Dyson - Ball Animal 3

Yes on the Dyson Animal 3, not the Costco version, but the corded version. It’s a Golden parent’s best friend. Other option is the top of the line Miele, but they’re pricey 1,200. ish.

Dyson Animal 2, the Animal 3 is straight garbage.

Dyson Ball 3 or whatever they call it these days, it is by far the best bagless, the next level down would be a Hoover Windtunnel 3 or the one with the hair scrape tool on the power head. Most bagless vacuum cleaners as others have pointed out are not really going to get you to where you want to be because the pet hair will just explode like cotton candy in the dirt chamber though. The next best if one could even make such a statement would be a Shark with the hair trimmers on the power head as well.

We have a Dyson ball animal because I like that I can do hardwood and carpet, and the brush really doesn't get tied up with hair like our first vacuum did. I'm actually on my second one 15+ years later, and only because the hose at the bottom/into the body split and I didn't think I could handle that repair on my own. We did however replace the wand and hose, and the canister seal very easily. I love that I can take just about the whole thing apart to clean/repair as needed.

I was the same as you. Honestly, I was so tired of shelling out 100+ on a vaccume that would break in a year or two. Now, I love my Dyson ball. Great vaccume overall and super easy to take apart and clean, which was a big plus for me bc my last few vaccumes crapped out bc they got clogged. Every part is replaceable. So, as long as the motor works, I can keep replacing worn-out or broken bits for basically eternity. Only had to replace the hose and get new filters in the 4+ years I have owned it. Look for sales, especially with the holidays coming up. They also are at the costco in my area, so if you have a membership, it's worth taking a look. If you are looking for robot vaccumes, I like shark brands. They are pretty competitively priced compared to other models and just as good. Now, if you can spend some money but have something that kicks ass, the narwhal brand is 10/10. I have their vaccum/mop. I am obsessed with that thing.

Just picked up the Ball Animal 3 and that thing sucks (in a good way, har har) but I was surprised how heavy it is, and more cumbersome to move than we expected. It would be best if you only need it for a single-floor home.

Checking best buys vacuum offerings was sad 😭 How large is your home and is it one floor or multiple? Tbh I can't recommend much from that selection in good faith but I've narrowed it down a little: Without those questions answered I can basically only recommend the Dyson Ball animal 3 corded (it'll probably last up to 10 years with regular maintenance) or the LG cordzero or Samsung bespoke jet cordless models. Those would probably last 5+ years (not including the batteries) and I genuinely like that they empty into bags, but a cordless is overall a pain for whole home cleaning. The Bissell revolution 2x pet pro is the best consumer carpet washer you can buy and they sell that, so that's cool. Maybe you can buy a good robot from best buy, a roborock, but that is less useful of a purchase with a 2 story home. Btw buy the roborock q revo pro when it goes on sale, as it's cheaper than $800 usually. Best recommendation would be to use the best buy gift card on something else and buy a Kenmore 600 series canister from Amazon for $350 lmao. (I'd recommend a Miele really but that's way off the budget).

V11 and later versions of their cordless perform ok for thick carpets. You have to open the front gates to relieve pressure. If you have a lot of carpet, you have to learn to stop cleaning your entire home in one go. If you really want a Dyson, I would personally only get the Ball Animal 3 for your thick carpets. It also works really well for hard floors. You should watch Vacuum War's review on it to see if it fits your needs. DO NOT get any other version of Dyson uprights, they are horrible and only work on very specific types of carpets. Otherwise, a Sebo upright is my next recommendation if you don't mind bagged.

I'm upgrading mine from a Shark to a Sebo Felix. All Sebo uprights are 20% off. This is after buying a Dyson Ball Animal 3 and loving the results but immediately having issues with the head clicking(beater bar issue) and returning it. Felix is about 600USD on sale and Dart is 400

I like the Dyson Ball Animal 3, which is great for pet hair compared to the other corded Dyson models. It is also a fraction of the price of a cordless Dyson of roughly equivalent power, it has a bigger bin that holds more hair, and you do not have to worry about batteries. That is just my two cents on Dyson. 🙂

I got the Dyson Ball Animal 3 from Costco. I have a 1 year old Newfie and a long haired Shepherd mix. I've had it a year and no issues yet, corded is the way to get for pet hair if you ask me.

