Dyson DC33 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner For Powerful Pet Hair Removal

Dyson DC33 Animal, Dec 2010
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** pros: long 5 year guarantee, Hepa filters, long power cable, animal model comes with the good mini turbine attachment among others. Powerful suction. Good design - parts easy to assemble and dissaemble.

** cons: hose is very stiff when new - takes a while to loosen up, the fact that this model is lighter works against it - can tip over when using wand (especially when hose is still stiff - this problem should alleviate over time as you 'break the hose in'). Additional tools/attachments are expensive. Wand extension is now made of plastic. A little on the noisy side.

** bottom line: its a dyson, whilst I dont like some of the redesign it still performs excellently, with a long guarantee. Highly recommended and at the time of purchase Amazon had the best price for this hoover.

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My last hoover a DC07 Animal lasted for about seven years, would have gone on for longer, but it finally died shortly after I used it to clean up around 10kg of flour which had spilt in the boot of our car . . err bad mistake! After much deliberation I decided against going for a cylinder models (the drag along types) after reading reviews and looking at the ones our friends had got, although it was a close call. I was tempted by the ball design, but put off with the small bin capacities and the fact that all later dyson models were not ball design, is dyson moving away from the ball design back to its traditional design for its upright range? I also looked at some others like henry, vax and meile. In the end I plunged ahead with dyson dc33 animal. This review will pit the new purchase against my old dyson.

The DC07 and DC33 are very similar models. As I unwrapped the new one I actually laid them side by side so I could thoroughly compare them (yes its sad, but it happens as you get older). The DC07 has a huge bin, the DC33 although larger than some of the other dyson models is paltry when compared to the DC07. So there is the added annoyance of having to empty after one or two cleaning runs (depending on the size of your abode and how much dirt to clean up of course). The specs quote it as 2.3 litres, so maybe this may be enough for other people.

The base of the DC33 looks pretty much the same as the DC07, including the brush roller assembly in the bottom (that was one of my niggles on the DC07 - when its gets a lot of hair wrapped arounf the beater brush, cleaning it was a right pain - pity they didnt improve on this aspect) When you remove the hose, and wand the DC33 is lighter than the DC07, so obviously under the hood there must be some changes.

The wand, that is attached to the hose has been changed from the orginal design - it actually makes more sense now. With the DC33 you dont have to detach the wand any more (the old one you had to remove it and reverse it to attach it to the hose before using it). It also has a telescopic bit - basically the wand extends to increase the length. The marketng for this is a bit misleading, "Re-engineered wand for high reach cleaning". Yes it does reach far, but fully extended its the same length as muy old DC07 (!). I tested this by extending both dc07 and dc33 from the bottom of my stairs, both reached the top (we have short stairs, about 4.5 metres).

The main annoyance on the wand for me, is they have made it lighter by making the wand extension plastic! The dc07 has a metal steel wand extension. Whilst I was using the attachments, I could feel the plastic on the wand extension bend on the dc33 as I put a lot of pressure on it - obviously had no problems putting lots of pressure on the old dc07. Whilst I dont think it will break, Im wondering with wear and tear how many years use will I get out of it? Also extremly annoying is the plastic the extension is made of is some kind of dust magnet - expect to have to wipe it down if you extend it and use it.

The ends of the hose on the wand on the dc33 is also different sizes to dc07, so if you are using old dsyon attachments on the newer one, you will find they dont fit. However I did discover the attachments between the hose and dyson are exatcly the same for both dc33 and dc07! This means I can use the hose and wand of the dc07 on the dc33. Wohoo! This means I can still use the old wand with steel extension and still use all the dc33 attachemts on this wand with the adapters that came with it. As the dysons attachemnts are quite expensive it is reasurring to know I can still use my old attachments.

The wand is pretty adaptable to your needs - attachments can plug directly into the hose, or on top of the wand, or after extending the wand at the end of the extension. Because of the redesign though, if you plug an attachemnt directly to the wand the extension remains inside the hose, whilst this worked perfectly I am to paranoid that over time the extension may wear against the inside of the hose (if you bent the hose where the extension ended hose would wear away. This is probably why they also made the extension out of plastic rather than steel. However, I dont see this as a problem as I expect most people will either attach it directly to the hose or at the end of the extension.

The hose itself on the dc33 is extremely stiff. Whilst the end of the hose that attaches to the wand is different to the dc07 it is otherwise the same type and design of hose. I think I remember this being the problem when we first got our dc07, with the hose being very stiff. Rest assured this does loosen up over time, in fact our old one has endured a lot of punishment and ended up in a fair amount of duct tape in its last year. Given that the old one lasted seven years I thought that was pretty good going. You can also buy after market replacement hoses and also replacement hoses online direct from dyson themselves.

