Ball Animal Upright Vacuum - Corded

After reading so many websites and customer reviews, I decided to order BOTH the Shark TruePet rotator and the Dyson Animal ball 2. I can tell you right now, in TLDR fashion that this thing is much better than anything Shark can provide. However, after being so discouraged by all the so called "influester reviewers" and random little 4 star no comment reviews, I needed to try them both for myself to see what truly is better. I've done many days of vacuuming with dyson first, and then following with the Shark and then vice versa. I can tell you without question, this test is stupid. Under each trial, the second vacuum still picked up more debris than the first one. I even did one day where i did Dyson/Shark/Dyson and the 2nd time I used the dyson, after the Shark, the vacuum still produced dirt in the bin. So just in case you watch those dumb unscientific YouTube videos, rest assured that the test is pointless. This vacuum has a 270aW motor, which is exactly the same power as the Shark Rotator True Pet. Any kind of comparisons you can find right now compare Sharks' best, to Dyson's later models. The Dyson Cinetic is one that Shark at times compares itself to, is a 180aW motor (90aW weaker if you're not paying attention). The Dyson was purchased from Dyson's website for a few reasons: 1.) If you own already own a Dyson, they will give you a 20% discount if you register your vacuum on their website 2.) Full refund and free return shipping if you don't like it 3.) Free tools - I got 3 free tools (which was advertised on their website) however in addition to those I got a 4th free tool, a free carrying case for all the tools, and $100 off thanks to being a Dyson customer. Arriving in the mail, the vacuum comes in a very easy to assemble state. All the material is put together well and it certainly gives you the impression that you got good material for the money. (the Shark, not so much). Even the little details like the wall adapter plug is nice and premium, especially when you compare it to the Shark. Its not a big thing, but it definitely shows that you paid for the more premium price. Vacuuming the floors in my house has been great. While I think the Shark actually did a TINY bit better picking up small dust in the carpet, the Dyson absolutely strikes back with the hard flooring. You can literally FEEL the Dyson suck down to the floor when you try to break apart the seal. The Shark in comparison was no where near this powerful on the hardwood, and even required a second pass in some areas to get everything up. The Dyson comes with an automatically adjusting head, that will move up and down so you have no switches or buttons like the Shark. The shark you need to change it from rug, to carpet, to hard flooring. The Dyson will self adjust for all of this, all you need to do is turn off the brushes if you need do for floors. Moving this up and down the stairs is nice and easy, and vacuuming the stairs is also. I was amazed at how much more dog hair the Dyson picked up over the Shark, it was immediately noticeable the second I emptied the bin. You can vacuum the carpeted flooring with the vacuuming rotating attachment, or the vacuum itself. The extendable wand also easily surpasses the Shark in suction strength, as apparent by many trials. The included rotating attachment also performs better than the Shark variant. The shark variant is cheaper in build quality, bulkier, and not as efficient at picking up debris. The shark version has a rotating piece that works like the main vacuum bristles, where as the Dyson has two spinning heads that travel in circles, and not like the main vacuum bristles. Things I dont like: The Shark has a nicer dust collector. The trap door works better in that you press the button and everything drops out. With the Dyson, you almost have to wiggle to get it all out, and some of the dirt gets stuck on the hinge. The wand that the Dyson has is a pain in the butt to put back in. Its easy to pull it out, but the method in which you put it back involves too much time and lining up to get it to go in all the way correctly. This is sub-par even compared to my DC25 that I replace with this. The kick stand went from the foot pedal style on my old DC25 to this weird no pedal push down method. It works ok, however sometimes when I just want to move the vacuum on the little rear wheels, it will pop down as if i'm going to use it to vacuum. Again, its sub-par compared to the DC25. All in all, I believe this a top tier product. The Quality, performance, customer support and the perks like returning custom discounts is an unbeatable package. Customer support was painless and this Dyson comes with a 5 year warranty. Dyson sells premium vacuums for a premium price, but you get what you pay for. Dyson may not be as cheap as a Shark, but then again you dont see Dyson taking up Sunday afternoon infomercial slots on antenna TV.

