Dyson Digital Slim DC44 Tester feedback review thread – Non testers – you could win a Dyson

Lovely surprise when this was delivered, didn't get a chance to assemble as DH had done this within seconds of opening the package - as usual.
This is brilliant, so light & easy to use and so effective wether it was the bamboo flooring in my beautiful new kitchen, the rug in the lounge or the carpet on the stairs. Love the little ball like joint which makes it so manouverable.
The ease of use was perfect over Christmas, especially after meals with young grandsons - everthing clean & tidy in minutes. Also brill for clearing up after the unwrapping frenzy on Christmas evening, just picked up all the actual wrapping paper and the Dyson dealt with the rest - and there were 14 of us making a mess!
It's also kept the cat hairs at bay which helped visiting DD keep her asthma in check.
Thanks Dyson & Gransnet , and happy new year to everyone.

Oh and forget to say that both DS have cleaned their cars with it, the first time in months!

This Dyson is proving to be the handiest vac I've ever had. I've used it exclusively over Christmas and New Year, as it's so good for sliding into corners and under furniture. I used it for running over curtains and catching a few cobwebs this morning, then I vacuumed the dog's basket and cushion. It's ridiculously light. It empties in a moment, and being cordless, there's no hassle with a lead trailing under doors and furniture and getting stuck.

The balance challenge Really easy to use the Dyson one handed when vacuuming floors/stairs etc, but need to use two hands when lifting the Dyson up to ceilings.

The versatility challenge Have used all the attachments to access different places, e.g. sofa cushions/hearth/skirting boards. Click on and off very easily.

The cobweb challenge What cobwebs? They are no more ! Two otherwise inaccessible places have fallen to the Dyson. Hooray! (Although, truth be told I wasn't losing sleep over them, just found it a bit of an irritant that the dust was building up and spiders setting up home in places the Wonderful Man knew I wouldn't be able to reach when he created them.)

The family mess challenge Hordes of people live/visit here under normal circumstances and Christmas/New Year has been busier than ever. I find I grab the Dyson at the drop of a hat - mostly because it's so immediate - and floors are vacuumed and the machine emptied in the time it would normally take me to lug the other cleaner out, empty the thing before it can be used (no-one else is capable of course, so it's nearly always left to me) and plug it in. I love that the Dyson is cordless and empties so easily.

White vinegar and bicarbonate of soda are my favourite cleaning products. Vinegar for all glass/mirrors. Bicarb for smelly cooking pots and pans especially after fish, curry also great for fridges and microwaves, try sprinkling some over pets bedding to neutralise smells also good for smelly shoes.fshock

My big old upright Dyson has done good service but I find it impossible to use the tube attachment on the stairs - the machine fights back and is stronger than me. The DC 44 looks ideal for our little house.

But I have a place which is impossible to clean, even my highly intelligent Best Beloved can't figure it out. We have a wonderful Tempur bed which has less than a couple of inches clearance and a not overly large bedroom. Anyone out there have any ideas how to get to the fluff and dust piling up underneath? The best I've come up with so far is using the hair dryer to blow it within reach when it gets deep enough!

We have a bed with very little clearance under it too Nfk - I have one of these which just fits under ours:

www.lakeland.co.uk/22444/Lakeland-Home-Microfibre-Mop

the hardest place I've ever had to reach when cleaning is the top of the shower curtain rail!

Bicarbonate of soda gets rid of the smell of vomit from carpets, upholstery and cars. Neat science - it neutralises the acid. Clean sick off first (obviously!) and then try sprinkling on the bicarb powder, rubbing in and Dysoning off. Or wipe with a solution of bicarb.

I used to pick up a phone and get a man in, then I retired....... Sigh. I have been learning housework and discovered that I HATE it. One tip I did get from a wise old Grannie of 98, buy a hoover for every floor of the house, stop carrying all that dust around. Stops you falling over the pipe too.

This Dyson thingy sounds good, bet it is exepnsive: all good hoovers are in my experience. I got to that knowledge via a pile of cheap but none too cheerful horrors that hit the tip within weeks. Yes the joke about changing the bag was made by my nearest and not always dearest.

Somehow I've never felt secure about bagless....... the testers seem secure though, so convince me.

Yogagran would the mop work on carpet?

The Dyson Slim dealt with all the pine needles when we took down the tree this evening! Once I had unclogged the piece of rice cake from the tube (kids cleaning bedrooms) it coped brilliantly, and was really quick to do floor and windowsill where we had lobbed the tree into the front garden. I was then inspired to get all the dust our of an uplighter floor lamp. Brilliant!
And the Dyson was to hand when teenage son came home from footie training and took his boots off in the sitting room, scattering those irritating little bits of black rubber from the astroturf, so I made him use the cleaner to pick it all up.

