Yesterday we told you of our affinity for the Dyson DC23 Turbinehead vacuum cleaner, and really the Dyson brand as a whole. While it’s the upright and canister vacuums the company is best known for, Dyson also has a pair of entrants in the handheld vacuum market: the DC31 and DC31 Animal ($220 and $270, respectively). Aside from color (the DC31 is yellow, the DC31 Animal is purple), the only difference between the two is that the DC31 Animal includes a motorized brush bar attachment, whereas the traditional DC31 does not. What they both have, however, is a motor that according to Dyson founder James Dyson, is “the fastest motor in the world.” It’s capable of achieving 104,000 revolutions per minute – roughly ten times as fast as a commercial jet engine, and roughly five times as fast as an F1 engine. The result is a supremely powerful handheld vacuum – one that can generate 38 air watts of constant suction in regular mode or 65 air watts of constant suction in high power mode – all while looking like a bad-ass phaser gun straight out of the future.
Around the house, the Dyson DC31 is really one of those things you don’t realize you need until you have one. I initially questioned spending $200 on a handheld vacuum, but the time and effort it’s saved me on quick cleanups as opposed to having to bring out the full sized Dyson is alone worth the cost. It’s great in the kitchen – coffee grinds, breadcrumbs, etc. in corners, drawers and other hard to reach places immediately come to mind. In my home office, I use it to clean my computer keyboard and suck up any other stray dust around the desk. And of course, it’s fantastic in the car. Floor mats, the console, the dashboard – I pretty much use it clean anything and everything related to my Merc. At 2.9 pounds, it’s easy enough to take anywhere I need it, and because it is so portable, I’m far better at cleaning right away. Before it was more a case of I’ll leave it until I vacuum; now spot cleaning is a 20 second task. I hate dust and I love saving time at arduous chores, so for me, it’s a win win.
Another thing that I was a little worried about was the relatively short battery life (10 minutes for normal mode, 6 minutes for high power mode). But after using the DC31, I’ve found the battery life to be sufficient. Because it’s trigger activated, you’re only turing it on a moment before you actually want to use it, so the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Half the time cleaning is spent moving from one place to another, so in real world use the DC31 lasts significantly longer than you’d expect. In cases where I’d need to use it for a straight 10 minutes, chances are I’d be better served using a regular vacuum with an attachment instead, so nine out of ten times the battery is going to be a non-issue.
Overall, the Dyson DC31 a fantastic little vacuum for anyone who hates dust and dirt as much as I do, and like my Dyson DC23 Turbinehead, I recommend it, especially if you’re in the market for a new handheld. And just to prove how great it is, we’re going to give a DC31 to one of you, our dear readers, so you too can partake in the beauty of Dyson engineering. The rules are simple: for your chance to win the Dyson DC31, all you need to do is register for an eMercedesBenz account (if you haven’t already) and leave a comment in this article telling us you want it. Easy, I know. The contest will end next Monday (May 24th) at 5:00 PM CST, and we’ll announce the winner the next day. In addition, we’re going to test a couple of new ways in this giveaway to help you increase your odds of winning. First, after leaving a comment on this article, you can also become a fan of eMercedesBenz on Facebook and add a comment on the Facebook entry for this article telling us you want it; and secondly, you can follow eMercedesBenz on Twitter and re-tweet the article. That gives you a possible total of 3 entries in this giveaway, if you use all three methods.
So to recap: 1) Leave a comment on this article and you’re entered; 2) “like” us on Facebook and leave a comment under the Dyson Giveaway Facebook post for a second chance to win; and 3) follow us on Twitter and re-tweet the Dyson Giveaway article for a third chance to win. If you don’t use Facebook and/or Twitter, you don’t need to use either to be entered in the giveaway, just leave a comment; and if you use only Facebook but not Twitter (or vice versa), you can enter a second time via your social site of choice. The one stipulation is that you must leave a comment directly on the eMercedesBenz.com article in addition to Facebook/Twitter – using only Facebook/Twitter won’t register you. And by the way, feel free to let us know what you think of the new Facebook and Twitter giveaway options. We always want your feedback, so if you love them, hate them, or have any other feelings, regarding them let us know – our goal is make eMercedesBenz as great as possible for you.
And that’s it. Get your comments in to get registered, and as always, best of luck to everyone that enters.
*No purchase necessary. This giveaway is void where prohibited by law. The winner(s) will be chosen at random by a member of the eMercedesBenz editorial staff. Taxes if applicable are the responsibility of the winner. eMercedesBenz is not liable for anything relating to this giveaway.