Absolutely, We had a Meile vacuum for 20 years. It eventually died. We bought a Dyson Ball cat & dog. It lasted 18 months and half the ball broke off. Dyson refused to fix it under warranty and would not supply half a ball. We used it for another 6 months and after moving house during that time it started to lose suction. I stripped it for spares, and threw the rest out. We are now on our second Meile that we bought in 2014 and it's still going strong. Pop down to your local Meile dealer and give it a whirl.

We've got hardwood with vintage hand-woven rugs as well as a thick maroon wood rug (where he likes to sleep) and get along well with a Dyson Animal Ball 3, got at Costco and it pulls that red rug clean on one swipe, so satisfying. Couple sorta frustrating design elements like the chord has to be all the way off to use the extension, or adjustments are limited or inconvenient on brush/suction, but other design elements rock like how easy it is to maneuver or the solid feel overall. Prob going to sell this and get a canister. Picked up a Kenmore 800 series and it felt cheap, head wandered as opposed to the dyson which pulls nice straight, but because its just sort of a tank.

We have been through a few Dysons, I’m blow away by how much better the Samsung bespoke does. We don’t even have use our full size Dyson animal anymore.

I’ve been replacing the battery in our long Dyson vacuum. We’ve had it for over a decade and it’s still going strong. Dyson stopped making batteries for it, so I have to buy them from amazon

I have a Dyson upright pet because everyone else in my family does and we all love it. No one's had a single problem, and it sucks the everliving hell out of pet hair-filled carpets. Think the first one of us to get it has had it 10 years, some almost as long. Mine's a refurb I got 5 years ago and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

I never knew that Dyson hate existed until I saw it on this sub recently. Everyone in my family group loves Dyson vacuums for pet hair. I've had excellent luck with mine, a significant improvement over every other vaccum I've ever used. I also don't care about cordless vaccums. Bagless ball all the way. Mine's a factory refurb and it's gone without a hiccup for 5 years.

I like how simple and easy my Dyson is, easy to work on and reliable. It smelled like a belt was burning up, then I checked and realized there was nothing to replace. No belt. Cleaned a filter I didn't know existed and good to go. Took 3 years of heavy use with multiple pets for that to be a problem.

+1 for Dyson My original Animal Ball, that I bought over 20 years ago, is still going strong and has never needed service. (Except that one time one of my dogs ate through the power cord, but that was a quick fix!)

Dyson corded ball animal vacuum, picks up so much stuff you didn’t even know was on your floor. Was a game changer.

We purchased the Dyson Animal ball from Costco two months ago and we're happy with it. (We have one dog now). We've had Dyson vacs for the last 20 years. Purchased our first Dyson when we got our first dog, who had long hair. Each vac has lasted about 10 years before breaking. The Dyson's canister is very easy to empty and not messy.

I have 2, 7, and 18.  I think I paid $60 for all three at yard sales. Kenmore Elite is wonderful for bedrooms. Dyson v8 is great for busy areas and stairs. Dyson ball animal is for a deeper clean than the v8. I also have a Hoover Hepa Animal 2 and the Hoover Max Extract Pressure-Pro (Model 60) from Breaking Bad. Great combo for deep clean after dealing with animal messes. Kenmore is the poor man’s Miele. Dyson is repairable, but a pain in the butt for the vortex areas to keep clean. Hoovers are stupid simple to keep in tip top shape. I have a simple Dirt Devil and Harbor Freight shop vacuum for my garage. Both are great for regular use.

I've had a Dyson animal ball vacuum for 10 years. Dyson offers replacement parts and YouTube videos for how to

I'm curious from an engineering point of view... Do you think someone will ever create a vacuum cleaner that can suck up long hair off a carpet without the hair getting tangled in the rollers? Like is it even possible?? I'm guessing maybe with some kind of razors to cut the hairs it might be, but even razors will get dulled over time. So I don't know. I have a Dyson Ball animal vacuum and the main maintenance on this thing is using scissors to cut all the long hair off the rollers very frequently. If I don't do this the roller gets overloaded and breaks. I've replaced at least two rollers so far from hair overload, which stresses the bearings.

