Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1236 in Home
• Color: Iron
• Brand: Dyson
• Model: DC44 Digital Slim MK2
• Released on: 2012-08-26
• Dimensions: 28.40" h x 5.70" w x 11.80" l, 7.00 pounds

Features

• Dyson digital motor3 times faster than conventional motors. The most power-efficient cordless vacuum.
• Motorized floor tool with carbon fiber brushesUltra-fine conductive carbon fiber brushesclean hard floors. Rotating nylon brushesremove ground-in dirt from carpets.
• 20 minutes increased run time20 minutes of high constant suction
• Additional tool included: Mini motorized tool.
• Removes pet hair and dust from upholstery and awkward spaces.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

280 of 290 people found the following review helpful.
Maybe a 4 star, not sure
By Scott Sherman
So, I had a hard time trying to decide whether to give this 4 or 5 stars. I have never had any Dyson vacuums before so I can not compare it to other models. Most of our house is wood floors and we have two grown Labs and two older cats, so obviously we really get a lot of use out of a vacuum. It is a great vacuum, but not perfect.

the good...
Very convenient, I do not hesitate to grab this off the wall and do a quick spot cleaning. With my previous canister vacuum, I had to go to a storage drawer and pull out the canister and the detached hose and sections of extension tubes and various heads and the long unraveled cord, check the bag and if full change it then plug it in put it together and then after a few minutes of vacuuming go through the reverse process only to find more hair I may have missed because the cord didn't reach the remote areas. So rather than shlep all the parts out, I would just leave the hair for another time. This (to me) was a pain and more often than not, I would just put it off until the drifts of hair were like icebergs floating around the house. This is the reason I gave it a 5 star rating. It works and it gets used and it's even fun to use. I have seen complaints about the trigger not locking. Since this is not intended to be a full house vacuum, I think this is more of a benefit to preserve battery power than a negative. Since it is designated as "animal" I think most will probably use it to pick up hair which tends to clump together in corners and along edges, so I just point and shoot where ever I see hair. I can easily touch up the whole house in this manner since it is not running as I walk around looking for dirt and hair to pick up.

the not so good...
The lint bin is tiny. Anyone with multiple pets will get this. Even using it frequently results in several trips to the trash to empty the hair, bit of a pain, but not a deal breaker, just saying it should be bigge r. The vacuum is as everyone mentions very, very, very, very, expensive, did I say it was very, expensive? The sound the motor makes sounds exactly like my wife's hair dryer and I would guess that it moves about the same amount of air. I mean $400 for what is really just a reverse hair dryer and some attachments, it is over priced, but still beats the competition on performance. I equate this to buying a very expensive car like a BMW or Mercedes over a cheaper utilitarian car for about a quarter of the money. If you can afford it, it is nice to drive an expensive car even though it is still just a car and does the exact same thing as a Chevy or Ford without the bells and whistles. And, it's not like everyone who rates this thing doesn't complain about the price, so it should be no surprise and you have been warned. It is definatly a luxury purchase. On a personal note, I do think you are paying a lot for advertising and pretty candy colors and Dyson does do a lot of testing and R&D, so you decide if the value is there. I am just rating it on it's functionality. I must say, I do like the wall bracket for the vacuum, but it only holds the vacuum and the two smaller attachments not the carpet attachments. I am not sure why that is, but since I have since purchasing this vacuum purchased three other heads including the flexible crevice tool, the wood floor tool and the dusting tool for about a hundred more dollars, I would not expect it to hold all these, but did I say very, very expensive? I am now into this for over $500 and that doesn't include a back up battery. But at least for now, the included battery seems sufficient. So I think I have the whole kit and caboodle.

The bad...
One more thing about the bin, If you don't empty it out before it fills up and trust me you won't, the pet hair wedges itself into the upper area of the bin and does not just fall out like in the commercial. I have had to store a pair of c hop sticks by the trash bucket where I empty this thing to pull out the wedged in hair.

I also feel that Dyson did not include enough heads or the right ones. For the money, it should at least include the designated wood floor attachment, especially for the animal version. Many if not most pet owners will have some wood or tile flooring and I also don't feel the included crevice tool is good for hard to get to places like the the refrigerator coils or way under cabinets where most pet hair seems to end up. That's my personal take, some may find the included heads adequate. They do work quite well on carpets and in corners or along the wall edges which do get used. We have some nice tight low pile carpet which attracts hair. The motorized head actually pulls hair up quite well on this surface especially with the power boost where needed.

