I've had mine for about 2 yrs now and I LOVE it! I live in a new hourse and installed a central vac system, but the damn Hide-a-Hose is so awkward and hard to use that after struggling with it for a few months, I went out and bought the Dyson 41 - Animal. I have two hair beasts - a 30 lb Maine Coon cat with an attitude, who sheds hair everywhere, and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who has long, fluffy hair, even on her toes. The Dyson pulls unbelievable amounts of hair out of the carpeting and the hardwood floors. We're talking "tumbleweeds" of hair. It's MUCH easier to use and much lighter than other uprights I have owned, including Hoover, Kenmore, and several others I have owned. I liked my Dyson Animal so much that I went out and bought their small tank style Animal for my steps and other smaller jobs. My hubby bought their cordless handheld for the cars. We're a 3 Dyson family! I recommend their DC 41 highly.

Dyson appears to be folding the tent on the DC 15 tent; there are a lot of reasons I'd shy away from this model Dyson. First and foremost, in order to get the motor inside "the ball" Dyson had to make a new, smaller, and less powerful one. The DC 15 is weaker than all the other Dyson models. Second, the wand is narrower than all the other wands, so you have to use the little adapter if you plan on buying any newer tools to use with it (like the barefloor tool or soft dusting brush/mattress tool). Third, the beater bar access is annoying, you take the side caps off and the beater bar splits into two pieces (it's really strange). I'm personally a much bigger fan of the DC 14, but the animal version of that doesn't exist anymore. The DC 17 is a great vacuum, but like all Dysons if you're area rugs aren't heavy ones it'll eat them alive--lots of power. You could always use the upholstrey tool to clean them if need be

I also bought a Hoover Windtunnel self propelled about 8 - 10 years ago. It worked great with an fresh bag in, but seemed to loose suction fast. I thought the machine was pretty good, and it was better than anything I'd owned up to that point. Then my daughter broke the self propelled mechanism, and that made it a drag to use, but I kept on for several more years. I bought something else, but it broke and it was still better to use the hoover than it. I finally broke down and bought a dyson animal. Was I amazed at what it sucked up. I now know that I should have been changing bags on that hoover twice each time I did a whole house vacuum. That is based on the amount of yuck I dump out of the dyson while cleaning. I don't find the weight an issue at all, but not being able to get under things is a drag. I've had the machine for about 7 years now and only cleaned it out good once, and it still sucks very well. And even sucking up things like pennies won't hurt it (no impellor). (BTW if you think the years don't add up it's because for a while I had two houses while we were trying to sell one- DH lived in one and I lived in the other, 400 miles apart). I have a few things that I still smile EVERY TIME I use them, and my dyson is one of them. I have been married over 30 years, and this is the first vacumn I've had that didn't end up being a disappointment after the first year. Every person can end up with different results - andersons loves their hoover compared to a dyson, and I think my hoover was a poor example of a vacuum compared to my dyson.

The non-ball is old, it apparently was phased out in the past 5 years because it was still out when I bought the ball one. At the time I looked for a hose and it was $60 if I recall correctly. The ball one is 5 years old. Up until last year it was used at least 2x weekly, I assume my cleaning folks were using the hose and attachments but to be honest I usually wasn't home when they were there so who knows how often they were really doing it. When I take the vacuum out myself I am usually using the hose, but to be honest I don't do much cleaning myself so maybe 1x every 2 weeks? It gets used but not by me. The way the hose works the big non-ball still works fine for many uses so even with a broken hose it is sort of ok. There is a long stick that slides into the hose to clip back to the vacuum. You can use the stick as a wand, and as such as long as the hose is partially connected to its plastic end, it still works. You would have a problem if the hose completely came off of its plastic end (but this can be solved with duct tape). The stick is good if you need the length (ceilings, drapery, under furniture, baseboards) but is a pain if you are doing something closer like upholstery or dryer vents. So the short answer is that even if the hose breaks, you can use the main part as normal or use the wand as normal as long as you can fix it with duct tape or something similar. My hose did not completely disconnect from the plastic connector. The ball doesn't turn, it's kind of like a joint that helps make the vacuum more maneuverable. So you can turn the brush off for hardwood, or on for carpet. For me, the whole process of schlepping out the big vacuum with the long cord was just too cumbersome (mind you I have a newborn so I have been pregnant/extra tired for the better part of a year). My current cleaning crew and most that I have had before use my Dysons. I had one crew that had backpack vacuums that they preferred to use. I haven't owned any other upright vacuums as an adult so I don't have much to compare to. I got my first shedding dog within a month of moving into my own place and that was the best vacuum on the market for dog hair at the time. My husband had an upright of some sort before we were married and he gladly gave it up when we merged households. $250 is a great price and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it at that price point! I think we paid $350 for the first one on special at Home Depot and similar for the second on a Black Friday deal.