My biggest "pitch a fit" is the cord on vacuums! Drives me absolutely crazy! I would love to have a powerful vacuum that is cordless and can clean carpeted floors! Very interesting!

So happy you love the Dyson!

I keep going back and forth between a Dyson 7. I could get with my points, but it would take every single point I've been saving for 3 years and I don't have near enough points for the 8 animal - or a corded shark on sale for about $150 CDN. You have me thinking. You also have me thinking about how much I'm going to enjoy retirement - if it ever comes. A housecleaning spreadsheet, oh my joy!

So glad you love it. I do love mine, although it isn’t the one specifically for animals (and we no longer have a dog). It still removes a lot of stuff for a cordless.

Well today I vacuumed my lower level with the good ol' Miele canister. What a PITA compared to the Dyson cordless - dragging the canister, manhandling the twisting hose and untangling myself from the cord as I plugged and unplugged my way through the task. It did seem to suck stuff up pretty well - I will say that for it.

I did furniture and my cat hair furniture covers today with the Dyson hand held attachment - amazing. I should have gotten one of these a long time ago.

@3katz4me

Timely update! I was thinking of you this morning as I was wrestling my Miele canister around the kitchen. I hated the Dyson upright I had years ago, but I do find the idea of a cordless stick appealing. I've liked their other products, so I'm considering the one you got.

Hey 3katz4me, (I now have a face for the name...West Coast Meet Up.) Just a note that I too have the V8 but after about 4 months it wouldn't hold a charge for very long. I called their service department and they sent me out a replacement battery and what a major difference even from the first time using it. Just something to keep in mind in case yours start to fail to keep a charge.

Thank you isitdoneyet! That is somewhat my fear - that this is too good to be true and it will conk out. It does have a two year warranty and I bought it with my AmEx so I'd get an extension beyond the two years. That reminds me I need to register for the warranty.

3katz, take it out to the garage and do the car with the handheld tomorrow. You will fall in love even deeper.

I'm so glad I saw your review!! I was looking at Costco at this model- hoping it goes on sale.

Do you mind me asking where you got yours & if it was on sale?

Peppapoodle, I bought mine just this past week at Bed Bath and Beyond for $299 and they allowed me to use my 20% off coupon, making it $239. It seems to be priced at $299 many places right now. If BB&B hadn't let me use the coupon, I was going to try Kohl's, which had it listed for the same price, and where I also had a 20% off coupon.

I had a top of the line Miele for 20 years and liked it but when it died i got the bottom of the line Miele and have not been happy with it. It’s ok on floors but not the rugs...at all. I like my Sears Progressive much better over all.

I think it was the cordless Dyson my married with little kids nephew was raving about—-I’ll have to check.

So, it’s really good on rugs and carpet?

We have a whole house vac, but what a pain that long hose is! Do I dare ask for a cordless vac for Christmas? (though I'm not sure that I'll really vacuum more often if I get one)

I also got mine at BB&B for $239. Yes it’s good on rugs and carpet. I don’t know that I’d use it on large expanses of carpet (my lower level) as you may have to empty it a lot. I use mine on my main floor where most of the cat hair is and I only have carpet in the bedroom. The rest is wood and area rugs.

IMO, no matter what Dyson you buy, you'll never go back to anything else. When my current Dyson breaks down I'll definitely check out the Animal.

Thanks for the info. I need amazing!! Gravel road w 3 dogs & a cat, and a DH!!

I had an upright that I loved for 10 years- the hose attachment broke so it's my upstairs vac for carpet now. I got a shark for downstairs (concrete floors & lots of area rugs- meh.

I get excited over products that make my cleaning life easier:)

I'm a huge Dyson fan, and this is so tempting. Does anyone have the V10?

I couldn't bring myself to spend the $ for the V10. I did find a comparison of the two and decided definitely not worth it for me. I think it was primarily length of run time on a charge and a slightly larger dust cup.

One thing I found that was a pleasant surprise re: recharging - I wasn't sure where I could put this to recharge it as I don't have an outlet anywhere I could hang the thing next to it. I thought I might have to put it in my garage and not sure about having it in below zero temps in the winter. When I got it I realized I can just charge the hand held motor without the long attachment so I can put in on the counter in my laundry room where I also charge a small hand held vac. I have room for the long piece and the attachments in the nearby closet.

