Dyson DC14 Disassembled & Reviewed by a Vacuum Cleaner Store Owner
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Author's Rating:
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Pros: Excellent cleaning, customer service, no belts or bags, low maintenance, long power cord. Constant Airflow!
Cons: Canister model not available in the U.S., takes a little getting use to.
The Bottom Line:
Only buy this if you want a clean & healthy home and save money. In my opinion, no other upright vacuum can clean as well as the Dyson.
Author's Review
UPDATE: June 22, 2006
It has been over six months since my original post. Time for an update. I havent spent a dime on paper vacuum bags in eight months. Still vacuums leaving the air clean. Great suction. The Dyson continues to work fabulously well. I did check the filter and as per the owners manual it did need cleaning. A quick rinsing under the faucet did the job. When I cleaned the filter I lightly banged the dirt container on the inside of the trash can. About 4 tablespoons of fine dirt came out. That isnt bad for 8 months of cleaning. I stick with my original rating. This one is a keeper.
REVIEW
I will tell you the truth why this vacuum does or doesn't work. I'm the guy everyone loves to hate, the door-to-door vacuum salesman. I have sold Electrolux, Amway CMS1000/CleanTrak, and Rainbow vacuums. I also owned a Rexair Rainbow dealership for several years. After being in hundreds of homes demonstrating and comparing my products to Hoover, Kenmore, Kirby, Filter Queen, Electrolux, Rainbow, Bison, Panasonic, Bissell, etc. you get to know what works and what doesn't. I no longer sell vacuums, nor am I associated with Dyson other than being a very happy customer, but I'm going to tell you, in my opinion, which is the best upright and the best canister vacuum available today. You may be surprised.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD VACUUM GOOD AND A BAD VACUUM BAD:
I will now share with you the secret that every Kirby, Electrolux, Panasonic, Bison, and every other door-to-door vacuum salesperson (except Rainbow and Filter Queen) dont want you to know.
After 20 years of service (replacing the motor bearings, power nozzle belts, and plastic hoses) and knowing that any vacuum that had a paper or cloth bag was worthless after the first 10 minutes of cleaning, we replaced our Rainbow water based vacuum with a CMS1000 bagless vacuum. (The CMS1000 was a revolutionary breakthrough in vacuum cleaners, an Amway "exclusive".) After 10 years our CMS1000 was stolen so we replaced it with a Bissell Lift-off bagless vacuum (big mistake). After using that for 10 months I took it back to Costco for a full refund and bought the Dyson. I now have a easy to use, low maintenance vacuum that really cleans. Better then but sort of like my CMS1000. (See additional resources at the bottom of this review.)
Mr. Dyson says his vacuum never loses suction. He is absolutely right, but
all vacuums don't ever lose suction. What makes the Dyson different then 99% of the others is it will never lose 100% of its
airflow. Only a small amount of the dust in a Dyson gets to the hepa filter so it loses only a very slight amount of airflow. I think he would have been more correct if he had said his vacuum keeps 98% of the airflow. I think he said "suction" instead of "airflow" because most people don't know the difference.
The conventional bag vacuum, and now bagless ones, lose by far the majority, up to 98%, of their airflow. Why all the chatter about airflow and not suction? Suction doesnt clean, airflow does. Let me explain.
Does a toilet plunger have suction? Yes. Could you use a toilet plunger to clean your carpet? No. Why? Because there is no airflow. As soon as you lift the toilet plunger off of the carpet any dirt that
might have been caught in the suction would just fall back to the carpet. Still dont believe me?
Take a regular drinking glass and put it on a table. Drop something very light into it like a piece of a mini marshmallow or a very small piece of paper. Put your mouth over the opening in the glass sealing it around your mouth and suck. You can suck so hard it feels like your lips are going to be ripped off of your face but the marshmallow or piece of paper will not move. Why? There is plenty of suction! The reason is because there is no airflow.
Without airflow there is no air movement to carry away the dirt in a carpet, or a marshmallow in a drinking glass. Suction has no air movement. In order to pick up dirt, a vacuum cleaner has to have air freely flowing in from the head or brush bar area through the porous paper bag or bagless dirt collector and freely out of the vacuum cleaner. The dirt that is picked up from the carpet from a bag vacuum cleaner is carried (actually pushed) by the air all the way through the vacuum cleaner to the inside walls or sides of the bag, where because of the small bag holes, it is stopped.
