Our In-Depth Review
Design
The Dyson DC24 Ball All-Floors is a lightweight upright vacuum cleaner. Upright vacuums are most often purchased because the user wants a cleaning tool that they can push across the floor and clean carpeting or hard flooring. The DC24 does have a hose and reversible long reach wand, but it is most effective as an upright.The big selling point in the design of the DC24 is the lightweight ball. This “mini ball” offers improved maneuverability compared to standard vacuum models that have two rear wheels. Basically, with one large wheel, the vacuum can glide, spin, and turn much easier.
It also is lightweight, so it is easy to push, pull, or turn. It should be noted that to turn this vacuum, you turn your wrist to the right or left. This does take some getting used to.
Dyson put itself on the forefront of the world of vacuums with its signature design element. This would be the patented root cyclone technology. A bagless chamber is used to collect the dust that is sucked up by the root cyclone.
Another added benefit besides the bagless option is the root cyclone, combined with the two HEPA filters, eliminate dust and debris particles all the way down to 0.3 microns from the air.
To put this number in perspective, the air coming from the exhaust of the mini ball DC24 by Dyson is cleaner than the air you breath everyday indoors or outdoors.
Performance/Using the Dyson DC24 All-Floors Vacuum
We ran the lightweight ball from Dyson DC24 through a series of tests, and overall it ranked very high. We are tempted to rate this against standard sized uprights because it can clean just as well, but is much lighter and easier to move.
It packs powerful suction in a small package as well. When we tested the suction with our water lift gauge, it registered at 80 inches of water. This is just above the average for a standard sized vacuum, and very strong for a lightweight upright vacuum.
The Dyson DC24 is called an “All Floors” model because it has a brush bar that you can turn on and off.
For carpeting, activate the motorized brush bar to dislodge any dust, pet hair, or other particles from the pile.
On hard floors like tile or wood, turn the brush bar off.
The reason you want the brush bar off is the rotating bristles can kick debris away from the vacuum instead of sucking it in on hard flooring.
Performance on Carpets
We look at three different things when judging how well a vacuum performs on carpet. How well does it clean small particles, large particles, and pet hair?
For our first test, we poured flour on the carpeting to simulate fine particles like dust. With only one pass, the Dyson DC24 cleaned up all the flour.
It did an excellent job, but you have to make sure you are using the motorized brush bar.
There was no need to get out an onboard tool to clean up the floor even on the edge of the room and along the closet door.
All the flour was picked up all the way to the edge either from vacuuming straight on or on a turn.
Up next was the large particle test. Crushed up goldfish crackers were dumped on the carpet pile to simulate medium and large sized debris.
For this test, the Dyson’s suction power was more than adequate, but the largest pieces were pushed forward and didn’t fit under the head of the motorized brush bar.
We had to lift up the head of the vacuum a little to get this debris sucked into the vacuum. Even by lifting up the head of the DC24 vacuum some of the larger cracker pieces still weren’t picked up.
The final test involved sucking up pet hair that had worked its way into the carpet fiber. Even though this model isn’t dubbed an “animal vacuum” the Dyson DC24 mini ball sucked up the pet hair with ease.
Performance on Rugs
One problem with other Dyson models is the suction power is simply too powerful. The Dyson DC24 Lightweight Ball has found a great balance especially for rugs. The suction is powerful enough to clean your rugs, but not too powerful so it pulls the rug off the floor and jams up into the vacuum.
We used it on large area rugs and a few entrance rugs. Both of these sized rugs were cleaned up nicely. While vacuuming a super light bathroom rug without a backing, we suggest putting a foot on one end to hold the rug in place.
Another nice feature is once you roll off the rug, you can turn off the motorized brush bar with one touch of a button and still keep the power on.
Performance on Hard Floors
Tile floor and hardwood were the two surfaces we tested the Dyson DC24 All-Floors on. We used flour and crushed crackers for our small and large particles again.
The small particles were cleaned up incredibly well. One pass and the flour was completely removed from the tile.
For the larger particles, the goldfish crackers were cleaned off the tile floor easily, but they weren’t sucked off of the wood floor effectively.
On the wood floor, the crackers were just pushed back and forth because they didn’t fit under the vacuum head.
On tile floor the vacuum head pushed these particles into the lower areas where the grout was, and then they fit under the vacuum head and were sucked up.
Edge Cleaning
During our small particle test on carpeting we poured flour right up against the molding and closed closet door. A very small area next to the wall wasn’t completely clean using the vacuum head on or from the side.
On hard floors this flour was sucked up, but on carpeting, a little bit was left there. We had to use the on board tools to suck up this very small area that was about one eighth of an inch wide. Overall, we were impressed by the edge cleaning of the DC24.
Filtration
The two filters and the root cyclone technology suck up all the dust and also ensure that none of it escapes the vacuum. With our airborne particle scanner, we measured no dust coming from the Dyson DC24 exhaust.
What this means is this vacuum is perfect for people who suffer from allergies. It removes dust from your floor and doesn’t re-circulate it into the air like many other vacuums will do.
Attachments / Onboard Tools
This section should really be titled “On Board Tool” because only one tool comes with the Dyson DC24 All Floors vacuum. It is a debris nozzle and an upholstery brush.
You can slide the upholstery brush up if you are cleaning curtains or furniture, and push it back down for other cleaning situations. The suction power is impressive for the on board tools too.
We cleaned edges, ceilings, stairs, blinds, curtains, and other hard to reach areas easily with the on board tools, reversible wand and elastic hose.
The Dyson website claims that the reversible wand with the hose has a reach of 25 feet, but we found that it really reaches only about 12 feet. This is still excellent, because we could reach to the top of a vaulted ceiling to clean spider webs.
