Dyson DC65 Animal Vacuum Cleaner Review

People looking for an elegantly designed vacuum will find one in the DC65: Hoses slink into handles, and dirt empties with the touch of a button. Unfortunately, the Animal's style didn't match its performance when compared to other vacuums in its price range. It generally had trouble getting dirt out of carpets, and while the iconic ball gave the DC65 a tight turning radius, it also blocked the body from reaching under furniture.

Accessories

A tool for every situation

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The Dyson DC65 Animal has more tools than the average vacuum. It comes with a brush tool for hair and upholstery, as well as a soft dusting brush that allows you to apply suction on delicate surfaces like lamp shades. Dyson also decided to put a twist on the telescopic wand, which has a head that can be angled to more easily clean the tops of shelves. Finally, there's a stiff bristle brush for ground-in dirt.

It should be noted that many of the attachments cannot be held onboard. We fear that many customers will lose them in the back of a closet.

Handling

Surprisingly agile for a vacuum so heavy

The Dyson DC65 Animal weighs only 16.9 pounds, which is light for an upright. The iconic ball on the DC65 allows this vacuum to have a very tight turning radius. In fact, much of the engineering of the DC65 appears to have gone into how it handles, and it shows.

That care in engineering is also apparent in some of the details. For example, the power and bristle buttons are placed up top, within arm's reach. The dust bin empties from the bottom with a push of the button—so you don't have to tip it over and shake.

While in operation, the DC65 glided over carpet and hardwood floors. That big ball also gives the Animal enough mass to push through even higher-pile carpets. What the ball doesn't give is a lower profile. As a result, this Dyson has rather poor furniture clearance. You'll end up hitting the ball on the underside of a couch before you can get the carpet clean underneath.

While some operations may be straightforward, other design choices may leave consumers initially confused. One particular idiosyncrasy: You pull the hose attachment out with the handle towards your body, so it's instantly ready for use. While sometimes it's good to avoid the status quo, Dyson has created an Animal that may take some time to tame.

Cleaning Performance

Price and performance don't see eye-to-eye

Getting right to brass tacks, the DC65 has poor cleaning performance for its price range. At $500, it's easily outperformed by other vacuums from Miele and Kenmore. That's not to say the performance is bad—indeed, it's better than a lot of other vacuums out there. It just isn't in line with the price.

The DC65 did well picking large debris up off normal carpet and hardwood floors. However, it struggled to pick up fine grain dirt in deep carpet during our testing. In fact, it left more than 80 percent behind.

On normal carpet, the DC65 fared much better. It picked up 67 percent of all the dirt we left out for it. Even with that marked improvement, however, it lagged behind other vacuums that cost less. For example, the Kenmore 31150 did a better job in all performance tests, but only retails for around $300. We also found the Dyson easier to use, so you should factor that into your calculations as well.

For in-depth performance information, please visit the Science Page.

Conclusion

Superb Form and Function

The Dyson DC65 Animal is a beautiful creature, but its performance alone doesn't justify its price. Whether it's cleaning dirt out of normal carpets or getting food debris off bare floors, the Animal didn't match the cleaning power of other vacuums in its price range.

There are, however, some bright spots: The DC65 has far better handling than most uprights, as the ball it sits atop can pivot around corners with ease. Beyond the handling, it's clear a team of designers spent time and effort making this model look appealing.

Still, there's something to be said about a vacuum that looks and feels good. After all, if a vacuum is so burdensome to use that it stays in the closet, that's almost the same as not owning a vacuum at all.

By the Numbers

All vacuum testing takes place in a sealed room with positive pressure, so we can control what dirt we spread across test flooring surfaces.

For each performance test, we use a 90-gram mixture of dirt made up of sand and talcum powder. This gives the mixture grains of various sizes. We then evenly spread the mixture on three surfaces: high-pile carpet, normal carpet, and bare floor. We also use uncooked macaroni and rice to simulate large debris, and real cat hair to determine how well a vacuum picks up after pets.

Sound

To test how noisy the DC65 gets, we placed it into an audio chamber and measured audio output from ten feet away. The Animal had quite a roar, producing 77.1 dBA: definitely loud enough to be heard throughout the house.

Edge Cleaning & Furniture Clearance

The Dyson DC65 Animal kept up the suction, cleaning right up to the wall with no gap. However, it had poor reach when it came to furniture clearance. Even though the brushroll is only six inches tall, the taller ball stopped it from getting more than five inches under our simulated couch. That means you'll have to move your couch to really clean under it.

Carpet Cleaning

On normal carpet, the DC65 did pretty well. It picked up, on average, 60.65 grams out of a total 90 grams of dirt during each test run. The Animal did even better on our large debris test, leaving only the smallest speck of macaroni behind.

However, the DC65 didn't score as well on high-pile carpets. It only picked up 15 grams of dirt out of 90. Most cleaners get at least 20 grams up.

Bare Floor Cleaning

This Dyson showed its best results on bare floors, leaving behind no pieces of uncooked rice or macaroni on our simulated kitchen floor.