For 26 years, we have owned and used a Kirby vacuum cleaner. It has been with us in 5 houses, and never had a problem. But, old age is creeping up on us (not on the Kirby), and the Kirby is heavy! So we decided to get a Dyson ball vacuum (Model DC24) thinking it would be easy to handle, and with all the new technology, it must work better than the Kirby. Right?

Well, Mr Dyson advertises his vacuum as ‘not losing suction’ because it has no bag. That may be true, but the Dyson Ball doesn’t have very much suction to lose compared to the old Kirby. It is pitifully lacking in the suction department.

On the plus side though, it does a decent job of picking up pet hair on short pile carpet and hardwood flooring. That’s all it does well. Get it on thick carpeting and the beater bar motor stalls out and trips its circuit breaker. Then it requires some amount of ‘fiddling’ to reset it and start over.

The worst thing about the Dyson Ball is that it simply won’t pick up anything bigger than dust. It won’t pick up dog kibble, or cheerios on the floor. It won’t pick up gravel brought in on the soles of shoes. It won’t pick up the glass shards from the jar I just dropped. It won’t pick up anything with any thickness to it; it just pushes it around. I think it is not well suited to pet owners or families with little children. Apparently, its not suited to me either.

The wand attachment is another piece of poor design work. It is clumsy to attach, and using it requires carrying the vacuum around which is fairly heavy when not rolling around on its ball.

One more problem I have encountered is that the latch which holds on the dirt receptacle is the same latch that opens the bottom of the dirt receptacle if you push it too far. I pushed it too far and dumped all the dirt on the floor when I tried to remove the receptacle to empty it. Empty it I did, just not where I wanted to.

Its a good thing we kept the Kirby ’84.