Not only is the dirt stopped, because of the small holes in the bag, but the dirt stops-up or clogs-up the small holes causing the vacuum cleaner to lose its airflow. A vacuum cleaner has to use a porous bag in order to let out the air. Could you imagine what would happen if your vacuum cleaner had a plastic dirt bag? Youre right, nothing. Why? Because the air could not escape. With the air not escaping there is no airflow. See what I mean?
The motor is still turning and trying to blow air out the holes in the porous bag (or in a bagless vacuum through the air filters) but because the holes are clogged with dirt two things happen.
First, pressure builds up and forces the smaller dirt, dust, bacteria, germs, carpet mites and anything else small enough, through the holes so the air can escape. Congratulations! You have just moved all the filth from your carpet to the air in your house. Now breathe deeply. Smell that vacuum smell? Now you know what gives it its smell, filth.
Secondly, because all of the holes are clogged with this nasty stuff, the air flow is so restricted that only the lightest carpet fluff and dust can be picked up. Think about it. The average upright vacuum paper bag is about the size of a 15 pound bag of sand. However when it is chalk full and has to be emptied it probably only weighs 2 to 5 pounds at the very most. Why? Because of the restricted airflow it is full of only the very light dust and carpet fibers that could be picked up. You will also find some sand, maybe a couple tablespoons of sand, because the bag takes a few minutes before it is clogged-up so some heavier items will be sucked up for a few minutes.
So where is all the dirt that you saw before you vacuumed? Well since the vacuum couldnt suck it up, because there is no airflow, the beater bars just beat it down into the carpet. If you have ever pulled up a carpet you have seen piles and piles of sand under the carpet and pad that have been beaten down by vacuuming. The problem with beating down the sand is that sand is sharp, like glass. As long as there is sand in the carpet every time you vacuum (beat the sand into the carpet) or someone walks across the carpet your carpet fiber is being cut to pieces. It is those pieces of cut up carpet that you find in your vacuum bag. One way to tell if your vacuum is working is you get less and less carpet fiber in your bag or bin.
Bagless vacuums are just as bad, and sometime worse because they dont drop the dirt off into the canister before the air goes to the filters. The filters clog up with dust and dirt, often faster then bag vacuums, and you no longer have enough airflow to clean. Since Mr. Dysons vacuum
does effectively drop the dirt from the air stream into the clear bin before it goes through the hepa filter, you constantly have airflow which in turn picks up the dirt out of the carpet.
As I mentioned earlier the reason we bought the CMS 1000 and the Bissell bagless is because we knew bag vacuums dont work. It is simple physics. Unfortunately until Mr. Dyson came up with his invention no one had a solution that allowed constant airflow in a bagless vacuum.
The bottom line, vacuums, no matter if they cost $2 or $2,000, clog-up and stop removing dirt from your carpet minutes after putting in a clean bag. But you say, After vacuuming an area on my carpet over 100 times with my vacuum a Kirby salesman showed me all the stuff that his vacuum picked up. Let me ask you a question, Did he remove, detach or by-pass his bag to show you how much his vacuum picked up?
The answer is yes. Trust me. His vacuum is as bad as any $50 vacuum because it has a bag. If you would have taken off the bag on your vacuum and vacuumed the same area after he vacuumed it with the Kirby you would have picked up all the dirt the Kirby left behind.
All bag vacuums have the same problem, extremely low airflow. This effectively removes all bag vacuums from the good vacuum list. You are left with only bagless vacuums. The Rainbow water based vacuum, and the Filter Queen also qualify as bagless vacuums because neither have bags.
Now that we have established the physics of a vacuum cleaner we can see why Mr. Dysons vacuum does work. He has successfully found a way to drop the dirt out of the airflow stream, letting gravity pull it into the clear bin. Regardless of how nifty the attachments might be, or how flat a vacuum might suck down your pillows (another great salesman trick that proves absolutely nothing), having the vast majority of the dust and dirt fall out of the airstream before it reaches the hepa filter effectively creates constant airflow and that is what makes the Dyson vacuums the best upright bagless vacuum on the market, bar none.
