At the start of the summer, I finally acquired a Dyson, after hearing its praises from many online and offline friends. Indeed, I was happy with its performance.
We’ve gone through many vacuums in our family. Many. My first vacuum was a canister-type. It died right as I was attempting to clean up my old apartment as I moved into a new one with my soon-to-be-husband. We tried a bagless at the beginning of our marriage, but it failed miserably. We were happy with a combination of a bagged-upright and small canister (for the attachments) for awhile, but we weren’t completely “wowed” by it. Still, the combination served us well at our old house; that is, until we put the old house on the market.
We needed some serious cleaning action!
Our steam cleaner had already gone to sleep with the fishes; alas, it couldn’t hold water, which was the problem. We’re still looking for a suitable replacement other than inviting Stanley Steemer into our house every two seconds.
Enter our Dyson DC14. The commercials say to vacuum with the old vacuum, then test out the Dyson. Husband says he had to empty the canister multiple times in our Master as he caught cat hair and other dusty critters our old vacuum had left behind. He was stunned. Wow, a commercial that told the truth!
Yesterday, my uncle from Colorado came over for a visit. As we scurried around, cleaning up before his visit, our Dyson died.
Husband panicked. I panicked.
How could our trusty Dyson, just a few months old, betray us?
Ironically enough, I had just entered a contest sponsored by Mod*Mom to win a pink Dyson. No, the color wouldn’t really fit into our sage-navy-maroonish-gold color scheme, but I figured I’d love another excellent vacuum. Plus, it signifies a good cause, even if winning it doesn’t actually contribute to that cause.
"Dyson is proud to support breast cancer research with the introduction of the DCO7 Pink. The limited edition vacuum, which uses Dyson’s patented cyclone technology + does not lose suction, is available exclusively at Target. Dyson + Target will donate $40 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every DCO7 Pink sold. Dyson understands how critical research is to the advancement of breast cancer treatment + prevention + is dedicated to supporting efforts to develop a cure in our lifetime."
Back to the story…
So Husband thought the Dyson had died. I kept fiddling with things, surprised that the dream could be over.
I went to the manual while Husband started looking at troubleshooting information online.
The washable filter! It is supposed to be cleaned every six months or – more frequently as circumstances require. Our laborious cleaning of our old home, plus cleaning up our new home as we kicked up move-in dust, ripped down an old mantel and installed a new one, no-doubt created a dirty filter.
I should have photographed the darn-thing. Who knew it was supposed to be blue and only about an inch thick? Instead, I saw several inches worth of gray cat hair. Once I scraped that off, I saw a gray disk.
Just a few seconds under running water, and the filter was clean. I was surprised. The filter and casing must dry for at least 12 hours post-cleaning, but Dyson had given us an extra filter specifically so that we wouldn’t have to wait to vacuum.
We tried to turn it on. Nothing.
But then Husband read on the Dyson website that a safety feature shuts of the vacuum in case of a dirty filter. So THERE. Instead of having an overheated vacuum that would burn and die forever, we have a smart vacuum that decided to take a break because we had been working it too hard.
After the recommended hour break and the clean filter, the vacuum worked good as new! Yay for Dyson!
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