I have always quite liked the idea of the Dyson machines. What I have never liked was the tools with the cylinder cleaners. The DC02 were not too bad but I think James Dyson must have soon realised that if his cleaners utilised a generic 32mm fitment then people would use their old attachements when the Dyson ones failed, or shock horror would buy generic attachemnts. The DC05 hose and tubes was leaning towards this, although you could still use generic attachments on most models. I forget how many times i saw faulty telescopic tubes for this model or was asked about replacements. Usually it was the plastic socket which split, but then I saw others where the ratchet had failed and the tubes would not lock.
With each version of cylinder that has followed, the tubes and accessories have become more and more complicated. I would never ever use a turbo head on hard floors for fear of scratching them, even with the brushes switched off, so for me the feature where this can be done via the hose handle is wasted. Even then, a switch on the turbo head would have sufficed in reality, but of course that would not have required the hours and hours of research and development which Dyson like to put into their designs. Added to this, Dyson have their new floor brush which I do rather like, but I think it confuses the customer to show them how on one hand the turbo head can be used on floors, and then say 'here's a floor brush' for floors.
I did have a DC05 of sorts (it was a working cylinder which someone never came back to collect, so I used it in my flat with the original hose and tools off some other cleaners) and I never found it hard to move around. The flex was a good length and the hose not too short. Since then, I've noticed that the DC32 (which is the new DC23) has been supplied with a much shorter hose, even though the wrap around storage feature is still fitted to the cleaner. The shortness of the hose together with the bulk of the large cleaner made it more difficult to move than the DC05 which I'd become used to.
In all, whilst I don't dislike the idea of the ball-style cylinder, I do think the issue of pulling round a cylinder cleaner has been over dramatised. But then I am old school, the sort who would prefer to take care with what I was doing and make sure that I kept a decent path clear for cleaning, so as not to damage my furniture (never mind getting the cleaner stuck) and I look at what I am doing & what is going on around of me, but what do I know?
I was also bought up in a family where my mother used to clean regualarly with a 2nd hand Hoover 262 and a selection of hand brushes. Cleaning round things was not in her nature, and father and myself were often called upon to move furniture so she could clean under it and wipe down. This mentality was passed onto me I suppose. On a different note, reading this last bit back, I can see now why my mother was so excited when her employer (she was a housekeeper for the local doctor for many years) bought her an Electrolux 504 with full set of tools as a thank-you for all the help she'd provided nursing his father at home during his dying months.
I all, I do like Dyson cleaners. I've mixed feelings about many aspects, but I do lean towards them. What I don't get is why they seem to make good cleaners but off set the advantages of that by fitting what I consider to be really poor, unhelpful tools.