If I had posted a review when I first received the Dyson it may have been all negative. I was struggling with the differences it had to my previous kenmore canister vacuum, which my one daughter who currently has a cordless dyson called "prehistoric". I'm 58 and have always used a canister vacuum but it was time to replace my canister and I'm getting older so I thought an upright one piece would be easier to deal with than pulling around the canister. I do have two dogs so I figured I should get the animal version. After having it a week I can say I am happy with my purchase. It does have unbelievable suction. My other daughter, who has a previous animal model, said it is definitely more improved than her previous model. The attachments are easier to use and it has a larger width brush bar and more suction as well. The attachments I find a little troublesome compared to my canister option but i dont use that option all the time so I figure I'll just deal with that at the time for the option of having.more suction available. My canister was easier with those jobs but the vacuum didn't suck as well so im willing to adjust. It is a little heavier than my previous vacuum, but i got used to it after a few days and now i dont know what i was struggling with. Like everything it has its pluses and minuses and you just gotta give it time. Its definitely easier to vacuum than previously, I just had to adjust to the differences. I've vacuumed every day since ive had it. No more bags to deal with. I just dump the dirt in the garbage and Im good to go. I did read the reviews and people did complain about it sucking up rugs. I assumed they must have had really plush carpet. Such is not the case here so I didn't anticipate a problem. It works just fine on my 3 carpeted rooms, no problem there. Although I do have several mats down that I can't vacuum over cause the dyson doesn't have an adjustment for less suction. My previous kenmore canister when I would do those floor mats 2 in kitchen, 1 near front door, and also in bathroom etc I would just put the power head on a higher pile selection and it had a vent on the wand that I could also reduce suction so the mat wouldn't get caught. This Dyson does not have that, but I have since learned to not vacuum over the mats completely. I vacuum around the outsides of them with the vacuum brush half off them so it doesn't get a chance to "suck them up". So if that doesnt make sense, I just cant put the whole floor brush part on the mat as the suction is too strong. I could shake them out as someone preciously stated also and if i need to do them with the beater brush option i hold the handle to the vacuum and pick it up, that is a heavier option granted. It is a pain in the neck not having my previous option with my canister but I figure my canister wasn't really cleaning them very well anyway, it was just an illusion and I thought it was cleaning them. So in conclusion alot of mats or runners down you may have a problem but overall I'm happy with my purchase. Although if dyson does ever have an adjustment to the suction that would be an improvement but the dirt this gets is unbelievable, it definitely gets alot more than my canister vacuum so overall I'm happy with my purchase.

I wanted to address the issues I read about before my purchase that caused me to balk from buying. Ultimately, I decided to roll the dice and I am glad I did. •Too much suction? Well I have what I would consider medium pile carpet and tile throughout my house and I would state that this vacuum is extremely easy to maneuver pushing and pulling along. (5 stars) •Cannot turn? I am disagreeing with this as well. I’ve owned canister and uprights; this is the easiest to turn around a chair leg or corner. My grip and wrists are weak, with a slight arm adjustment this baby turns. At first it was too sensitive for me and I was vacuuming like I was DUI or VUI. Now I love it and wouldn’t want to go back to outdated upright design. (5 stars) •Directions difficult? Possibly I guess? But I had the extremely simple picture directions and ‘worded’ directions. I found neither difficult to comprehend. (5 stars) •Cannot vacuum under couches and chairs? True for couch! But…I’ve never had an upright that I could vacuum under a couch as my couches are not on stilts. Dinning room chairs are a breeze but of course my recliner is not on stilts, so I am unable to vacuum under them as well. (5 stars) •Heavy? no! One person said if you are young it will be ok. Well I don’t know if the reviewer considers 54 young, but my old Kenmore is a tank and was heavy, this Dyson is a dream and light weight. I live in a two story and no longer have difficulty up and down the stairs as it is very easy to grip the handle and go. (5 stars) •Dust everywhere? Well I have never owned a bagless vacuum before this Dyson. I’m not saying it is common sense, but I could clearly see what is in the tube before I opened her up! So I took it outside to empty it directly into the trash. My first rainy day I used a tall kitchen garbage bag, held it securely around the canister base with one hand and pushed the convenient button and tada I had it emptied without the mess. (So for a BAGLESS vacuum 5 stars) • Difficult to empty? The button is placed in the most convenient position, due to my two dogs hair and my very long hair I do have to put forth a ‘shake’ to loosen the mess but I have never had to ‘dig’ out the stuff. (even with the shake 5 stars) •Cleaning difficult? I looked up Youtube cleaning steps and I love that this baby comes almost completely apart with snaps and no tools! I take it outside once a week and do a deep clean that I couldn’t do with any other