Although cordless and robotic vacuums are more popular than ever these days, sometimes power is more important than portability in a vacuum. For full-sized power in canister form, you’ll have to look long and hard to find anything better than a Miele. But if you’re in search of an upright, Dyson’s still the best brand in town.

We recently reviewed two of their latest and greatest models, the Ball Animal 2 and the Ball Multi Floor 2. Today we’re going to compare the Multi Floor 2 to its predecessor, the Dyson Ball Multi Floor Upright, and figure out if it’s worth upgrading to the next generation or sticking with older technology. Our ten second summary is to buy the Multi Floor 2 if you want a slightly larger cleaning radius and a slightly lighter vacuum, and to buy the Multi Floor Upright if those perks don’t add any value to your cleaning style. We review it fully below, and you can buy the Ball Multi Floor Upright here.

Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the Dyson Ball Multi Floor Upright Vacuum

The Ball Multi Floor Upright is the vacuum Dyson redesigned to make the Ball Multi Floor 2. As the name implies, it’s one of many “ball” vacuums, all of which are distinguished by the ball-shaped axis they use to turn and the highest levels of suction you’ll find in an upright vacuum.

Aside from the Multi Floors, you can also choose from models like the aforementioned Ball Animal 2, the Cinetic Big Ball Animal, Cinetic Ball Animal Plus Allergy, and the Small Ball. The Ball Multi Floor Upright, for its part, is simply an update of the DC65 Multi Floor, which itself is just a stripped down version of the DC65 Animal and DC65 Animal Complete.

If you’re confused by this model bloat, don’t worry; so are we. The take home point is that the Ball Multi Floor Upright is a powerful vacuum and was only recently succeeded by the Ball Multi Floor 2.

The Ball Multi Floor Upright’s key features include 245 airwatts of suction, bare floor, low-pile, and medium-pile carpet cleaning power, an auto-adjusting cleaning head, and complete internal HEPA filtration. It has three accessories–a motorized brush, stair tool, and combination accessory tool–and a smooth-release wand and flexible hose. The one-touch dust bin holds .5 gallons and the vacuum has a 45 foot operating radius with 30 of those feet coming from the power cord. It tips the scales at 17.2 pounds, is 42.4 inches tall, and has a 13.4 inch-wide cleaning path.

Unboxing the Ball Multi Floor Upright, you’ll find the vacuum and aforementioned accessories as well as an operating manual. You’ll also receive paperwork for Dyson’s remarkable 5 year parts and labor warranty, which continues to impress us in a world of ever-shortening warranty coverage.

What’s the difference between the Multi Floor Upright and Multi Floor 2?

Despite Dyson’s marketing, there isn’t much to differentiate the Ball Multi Floor Upright and Ball Multi Floor 2. You get more bright, sunny gold with the Multi Floor 2, a slightly larger cleaning radius, a slightly lighter and thinner vacuum, a slightly smaller dust bin, and a slightly wider cleaning head. For the sake of completion, let’s look at these differences in detail.

Aside from the color difference, your reach is extended with the Multi Floor 2 to 47 feet instead of 45 with the Upright. Weight drops from 17.2 pounds in the Upright to 15.6 in the Multi Floor 2. The overall height remains the same, but the body is thinned out in the Multi Floor 2, which is why the dust bin capacity shrinks from .5 gallons in the Upright to .4 in its successor. The cleaning head, however, widens from 13.4 inches in the Upright to 15.4 in the Multi Floor 2.

Practically speaking, you’re not going to notice the difference in reach, but you might notice the weight difference when toting each vacuum up stairs, even though both will seem like bowling balls compared to a V8 Absolute that tips the scales at 5.6 pounds. You likely won’t notice the difference in dust bin size, as both are ample enough to get through a room without needing emptying. The cleaning head width will make a difference in that you’ll cover more ground with the Multi Floor 2 per minute, but it also makes the head a bit harder to squeeze between furniture without moving it.

Everything else between both vacuums is the same, particularly cleaning power (245 airwatts) and the accessories with which they ship.

How does the Multi Floor Upright handle carpets, bare floors, and families with kids and pets?

When you buy a full-sized, high-end upright vacuum like the Ball Multi Floor Upright, you’re naturally going to want it to perform. While it’s not going to clean high-pile carpets (you’ll need something like a Miele Complete C2 Electro+ for that), you’re going to want it to clean hardwood floors, tile, vinyl, and laminate with ease, and you’re going to expect that famous Dyson power when motoring through low- and medium-pile carpeting. You’ll naturally want it to clean out dirt, dog and cat hair, dust, and food from floors, sofas, beds, stairs, car seats, and just about everywhere else in your life that life happens to. Ideally, it’ll do so for the five years of warranty coverage without issue and then keep going for another decade or more.

While the Multi Floor Upright hasn’t been on the market long enough for us to confirm if you’ll get more than a decade out of it, we can confidently say you’ll get just about everything else we described above from it in normal operating conditions. It’s powerful, easy to push, attractive, and simple enough for people of all ages to use without needing to consult an owner’s manual. It’s not the perfect vaccuum–we’d always like the same amount of strength in a lighter package, but for what we’re getting for the money, it’s hard to complain.

Why buy the Ball Multi Floor Upright?

In conclusion, as with the Ball Multi Floor 2, it’s not easy for us to come up with criticisms for the Ball Multi Floor Upright. Frankly, Dyson got it right with both of these models, and supplied each with a healthy amount of suction and a good number of accessories. We’d mainly recommend getting the Multi Floor 2 if you want a slimmer, sleeker, lighter, and more golden package, and to stick with the Multi Floor Upright if it’s cheaper and you don’t mind not having the newest Dyson on the market. Both are fine machines to push around.

You can buy the Dyson Ball Multi Floor 2 here on Amazon or save some money and skip out on updated features by buying the Dyson Ball Multi Floor Upright here.

Canadians can buy the Dyson Ball Multi Floor 2 here on Amazon; unfortunately, the Ball Multi Floor Upright is rarely in stock these days.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.