So to bottom line this thing, would I buy it again, knowing what I now know after having used it for a week or s o? Yes, which is why the 5 stars. I actually kind of enjoy using it and when ever I see some hair, I just grab it, point and shoot and the hair is gone. As the little lady in Poltergeist said, "this house is now clean"! That was just not the case with my old vacuum. With the one caveat, if you can afford it, buy it. If not there are some really nice battery, bag-less hand vacuums and if you don't mind bending over to get to the hair on the floor (a lot) that may be a better choice for the money.

169 of 174 people found the following review helpful.
Good but not great.
By wildeflowers
The Dyson DC 44 Animal is a nice little cordless vac, but it's not everything I had hoped it to be. We have 2 dogs and a cat, a large house with a variety of floors, including hardwood, carpet, rugs over wood and tile. I purchased the DC44 Animal to touch up mostly the hardwoods and bathrooms when I don't want to drag out the large and very heavy Kirby vacuum that we have for our main vac and to pick up cobwebs in the corners and skylights. I have only had the DC 44 for about a week so I can't comment on whether it truly does not lose any suction, but so far I've considered the pros and cons and I am seriously considering taking this vac back because for $400, I honestly expected more. The good things about the DC44 is that it's very lightweight, and very maneuverable. It definitely gets into the corners of the rooms quite well.

The dump cup is a little small, but I find that I can vacuum most of the wood floors in the house before I have to dump it. This vac is GREAT for vacuuming the pet hair off the couches, even the little short hairs from our boxers. The downsides for me are that the vac is definitely not as powerful as I expected. It has a hard time picking up small pieces of kibble and bits of pine kitty litter (it will suck them up on boost mode, but not very well). The wand doesn't extend and there's not an extra wand so I have a hard time reaching the upper corners of the room. Also, human hair gets caught around the roller brush (which is obviously a common issue with vacuums), but it seems that you have to take the whole thing apart with a screwdriver to clean it (You do not, I was mistaken about this, please see my edit below. I have cleaned this a few times now and my only complaint is that the hole to remove the brush head is smaller than the brushes. When you pull it out, a puff of dirt and dust comes out, same when you put it back. Do this over a trash can.) Quite frankly, for $400, I would have expe cted the hard floor attachment to come with it. I was pretty shocked to find out that attachment is another $50.

This version does run for 20 minutes on regular power, about 8 (or less) on max. I would love for it to work on max longer, but of course, that means more weight with a heavier battery, so I'll just say this improvement over the previous version makes battery life "acceptable." The battery is, of course, a Lithium Ion, which is superior to most cordless vacs on the market today. I recently got a small piece of plastic stuck in the hose tube of the brush head (kids left a bread bag snap on the floor and I didn't see it before sucking it up). It clogged the head, and was a nightmare to remove, and that piece of plastic was less than an inch square. One thing that I really love is the duster attachment that comes with the vac. It's great for things like blinds, baseboards and the wood trim around the staircase.

So my bottom line is this i s a nice little vac, although not perfect. I definitely feel my satisfaction would be higher if the price were in line with the features. I really feel like this vac should be priced closer to $200, not $400, and should include the hard floor attachment. There may be other cordless vacs out there that cost significantly less that do an equal job.

Edit: 9/30 I was mistaken about the brush roll, there is a lock on the *side* of the head that you can turn with a quarter to slide out the brush roll to clean it. This is significantly better and easier to clean that I thought it was. I find that I can do my whole downstairs hardwood areas with rugs, kitchen and laundry on one charge, although my hand does get tired from having to keep the button pushed down. I did decide to go ahead and keep this vac, mostly because I purchased it with a gift card. Honestly, if I had paid my own hard earned cash for it, I probably would have taken it back based mostly on cost. T he battery system also had a lot to do with my decision to keep it.

Added 11/03 The little strip of fiber that helps sweep up debris on the bottom of the head is now coming off. Like another reviewer noted, it is only glued on. I am, quite frankly, extremely disappointed that pieces of the vacuum are falling off less than 2 months after purchase. This would be ridiculous at any price.

104 of 109 people found the following review helpful.
The Straight Scoop
By C. G. King
Great product, but this is a lot of money to spend and it may not be for everyone. Here are my findings to help you decide if it's right for you. First off I gave it only 4 stars because of the price. In most cases this unit will not serve all your vacuuming needs so it will be a supplemental vacuum and that's a high price to pay for a helper unit. Still, depending on your situation, it may be worth it. I've become a Dyson fan due to previous purchases. I have the DC34 handheld model with the lithium ion battery. These batteries are great, both in life and charge time and after more than three years my beloved handheld is still performing like new and I use it nearly every day for multiple things. The battery on this DC44 is even stronger and has a longer run time.

