Go to John Lewis, they have them on display, they allow you to do all the above and will even plug it in if you ask them. Go to Currys, they have them on display and a bunch of uninterested sales people who won't even notice what you're doing.

By removing the hose, I mean merely pull it out from the handle as if you're going to use it.

Somehow I don't think the sales people in the store are going to let you do all that!

Daughter has one and compared to our Miele its a joke. For the sake of £5 a year for bags you will regret buying this piece of rubbish. Next time your at the local tip notice the pile of dysons in the appliance area.

I am genuinely staggered at people paying £200!!!!!! for a vacuum cleaner. No matter how well built or designed, it is a vacuum cleaner & not something high tech. Cold.

Go to a store that has it on show for you to actually look at. My advice, check out the mechanism that locks the cleaner upright, check the locking and unlocking of this. Ours, which is this model, is diabolical. Many times you think its locked upright and the vacuum just falls over on you.

Next thing i would do is remove the hose part. Now see just how flimsy the unit has now become. Any rigidity it had just disappears once the hose is out. Add to that, the hose brush is awful compared to our old Dyson. The bristles on it arent stiff enough to loosen dust in some places, plus it remains attached to the thin suction nozzle.

Postives though, it does have good suction and the ability to turn off the brush rotation for hard floors.

We've just switched after years of dyson owning to a VAX bagless.
The build quality isn't as good as (old) Dyson, it's not quite as manouvreable without the ball and its slightly more faff moving between vacuum and nozzle but the power cord will stretch across timezones, the suction is far superior, it has a 6 year warranty and It was a fraction of the price. Oh and the handle recesses into the body making it easy to store... Finally its super light.

How small and plastic looking it is. We had a dc25 animal before buying this and it is twice the vaccum this is, literally. If I had taken up this advice prior to purchase, I would have looked for an alternative.

Light because they removed most of the parts that gave it any rigidity. Found out today as well that it doesn't like Nordmann Fir pine needles. Personally, I would think carefully before buying. Go somewhere you can look at one first.

Also same price in ASDA

Same price in John lewis

same price in tesco and curry's

Same price direct from Dyson, with free delivery. http://www.dyson.co.uk/vacuum-cleaners/upright/dc40/dc40-multi-floor-erp.aspx