Vacuum cleaners & Dyson DC23 vs Dyson DC39 Animal Plus: A detailed look at the differences

This page is a work in progress. Sorry!

To understand vacuum cleaners, you have to understand different theories between cleaning.

There are direct air vacuums (large motors) and bypass vacuums (smaller motors).  Direct air vacuums include the metal Sanitaire, Kirby and the Metal Royal models. Bypass vacuums include most of the plastic vacuum cleaners you come across, Dirt Devil, Bissel, and Dyson.

Among those, there are also bagged, bagless, and also water filtered.

Direct air vacuums are old designs that use large motors, bags you will need to regularly throw out and replace, belts that will need to be replaced, usually a metal head, and violent beater bar. The result though is that they do a very good job of picking up things on carpeting, better than most of the bypass vacuums like the vacuum cleaners with built in hoses like most Dirt Devils, Bissels, and yes, even Dysons. They also tend to lass 20+ years. To my knowledge, all direct air vacuums use bags.

Bypass vacuums

Bagged vacuums: The nice things about bagged vaccums is that the dust and debris gets packed in the bag, so you don't have to change the bag after every use unlike, how you may want to dump the canister on a bagless vacuum after you use it. However, you do have to buy new bags for vacuums. Who wants to spend more money than you have to? Also, most bagged vaccums like some Dirt Devils (except for the Miele which may have the best HEPA filtration at the .3 Micron level at 99.99% vs the bagless Dyson at 99.89% or so, and maybe the Electrolux, and maybe the Kirby), tend to have bags that allow dust to escape back into the air. Here is the link to the Vacuum Filtration Study showing Miele and Dyson raking #1 and #2.

Bagless vacuums: So they require more maintenance


Kirby: made of aluminum, it picks up things from the carpeting quite well. it is heavy and not easy to do stairs with.

I haven't researched Elextrolux yet, but from what I've seen, the Miele S7 is one of the better bypass vacuums. It does have bags and a filter you have to replace.


Dyson vacuum cleaners in general are made to be durable and lighter weight than many competitors. The motors are not made for commercial use though, so they may not last as long as some others, but they do seem much better built and faster/easier to maintain than the average Dirt Devil since the Dysons can be broken down to manageble pieces just with clips, or a twist using a quarter. Since they are lighter weight, they may graze over some items something like a heavier Kirby would get immediately, but that light weight makes them so much more maneuverable and easy to work with on stairs, ceiling fans, and there are several additional attachments, albeit generally expensive attachments, you can purchase so you can use it the way you want to.

Pro: Lightweight. Versitile because of all the extensions and hoses. Good for stairs. Higher suction than many other plastic competitors.

Con: Cleaning them can be a pain, but less of a pain that cleaning some other bag less or even cheap bagged vacuums.

Here is a detailed look at two Dyson canister vacuums. You'll get a good idea about the brand and what to expect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_87qQqDYgA

The Dyson DC23  

Suction
DC23 = 220 air watts vs the DC39 = 275 air watts (25% increase)

Mobility
DC23 rears up on it's back two wheels. It has three wheels total. DC39 with a ball like stance and 5 wheels stays more level. Both can get caught on corners. The DC39 is easier to tug along. DC39 also seems little more stable on stairs.

Kirby
This is an older premium brand with a heavy steel head. My grandparents in Wisconsin have one because they bought it thinking it was one of the most hygenic and best cleaners. The heavy head and brush bar do dig into the carpet and pull quite a bit up. But how much of the dust is dust and how much of it is carpet? It uses a bag that can supposedly filter out .1 micron allergens. Too heavy for stairs or even a multi-floor home in my opinion. I don't know if it somes with extesions for corners and stuff either, but it will pick up a lot of stuff on the first pass probably better than a Dyson or another lighter vacuum. The heavy head pushes the brush bar into the floor more and I think that causes better pickup than a light weight vacuum that just glides on top of the carpet. It just isn't a very flexible machine.

Here is an ad video for Kirby. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yczxUJLPhkg

Rainbow
My mom and dad used to use a shop vac because it was cheap and something my dad thought worked well because it had good suction. It didn't because the extensions weren't super practical for a home and there was no brush bar for carpeting. It was also so loud it made my mom want to cry and brobably didn't have a brush bar for carpeting. A Rainbow vacuum cleaner salesman they knew from church asked if he could come over, and since they were in the market for a vacuum he came over. He put water int he tank and turned the machine on without vacuuming anything. After a little while he took the Rainbow vacuum canister apart so they could look at the half gallon of water he had poured into it. It was already getting cloudy just by filtering the air. He showed how it could be used to suck up water, blow air, and pick up stuff our vacuum cleaner missed. (Any vacuum will pick up something from carpeting even after being vacuumed by another, or even the same vacuum. There is a YouTube video titled "Whoever vacuums last wins." They spend a small fortune on it and figured it was worth it because dust allergies ran in the family and the water filtered those out. My mom packed the extensions away and doesn't know where she put them. She just uses the brush head and twists it off to use the hose to get corners. They have a 1986 D4C and it still runs. It may have needed to be serviced once or twice in 26 years. She says it was a good investment. At $1,500-$2600 today ($600 for a refurbished older model) I understand why she doesn't want to get rid of it.