vacuum I have owned. I do wish there was a design out there that could figure out my long hair getting wrapped in the brush. (5 stars) •Auxiliary Tube and attachment issues? Let us say if you are a big user of attachments this is NOT your vacuum! When one reviewer stated awkward and unpleasant, they were being kind…it is worse than that. I consider the tube unusable! There is no give and the vacuum cannot stay upright if you use the tube at all, it will pull over. (1 star) •Don’t bother with throw rugs? Well, I have never owned a vacuum that used electricity, that could clean a throw rug and was worth using on any other floor. I think throw rug cleaners are called carpet or rug beaters not vacuums. My area rug I do have to start in the middle and work my way out only as it will pull up the edges. (5 stars) •Upright lock doesn’t ‘click’? Mine does (5 stars) •Not sturdy plastic? I’ve had mine a year without issues. I did immediately feel that the plastic seemed cheap. This I can not rate until the vacuum is 10 years old or more like my plastic Kenmore that lasted that long or my heavy metal Kirby that lasted over 20 years. (not rated but I do agree it feels cheap) •Head slipping off? Knock on wood this hasn’t occurred. (5 star so far) •Walking with vacuum to another room an issue. Yup the unit is quick to ‘drop’ the head to say lets vacuum. This I have come to live with. (4 stars) •Unplugging during use? My plug stays SNUGGLY put. I would have my wall units checked by an electrician if mine just started falling out. (5 stars) •Extension cord…too long? UM no. I can vacuum quite a large area without needing to unplug the cord. (5 stars) •Extension cord wrapping not auto recoiling? Only my antique canister had this and it broke. I don’t want auto recoiling, so this isn’t an issue I know how to coil a cord. (5 stars) •Extension cord holder cheap? Yup and it is almost too small for the very long cord. (3 stars) •Some Tools: have to store elsewhere? Yup (4 stars) Overall, I love this vacuum and glad I decided to roll the dice. (4.5 stars)

(Original review: April 2, 2017) Dyson advertises this vacuum as having the most suction of any of their vacuums, and they weren't kidding. I had previously owned a DC25 Animal and after a few years decided that it was getting a bit worn down and wanted to get a new one. For context, I have a Labrador Retriever and pet hair around the house/daily vacuuming is just a way of life. So after looking through a bunch of different reviews I settled on the Dyson Ball Animal 2. Overall I'm really happy with this vacuum so far (I've only had it for a few days) and glad I made the purchase. Similar to my previous Dyson, it's an expensive investment up front but totally worth it. I'll try and focus on highlighting the good and bad of this vacuum to help you make your purchase decision a bit easier. Size/Weight: It's a bit larger than the old DC25 Animal. The brush head is a few inches longer and about an inch or two wider. Overall it's not a huge difference and I find that it helps pick up more dirt. The ball is larger as well, probably to accommodate a bigger motor. The dust bin is larger, but it's mainly due to a larger filter unit (non-HEPA)-- the dust bin itself is about the same size. The size of the larger ball makes it more difficult to get under any furniture you might have, but it's a decent trade off due to the larger brush head size. The power cord is long and comes with a better little clip for keeping it attached to the cord once you wrap it all up. Suction power: 10/10. It's a bit crazy to say, but this vacuum almost has TOO much suction power. You actually need to put some muscle into using this thing because it has so much suction power. i put this thing without the brush heads on one of my rugs and it literally picked up the entire corner of the rug when I picked up the vacuum with both hands. When you run the vacuum over carpet with the brush running, it moves, but you still need to push/pull with some effort because the vacuum really does have incredible suction. As a result, I've found that a LOT of dirt gets picked up. It's really incredible. Just one pass over our carpets filled up the dust bin with lots of pet hair and dirt. Attachments: This vacuum comes with three attachments-- the tangle-free brush head, small furniture attachment, and extended hose attachment. All three work fine but I will say that the placement on the new vacuum is not as great as the old one. The vacuum comes with this odd plastic holder that sits on the side of the dust bin. It doesn't feel very secure, but I haven't had any issues with it so far. The not so good: This vacuum does NOT come with the old tried-and-true foot switch to put the vacuum out of the upright storage mode and into vacuuming position. I have no idea why Dyson decided to do this but it was a horrible design decision and the main reason why I didn't give this a 5-star review. Getting the vacuum out of the straight-up storage mode is easy enough, but putting it back into that mode is tricky and not very reliable. It usually takes me at least 2 tries to get it back into position and I'm not happy that Dyson made this change. The old foot-operated locking mechanism was super easy (the thing was bright red so you couldn't miss it) and the vacuum would always lock into place if you wanted it there. Every time i want to roll the vacuum back into my closet it slips out of upright mode and back into vacuum mode, which I absolutely cannot stand. I find that it requires me to pick up the vacuum and carry it back to my closet instead of just rolling it back. Dyson engineers--- if you're reading this please bring back the old foot mechanism!