Honestly we have an irobot that runs every night and keeps the hair pretty low honestly, we have mostly hardwood and tile downstairs though where we spend most of our time. Upstairs where it's all carpet the Dyson does it pretty good job but my wife isn't a fan as it's hard to push so I usually do the vacuuming upstairs (no irobot up there)

Makes sense, I think our Dyson ball does pretty well. Stay away from stick vacuums tho for heavy pet fur

Whoever has those Dysons clearly doesn’t have multiple long-haired, double coated pets running around. I had the stick and the ball versions and both barely lasted a year

I have a Bissel Pet canister for quick, everyday use. It is fairly light and effective. I've had to change the belt and roller a few times. I bought a Dyson ball that i thought would replace the Bissel that was getting old. I only use it for deeper cleans. It is *heavy* and the wand is unwieldy. Plus, the clog points are many, but it does have serious power. It also does well on hard flooring because you can turn the roller off.

I own two Dysons and a Miele C3. I've had the Dyson Ball for about 12 years. I hated emptying the thing because of all the dust, etc, forcing me to always take it to the outside trashcan, which cut down on vacuuming in the winter and in the rain. Based on many, many recommendations I got the Miele and the powerhead jammed with pet hair within the first few minutes. "Not a problem, I'll just pull the roller and cut the hair off", I thought. The damn thing is not designed to be serviced except by a repairman. Seriously, even for hair wound up on the roller bar. After spending a couple of hours taking apart and putting it back together, I 3D printed an adapter to accommodate my Dyson tangle free turbine, which handles pet hair with practically no issues. That is a pretty good combination, to be honest, but that Dyson head is only about 4 inches wide, resulting in a lot of push/pull over the carpet. Plenty of suction from the Miele which, other than the servicing issue, I think is a good vacuum, but seriously over-priced--just like most Dysons. But after 5 years of the Miele-Dyson combo, I researched to see if the was anything new to tackle pet hair and found Dyson had improved things while Miele appears stuck. Enter the Dyson V15 Detect. I have not touched the Miele since I got the V15 a year ago. Good battery, good suction, handles pet hair way better than the old tangle-free turbine head and I can pull the roller bar, clear the wound up hair and be vacuuming again in less than 5 minutes. I still have the Miele and I should probably do a test with a clean bag and see how much of anything the V15 is missing (since the V15 will get all the pet hair). There are definite advantages to being corded and using bags, but those same things are also negatives in many circumstances. With the V15, I am less reluctant to vacuum and tackle patches of pet hair with vigor. With the Miele, I am pretty confident it is removing plenty of fine dust with the HEPA filtering and changing a bag is cleaner than emptying the V15 (which is far better than the old Dyson ball canister). I like my V15 for now. I'd love to see something better for pet hair from ANYBODY in the next 5 years, but especially from the robo-vacuum folks.

100% but a stick vacuum. I got the Dyson Ball as a wedding present and I liked it but the cord was too cumbersome. I’d vacuum maybe once every other week. Fast forward to a friend insisting I get a Dyson V8 Stick and I vacuum once maybe twice a day. Total game changer. Convenience is king.

Avoid Dyson. They used to be great and now they’re absolute garbage. I despise mine. I replaced really great Dyson with its newer counterpart because it was 10+ years old and when you turned it on you could hear a high pitched whine like the motor was on its way out. The replacement in no way measures up to the original Dyson ball. Our next vacuum will be a Miele or a Sebo.

We have a Dyson ball. It will not vacuum plush carpets. The rotating brush in the head stalls. Called Dyson, they said to use a different vacuum on that carpet.

I have a Dyson Ball and I hate it, its always clogging and the wand feature is poorly implemented and difficult to use. I'm leaning towards a canister vacuum to replace it.

I've had them all, Kirby and Miele bags, Dyson ball, and now the Dyson v10 animal. The v10 is just the easiest. Sure you're probably not doing as great of a job HEPA filtering as you would with a a bag, but it's just so convenient.

I got a dyson ball and that shit was ass. Returned it less than a week later and got a shark instead

Build quality felt cheap and flimsy and the suction was meh. Also the hose would try to retract as soon as the vacuum was turned on, so it was truly a workout to use it

Dyson animal (I use on big carpeted areas) and the cordless Dyson animal stick vac - for hardwood floors, sofas, chairs, and stairs! It’s AMAZING -make sure you buy the one that comes with all the attachments.

