You also have to clean another hidden filter on the Dyson DC26 that is located on the bottom of the canister. This tool has an air driven brush bar, which is ideal for roughing up the carpet to loosen and suck up dust. We like that this has powerful suction, but recognize this power can cause it to lift up a rug and make it difficult to clean without some finesse on your part.

There are some instances though where the suction is a bit too strong and the rug, especially if it is a small entryway rug, can get lifted off the ground below. There are two very small tabs that you have to unlock (try using a flat head screwdriver or we used a coin for this step). They allow you to get under furniture better, but they also can get in your way as you walk around trying to clean a room. Boasting a HEPA filtration system, it did a wonderful job of removing and retaining dust and allergens from the air as it cleans.

The Dyson patented filtration system works extremely well provided you clean out your filters once a month. There was plenty of suction to clean these particulates, but the rotating brush bar would hit the piece of cookie before the vacuum had a chance to suck it up. This debris was sucked up with one pass after we dislodged it, but beware of this factor and shake loose your brush every now and again. Another negative of this Dyson canister vacuum is the fact that the turbine head is an air driven brush bar. You will have to grab the bottom part and lift it up away from the dust bin to totally empty out all the evil things you sucked up.

With the help of some fine particulates, a pile of white flour, we simulated how the Dyson DC26 does cleaning up dust.

The crevice tool easily snaps into place, and we used it to clean up windowsills and ceiling corners. If your home has large open spaces, or medium to long pile carpeting, then Dyson DC26 City is not the best choice. It comes with a turbine head for cleaning carpet along with an articulating brush to clean hard floors. You actually don’t want a spinning brush bar, because the turbine head is more likely to kick larger particles away instead of sucking them up on hard floors.

Even for such a small canister vacuum, it can clean a large area of hard flooring in a minimal amount of time. The only situation that we found it to be useful for was to clean the vertical section of the staircase on a carpeted stairwell. Third, pick the turbine brush if you are cleaning carpet, or the articulating floor tool for hard floors.Another item that is worth mentioning is that some of these particles get jammed up and stick in the fine bristles of the articulating tool.

Another nice feature on the Dyson DC26 canister vacuum are the two featured cleaning heads that snap on and off. It also is versatile enough to clean hard floors and short pile carpeting efficiently and effectively.

On the bright side, it retracts with the touch of a button, so you don’t spend any time winding up the cord when it’s not in use. Most people totally forget about this aspect of maintenance and are totally surprised when they blow up their machine as the dust and debris clogs up the filtration system. Using our decibel reader, we measured how loud this machine was with both the turbine brush on and off. There are some other canisters out there that are easier to maintain, have just as good of a filtration system, but are bagged.