I was so impressed with that handheld unit that when my old upright gave out, I knew I'd be replacing it with a Dyson. I chose the DC25 for multiple floor surfaces and am very impressed with its suction and maneuverability. I like the detachable hose unit that allows me to do extra jobs and I have purchased extra tools that I use both with it and the handheld (they fit this DC44 also). So why you ask, was I willing to spend another fortune on this unit? Although I'm very happy with the upright, there are times when it just isn't the tool of choice. I'm likely to spot some crumbs along a baseboard or under the table, cobwebs in a corner or after chasing and swatting a moth, I decide I have to clean behind the sofa--now. Hauling out the upright for these seemingly endless small jobs is a hassle for me and the handheld unit won't reach. The final straw came when I undertook a massive effort to clean out my closets. Once I got all the stuff out, there was no place to get the upright in close enough to clean the nooks and crannies and the handheld couldn't do all I needed.

Here is where this DC44 unit shines! It gets into small places. It reaches high corners, underneath and behind things. It has no cord to complicate matters. It is just like the handheld version and can be used that way, but add the long wand attachment piece and power brush tools and it can serve as an upright too. For my closet project I started using it as a handheld with my flexible hose and dusting brush (among attachments I already had and dearly love) to dust the clothes in the closet and also the shelves, then switched to the supplied crevice tool to get into the cramped recesses. Then I added the long wand with the combination brush (also supplied) to get the ceiling corners, then the small power brush to do the floor (it does a great and very thorough job). When I had refilled the closet and finally closed the doors, the larger power brush did a decent job on the carpet in front of it.

Putting the unit together out of the box is easy, no instructions needed, but they do help with setting up the hanging rack and attaching th e power cord to it (although with the power cord separate you can charge it anywhere). The instructions are mostly pictures and are all you need. I did have a question about the symbols for the lights on the unit and charger and the written instructions didn't help. Guess I'll have to wait to figure that out (when the battery is about to run out or isn't charging, neither of which has happened).

The trigger on/off really pleases me because small jobs are also pretty much on/off and I don't have to listen to any noise when I'm not actually cleaning something. Don't know that I'd like it as much for extended use though. The battery life is great. Because you usually don't have the unit on all the time during some project, 20 minutes of actual run time stretches to days and even weeks of small intermittent jobs. Run time isn't as long if you use the power brushes a lot, but still good. Full recharge time is 5 hours (compared to the 3.5 for my other handheld), af ter which the charger shuts off so leaving the unit hooked to the charger won't tire the battery. Although I use the charger separately, it's meant to be hooked into the hanging rack so every time you put the unit in the rack it's hooked up to the charger. I haven't put the rack up yet and have just been leaning the unit against the wall in the closet. Without the long wand, it sits on the floor or a table. I switch tools a lot so carry them all along with me in a tote slung over my arm. The crevice tool and combination brush that come with the unit fit into slots in the hanging rack for storage should you want to do that.

The bin isn't as big as an upright so you have to empty it more often, but that is easy. You just have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't overfill. There is a filter that needs to be rinsed out about monthly (I only do it quarterly) and takes several hours to dry so I bought an extra one to put right back in while the other dries then swit ch them next time.

One important thing for people who already own a handheld: I wondered if buying the long wand and power heads would fit on the unit I had (and cost me a lot less). Yes, the wand fits, but the power brushes won't run. If you only want to increase the reach of your handheld, buying the wand from the Dyson site will work. If you want the power brushes for floor or upholstery, you need the new unit.

The big power brush works well but isn't as good as the upright. The weight of the upright adds to its ability to focus the suction and really suck the dirt out of rugs. For bare floors the power brush is fine. The little power brush works better for me on rugs, easier to focus the suction, get into small places like around chair legs, but it is harder to push. The big brush has the ball maneuverability which is nice for larger areas. I use it in my kitchen and utility room which have wood floors. I really need the upright for my Jack Russell's abundant white hair on my dark carpet. I find the small power brush will get it up faster than the big brush, but I don't want to work that hard when the upright is so efficient at that. Of course it's great for upholstery. This unit is ideal for places the upright can't get to. One example is in my home office where I have a chair mat at my desk. The upright can't manage the edges between the slightly raised mat edge and the carpet. This little gadget can do each separately and is very effective. It does the trough down my hall between the runner and the wall. It gets behind and under furniture. It does closets and my small bathrooms, all of which I was doing with the handheld while bent over (oh, my poor back). This wand is plenty long enough for an average height person to do floors and ceilings well.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this unit as an only vacuum if you have much carpet, but it could serve that purpose if you have mostly bare flo ors and limited space. It is, however, a great supplement to an upright as it's quick to grab, easy to use and very effective for reaching difficult places. I love my other handheld, but if I didn't have it, this would meet that need perfectly plus you get the extended functionality offered by the wand and power brushes. I'm still not happy about the price, but the benefits are softening the blow.