Sad old housewife that I am, I have got to the end of my tether with my hoover (a very real problem, I'm sure you'll agree...)  The time has come to buy a new one that does not clog up with dog hairs within five minutes and then overheat.  Has anyone got one of the Dyson "pet hair" hoovers?  Are they any good? Any other recommendations? Darcey hasn't even started to moult yet and my trusty old hoover just isn't up to the job!  Come on, I can't be the only sad person out there who worries about these things? :-)

After reading the Which? report on hoovers a couple of years ago we ended up with a Miele. The Miele Cat&Dog came out really well in the report, but after shopping around we ended up with a plain Miele, and just bought the special 'turbo' head seperately because it worked out cheaper !. No complaints so far.

Val

Hi

i have just replaced my first DYSON DC07 (grey and turquoise) as it was loosing power.  It was just still in the 2 yr warranty period but i decided i wanted a new one.

Got the upright dyson animal and am so far pleased with it, like the turbo pet tool.

HTH

:-)

yeah I've got an animal and its brill, gets all the hair every time, slight drawback though is that it takes a mouthful of carpet with it as well.

Hi Darceydog

We've got a Dyson, not the special animal one, but an ordinary one and it's great at sucking up the detritus from our two with no problems at all.  If it packed in I would probably get the animal one this time round though, but it wasn't out when we bought ours.

Hope this helps :)

Lesley

Keep those votes for the Dyson "animal" coming through, I'm trying to put together a solid story to my husband who baulked at the idea of spending £300 for a Hoover!  Can't think why though, he was happy enough to spend £300 on a fancy saw type thingumyjig!!

I've got an Animal and its rubbish. The filter thingy broke, then the cylinder thing broke - and yes, they replace it, but it takes a while... Its rubbish!!!

My mum has a Dyson too, not even a year old yet - not the Animal one as she doesn't need it and it's rubbish.  The belt keeps going on it.  Buy a Henry, a lot cheaper & they are industrial strength.  We have one in the shop and it's great, bags are huge and anyone can repair it, unlike Dyson's.

If he spent £300 on a saw thingy, then I wouldn't even discuss it with him, just go buy your Animal Darceydog :D  Or even better sell his saw thingy and put the money towards your Animal - problem solved :D

Lesley

i bought my Dyson animal cylinder a month ago. Searched on innternet and found a firm in worcester who delivered free, cost £234. cannot believe ehow  much it picks up. The downside is that the cylinder is small and I empty every day or other day for optimum suction. Pretty easy to do though. we have a combination of solid floors and carpets. Upright probably better for all carpet. it i squite scary when you use it the first time and see how much 'muck' is in your house. took me a while toconvince my hubbie but he is sold on it now. I also have a duson washer and have found their after sales excellent. You get 2 year warranty and it is not very expensive to take out the extra 3 year warranty with them.
Go for it!!
:)Sue

* stop press* Dyson Animal from Tesco.com is £219.98 - anyone do any better?

Definitely Dyson Animal, we have 4 children and 5 dogs.............it's a miracle worker I swear it!!............lol.

I've just bought a Electrolux Glider £98 from Comet my carpets have never been so clean great for Goldens hair.I'd heard Dysons were not reliable.

well i have a dyson animal and wouldnt be without it
mandy

I've JUST replaced my Dyson DC01 with a Dyson animal and it's brill.  Paid 250 for it but got it on no deposit 10 months interest free credit from PowerHouse - saw the Tescos one but I'm saving up and couldn't afford the initial outlay.
Lara x

I have a Dyson Animal and it's brilliant! The Turbo tool is crap though.
:)

Another vote for the Dyson Animal, I couldn't be without mine. I love it.
Dawn R.

I have a Dyson and it is good on carpets although it won't pick up my hair - I have to go over the carpet with either a hairbrush or rubber brush for that.

It is useless on timber and tile floors as it picks up most of the dust but anything bigger than a pinhead gets thrown out the back and has to be swept up separately. No bad on cobwebs on the ceiling beams though.

I'm on my second Dyson and it is so good I find it hard to believe it was designed by a man :P

Sorry my vote goes for Henry, or as I know havce a George that cleans the carpets as well.
With a all year round heavy moulting GSD it's a god send and plenty of room for all the hairs.

Ingrid

Dyson seems to be winning the votes at present... I'm just off out to mow the grass.  Now, we need a new lawnmower - petrol v Flymo for a garden approx. 70ft length.  Again, hubby wants petrol, I want Flymo.  Would point out that we do get on very well and aren't in the habbit of arguing too long and hard over domestic appliances!!  Also, I'm the one that mows the grass ;-)  Life is just full of too many exciting choices!

