DysonBall Animal 2 Total Clean Upright Vacuum Cleaner, Blue

LOVE this vacuum! It’s my first Dyson vacuum (animal 2 dark blue-ish) and I’m thrilled. We did get the option with all the extra tools and I’m really not sure I’ll ever use half of them but it is nice to have. I’ve been through so many vacuums that I’ve just hated and finally splurged on this when it was on sale. It’s comparatively light weight, easy to set up but did take me a minute to navigate the wand (flip cap off top handle and pull up). Also to tilt there is no button so you step on the back of the floor base part. I would have liked a light on it, but not a deal breaker. Same with a retractable cord (doesn’t have one and I hate manually wrapping cords, but that’s me). Not self propelling but I’m not even noticing or missing it. I have hardwoods, tile and area rugs (no carpeting). Some of my smaller rugs do get sucked up, so be careful. That just shows this thing has great suction I suppose. We have 2 large dogs (wire haired low shedding and medium length shedder) and 3 cats (one long hair and 2short). It definitely gets their fur and everything the dogs track in up (plus cat toys under furniture if I’m not careful). I used one attachment for plantation blinds and it worked great for basic dust. The angled attachment for top of doors etc... is a bit odd and may just take me getting accustomed to it (but it did work)! The wand is long enough to get my high ceilings/ corners / crown molding by itself (I am ~5’7”, but certain it would still reach for others shorter than I am). The fabric attachment worked well for a quick vacuum of the dog beds between washes (don’t use the vacuum itself on fabricwithout the attachment as it’s too strong). Easy to empty the bin too. It’s only been about a month but I am thrilled so far.

We'd give this vacuum 10 stars if we could! When it was delivered we decided to do a little test to see exactly how much better the Dyson Animal 2 was compared to our present Hoover Pet model. We made sure our old vacuum was clean with no blockages and thoroughly vacuumed all our carpets and area rugs. The results was amazing. The Hoover Pet had filled it's entire dirt container (bagless) with dog hair (German Shepherd) and dust. You'd think the carpets/rugs were clean. We went over the exact same area with the Dyson Animal 2 and WOW! It picked up an additional half dirt container of dog hair, dust, dander, etc. what we couldn't see and what the Hoover Pet left behind to almost half a container Yes, this Dyson is made of mostly plastic BUT we've had other brand name vacuums that were also made of plastic that was no where the quality of the Dyson. The plastic parts are tick and heavy. SOOO - Is the Dyson Animal 2 priced at around $500 really worth the difference from what you get in in a $200 machine??? OH YES!!!PROS:Incredible Suction - Much more than any other uprightGreat Carpet Brush System - Really brings the carpet knap upEasy To Push - Almost feels like a self propelled uprightEasy To Maneuver - Turns sharply with the ball designVery Quiet - Motor Buried deep in the ball reduces soundCONS:Power Cable - A bit ungainlyStability - Has a tendency to fall over if not locked upright correctlyBad Instructions - All you get is a very simple pictogram for assembly FRUSTRATING!

For those that don't want to read any further, here are the big issues with the Dyson:1) The cleaning head height is not adjustable, but rather has a floating head design.2) The floating head does no allow for pickup of some larger items that the competitors do better.3) The floating cleaning head causes too much suction on thick carpets and area rugs - The vacuum does not work on some carpets!4) Dyson does not advertise up front that it may not work on carpets. What else do they expect us to be vacuuming?Detailed review:After passing up Dyson upright vacuum cleaners for the past decade, we finally decided that as a Christmas gift to ourselves this year that we would finally go with a Dyson. We had previously gone with the more affordable Shark competitors, and while Shark has just as good, if not better warranty on their products, it just seems that we would wear them out in a matter of years. We have 3 dogs that shed uncontrollably, and we are constantly having to run the vacuum several times/week to keep the hair mess under control.We were excited to try the Dyson and quickly assembled it when it arrived. My wife proceeded to take it into the living room to clean our large area throw rug. The suction was so powerful that the cleaning head sucked itself down to the rug, not allowing the vacuum cleaner to me moved until it was powered off. We scratched our heads for a second, thinking that there must be some setting for carpets or rugs. We read the manual, and it indicated that some rugs may clean better with the rollers off. We tried with the rollers off and she got the same result...I knew this was a hard vacuum to pull as the suction is very high, so I tried it myself. As soon as you turn it on, it would immediately suck itself down onto the carpet. I was able to force it backwards and forwards, but I was using so much force that I could feel the plastic flexing and was afraid that I would break the unit. It simply wasn't working on our throw rug.For test number two, we took it into the bedroom. I have to admit that for this test, the Dyson passed with flying colors. It sucked up a ton of dirt and carpet cleaning powder that had been building up in our carpets since our last vacuum started to lose it's suction. I was thoroughly impressed with how it performed in the bedroom. Unfortunately, it was the living room throw rug test that was making me extremely concerned. After reading many reviews and watching some YouTube videos, there were several recommended fixes, such as drilling some holes to let out some pressure, or putting a plastic furniture slider on the front to lift up the front lip, allowing for some air to flow.I'm sorry, but having to perform DIY fixes on a $400-500 product is simply unacceptable. I was refusing to believe that Dyson would sell a product that is supposed to be a vacuum cleaner that would not work on some carpets. I decided to call Dyson.Dyson advised that our carpet is "not compatible" with the Vacuum cleaner. I'll state that again. Apparently, our carpet is not compatible. Like having an MS DOS computer and trying to run apple or OS/2 software on it. Who would have thought that one of the most prestigious vacuum cleaners would put out a vacuum cleaner that is not compatible with rugs sold from Lowes and Home Depot, who also sell Dyson. If someone were to hold up picture cards and tell me to identify which are compatible or not compatible and held up a vacuum cleaner and a grassy lawn, I would say "not compatible". But holding up a picture of a vacuum cleaner and a throw rug or carpet, I would think "compatible!".To be fair to the Dyson representative that handled my call, they were completely respectful and appeared to already understand what we were calling to complain about. They apparently have had these complaints before and knew exactly how to respond. They recommended that we consider exchanging for a cordless model, but with how frequently we need to run our vacuum to clean up after our dogs, relying on a battery to be charged was not a viable option that we wanted to consider at the current time.So here we are, 6 days away from Christmas, and we had to return our Christmas present, and again have ordered a product from one of Dyson's competitors. It's a shame, because I really wanted to try giving their products a fair chance. I've had friends and family that swear by the Dyson vacuum cleaners, but I guess this new direction in design has now introduced "compatibility" issues.The one star review might be harsh, but this was clearly a choice by Dyson, they have been informed of the problem, they failed to advertise it before people go through the trouble of buying, unboxing, assembling, testing, disassembling, re-boxing, and returning. Such a hassle because a product was poorly designed, poorly communicated, and poorly resolved outside of stating that it's not compatible and needs to be returned.