Our In-Depth Review
Design
The Dirt Devil Breeze M082500 Canister vacuum is shaped like a wide cylinder. It has two large rear wheels and a single swivel wheel at the front of the machine.
At just over 11 pounds it feels very light to pull around on the floor, and is easy to lift up and carry up or down stairs. It has a long 72-inch flexible hose, and a 45-inch extension wand that attaches to the hose, for a very long maximum reach of almost 10 feet (117 inches to be exact).
The long hose and lightweight design make it easy to get across the floor or clean in those tight spaces.
Performance: Using the Dirt Devil Breeze M082500 Canister
Unfortunately, we were less than impressed with the performance of the Dirt Devil Breeze. It simply didn’t have enough suction power to handle cleaning quickly or effectively.
Using our suction gauge, we tested how much water lift the Breeze had. An average vacuum has 80 inches of water lift. This canister vacuum only had 60 inches of water lift.
We could definitely tell it didn’t have enough suction for cleaning effectively as we ran the vacuum through a series of tests.
Performance on Hard Floors
We recommend using the blue bare floor nozzle for cleaning hard floors. It has small rollers on the bottom of the nozzle, which makes it roll across the floor smoothly.
Although this brush is just over nine inches wide, if you look underneath the brush, the opening for sucking up debris is less than 7 inches wide.
This means, that as you clean, only debris that is in the middle of your cleaning path will get cleaned up. Debris that is near the edge of the bare floor nozzle won’t get sucked up. When we tossed flour on the hardwood flooring, the suction was very weak.
It looked like the flour was cleaned up at first glance, but in the crevices between each wood strip, flour still sat on the floor.
The suction power wasn’t strong enough to clean up these spots in one pass. For larger particles, some were pushed forward. Other pieces went underneath the cleaning head, but then were pushed backward.
Performance on Carpets
The Dirt Devil Breeze canister vacuum isn’t designed to clean large areas of carpeting. It doesn’t come with any tool that has a rotating brush bar. If you still want to clean carpets with the Breeze, use the nylon bristle nozzle.
The surface of the carpet will look clean, but if you have medium or long pile carpet, the suction isn’t powerful enough to pull the dust out deep within the carpet fibers.
Another problem is all the fuzz and hair will get stuck to the nylon bristles. You will have to pull this clump of hair off the bristles and feed it into the vacuum by hand.
Performance on Rugs
You can pick either nozzle for cleaning rugs. There is one advantage to weaker suction. The Breeze won’t lift your rug up off the floor as you clean.
It can roll right over the rug and clean up most of the debris, and it will leave the rug laying on the hard flooring. If you have pet hair, or someone with long hair in your home, use the nylon bristle nozzle to clean the rug.
The Dirt Devil Breeze will gather all the hair up, but you will have to take it out of the bristles once again and feed it into the vacuum hose manually.
Edge Cleaning
With the wider nozzles, go head on at the edge of the floor to maximize the weak suction power. The best option with a canister vacuum is to use the crevice tool. This will get the edge clean very effectively.
The Breeze comes with a very handy on board tool storage clip. The dusting brush and crevice tool clip right onto the extension wand for easy access.
Filtration
The Dirt Devil Company claims that this is a HEPA filter. This is false!
Using our laser particle scanner, we detected large amounts of debris escaping out the vacuum exhaust.
No particles over 0.3 microns are supposed to come out of a HEPA filter. Millions of particles are kicked back into the air with the Dirt Devil Breeze M082500 Canister.
Ease of Use
The Dirt Devil Breeze canister is pretty easy to use. This is probably is biggest asset.
The power button is on top of the unit and is large enough for you to use your foot for turning it on and off.
The cord is 20 feet long and stores underneath the canister when it’s not in use.
A 20-foot cord is average in length, but with an additional ten feet of reach with the wand and hose, it can clean a pretty large open area.
Getting Started
No tools are necessary for putting the Dirt Devil Breeze M082500 Canister together. The base unit is already all in place.
All that is required for you to do is attach the hose and extension wand to the main unit.
Clip on the upholstery brush and crevice tool onto the extension wand for easy access. Pick an attachment to place at the end of the wand, and get to cleaning.
You can also wrap the 20-foot cord on the bottom of the vacuum when it is not in use.
Maneuverability
The canister is very light to carry, and even lighter to set on the ground and just use the hose for cleaning. The compact canister rolls around on the floor smoothly and follows you as you suck up debris.
Noise
This Dirt Devil doesn’t sound like a breeze. It’s more like a gale force windstorm. For a compact canister, this is a loud vacuum.
A full sized vacuum averages around 80 decibels, but this was just a bit louder than that at 81 decibels. You can’t hear other people talking to you when you are cleaning with the breeze.
Ease of Use on Stairs
The Dirt Devil Breeze actually did a good job when cleaning up a staircase.
The reason for this is the lightweight design, coupled with the shoulder strap option.
Depending upon your preference, you can set the canister vacuum on a stair step and clean, or take the rather lightweight 11.5-pound vacuum and sling it around your shoulder.
The long hose and extension wand work well for cleaning carpeted or hard floor stairs.
Maintenance
Get ready to get dirty! Just because the Breeze Compact Canister is bagless, doesn’t mean emptying out the dust will be a clean process.
First you have to take the clear dustbin off the main unit. Then you have to take the filter out of the center of this dustbin. Empty out all the debris, and set the dustbin back on the unit.
Now comes the dirty work. In the folds of the filter, large strips of fuzzy dust gather. You will have to hand pick this dust out.
This filter has to be replaced once a year. There is a nice little sticker on the top of the filter where you should write the date you have to replace it.
That way every time you empty the dustbin, you can see how much more time you have until you are supposed to buy a replacement.
Value For Money
You get what you pay for with the Dirt Devil Breeze. It costs less than $100 USD, and rightfully so. The suction power is weak, the filtration system is poor, and it is noisy. The redeeming qualities for this vacuum are limited. It’s light and it can clean in tight spaces.
Final Vacuum Verdict
We have seen other reviews from consumers who enjoy this vacuum, but that just means they haven’t had their hands on higher quality vacuums. There is only a very select audience we would recommend the Dirt Devil for.
First you must like canister vacuums, because it is very difficult to switch from an upright to a canister model, much less an inexpensive one like this. It might be right for you if you have a lot of hard floors, and you have a smaller home.