So I had a Dyson upright Animal vac that did a pretty decent job but both my healers despised it with a vengeance and would nip at it and attack it whenever I vacuumed. I tried to scare them away by unleashing the vac brush on them and, what do you know, the lil raptors loved it. After they got used to the routine, I’d get the vac out and vacuum them first then the house. It was a win win. God, I miss those guys.

Leaf blower and an industrial exhaust fan. But honestly we go three ways. We have a carpet broom that has rubber teeth on a broom handle we use before the Shark vac once a week, and for the hardwoods we use a handheld with a long extension so we can do a quick once over around the corners and edges of everything daily. We found out the hard way if you only use a traditional vacuum, even if it’s a really nice Dyson that’s says it specifically for heavy shedding pets, you will get a ton of hair in the roller and will burn out the motor or at least clog the roller and it will break and stop spinning.

Dyson, we’ve had the yellow ball vacuum for close to or a little over 20 years now. Still going strong, the suction hasn’t diminished whatsoever. The only downside is not being able to find replacements parts, primarily for the main brush. It was because of the vacuum that I felt comfortable giving their other products (air purifier) a try. Didn’t regret that purchase, thought I ended up selling due to a move. Nevertheless, I’ll be going for Dyson again when this vacuum finally decides to give out.

I’m sorry, the cordless Dyson isn’t that great for carpet/rugs so I wouldn’t rank it that high. The attachments are excellent for their specific uses like couch/mattress, the nozzle for corners but I have the old school Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner and it’s sooo much better for rugs. Vacuum’s with cords for the win!

I have a Dyson animal upright from around the same time. Maintenance is key. My kids swept up grated Romano cheese at one point. Turn the vacuum on smell was awful. Pulled and cleaned the filters, vacuumed up a box of baking soda and smell was gone.

I have a Miele canister and upright, they are great and I would recommend them to anyone. I also still have a Dyson Animal upright that I bought in 2003. I think keeping them going for the long term is in doing maintenance on them.

A lot of others have responded to the question you asked me but here goes.  Make sure you change bags and filters (some filters are washable) on a regular basis. Clean the roller as others have mentioned. These are easy things you should do often.  Check the belt for the roller brush, they stretch and wear more than you would expect. On the Dyson I have I have rebuilt the clutch and changed the belts twice.  Wash it! Take the hose off and spray some cleaner in it with some water. Then pick it up with an end in each and like a horseshoe. Move your arms up and down separately, right arm up means left down etc. Do this for just few minutes and drain it by holding one end high and letting the other down so all the junk will come out, trust me it can be gross looking. Next do it with water and see how it comes out, go until it drains clean. Hang it to dry as much as you can. If it is on a canister like a Miele reattach and put a towel in place of the bag then turn it on, this will help pull the water from the hose and the towel will absorb it before it gets to the motor.  Clean the area where the bag goes with a cleaner of your choice and wipe it out with a towel. Clean all hose connections and seals that you can see.  If you want to take it further then you can disassemble it and clean the area around the motor and the motor itself, don’t use water or a cleaner on the motor as this will accelerate it going bad. Most of the time you can just wipe them off as they will have a black soot on them.  If you follow the steps above then your machine will last a long time. 

The Dyson animal is the same way, really hard to find any parts. I had a piece of the plastic handle break on the dust canister and while it didn’t affect the machine in how it worked I wanted it to look right and ended up buying the part on eBay. 

I actually own six different vacuums. Yeah I heard that the Dyson is garbage for a long time but it still works and works better than most. 

I've never had a miele, but i certainly don't buy dyson because it's convenient. They're expensive as hell. I buy dyson because they work reliably for years. I replace the filters every year or two, and otherwise i just don't even think about them. I have a handheld and a plug in dyson, and they have seriously won me over. There's lots of options that are similar on the market, but i've never found any other vacuum that works that well

I think most people buying vacuums aren’t treating or looking at them as BIFL. Vacuum techs are going to crap on anything difficult to repair/maintain while your average consumer is only going to see the end result. I’ve owned a Hoover upright, shark upright, Dyson upright, and now 2 different Dyson sticks including the v15. I would never buy a canister vacuum due to what I deem as an inconvenience in pulling it around everywhere. When we owned a house with majority carpet the Dyson and Shark uprights were great. We have dogs and their brush roll was incredible at picking up pet hair. Our current house is primarily hardwoods and we still have dogs. The V15 is amazing, super light, and convenient. And despite how gimmicky the green light thing may look it really does work amazingly well for hardwoods with pet hair. It does ok on carpet and rugs but the old canisters feel like they would for sure outperform it. I don’t really expect a lifetime out of my vacuum especially if I’m buying a $150 Shark. If I get several years I’m pretty happy as the repair bill is near the cost of the Vacuum - it’s almost like the printers whose ink refills was more expensive than a new printer.

