 1 - 6 months

    Owned Product For:

  • light, efficient and easy to use on most surfaces

    Special Features

  • Ease of Use

  • Durability

  • Style

  • Service & Support

  • Value For Money

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