CLEANING CARPETS AND FLOORS WITH THE DC14:
After doing my due diligence by reading a myriad of Epinion reviews (thank you everyone who took the time to share), I bought the Dyson DC14. I brought it into the living room and suggested to my wife that she read the manual before using the vacuum. I could have read it but, bless her heart, she is the one who does the vacuuming in our home. I suggested this because after reading the reviews here I knew there was a small learning curve.
The manual looks thick but that is because it is in several languages. The English part is only 14 pages and is mostly pictures. If you hate reading manuals, and who doesnt, pretend it is your favorite magazine or evening novel, sit back, relax, take a few minutes and enjoy it. She glanced through the assembly part, skipping the how to use and maintenance parts. In just a few minutes she had it assembled and was vacuuming.
The first thing I noticed was the air coming out of the vacuum smelled cleaner then the air that was in the room. I figured it needed time to clog-up before it would start smelling like the old vacuums. It never did. The air coming out of the vacuum really is cleaner than the air in the room. She diligently vacuumed the living room with its wall-to-wall carpet and throw rug, no problem.
I was impressed when I noticed the swiveling head which kept the brushes in constant contact with the carpet and rugs no matter what angle the handle was in. I was expecting to hear the grinding sound that others had mentioned in their reviews as she went from carpet to throw rug. It didnt happen.
She then noticed the carpet and floor knob on the lower right hand side of the vacuum head and asked if she could use it to vacuum the vinyl in the kitchen. (Remember she didnt read the how to part of the manual.) I said, "Yes". In reality she could have left it on carpet mode and kept the brushes turning. The carpet/floor knob, when turned to floor, stops the brushes from turning and possibly scratching expensive hardwood floors. She reached down and turned the knob with her hand from the carpet to floor setting. Later I showed her that she could very easily use her foot (shoe) to turn the knob from carpet to floor and vice versa. No bending needed. Using your foot is quick and easy. It is designed for you to do that.
We were excited to see the dirt being sucked up, not thrown around as she vacuumed the vinyl. It also did a great job under the lip of the cabinets. Because the vacuum head did not fit under the cabinet lip and reach all the way to the wood at the base of the cabinet I thought it would not pick up the dirt down there. I was wrong. There is enough airflow on the sides of the vacuum head to pull in the dirt. I was pleased. She then turned the carpet/floor knob to return to the carpeted areas to vacuum. That is when we heard the loud grinding noise.
It sounded like the grinding gears in a manual transmission car when someone is learning to drive a stick for the first time. (I later found the answer to our self made problem is in the manual but neither of us had read the "Using your DC14" section of the manual) so I called the toll-free number that is on the side of the vacuum for customer service. I found out that all you have to do to prevent that grinding sound is to first put the handle in the upright position then switch the knob. We tried it and it worked great, no noise.
Without unplugging the 36 foot long cord from the wall she vacuumed the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, hallway and stairs. If she had plugged the cord into the outlet in the hallway in the center of the house she could have possibly vacuumed the entire upstairs of our 2100 square foot home. Very nice.
CLEANING THE STAIRS WITH THE MINI TURBINE HEAD:
When she got to the stairs and started using the wand and hose. She quickly got frustrated. As many others had written in their reviews the wand became a giant unruly serpent. At first she could not get the wand and hose to detach from the vacuum. I suggested she go read that part in the manual. (For those of you who dont read manuals just press the large white ribbed release button at the base of the handle and the wand will come right off.)
She easily extended the wand, detached it and put on the mini turbine head. She vacuumed half of the stairs fighting the wand and hose the whole time. I could see the frustration in her face. Watching her try to vacuum the stairs with this three foot long hard wand reminded me of Sinbad the sailor fighting the water monster in the movies. I had read in the reviews (I hadnt read the manual either) that you can remove the wand from the hose to make it easier to use. Sure enough, I simply pushed the two gray buttons on the side of the wand and removed the wand making the twelve foot hose easy to use. That is the secret to doing stairs and vacuuming the car.