I think Dyson is a great vaccum that is aimed at consumers. I have the corded upright one myself. It's probably the best consumer vaccum I have used. The vaccum techs seem to prefer commercial use ones. And they seem great. I hire a cleaner sometimes that uses a Meile and it certainly cleans better than the Dyson. But I don't want to lug it around myself.

I had the stand up one and returned it. They’re nice for hardwood floors but don’t work well for carpet. I bought a standard Dyson and it works so much better.

I use a hand held one (probably from Amazon, I can’t remember!) that isn’t a named brand or anything special. I use that to hoover poos etc up in the cage day to day. I also use the hand held one to hoover up any loose bits of hay on the carpet when my girls have had floor time. Once these have been hoovered up, I hoover the carpet as normal with my Dyson upright hoover. I accidentally got a bit of hay stuck in my new Dyson when I first got it so I make sure anything like that is gone before the main hoover comes out. Having said that, I have an older hoover from Argos - it was the cheapest they sold I think; a white one. It’s an upright electric one and doesn’t look like it would do much but it’s actually really good. Now I’ve got the Dyson, the Argos one has been relegated to hoovering piggy messes when I don’t want to use the hand held.

Dyson corded upright, if you’re patient you can buy used and save a bundle. You’ll want to add a floorbrush for the hardwood floors. I have both older model canister and upright Dyson vacs. The canister is better built, but the upright is more versatile and cleans carpets better. It also stores better but is more finicky to use the attachments. It’s designed to be lighter weight which also means it’s is more fragile, take care of them and they’ll last! If you really prefer a canister you’ll want a motorhead, but the extra weight in the floor wand makes it more work to vacuum hardwood floors.

Our old Dyson upright was absolutely useless on the Christmas Tree needles. They essentially fell out again after being hoovered up. Hence why I'm so interested in this thread!

I pull both Mieles and Dysons out of the trash. These days I only grab the cordless Dyso9ns, but in the past have done the upright models. They are usually work after cleaning up. Maybe half the cordless examples I get need a new battery.

Dyson animal. We’ve had the same one for nine years and it handles two yellow Labs and a chocolate Lab masterfully. We also have a lot of carpet.

Yup, I have that one, too. Love it. Bought over a decade ago with airline miles and credit card. Still going strong. My vacuum previous to Miele was a Dyson Animal. It stopped working after the warranty expired (5yrs?) and I didn't like the dust going poof every time I had to empty the cannister.

We have a Dyson Animal, works great!

Our Dyson animal is awesome, it’s easy to maintain and has crazy strong suction

Animal Dyson every fortnight and a roborock every single day. Serves us well. I wouldn’t buy a Dyson again though. Bissell next time - half the price, twice the innovation. Though they are American…

Had 3 goldens can’t live without the Dyson animal. Costco on sale $399

I use a Dyson Animal, (all my family, including me, have longer hair and at time of purchase we had no animals) and it's been great but hair still gets wrapped around the brush. It's just what hair does. The trick to cleaning the brush is to use a seam ripper (from the sewing aisle). It's easier than scissors and less likely to cut anything it shouldn't. I'm lucky that I can remove the brush from the housing to clean it but it works with fixed brushes too.

I have two vacuums that I love. I have my old, original Dyson animal. It’s 20 years old and it’s still working. I also have a Miele canister vac and it’s the best. It’s not bagless, so you’ll have to buy bags for it, but it’s a great vac. I also use a roomba every once in a while. I used to run it downstairs at night, but it had problems when it came to the throw rugs I used to have down for my sweet old man when he was still with us.

Miele C3 for life gang! I previously had a Dyson Animal for almost a decade and the improvement was shocking to me. Of course, there had likely been enhancements to the DAs in the meantime.

