Dyson 31 Animal Handheld Vacuum

I was pleased to get the loan of a new Dyson 31 Animal to test, as with four cats, our house is replete with cat hair. Of main concern to me is my office, because loose cat hair can play havoc with computer equipment.

Although I had previously give its "big brother," the Dyson DC 14 a favorable review, that model is too large and bulky to maneuver around in my crowded office space, so a handheld model seemed ideal for cleaning up cat hair and dust in that setting.

The Dyson 31 arrived in a sturdy box, with just a few parts to assemble. The Operating Manual is short on written directions, but long on drawings, so it took only about 10 minutes to put together. After assembling the unit I immediately plugged in the charger as I was eager to test it. Although the manual indicated a three-hour wait for a full charge, I noticed that the unit already held some charge, and the indicator showed "fully charged" in about 30 minutes.

I used the Dyson 31 first in my office, mostly to clear loose cat hair and dust balls around the three surge protectors on the floor, and along the wall edges and corners. The handheld did a quick, efficient job at sucking up all the detritus, however, the dustbin reached the maximum fill level very quickly. Removing the dustbin was fairly easy, once I figured out the drawing's instructions. Fortunately, I was holding it over a wastebasket, so most of the debris fell directly there. However, some excess dust fell onto the surrounding carpet and up my nostrils. Note to Self: It would be wise to wear a face mask when emptying the Dyson handheld.

From my office, I moved to my bedroom, which I share with Jenny, a shorthair calico cat. I keep a maroon body pillow at the foot of the bed, and Jenny loves to lounge on it. It was covered with cat hair, so that was my next target. The pillow's fabric grabs hair like a magnet, so it was slower work. I changed the power setting to High, and a couple of minutes later, the unit quit working. What I had failed to recognize was that the 6-10 minutes shown on the power settings information referred to total length of time with one charge. Since I had only initially charged it for about 30 minutes, I left the unit on charge overnight. The next day, the story was the same. After seven or eight minutes, the battery died again.

If I could point out one fault with the Dyson 31 Animal Handheld Vacuum, it would be short battery life. It just seems that a 3.5 hour charge for a maximum of 10 minutes of effective usage is just not a fair trade-off. On the other hand for a quick cleanup of small amounts of cat hair, lint, and dust, this product does all that it claims to do.