I’m always looking for the best Dyson vacuum.
I’ve reviewed plenty of Dyson products in the past, from the Air Multiplier, to the Hot, and then the Dyson DC39 Ball. While all of these products were exceptional, they all slightly missed the mark of perfection. So will the DC41 be any different? Will it finally be the perfect offering from a company that prides itself on its exceptional products? Combining the vulnerability of the DC39 with the power of a full on upright (one of my biggest problems with the DC39), the DC41 at least promises to be a fun product to review – and my house benefits from being nice and clean.
Inside the box is the main DC41 unit, the large motorized head, the mini turbine head, the upholstery tool, the combination accessory (can be a debris nozzle or a brush), the “Magic Wand”, and the manuals. The main unit and the brush bar head aren’t together during shipping, so you need to snap them into place – it’s a simple thing to do though; just pop it into place. The “Magic Wand” also needs to be hooked up, but all that’s required there is to again just snap it into place. It takes less than five minutes after getting everything out of the box to have the DC41 up and running…err, cleaning.
Now as luck would have it (yes, my wonderfully bad luck) about twenty minutes before the DC41 arrived at my house I swept my floors with another vacuum (one that will not be named in this review) – surely I thought it would be stupid to vacuum it again, right? Well in the interest of just seeing what would happen I did, and what came up literally shocked me. Between my living room, dining room, and bed room (all of which were just swept remember) the Dyson DC41 was able to pick up enough to almost fill the canister 3/4 of the way! I was at the very least perplexed by this – how was it picking up so much more than the other vacuum?
To find out, I wanted to replicate one of the things you see on the television commercials, where the Dyson can pick up small bolts without problem. I chose small bolts for this – three eights by an inch in length with the nut and two washers on them. The DC41 easily sucked them up into its hose, while the other vacuum couldn’t even lift them. The DC41 has a hell of a lot of power behind it, and not only that but the beater bar moves faster than in most vacuums that I’ve seen, making sure that dirt and dust is kicked up for it to pull in.
The “Magic Wand” on the DC41 is a neat little addition – rather than having a bulky piece of rigid hose attached to the back of the DC41 like on most vacuums, the wand saves space (and is so much more intelligently designed) by sliding down inside of the suction hose when not in use. This keeps everything in one nice little package, and keeps operations simple – if the vacuum back is upright, suction will go to the end of the wand, if it is in the position to move, suction goes to the head. All you do to use the wand is slide it off of the DC41, and pull it out of the hose – that’s it. No fumbling around to make sure it’s connected or anything like that – once you hook it up the first time it is locked into position unless you need to release it to clean it.
Pretty much the ONLY thing I think could have been better on the DC41 is the cord situation. Now the cord is extremely long, which is great in and of itself as you won’t need to switch outlets unless you’re going a few rooms away. The problem is though, that the cord doesn’t have an auto retract. I got used to that on the DC39, and while it might have made me a bit lazier, it also made me a lot happier. I hate having to wrap the cord up on the back of a vacuum – I’m always afraid I’m going to screw something up somehow – just let it do it on its own and I’ll be a much happier camper. The other minor issue, and really it’s not even an issue with the wand, is that the head is really big. It’s not going to fit all of the places that the DC39 will. Again though, that is what you are supposed to be using the wand for (along with the mini turbine tool).
Speaking of the mini turbine tool – I got sent the edition for pets (as I have dogs), and it does wonders for picking dog hair off of pretty much any surface. I’ve used it on upholstery, curtains, and under the couch – all with the same results. One of the things I complained about on the DC39 was the fact that the canister on it was short and fat, which sometimes caused some vacuumed debris to fall to the floor when emptying it. Thankfully that it not a problem at all with the DC41. On the DC41, the canister is much longer and more slender, meaning that it will fit in pretty much any garbage can with ease – also the release mechanism works better on the DC41, and I have never had the problem of stuff spilling out when emptying it.
Editor’s Rating:
[rating:5/5]
Perfect
The Bottom Line: Yes that’s right, I’ve finally found a Dyson product (and vacuum in general) that I feel confident slapping the cherished “Perfect” label on. The DC41 is quite possibly the best vacuum cleaner out there, you just have to get over the price point.
Pros:
- The DC41 sucks hard – and with a vacuum, that’s a good thing
- The dust canister is perfectly sized
- The HEPA filters are easy to clean
Cons:
- The head is too big to fit under low furniture
- No automatically retracting cord
- Hard to justify dropping the cash for some people
You can grab a Dyson DC41 from Amazon for $519.00