Dyson Animal is the only way to go for us. We have 3 labs and 3 longhaired cats so we need something heavy duty. We’ve tried multiple brands but we always end up going back to Dyson.

We went through the usual suspects, Dyson Animal, Shark, even a Miele C2. None of them worked well for our husky. We also have another wiry haired dog and two cats, one of which is long haired. We ended up with a Sebo Dart. It picks up hair from the rugs like no other vacuum we have tried. It’s amazing. The only bad thing is the wand which isn’t long enough and can pull the vacuum over.

Dyson Animal. Had it for years and it’s been very good.

Roomba + Dyson Animal works well for me.

I have the Dyson animal and it works well. It’s the lowest level of them. Have had it for two years. If anything I would just get a bigger dyson.

^This. We had a Dyson Animal and were continually having to take it apart and cut fur from the roller. Haven’t had to do nearly as much with the Miele.

Sebo. It’s the new Electrolux. I went from electrolux (40 years of service, inherited from my mom) which was amazing, to a Miele (20 years of service, inherited from step mom) to a Dyson Animal. The Dyson lasted 12 years before I got sick of it. I bought a Sebo! I’m 58 and I won’t need another vacuum before I die.

I’ve had my Dyson animal for years & it’s a workhorse. Absolutely swear by it

I like my Dyson animal for pet hair. Coupled with a silicone brush

We have an old Dyson Animal we replaced with the cordless model for whole-house vacuuming, so I use it for the piggy enclosure exclusively now. I just remove the handle and telescoping wand and suck everything up with the hose.

We tried Hoover, Dyson animal, and shark. The shark is 1/3 the price of the Dyson and does nearly as good a job. Search Google and Amazon for refurbished, same warranty and half the msrp price

I spent about two years dithering and then a month researching and got a Miele C3 to replace my falling-apart and LOUD Dyson Animal. It was a good choice. Quiet and no dust. I did remove all the carpeting in my house, but still need to vacuum up the cat tumbleweed under the bed and sofa, as well as the “welcome” mats inside the house where I leave my outdoor shoes.

Not sure if it’s been said, but Kirby is the only way. I melted three Dyson pet vacs and a shark. I cleaned the rollers constantly. Hair melts the plastic eventually. Kirby’s seem to have no plastic.

Always plug In! Dyson pet pro!!

I have had good luck with Dyson and Shark brands. Both in “pet” models, I’m sorry I don’t know more specific models. I personally don’t notice much of a difference in the performance so I stick with Shark since it’s cheaper and in my opinion the hose and attachments are easier to use.

I have a dyson pet but I have to baby it like it’s royalty. I gave away my Shark before I knew that my Dyson didn’t hold a flame to the Spark pet. 😬😅 However, it’s doing the job for now so long as I treat it like the sweet, fragile baby that it is.

I love my Rainbow vacuum and my purple pet dyson.

The purple Dyson for pets. We love it and have used it for 4 years now. We have had 3 Rottweilers, 2 Shimas, and 1 Golden, as well as 2 medium hair cats.

Yeah battery is not the best, however it worked really well when it was new (like most things do). Our main vacuum is the Dyson animal+, that thing is a beast and has been working great for the past 7 years. Handheld gets used to clean cars or just pick up quick messes.

I found myself purchasing a new vacuum about every 2 years. Then I purchased a Dyson pet , and it was great. Had a 5-year warranty, and promptly lost suction at the 6-year mark. It was the best vacuum for the almost 6 years I had it. Now I have a Shark, an apartment vacuum because it is mostly for bare floors, but the cord is short. Have had it for 2 years now. I would take advice of the professional cleaner - the porta-vac.

I just asked about how often I’d be buying bags for a sebo with two high shedding large dogs, (similar probably too a gsd and 3 (if long hair cats) I would probably be replacing the bag every week. (Actually more than that because I didn’t tell people I also have 3 cats haha) Someone with a husky commented that they replace the bag 1.5-2 times a month. Calculating that cost for two dogs is another 210 a year in bags (probably more for me) I am taking that into account with  replacing a vacuum that died (Dyson) but it doesn’t have a bag or a Sebo that has a 10 year warranty but I will have probably bought 2-3 dysons in that time period with the amount I’d be spending on bags. I haven’t decided yet 🙃 but thought I’d share the numbers.