Dyson DC25 vs Oreck XL Gold – Carpet Sweeping Review

In part one of my comparative review of two vacuums, the Oreck XL Gold and Dyson DC25 Animal, I covered general, cosmetic differences between the two vacuums that you can read here.

During the past two weeks I wanted to really see what these vacuum cleaners were made of and set up a home test where each vacuum was used exclusively in our home for one week on 3 types of floor where different types of messes occur.

• Area 1 – Family/Living Room – Laminate wood flooring with an area rug. Heavy foot traffic, play area for children and our dog.
• Area 2 – Kitchen and Laundry Room – Tile flooring with heavy traffic. Also includes space where our dog’s crate is.
• Area 3 – Child’s Bedroom – Low carpet with medium traffic, light from the dog.

The Clean Up Zone
Child’s Bedroom
low carpet, dirt, small papers, pet hair, pencil shavings

The Result

Overall, both vacuums swept the main areas of the floor leaving nothing visibly behind. One clear difference between the Dyson DC25 Animal and Oreck XL Gold is that the Dyson is much easier to maneuver around furniture and corners thanks to the smooth motion of the exclusive Ball Technology.

Baseboard Cleaning

Another area that is often overlooked by vacuums is the 2 inches or so extending from the baseboards and wall trim.

The Dyson DC25 Animal did a superior job grabbing the small particles of dirt and paper along baseboards reaching within centimeters of the wall while the Oreck XL left quite a bit behind.

Pet Hair Removal

During the past two weeks, each vacuum was used exclusively for one week in the same three rooms of our home (living room with rug, tile kitchen, carpeted bedroom) daily to compare the amount of pet hair they would remove. Much thanks to our 8 month old Labrador Retriever for providing the lovely hair shown here from our carpets.

While both vacuums did an excellent job of picking up dirt and dust, clearly the Dyson, which is designed for homes with pet hair, removed far more from our floors.

Small Object Removal

Oreck: There are two options for the sweeper brush, low and high, unfortunately for the Oreck, this is NOT a useful tool because it leaves you without the option of suction with no brush rotation to pick up stray objects like dog food pebbles and bits of paper. With the brush bar in constant rotation we found that rather than picking up the dog food it just flung it across the floor or pushed it into the baseboards.

Dyson: The motorized brush bar also comes with two settings, off and on. Being able to turn the brush bar off while allowing suction makes the Dyson DC25 the superior option for picking up small objects like stray dog food, glass shards and paper shreds. During our two weeks of testing each vacuum, I did have to use the Dyson to clean up dog food pebbles left behind from the Oreck.

Second Impressions

While my first impressions of the vacuums left me not swayed either direction, this is not true today. For every day cleaning, especially with an animal and small children in the house, the Dyson is quickly becoming my favorite. This is not to say the Oreck is a bad vacuum, but it’s just not quite matching up to the capabilities of the Dyson design and technology.

Be sure to check back next week as I dig deeper into the vacuums and cover Attachments and cleaning odd places like air vents, under furniture and out of reach dust zones.

FTC Compliant Review Policy: The product(s) featured in this review were provided free of cost to me by the manufacturer or representing PR agency. Opinions expressed are my own and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.