She did find, however, that the mini turbine head would not pick-up the dirt that was tucked in where the bottom of one step meets the top of the one below it. She took off the mini turbine head and put on the stair tool. It got the hard to reach dirt instantly. I prefer her to use the mini turbine head because I feel the turning brushes pick-up more dirt than just using airflow. She did find that if she placed the side of the mini turbine head at the base of the step that it did pick-up the hard to reach dirt. As she pressed down, adding pressure on the mini turbine head, I watched closely to see if the brushes would stop turning (as a few reviews had mentioned). Nope. The mini turbine heads brushes kept turning the whole time.
Later I found there is an ON/OFF switch on the left side of the mini turbine head. Make sure it is pulled out to keep the brushes turning. There is also a sliding switch on the underside of the neck of the mini turbine head. Make sure that it is slid towards the brush end of the tool not the hose end. If you slide it to the double dot hose end it opens a vent in the neck of the tool which allows it to suck in air from the neck therefore reducing the airflow from the head. The mini turbine head works flawlessly if used correctly.
Some have complained that the tools (crevice, stair and brush tools) do not stay on the vacuum, that they fall off their storage area on the top of the vacuum. My wife had the same experience. I noticed, however, that she had failed to snap in the tool all the way. Once the tools were snapped all the way in they stayed in with no problem. The tools attach via friction to the wand or end of the hose, not by snapping on. This works well.
As you push the tool onto either the wand or the hose twist it a little and it will fit and stay on snuggly. To remove pull and twist. The little release button at the hose end of the mini turbine head is for use with the European canister Dyson vacuum. You can just ignore it when using it with the upright model. If you do find that any of the tools dont stay on firmly I would recommend calling customer service.
EMPTYING THE CLEAR BIN, OH JOY!
When you are done vacuuming you get to experience a real treat, emptying the clear bin without dust filling the air and without getting your hands all dirty. I think this one feature will cause the kids to fight over who gets to vacuum. They will all want to vacuum so they can be the one who gets to empty the bin. I have never seen such an easy, dustless, dirt free way of emptying a vacuum bin. Most people with a bag vacuum have to either go outside or lay down newspaper on the floor when they change the bags because so much junk is shot into the air, and dropped onto the floor when changing a bag.
I had a bagless vacuum for so long I just got use to beating the bin against the garbage can to hopefully knock all the fluff out of the bin. When that didnt work I would reach my hand, and half of my forearm, up inside and grab the filth in order to pull it out. Yuck! With the DC14 there is none of that. A simple push of the white button just above the top of the bin on the vacuum and the bin easily comes off the vacuum. Another push of the red button (conveniently positioned right under your thumb at the top of the bin) and the trap door opens at the bottom of the bin and the dirt freely falls into your garbage can or whatever you are using to dispose of the dirt.
If your carpet fibers have been cut up from using other vacuums you may still have fluffy carpet fiber left in the bin. No problem. You dont have to reach in and pull it out. Below the red button and at the top of the clear bin there is a yellow button. Push up on that button and the clear bin comes off and you can easily empty anything that might have been stuck between the clear bin and the cone that is inside the bin.
WHAT MY WIFE SAID TO CONVINCE ME THE DC14 REALLY WORKS:
My wife said nothing to me as I followed her around the house analyzing the functionality of the DC14. When she couldnt get something to work she did return a couple of times to read more parts of the manual. (She hasnt finished reading all of it yet.) Once she did she had no problems. When she was all done and we were looking at the bin full of dirt and carpet fluff I asked her what she thought. She simply said, It picked up a weeks worth of dirt. I asked her what that meant.
She explained that she vacuums the whole house every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and that after vacuuming just once with the DC14 the amount of stuff in the clear bin was the same amount that she typically got after vacuuming for the whole week with the old vacuums. When she said that, all of the physics that Mr. Dyson implemented in making this vacuum work were no longer of interest to me. It just worked. That is all I needed to know. It got the carpet cleaner than anything else she had ever used.
I think the Rainbow and the CMS we had were much better then 99% of the vacuums on the market but I was glad that we finally had found the
best cleaning solution available in an upright vacuum cleaner.
THINGS YOU DONT NOTICE RIGHT OFF:
As soon as my wife was done vacuuming I got out my Leatherman multi-purpose tool and started taking the vacuum apart. I wanted to get into the guts of the machine to see if the machine was well built and if there were any hidden gotchas that would cause the vacuum not to work well after a while. Disappointedly I found I didnt need my nifty multi-purpose tool to tear into the machine. It has been beautifully designed so you can quickly and easily get to all the needed parts for very easy maintenance.
