Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
inexpensive and has great suction |
| Disadvantages: |
fiddly to use, clogs up easily |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
Firstly, why did I buy this cleaner? We've had three Dysons over the past six years or so - they keep breaking down. Now, I really must explain that this is nothing to do with an overly dirty house! Given repair costs etc we have rarely had them fixed. When the last Dyson we had broke down we decided that forking out £250+ every other year or so was daft, and so we decided to try another brand.
We wanted:
Good suction
Good design with edge tool, etc
Bagless
Reasonably lightweight
My wife prefers uprights
Stair cleaning facility
Low cost - initially and ongoing, in terms of lifelong washable filters
Not much then?
We looked all over the place and ended up in Curry's! While there, a chap saw us looking at the DM4523 and took the time to tell us that he had one, and that it was the best vacuum he had ever owned. Well, given the price (£110), the features (seemed to do everything we wanted - as listed above), and the brand, we decided it would do for us. So we bought it - the 2000W variety.
Got it home and found I had to put it together! Now that was a surprise, but it was not too difficult (although the instructions were rubbish).
In terms of its ability to vac, wayhey! It really does have good suction, and it has easy-to-use floor-type selection, so you know which setting to use for which floor. Note - this slider feels wobbly and of no use when the cleaner is on display in the shop - this is because it locks into place when in use, so don't let that put you off, as it nearly did me. It is not stupidly noisy, although I wouldn't use it to vac the aisles at the opera house in the middle of a soul-wrenching aria - it doesn't whisper. The 'edge cleaning' technology is ok but not great - you still have to use the edge tool for good results, but that's ok
So. All good, then, given the price?
Not on yer nelly.
The process of emptying the collection bin is way too fiddly and dusty (not good, given my asthma). This would not be so bad, but the bin is hopelessly small - it needs emptying after only sucking the dust from my belly button, and I have a shower twice a year (whether I need it or not). Then, there are the filters. In a
Dyson they need cleaning every 6 months. In the DM4523 they need cleaning after every 5 empties of the bin - pretty much every month, if not more.
All right - that's not the end of the world, is it? No. But...
THE THING CLOGS UP!!!!
Really. I mean - REALLY clogs up. Every use I have to take the hoses off and pull the dust out - hardly any makes it into the collection bin. THe vac starts running really hot and then the suction drops off to nothing. And I mean - after EVERY USE. We don't have a pet, vac every week or so, have a mix of bog-standard carpets and hard floors... nothing special. Now this IS annoying.
Oh - and the extendable stair hose is just too short for our (standard) stairwell - making cleaning the top stair possible, but a bit of a wrestling match with the vac.
I'm sure there are other things that you might want to know - but trust me, there is no point mentioning them - its drawbacks are so great that any other aspects are irrelevant. Seriously - steer clear of this - get a Vax upright - my sister has one and loves it, or invest in a Dyson and hope it doesn't break down.
Put it this way, we're back in the market for a vac, and we've only had the Hoover for 12 weeks - I just can't stick it any more.
So much for the guy who said it was the best vac he'd ever had. Either he was telling a practical joke or he's only ever had one vac...
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