Dyson DC14 Animal Cyclonic Review

The days are getting colder and I’m too old to take advantage of those last few cold hours of sunlight during the fall to surf. Hrmmm, that’s the price of getting old I suppose. Oh well, at least it’s football season! At the very least, you, the reader of this vacuum blog will benefit as I’ll probably have much more time to devote to blogging until the Southland warms up a bit in March and April. Without further haste, I bring you a review of the Dyson Animal DC14 Animal Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner.

Vacuum Review:Dyson DC14 Animal Cyclonic Vacuum
Vacuum Rating: 4 stars out of 5 for delivering identical performance of the DC14 all floors and being significantly more expensive.

I know this is going to sound strange but the DC14 All Floors is identical to the DC14 Animal. Well, nearly identical. I’m sure you’re wondering how Dyson can justify a price spike of more than $100 for the Animal. Well, I’ll explain the differences and you can decide if you want to pay a hundred bucks for the extra features.

First, it’s purple. It might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but if you’re a huge purple fan a hundred bucks might be worth it. Aside from the cosmetic the DC14 differentiates itself with a powerful hand tool, a low profile cleaning head for cleaning under furniture like tables and chairs, and a carpet cleanser solution kit.

Difference #1: The Hand Tool
Both Dyson models are equipped with hand tools but the Animal comes with a powered hand tool that allows you to get deep into the fibers of your upholstery. Does it work better than the standard tool set? Definitely, is it worth the approximately $40 price tag? I tend to think not. Personally, it’s not a big deal to me, but it might be to you. If it’s something you think you’ll use, by all means, by the Dyson Animal, if not, you can always go with the All Floors model and have identical carpet cleaning performance for a $120 less.

Difference #2: Low Profile Cleaning Head
This one might be worth it if you hate playing musical chairs when you clean your home. I do, but once again I can’t justify the price tag Dyson has given to this helpful yet expensive tool. Once again, use your own judgment but I wouldn’t pay the asking price.

Difference #3: Carpet Cleaning Kit
Dyson also includes a carpet cleaning agent it calls Zorb. Not worth it to me, I could easily pick up a bottle of Resolve. (I’ll talk about removing carpet stains in a future article.)

The DC14 Animal is still a great unit and would buy one if I had plenty of spare cash, but I don’t. If I were in the market for a high end vacuum cleaner but wanted to keep costs down to a minimum I would definitely lean towards the Dyson All Floors model rather than the Dyson Animal model. But that’s just my opinion. I’m sure there’s going to be several of you writing me emails raving about Zorb or the hand tool and feel you got your money’s worth, but I personally wouldn’t. I’m not telling you not to buy the Dyson DC14 Animal, just know that there are cheaper alternatives without sacrificing any performance whatsoever.