I noticed right off with a push of a button anywhere you might get something stuck in the hose or tubing could be quickly removed to clear the passage. Very nice, I thought. Over the years I have used a straightened metal coat hanger too many times trying to reach into a hose or tube with other vacuums to dislodge something stuck. The plastic is not cheap brittle plastic. It is lightweight and durable high quality plastic. There really is no reason to use metal in a vacuum any more.
I found all you need to remove the cover over the brush bar is a coin, no screw driver is needed. There is no beater bar on the DC14. It uses only brushes. Some vacuums really do beat the carpet to death by having a hard plastic bar along with brushes on the rotating bar. A very bad idea no matter what the salesperson might tell you. Let me ask you, Do you beat the dirt out of your pet or do you brush it? All you need on a vacuum (with proper airflow) is a brush. I think the reason vacuum manufacturers put bars on is because they know their vacuums can not pickup the dirt so they beat it down into the carpet nap so you dont see it and think the dirt is gone.
As I snooped around the machine I found a little black vent hole cover at the top of the cyclone cylinders. I called customer service and they explained that it is there so air can keep flowing to cool the motor in case you get a sock or something stuck in the tube or hose. A great idea. This made me even more impressed with their attention to detail. Aha! With a little more searching I found the gotcha. There is a hepa filter directly above the motor. I knew it. There had to be something. I called customer service again.
It was around 2:30pm. The phone rang about six times but I was never put on hold. Boy was I shocked! They said that filter
never needs to be removed or cleaned. It is there to protect the motor from sucking in anything that might damage it. It filters the air going
into the machine, not out. Rats! I thought I had them. After forty-five minutes of dissecting the machine I found nothing to dissuade my opinion that this is the best built, best cleaning upright vacuum on the market.
FEATURES
It works!: Bottom line Mr. Dyson has done it. It really cleans because it keeps a strong constant airflow.
Carpets & Floors: My wife loved that she didnt have to use a broom to clean the kitchen floor that just throws dirt into the air. She can clean the kitchen vinyl, our hardwood entry area and the carpets with one machine, without putting on an attachment, and do a better job than by using anything else.
Clean, Filtered Exhaust: No more filth in the air and vacuum smell after cleaning the house like we had with the Bissell Lift-off vacuum. You dont have to buy fragrances to put into your vacuum bag or squirt onto your bagless filters to cover up the vacuum smell when you vacuum. Not only are we cleaning the carpet but we are making the whole house a healthier place to live by cleaning the air (by not spraying filth into the air).
Warranty: One to three years. Mine has a two year warranty.
Customer Service: Toll-free 24/7/365. Always open. Easy to understand native English speaking support staff. Answered all my questions. Very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.
Low Maintenance: The only real maintenance is washing out the hepa filter that is over the clear bin at least once every six months with water. No bags or filters to buy, ever! That alone can pay for the Dyson.
Tools & Attachments: Crevice, Brush, Stair tools all work and are conveniently stored on the machine. Mini Turbine Head worked flawlessly on heavy stair carpet. Wand and 12 foot long hose (17 feet total) worked great once you figure out how to best use them. I think the best use of the wand is in conjunction with the floor tool (which we didnt use. We just turned off the brushes) or for cleaning hard to reach cobwebs on the ceiling with the brush tool.
Swivel Brush Bar Head: Because the head swivels it keeps constant contact with the floor or carpet thereby not missing any spots while you move the handle up and down.
Ease of Dumping Dirt: That says it all. No mess, no dirty hands, no filth flying around in the air, no water, no bags. Because the bin can be taken apart it is easy to wash down if needed.
Ease of Use: My wife said the vacuum pushes over the carpet easily. Because of the placement of the lifting handle it is easy to carry up and down the stairs or out to the car. It is not as heavy as other vacuums we have had. Large wheels on the back make it easy to turn and maneuver. I had considered the DC15, otherwise known as The Ball, it is suppose to maneuver even easier, but I didnt want to pay that much. OK Im cheap.
Long Power Cord: I love the 36 foot long cord. It makes it much easier to do more vacuuming before having to find another electrical outlet meaning we can get the vacuuming done quicker and easier.