One design quirk that annoyed us a bit was the reversible wand. On the back of the unit, the stretchable hose sits around the wand. You have to completely pull the wand off, flip it around, and then reattach the wand to the hose before you can use it.
This is different than other full sized upright Dyson models where you don’t have to detach the wand from the hose ever. In the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t much of a problem, but we were acclimated to the other Dyson models and weren’t sure why they designed this model different.
Ease of Use
A powerful lightweight vacuum with unprecedented maneuverability, the Dyson DC24 upright vacuum cleaner ranks up as one of the best in ease of use. There are a few things that aren’t perfect, but overall it does a great job.
Getting Started
No tools were necessary for putting this vacuum together. It comes in a very small and light box, which makes purchasing it via the Internet ideal.
Take all the parts out (there are three) and then snap the pieces together.
The reversible wand slides loosely into the hose on the main unit, and the red button snaps into place.
The Motorized brush bar snaps into the main unit too. Plug it in and you are ready to clean.
Maneuverability
The incredible maneuverability is the big selling point of the Dyson Ball vacuums. We actually prefer the lightweight version because you have to turn your wrist over a little to make the vacuum turn.
This Dyson DC24 model is less than 12 pounds so this doesn’t cause any strain on your wrist or arm. The larger model can make your arm a little sore at times.
The low to the ground brush bar can fit under the edge of the cabinets. This is a plus that most regular upright vacuums can’t do.
So when cleaning the kitchen you won’t have to get out the edge cleaning tool to reach the debris under the kitchen cabinets.
It also can get under the edge of beds, and other furniture to keep the carpet and flooring clean even in areas normally unseen.
Cleaning Stairs
It was very nice and easy to clean the stairs with the lightweight Dyson DC24.We don’t recommend you use the upright vacuum for stairs. Instead use the reversible wand, or simply take the wand off and use the hose.
The reason it is nice to clean stairs with the DC24 is because of how light it is.
We cleaned about six stairs before we had to lift the vacuum up and place it on a stair. It is small enough to fit on a stair as you come up the steps.
Cord management and Length
A smaller vacuum is usually designed to clean smaller areas, and unfortunately that means a shorter cord. The cord on this vacuum is 20 feet.
That is plenty long enough to clean one room at a time, but don’t expect to go from one bedroom to the next without switching outlets. The cord wraps around the back of the vacuum nicely when not in use.
Hose Management and Length
The hose is situated at the back of the unit. It seems strange when you first assemble it because the hose rests inside the reversible wand. It doesn’t clip on tight when it isn’t in use. At first we though we were assembling the hose wrong, but that is just the way they designed this model.
To use the hose and reversible wand, you depress the red button at the base of the handle. The wand will slide out of the hose. Then turn the ‘reversible wand’ around to clip it to the hose. You can use the hose without the wand too, and that is actually a nice option for things that are close to ground level.
Floor Selection
This Dyson DC24 is an “All-Floors” model. It has a switch right by the power button to activate, or turn off the motorized brush bar.
Use the brush bar for carpets and rugs, and press the silver button to turn it off for hard flooring.
Noise
There are two different levels of noise when using the vacuum. For hard floors, when the brush bar is off, it registers at 70 decibels. This is quite quiet.
When vacuuming carpeting with the brush bar on it is at 75 decibels. This is still relatively quiet for a vacuum considering the average level of vacuum noise is 80 decibels.
Maintenance
Two things need to be tended two with the DC24 All Floors vacuum, even though it is bagless. The first seems simple, but is very important.
Remember to empty the small .19-gallon dustbin when it is full. This will happen relatively quickly because the vacuum sucks up a lot of dust.
If you don’t empty it when it is near full, the dirt and fuzz will cling to the root cyclone cylinder inside and you’ll have to use your hands to pull out some of the debris. Very gross indeed!
The second part of the maintenance for the Dyson DC24 is washing out the filters. There are two filters. The first is located at the top of the root cyclone.
Pop the top and pull out the filter. The second filter is located in the Ball. Rest the unit all the way down as if you were vacuuming.
Then spin the ball so you see the purple button. Push the button to remove a curved plastic piece of the ball. The filter is inside the ball.
Push the purple button on the filter to take it out of the ball. Wash both filters in clean water and let them dry completely by leaving them out on the counter for 24 hours.
Emptying the Debris Canister
The first step is to detach the canister from the main unit. Push on the red button and hold onto the clear handle on top of the DC24. Lift the canister off and hold it directly above a garbage can.
On the back of the canister is another red button. Depress this to release the bottom of the clear canister. The dust should fall straight down and into the trash. If there is some still hanging around in there, give it a little shake to set free all the debris.
Value For Money
The Dyson DC24 All Floors vacuum cleaner is a unique product on the vacuum market. Even if you don’t plan on buying one, see if you can push a Dyson Ball vacuum around in the store. This might change your mind. It’s loaded with powerful suction in a pint-sized package.
It should be noted that this vacuum is still much more expensive than other vacuums on the market. The reason for four stars is when you compare it to other Dyson models; it is much cheaper and still can do all the same things.
Also, it is way lighter than other Dyson models. You get the best things from Dyson, and it comes in a lighter package.
Final Vacuum Verdict
If you have an apartment or smaller sized home, you should really look into the Dyson DC24 Lightweight vacuum. It cleans just as good as other Dyson Models.
Other people who would love this vacuum would be people who suffer from allergies. It eliminates these fine particulates from the ground and doesn’t spit them back into the air.
We like this vacuum better for carpeting and rugs. The hard floors are cleaned nicely but only if you have smaller particles.