My last Dyson Ball lasted one week short of 7 years, so the choice to go with Dyson again was obvious. This one is a little lighter but works just as well. I have two dogs, a cat, and 8 chickens (though the chickens aren't in the house, feathers somehow find their way in occasionally) and it cleans up after all of them. A couple of tips for things other people seem to have issues with: 1. Make sure the brush is spinning when you're on carpet (make sure the grey button is in the correct position, and there is not hair/fur around the brush), as long as it is the vacuum practically self-propels forward (though it can be difficult to *pull it backwards* due to suction, my kids have 0 issue vacuuming by just always going forward, like you would with a lawn mower). 2. My son showed me this one just a few days ago lol - you can spin the top cord holder to have the cord come off all at once, instead of having to unwind it when you want to use the hose. 3. For getting things at an angle you can take the hard tube out of the hose (press the red button on the hose while pulling). 4. When it is in hose mode (handle locked upright) it will only suck from the hose. When you lower the handle, it will only suck from the bottom. If you take it out of hose mode and it still won't suck from the bottom, you have something stuck somewhere. Look in the manual, there is a "looking for blockages" section. Check all those places. Really I think the issues people are having are just not understanding how to fully use it - which is understandable because the instructions are not very informative and are difficult to figure out. But once you figure it out, this vacuum is great.

What a horrible piece of poorly designed junk. Where to begin? I’ll start with the 2 positive things, 1 of which also causes tons of headaches. PROS: 1. lots of suction, like suck the dirt from under your house, through the floorboards and through the carpet kind of suction. This is also a huge problem. 2. Roller brush attachment works well for vacuuming furniture, but the hose is horrible. That’s it, there’s nothing else good about this vacuum. CONS: 1. way too much suction, no volume of air. There is so much suction that on carpet it’s hard to move, like really hard on some carpet. Like you’re going to be sweaty when you finish vacuuming hard to move. Forget about even trying to vacuum a door mat or door rug. The vacuum will suck it up inside and jam it firmly in the rollers, even if you try to stand on the rug while you vacuum. 2. Won’t suck up dog food, cereal, small bits of gravel etc. this vacuum uses a self adjusting height selector. It rides so low to the ground you won’t be able to suck up anything beside dust and dog hair if it’s on a hard surface. It will just push them around. It needs to ride low to the ground because the vacuum itself doesn’t move hardly any air volume. It’s just all suction. So if you’ve got kids, or pets that may leave bits of cereal or dog food on the ground forget about trying to vacuum them up with this. Even if you pick up the vacuum and set it on them it doesn’t work. It usually just sends them launching across the room. You’ll either be pre sweeping or walking around with a handful of bits you pick up off the ground as you vacuum. 3. The hose is horrible. It’s way too short, and the vacuum has so much suction that if you stick the nozzle of it to something and accidentally get to close it will suction down, this causes the hose to shrink up and will propel the entire vacuum at you. This is no small feat as the vacuum itself is extremely heavy (but that’s an entirely separate complaint). Keep in mind you’ll need to put the nozzle super close to clean because it moves so little volume of air, but don’t put it too close or you may get a concussion or bruise when the vacuum clobbers you because the nozzle suctioned down. 4. The cord… it’s a nice quality cord that for some moronic reason is attached to the BOTTOM of the vacuum. This means every time you move the vacuum you must bend down and pick it up off the ground and hold it in your hand so you don’t run it over. Other vacuums I’ve owned have always had the cord come from the top of the handle, preventing this problem. Oh, also the cord is wrapped nicely around 2 hooks, the upper one being attached to the hose nozzle…. So… if you just want to use the hose to clean up a small mess you must unwind all 25 to 30 or so feet of cord before you’re able to remove the hose from the vacuum. 5. The wand stores inside the hose and the whole assembly fits into the handle… at least in theory. I finally ended up taking my wand out and filing down all the sharp edges because I couldn’t get it to fit back into where it was designed to go. Now it goes, but still requires jiggling. 6. Heat… this vacuum is like running a 500 watt heater while it’s on. It seriously pumps hot air out the exhaust side while it’s running. I hate vacuuming in the summer with it because it literally raises the temperature inside our home a couple degrees by the time I’m done with the entire house. It’s unbelievable how hot the air coming from this vacuum is. 7. Latching mechanism for the tilt handle. It’s horrible. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought I had this vacuum returned to the upright position only to have it fall over crashing onto the ground as I walked away. 8. Noise, it’s stupid loud. 9. Weight, it’s stupid heavy. You’ll get a workout if you need to vacuum stairs with this thing. I really was excited to get this vacuum. What a huge disappointment the first time I used it. I seriously hate vacuuming the house now and have been threatening to sell this thing used and buying something else. I should have returned it while I still could but that seemed like such a hassle. I should have though, lesson learned. Save yourself the regret and buy something else. At a bare minimum find one of these vacuums and try it out before you buy, I’m sure you’ll hate it too.