The dc33 comes with the mini turbine attachment, stair tool and brush/crevice combination tool. I thought the original pet attachemnt tool for dc07 was pretty much rubbish and we lost it over the years, so I wasnt holding much hope for this one. Boy was I wrong! Excellent tool. This actually does what it says on the tin. even better the roller bar removes very easily in this attachmnet to allow for cleaning and removing hair wrapped around the bar. If only the brusher bar on the bottom of the dc33 was as easy to remove and clean!

Stair tool is pretty much standard, but the combi tool is new - they combined both a brush and crevice tool into one. unfortunately they have sacrificed the length - my crevice tool on the dc07 is much longer, but you do have the advantage both brush and crevice are on the same tool - easier storage, and consequently the new design means switching between the brush and crevice is now faster.

As with all the dysons the build and ease which you can assemble and dissasemble everything is remarkably simple. You wont have to dissaasemble often, but the (lifetime) filters are recommended to be washed under a tap every 3 months (this is a change from the dc07 where they recommended cleaning them every 6 months). Also I've had to dissamble bits of the dc07 over the years to remove large debris that had got stuck inside, like socks etc (!), the dc33 disasembles exactly the same way as the dc07 (hence my observation that both models are still very similar in some parts). I know in my pre-dyson era I had big problems when this happened on other hoovers. The main removable blockage-check duct on the dc33 is now made of clear plastic, so you can visually check it which is a nice touch.

If you suffer allergies or from dust etc the hepa filters are definately worth it, the animal models have two filters, II think the dc33 family all have hepa filters. The other difference is each model gives different attachments (but you can buy them seperately). Otherwise its very confusing deciding between the multi floor and animal model, when we bought the dc07, I think I remember the animal model being different, and having different specs to then version of the multi floor equivalents, but with the latest ones Im not entirely sure if the base models are just the same just rebranded, painted and sold with different attachements?

Talking of attachemnts, I was luckiy enough to buy the dc33 from amazon while they have the free 'Dyson Clean and Tidy Kit'. You have to claim it the same time you buy the dyson, and there are a number of dyson models they are giving it away for free with. The tidy kit has the matress tool, soft dusting brush, stubborn dirt brush and flexi crevice tool. This pack is worth £60 from dyson so a great bargain! This offer is valid till the end of Dec and amazon also had the best price at the time of writing.

The crevice tool is the most impressive from the kit - it is basically a crevice tool that extends, but the extended bit is made of rubber. This means you can bend it around corners etc. Very impressed. The kit also came with a carry case.

Overall I am very happy with the DC33 and hopefully it will last me as long as my older one. Its just as noisy as the dc07, but it passed our acid test - we have a guest bedroom where its still carpet. The carpet is made of some evil stuff that has been cursed by satan himself - the cat hairs mingled with my misus' hair make cleaning this room an extrmely long and arduous affair, but the new dc33 using the mini turbine attachemnet made short work of it - the carpet actually looks brand new.

Overall an excellent hoover that will hopefully last as long as my older dc07.

This has got to be the most practical and powerful vacuum cleaner I have ever used. It makes such a difference to the carpets, upholstery or interior of my car. Even the air feels cleaner. It gets into all the corners and with the various easy fit attachments it quickly converts to clean stairs, sofas or under the bed or mattress. Fantastic machine. Well worth the money.

Had the hoover for about two months now and am thoroughly pleased with the purchase.

It's very powerful and sucks up almost all hair and fluff first time you move over it. I've yet to find anything that it won't get after two attempts, which is much better than my old hoover. Even lifts the carpet up in some spots, its that strong. There is a little rotating brush at the front which helps ensure that all mess is hoovered up. Although long hair gets trapped around the spindle, it is fairlt easy to access and clean and cut the trapped hair off manually.

It is straight forward to empty as the container comes out easily, then once over the bin press the button again and all the dirt falls out after a quick shake.

It is easy to manuevre and isn't too heavy to carry up and down stairs.

The hose is really good for cleaning the stairs. Simply leave the main unit at the bottom and extend the rod from the hose and add attachment as necessary. Although the hose is not long enough to clean right to our top step (think it goes to step 11 out of 13).
The tension in the hose and the long extendable rod (which needs to be out to use the hose) makes cleaning nearby small areas on the ground (that cannot be accessed by the main part) a little tricky. This is because the main unit has no brake so keeps trying to follow you around, which is a bit annoying at times. But with practice you can get used to this or block its movement.

There are 4 attachments in total. Two standard ones, a little brush and a nozzle. Then 2 additional attachments, which are unique to the Animal, these are great. There is a smaller version of the main sucker with a small rotaing brush. The second is a specialised dusting brush, which i use for the tv cabinet as it is very soft and padded, so will not scrach or damage the equipment there.

There are removable filters which can be washed clean. This is recomended every 3 months so i haven't done this yet, but the process seems fairly easy.

Overall it seems well made and sturdy and the five year guarantee will be useful just in case.