Free Toy Vacuum Cleaner: From Oct. 23 to Nov 28, 2005 you get a free working vacuum cleaner toy from Dyson. Simply mail the redemption form, a copy of your receipt and the UPC bar code from the box and its yours, free of charge, they even pay for the shipping and guarantee it will arrive before Christmas if your envelope is post marked by Nov 28, 2005. Wow, now that is customer service.
THE BEST UPRIGHT & THE BEST CANISTER VACUUMS ARE...
Without hesitation I can say the Dyson is by far the best upright vacuum available at any price for two reasons. One, it really does clean the carpet because of the constant airflow. Two, it doesnt throw filth into the air, therefore keeping or improving the air quality and healthy environment in my home. So what is the best canister vacuum?
Well if Dyson sold their canister vacuum in the U.S. I would have to test it first to see how it stands up against the Filter Queen. But since the majority of U.S. women dont like canisters, Dyson pulled their canister vacuums out of U.S. distribution earlier this year (2005). That leaves the Filter Queen as the best canister vacuum available in the U.S. for the same reasons that the Dyson upright is the best upright.
In all my years as a vacuum salesman and distributor neither I, nor anyone that I knew, could ever beat a Filter Queen in a head-to-head contest in cleaning a carpet or filtering the exhaust air coming out of the vacuum. The Filter Queens filters work so well you can actually clean the air in a room by simply turning on the Filter Queen. Because it doesnt have a bag it doesnt get clogged-up. It has constant powerful airflow that in combination with its power nozzle really does an unmatched cleaning job on carpets. After several years of coming up against Filter Queens in in-home demonstrations if I saw a Filter Queen in a home I would just leave.
The Rainbow water based vacuum is good in theory but in practice it doesnt work. Once dirt is in the water it does stay there. Unfortunately not all the dirt gets trapped into the water and it ends up flying out into the air in the room. It is also quite a bit of work to maintain, having to fill and empty the water basin, dry it out or let it air dry, clean the separator (because it gets clogged) and assemble the vacuum each time. With the water it is quite heavy and awkward to carry around without worrying if you are spilling water through the separator and into the motor area.
DONT GET SUCKERED
Unless you want to help a friend who is selling a vacuum door-to-door make a sale or unless you want the full factory warranty (which is in my opinion not worth it) never buy a vacuum from a door-to-door salesman. Let someone else pay $2,000 or more for the Filter Queen so you can buy it at a thrift store, second hand vacuum store, or on Ebay for $20-$200. I dont think the Electrolux, Kirby or any other vacuum sold door-to-door is worth the free gift you get for watching the demonstration. Not to mention the high pressure sales tactics.
If you think you want a vacuum that is sold door-to-door borrow one for a week from someone (not the salesman) and see if it does what you want. If you are buying a vacuum because it will get the dust mites out of your bed, shampoo your carpet, suck up water, dry your hair, or any other reason than vacuum your carpet and floors, then you are being suckered. Dont do it. If your vacuum is working you should
never have to shampoo a carpet unless someone spills, then all you need to do is spot clean it. If you are worried about dust mites in your bed get a Latex mattress or use the hose and an attachment on your Dyson to vacuum the mattress. Buy a shop vac for $30 if you want to suck up water or a hair dryer if you want to dry your hair, but not a vacuum cleaner.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
In addition to the great reviews here at Epinions you can find more information about products I mentioned in my review from the following websites. (You will need to copy and paste the links below into your web browser. They are not "live" links, sorry.)
Fascinating facts about James Dyson:
www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/dyson.htm
Amway CMS1000/ClearTrak, Amway Cheats Inventor (Dyson):
www.amquix.info/amway_dyson.html
Filter Queen:
www.filterqueen.com
Rexair Rainbow:
www.rainbowsystem.com/eng/
Electrolux:
www.electrolux.com/naportal_us.html
Hoover:
www.hoover.com
Kenmore:
http://www.sears.com/sr/kenmore/products/line/km_product_vacuums.jsp?
Bissell:
www.bissell.com/Products/category.asp?catalog%5Fname=Bissell&category%5Fname=Vacuum&Page=1
Panasonic:
www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vOverview?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&catGroupId=25073&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702