In 2006, I purchased our first Dyson Animal. It was impressive. We had a black lab that shed enormous amounts of hair in our tiny house and the Dyson took care of the hair for many years. In fact, for 12 years it worked flawlessly as a powerful and reliable vacuum. To be quite honest, we were lax with filter cleaning and maintenance, we just plugged it in, used it, and emptied the dust canister when it was full. The only times I ever had to give it special attention was when our long hairs or string wrapped around the brushed head. In November 2017, we discussed getting a newer model vacuum. Ours was 12 years old, banged up from years of abuse and probably suffering from a decade + of neglect. For whatever reason we decided that maybe our next vacuum didn't need to be a Dyson. We no longer had a shedding dog and don't wear shoes in our house so we went out and bought a $99.00 Black Friday sale price Hoover Wind Tunnel Pro Pet. It became evident after about 30 seconds that this was nothing like the Dyson what we had been accustomed to for the last 12 years. The filter clogged with almost every use. The cord was much shorter, it was louder, it didn't self adjust to the depth of your carpeting, and the brush head did not seem balanced when it rotated and made the whole vacuum cleaner feel as though it was going to come apart. Lesson learned. We ordered the Dyson Ball Animal 2 after only using the Hoover a handful of times. When the Dyson arrived it was only about a 4-5 step process to put it together. PROS: I liked the fact that the brush head is visible through clear plastic. (If you were to get string or long hair wrapped around the brush head you would know right away.) Another design change from the old Dyson that I love is there is a button right next to the power button that allows you to turn the brush head on/off for bare floors. More than anything though when I turned on the vacuum it was abundantly clear that it had the power and suction that I had come to appreciate from a Dyson product! CONS: I am not sure if these are really complaints or just the fact that this newer model is different that my older model Dyson but I found the hose for using the attachments to be a little awkward to stow back into its proper place and since you maneuver this vacuum on a ball, I had a little trouble with locking it in the upright position. I found myself checking to make sure it was holding the upright position before walking away. Again, I imagine after time I will have adjusted to using this vacuum and these little issues might resolve themselves. This vacuum is a winner and if it is anything like our last Dyson, I expect to be using it a decade from now. As for that old Dyson, I am going to tear it apart and give it a little much needed love and attention. I bet that once it's all cleaned up it runs like new. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with a Dyson and if you have one now, don't make the mistake of trying another brand. Stick with Dyson.

This is our third Dyson and it is fantastic. We started with a DC17 and when it stopped working for a while we purchased a DC28. We replaced the DC17's canister which got it working again and it has been our most used vacuum for a long time. Just recently it became very noisy and lost some of its suction so we moved it down to our finished basement to use on the smooth carpet down there The Animal 2 is the replacement and we use it in the main two levels of our house. The suction is fantastic and it does a great job picking up cat hair and everything else. Our carpet is very plush and pushing the DC28 on it was a whole body workout. This new Animal 2 has fantastic suction and yet is easy to push. I love the lower profile, making it easier to maneuver around furniture legs. I have had no problem using it in area rugs either, just be careful about fringes which is true for any vacuum. One added bonus is the Animal weighs less than our DC17 so it is easier to carry up / down our half-fleight of stairs Tool storage on the vacuum is similar to previous models as is the cord. The stair tool and wand tool clamp to the side of the vacuum. The turbine tool is to bulky to attach, which is fine with me. The turbine tool is a huge improvement with this model. We had a similar tool with one of our other Dyson's, but it failed miserably from the start with fur getting tangled in it. We have used the new version a few times and so far it has not had any similar issue. If it doesn't release on its own I simply place my foot on the front. If you try to quickly lock in place while you are vacuuming it may not lock. I think that is more related to the swivel and it may be that it just isn't lined up. Take a second to make sure it is positioned correctly and it locks correctly As for our DC28, it is still going strong. We keep it upstairs on our 4th level to use in our bedrooms and hall. It developed a strange thing where it has to warm up for a couple of minutes or it will lose suction but as long as you let it run for a couple of minutes first it will work fine