I was dreading doing my own house cleaning but this thing makes it so much easier I may quit looking for a new house cleaner until I get too old and decrepit to do it myself.

DH and I don't usually exchange Christmas gifts, but I told him I want a Dyson this year. I've been pulling around an Electrolux canister for over 25 + years and the thing just won't die!

3katz -the Dyson website has the V10 at $200 off this week! (It's always so much fun to spend other people's money!)

Dyson Sale

We do not have pets——I’m wondering which Dyson model would be best for area rugs.

Hmm....V10 $200 off....I have been thinking about how I might need one at our lake place.....

I have an Animal as well and love it! The only thing that bugs me is the (infrequent) difficulty in changing the attachments. I charge mine in the garage and never considered the temperature, 3katz. Oops. Your solution is great. Oh, I can't use it on my two Ruggables but it's fine on my run of the mill "industrial" entry carpet. I have no other carpet in the house. I remember how thrilling it was when I started using it. Seeing the dirt is genius! Don't recall ever using "love" with an appliance as much before.

I've done an Excel housecleaning spreadsheet as well. Lol My issue is following through on my clean freak dreams. :P Will look into Listaway. Thanks for the tip, Moxie.

Tartan - I wonder if yours is different - my attachments are easy to switch. They just slide on/slide off with a click of the button - another thing I thought was so well designed.

The click of the button isn't always smooth on mine.

Joaniepoanie, I found this series of video reviews about the various Dyson models. It explains which heads do what best. I have mostly bare floors and it helped me to see that the V7 motorhead that I had been considering is not great on bare floors, but it would probably be good for you on rugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ-D9TujfcI

Thanks Daisy!

I just saw that the V7 is $179 on amazon as a deal of the day.... I’m not sure how the V7 compares to the newer models though. Just FYI to anyone who may be interested.

A friend of mine was just complaining about their experience with Dyson. He said that about once a year, it gets all clogged up and he has to take it to the vacuum repair shop in town and it's kind of expensive to have cleaned out. He went on to tell me that in this repair shop, there was a really long line of Dyson vacuums all waiting to be fixed and NO OTHER BRAND! He made a comment to the owner and the owner joking said "we LOVE Dyson" in a kind of a "wink wink nod nod" type comment.

Well thanks for that ray of sunshine. I’ll think positive that my new stick doesn’t have enough to it to clog and/or that I don’t suck up clogs. I remember my previous house cleaner (that I loved and miss so much) sucked a cat toy into the vac and that clogged it up nicely. Fortunately between the two of us we managed to get the mouse out and get it back up and running.

DaisyChain, that video was helpful.

Until Dyson changes the continuous-press on button, this is a no-go for me.

My guess is that the clogs are mostly happening to the bigger, more complex Dyson's, just because the mechanics of this are so simple. There's just a short (3 foot?) straight tube connected right to the cup that collects everything that is sucked up. No hose to catch things. And no distance between the tube and the refuse cup. One of my favorite parts of this is the floor attachment. It's the simplest one I've ever used, and you can just run it under the sink to clean if necessary. So far, there has been nothing there to even clean, but one morning I used it on my outdoor rug, and there was a bit of wet debris inside the floor attachment when I turned it upside down to look. Took me less than 3 seconds to completely rinse it under the faucet. My floors have truly never been so clean. We have wood stairs which I only did once/week max because I hated it so much. Now it's a cinch to quickly do those. I'm really thrilled with everything about this cordless so far.

I have always hated vacuuming....until now. I love this thing. I think I've vacuumed more in the last week than I have in the last 20 years. Hopefully the novelty won't wear off. The continuous press button is not a problem - you just naturally press it when you hold the thing by the handle and it does make it very easy to stop running it if you're moving from one spot to the next (to save on the battery).

No no no no no! You're going about it ALL WRONG!

Instead of vacuuming the floor, VACUUM THE CAT!!

(tongue in cheek--I know you all will love this video!)