Also found it very easy to take the roller out from the big attachment and clean it, once I'd found a penny to unlock it.

I dislike vacuuming stairs and find it easy and effective to use a rubber hand brush, starting at the top, brushing all the dust down from step to step and vacuuming it all up at the bottom.

Because my Dyson is Mr Awkward I use a brush on the stairs too, but just a good stiff one.

Also old washing up sponges (the yellow ones with the green scourer back) slightly damp, are good for getting up pet hairs, especially on furniture.

My tip is to use natural products like lemon juice and baking soda. Cheap, eco friendly and much healthier than all those nasty chemicals.
The most difficult place I've had to clean is up a chimney!

Sorry Nfk - didn't think of that!! Because our bedroom has vinyl on the floor (OH asthma sufferer & says it's better for him but horrid when you get up in the middle of the night on a cold floor )

I'm not a tester, which is a shame because I've got plenty of great tests for a Dyson! The hardest place I have to reach when cleaning is on top of the pelmets over my windows. I have to get the stepladders out but before I do, I have to move all the furniture away from that side of the room. Needless to say the top of my pelmets don't get cleaned very often.....I just don't invite anyone tall into the house so they can't see the dust gathering on top!

My tip for cleaning is little and often (and yes, I know that completely contradicts what I just said about my pelmets...but there is an exception to every rule!) It really is much easier to keep bathrooms and kitchens clean by wiping them down after each use rather than trying to bring them back to clean when they've been allowed to get really grubby. Train the rest of the family to do this and you're already onto a winner!

Today not only did the tree come down and 'Christmas' get put away for another year, but I was also inspired to have a good old clear out. The tree shed very few needles and it was so small this year that I managed to get it out of the house by myself; getting it out usually involves the Wonderful Man and some loppers. The Dyson really did make quick work of vacuuming the needles and so I had time to sort out all nine drawers in my sitting room (well, truth be told only eight of them are sorted - the last one has all the stuff that I don't quite know where to put, but can't get rid of). Flushed with success I then tackled the sideboard in the dining room - and when that was done I attacked two of my kitchen cupboards. [smug emoticon]

ga, you make me feel quite faint. I may have to go and lie down in my cluttered bedroom.

The hardest place I've ever had to clean is my whole house when my cleaner was on holiday!!! She was even more appreciated when she returned!!! My best cleaning tip is the dettol anti-fungal spray to use on that horrible black mould which appears behind my chest of drawers in winter.

Here's some more feedback:

The balance challenge - I was able to vacuum with the Dyson digital slim whilst answering the phone, as it's so quiet in comparison with my other Dyson upright. Vacuuming the kitchen is usually a big task involving moving the chairs and heavy table, but this little vac squeezes into all the difficult places, and all I need to do is move a chair aside with one hand whilst vaccing with the other. It catches everything.

The versatility challenge: I've cleaned the tops of doors and cupbards with the small brush attachment and no cobwebs are left after pointing the crevice tool up to corners and lampshades that are so hard to reach, especially on the stairs. Bookshelves have had a quick vac with the little brush, and the dusty area under the woodburner came up a treat. I've never been able to fit a handbrush under it before, and trying to wave a damp cloth under there never quite worked.

The cobweb challenge - as above, especially on the stairs and landing.

The family mess challenge: the dog leaves dry food crumbs around her bowl which soon vacced up. Visiting grandchildren not only left biscuit and breadcrumbs on their chairs over lunch, but had a lot of fun vaccing the mess up themselves. A lovely bunch of flowers that dropped little petals and bits of fern on my dresser proved no problem - just whipped out the Dyson and vacced it all up without even moving the vase.

The 20 minute dash challenge - 20 minutes not needed. I can get round the sitting room, bottom stairs, landing and bathroom in 10!

The only thing to remember is leave it on charge.

Overall opinion of the DC44 is that it is excellent, score 9 out of 10.
Once I got used to using it I found it invaluable and would now hate to be without it.

When it was first out of the box I was immediately struck by the elegance of design and lovely blue colour. I know this is primarily a functional object but looks do have an impact as well.

Why only 9 out of 10 then? Although I understand the logic behind the trigger mechanism, I do find this slightly wearing on the hands. However, it's not a big problem. Other point is quite a long charging time for the 20 minutes vac time but I get the impression the Dyson is marketed as a back-up vacuum cleaner. Certainly if I wanted to do a blitz on my house, vaccing all the rooms in one day, it would be a problem.

I have trouble with timing out when posting so sending this and continuing with a new one .......