We used to have a petrol Flymo. Don't they do those any more?

how about you say to hubby he can whatever lanwmower he wants and you have your choice in hoover.

:-)

i had a flymo, hubby said it was to much like hard work so bought a petrol mower, ive used both and the petrol mower wins by far,

Heidi

proberbly depends how big your garden is, if you only have a very small garden the flymo may be better, i have quite a big garden and the flymo was hard work

Hi,

With 4 children and soon 4 dogs (Goldens at that).I persuaded partner to spend £300 on the Dyson wished I had'nt bothered not that impressed not had it long and the sunction not working properly despite being properly checked out.
I totally fed up the thing.I hear Miele are supposed to be good??
Why can't we have products that are built to last:-(

Briony:-)

Briony - as I mentioned earlier, I've got a Miele - thanks mainly to the report in Which. I know most people on here seem happy with their Dysons and that's good, but when I was looking I'd already got a neighbour and a cousin who were having too many problems with Dysons so it put me off. I also found them quite heavy and noisy when I tried. Interesting to read (and it's been said on this subject before) how many people mention that they are on their second Dyson. The make really hasn't been out that many years and to be honest, that puts me off too - I want to get my money's worth !. Whatever, I'm sure they are all pretty similar but having used both I know which I'm happier with.

Val

Hi,

Well this is my 3rd Dyson and i've had enough now I want something that can be reliable if that possible.
I have a Miele dishwasher that has been excellent really recommend one.

Briony:-)

My mother has a Dyson 01 that she bought soon after they came out. It's still going strong, and does a fantastic job at picking up her golden retriever's hair.
:)

Hi,

Maybe i've been really unlucky,my hoover gets used at least twice a day but then I expect the hoover to be able to cope I even had one engineer sayI was using it too much and it was overheating,when I explained 4 children one is a toddler plus the doghair I expect it to cope with a lounge .kitchen,utiliy berfore having to pull the plug on it.

Briony:-)

Had my Dyson - don't know which one - for 4 1/2 years - no problems so far :) Picks up reasonably well - but I use a carpet comb as well sometimes :)

Daisy

Im on my second Dyson only because I left my last one with the ex husband big mistake, to both counts marrying & leaving my Dyson. Got a cyclinder now very good but did prefer the upright :)
Diane

I think I'll look into the Miele hoover as well, I know that it's a good make.  Glad I'm not the only one that hoover's twice a day though!!

I've had my Dyson since the year dot, probably for more than 11 years, since my son was a baby.  About 5 years ago I blew the motor up and Dyson sent an engineer (female and impressive with her knowledge) around to my house and for £75 refurbished the whole machine.  Every little hose, screw, mounting, etc was replaced if there was the slightest thing wrong with it and I ended up with an almost new machine.  Now the filters are washable I am happier because I was annoyed at the advertising that said you don't need bags when you do need filters that clog easily, especially when you have a log fire that produces loads of mess.

I think I might go for a cylinder rather than upright next time, but I don't know when that next time will be.

(I shouldn't really post things like this as my fridge part of fridge freezer gave up ghost yesterday, half works, half doesn't - what a waste!)

Laminated floors, broom, dustpan and brush!

That was our answer!!!  And so far so good!

Saying that never had a complaint about our dyson, also the people of dyson are very helpful and on the odd occasion when we needed a spare part, it was with us within a couple of days at least!!!!

Roxanne

My current hoover is a cheap disaster bought from Tesco on offer at £20 and its the best I ever had on dog hairs. Mind you my tumble dryer has been cutting out recently because of dog hairs in the trap at the back, but you cant have everything.

Swapped my dyson for a henry and don't regret it for a minute, suction on henry is better by far although not hoovering up dog hair as my 2 don't cast.
Got 2 messy kids though. :-)
I've also got a petrol mower and a flymo, petrol mower is much better than flymo for large garden, much bigger grass collector and wheels change around 6 sizes depending how long grass is.

linda

Have had my "Animal" now for about a year.  Find it brilliant picking up everything including the fringes on the rugs!!!.  I do find it heavy though to carry upstairs (upright) and that turbo thingy isnt any better than the other tools that are attached to it.
One thing I do find amazing is you hoover up, empty the cylinder and hoover again, my goodness how much it picks up.  I must be a real dirty so and so!!!.

interesting stuff :)

My mum, does a lot of cleaning for elderly people....and she's says the best vacuum she's ever used is a henry.  She can't stand dysons.