You are all such a bunch of enablers. We have guests coming for thanksgiving and we'll have an additional 8 people staying with us. My vacuum was failing, so thanks to all of you, I went to get a Dyson. I ended up buying the newer version, the V11 torque because it was on sale for $499 (reg. $699) on the QVC website and BB&B matched the price. It's charging now and I am excited to try it.

My rugs and guests thank you all.

Woo-hoo - report back on how you like it.

Me too! I never know what to say when my husband asks what I want for Christmas. Usually we just give a few small token gifts along with vacation plans/flights. However, with two dogs and off white tiles throughout... this could save the marriage lol. This is great for both of us and I‘m sure my husband will like it for a car vac.

Just bought the animal 8. This will replace a 20 year old kenmore progressive.

I feel as excited as when I got a car with bluetooth.

I no longer use my Miele canister. I did have a clog today that stopped the roller. Quick trip to the website explained how to remove the roller and clean it out. Easy-peasy / back in business in minutes. I feel like I need to buy another one for my lake place. So far I’ve been bringing it back and forth because I no longer want to use any other vacuum. I’ll see how this one holds up until summer and then decide.

For anyone still thinking about it, Qvc has the V8 animal for $249. I still love mine, but that new V11 is so tempting.

249 on amazon too

Has anyone gotten the Absolute? It has both vacuum heads- for hard floors & rugs? Is it worth the extra $? I have both - rugs & hard floors. Would I really change the attachments?

Too many options!!

I’m actually thinking about getting the hard surface attachment now that I see how much I’m using this thing. It’s supposed to clean better on hard surfaces but mainly I don‘t like the idea of running the rotating brush on my hardwood floors. The attachment is about $100 so if the Absolute is less than $100 more then probably worthwhile. I vacuum rugs first and hard surfaces after so switching attachments wouldn’t be a big deal for me.

The absolute is absolutely worth the extra money if you have wood floors. It's "fluffy brush" is almost a polisher as it vacuums. I have an 8 animal absolute stick and a small animal ball for my carpet. I just like the cordless for smooth floors. The battery doesn't last too long on full power. I would need to wait for it to recharge for the whole house so just like the larger vacuum for all the carpet in my house. I would never buy a different brand after having Dyson.

I just ordered the V8 Absolute. $249 on the Dyson website.

Me too! It arrives Tuesday.

I saw the V8 Animal in action TG day at my brother’s when the kids spilled candy on their hardwood. Gobbled it right up. TG night read more reviews and watched a video of it on carpet and was impressed—-(my low end Miele is ok for floors but not on my area rug).

I ordered the Absolute from the Dyson website since it was the same price as the Animal but came with the soft roller for hardwoods.

I think I'm going to get the Animal for upstairs. Kohls has it for $249. I've got $45 Kohls cash & 25% off coupon that starts Dec 5th. I have the Dyson animal from 2004 up there & the hose is broken- so no use of attachments.

Then get the Absolute for downstairs where I have more hard floors.

Thanks for starting this thread:)

Okay I am truly crazy. I just ordered the V8 Absolute so I’d have the hard floor attachment. I’ll keep that one at home where I have the new wood floors and bring the V8 Animal to the lake where I don’t have as much wood and it’s 18 years old. I’m not at all a shopping nut but I’m glad this thing will arrive when DH is out of town and I can squirrel it away before he sees it. Otherwise he might think I’ve gone off the deep end - have hardly vacuumed in 20+ years and suddenly I buy two vacuums in less than a month. Being of a frugal nature I tell myself they‘ll pay for themselves after a couple months without a housecleaner.

People ask me what I do now that I’m retired - oh, I buy vacuum cleaners and vacuum every day - well not every day but often.

I, too, ordered a V8 Absolute since I have hardwood floors and oriental rugs.

One of our cats has the most beautiful, shiny black fur, but it's a double coat and she sheds constantly. One of my cousins had a long-haired cat that love, love, loved to be vacuumed. No way mine would allow that. My husband's eldest cat was injured by a housecleaner's vacuum before we met. I watched that cat actively teach our younger cats that vacuums are evil and to be feared. Never mind that I've never harmed him with a vacuum or anything else in the 14 years I've known him!