Dyson DC05 Motorhead Review

Overall Rating

Powerful suction
No need to buy filters & bags.

telescoping wand occasionally collapses in on itself.

After my old Hoover upright died, I started looking around for a replacement. The Hoover was never very good at removing dog hair from carpet, so this was a prerequisite for the new cleaner.

I looked through some old issues of Choice Magazine (Australia), and they had given the Dysons (DC02 and DC03) low scores for dirt pickup.
I was surprised by this, and it put me off the brand somewhat.

Anyway, I went into a store to try the Dyson for myself. This particular store only had the 2 lower range DC-05s on display (not the motorhead), and after trying them, I wasn't terribly impressed.
So, off I went to another store to look at a Miele Cat & Dog.
Unfortunately for me (or so I thought), a Dyson rep was in the store, and didn't really want to show me the Miele. The Dysons are the best on the market he kept saying. I told him about my experience in the previous store, and he said, I'll tell you what, I've got a DC05 Motorhead in the car - why don't you take it home for a couple of days and try it out?
How could I refuse that offer!
My carpet was quite dirty, because it had been more than a week since the Hoover had died, so I thought I'd give the Dyson a good workout.

This thing was a revelation.

It removed dog hair with ease, and the suction was unlike anything I had ever experienced - on low pile carpet it was almost too strong, and required some effort to move backwards and forwards!
On lino floors, you could actually see the lino lifting off the surface as you ran the cleaner over it.

The clear bin (this thing doesn't need bags) started to fill up - I never believed there was that much dirt in the house. Seeing the dirt go into the bin had quite a strong effect on how I perceived the cleaner's effectiveness - clever thinking Mr Dyson.

Needless to say, the next day I went back and bought the cleaner. I've had it for 6 months now, and am still as impressed by its performance as I was then. By the way, I paid A$845 (US$420 approximately).

Dyson claims that because there is no bag, there is no loss of suction as the bin fills. This is 100% accurate - if anything, the suction increases as the bin fills! Very impressive.

There are a couple of negatives however.

Because of the extremely strong suction on low pile carpet, sometimes the telescoping wand collapses into itself. I've managed to change my vacuuming technique so that this doesn't happen as often, but it still happens occasionally.

The clip which connects the plastic handle to the aluminium wand also seems to be a bit flimsy, however it has held together so far, so I can't say whether it will be a problem in the future.

I haven't experienced any problems with the motorhead as mentioned in the previous review, nor has the head left deposits when moving from hard floors to carpet.

To sum up, this Dyson DC05 is a great cleaner, with very powerful suction. A little expensive maybe, but remember that you don't need to by any filters or bags for it. HEPA filters for the Miele Cat & Dog I mentioned earlier were A$80 (US$40) each when I last checked, and they needed to be replaced every year. Add the cost of bags to that, and the Dyson seems like pretty good value.

Members' Comments onTony.'s Review

• Doug. on 4th Apr 2002

  Have owned the machine for 18 days and the cleaner now has an intermittent electrical connection on the Motorhead. Dyson cannot get an engineer out for a week to repair it. Hope this does not indicate a likely ongoing problem.