I don't know what the heck my vacuum is, but it's useless.  I spend most of my time on my hands and knees, brushing the carpets with a wire dog brush. :(
'Bout time I bought something decent i think.

Lisa

YIPEEEEEEEEE :D Ive been after a Dyson Animal for a while now, hubby just phoned to say he bought me one and he's on his way with it :)
Blees him, all those hints have finally paid off!!
I cant wait to try it, the sad c** that I am. I also hoover 2-3 times a day 5 boys and 2 Bullmastiffs ;)

I will let you know what I think later

Kelly

WOW :) It's great!! Done the stairs (easy) and my rug looks like new and the wooden floors are hair free, saw dust being dragged from everywhere!! It's brill :D I'm really pleased with it

Kelly

We have a dyson and it's good. I remember using bags and once you have used one once, the suction goes, so found vacuums needing bags very expensive. Mine was a Vax and it was great each time i changed the bag, but that was it! :(

I just love the fact dyson's are pretty good at picking up - best vacuum we have ever had, anyway... and there is no bag to mess with.

Do the Miele and the Henru use bags? If so, how is their suction?

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay, yes, my Miele uses bags but I prefer that. I watched a friend empty her Dyson once - didn't like it. The filter in my Miele prevents a lot of dust and the bag has a cover for the hole so that nothing escapes when you remove it which is great if, like me, you have allergies.

Val

Ditto, Lindsay. I still have a Philips cylinder vacuum cleaner that we were given nearly 20 years ago, and it still works perfectly. The problem is getting hold of the bags for it ("oh no, madam, they stopped making those a long time ago" whilst looking at me as if I was out of the Dark Ages). With a brand new bag in it was fantastic, but as the bag filled, the suction got weaker and weaker, and the task took longer and longer.

OK, OK, there's no need to rub it in Kelly!!!  I've decided to have a one woman protest today and do no hoovering - that'll show him (not).  He won't even notice .... maybe he would if I hoovered naked, or in front of the telly when he's watching Top Gear!!  Let me know how your new hoover settles in Kelly!

I just accidently broke my old one ;) I was without a hoover for 24hrs and it was horrible!! I have hoovered twice since I got my new one ( the amount of yuk that my old hoover left behind is disgusting) That's the only trouble with the Dyson you can see what was on the floors :D
Good Luck, just keep on at him and in the end he will give up!!

Kelly
P.S hubby paid £220 and that's with an extra 5 years insurance, we are covered for 7 years.

my hoover dyson was awful hated it, hubby said i did not need a new one ha ha ha,so i let him hoover for a week, and in the end did not get a new hoover he put laminate floor down,oh god it is lovely and takes half the time to hoover and clean.
Carol

Now on to my 3rd Dyson - not due to unreliability or anything, left first with ex when we split (big mistake, leaving the vacuum, not the split!) so bought a new one about 10 years ago,  replaced it about 4 -5 years ago when a newer model came out and gave old model to firend (still going strong).  I love it, never any problems, easy to clear any blockages etc which occur, picks up everything.  However, now only use it in the bedroom and on the sofa as have replaced all other floor coverings with tiles, vinyl etc.  Have seen a gorgeous new one in Tesco - Pink and Lilac, but just cant justify buying it coz it looks pretty!  Wouldnt consider any other!  Used to have a Henry Hoover, light, easy, but certainly not up to Dysons standards.
bye
Gwen

As far as vaccum cleaners go, have tried many different ones in the past 20 years. My Dyson lasted less than 2 years before bits started to snap off or split and eventually it just died suddenly one morning without warning. Many of the other brands simply lose their "suck" after a while. The latest one I have now is The Henry. Have had him just over a year and am very pleased with him so far. The only thing is that he is just too powerful to pick up dog hairs effectively. Have found that less powerful vaccums pick up the hairs better, don't know why this is so.

Just been thinking (not always a good idea !), I wonder if anybody still uses those carpet sweeper things - you know, the ones that you just run over stuff but doesn't actually pick anything up !!!.

Val

Finally wore him down and now have a Dyson Animal taking pride of place in my understairs cupboard!  I did insist that we had a 5 year warranty though - it's good to buy with confidence;-)!  Took me at least an hour to decided on which one to buy in the end, I only like "uprights".  Oh, the exciting life of house-wifery....