Best vacuum for pet hair?

We need a new vacuum cleaner, and I really want one that can handle the amount of pet hair in the house - we have two cats & two dogs, with one of the dogs being a Lab. I also have long hair of my own that gets tangled up in everything - so, there is a lot of hair to deal with. The last few vacuums we had seemed to wear out pretty quickly because of it.

I keep hearing about the Dyson Animal - does anyone have one of them? Is it worth the price?

We have carpet upstairs & in the stairwell, hardwood and tile floors downstairs. I want a vacuum that can handle all three types of flooring, plus the furniture.

If you've found a brand you really like, tell me!

I have a Dyson Animal and I LOVE it! It gets everything up. It works on all floor types, including stairs, and the attachments are great for furniture. It makes our carpet look brand new. We've had ours for a few years now, and the most I have to do with it is take the brush out every once in a while (which is the easiest to do out of any of the vacuums we've had) and cut all the hair out of it, but once I do that it is as good as new.

Dyson Animal....hands down!!! The most amazing vaccume ever! It's worth every single penny!!

(for reference, since I moved back home when I started med school my mom and I are living together with all of our pets- my german shepherd, daschound, and 3 cats, and her beagle and 2 cats...this vaccume is amazing at picking up fur! I also have asthma/allergies- so it really helps to have a good vaccume cleaner!)

The model I own is the Dyson DC 17 Absolute Animal. I LOVE it!!! I've had it for several years now without any issues

(Kara is right about cleaning it- after I vaccume I always empty the canister and wipe it out, then I lay the vaccume down and take a pair of scissors to the roll bar and cut away any trapped pet fur/hair/etc so that it will be ready for its next run! A little maintance keeps it as good as new!)

I've been using 2 Hoover Elite bagless uprights since June. They were great--esp. the pet hair brush--it was the only one I ever used that actually worked (with 8 cats, I need it). I loved the retractable cord, too. They're about $99-$129. I keep one downstairs, & 1 upstairs. However...just last week, the pet hair brushes stopped working (they're like a mini-vacuum cleaner, and the inside rolls, using brushes). I can buy one for about $13 on the Hoover site, though. Also, 1 vacuum broke a bearing in the bottom; it works fine, just is very noisy. Admittedly, they get a lot of usage--I usually do a total floor cleaning at least 2-3 times a week; and spot cleaning (laminate floors and area rugs, + wall-to-wall carpet upstairs) in between those times; in other words, just about daily.

I have a Dyson DC 17 Animal. I love it! It is loud and a bit heavier than other vacuums, but the tradeoff is in how well it performs. Hubby is the one who cleans the hair (usually my hair) off the brushes, and when we empty the canister, we take a can of compressed air they type used on keyboards and blow out all the stuff that collects in the nooks and crannies.

Dyson animal hands down.
I run it once a week and it is fantastic. Picks up everything, cat hair, human hair, dirt. whatever. On the off days I run the roomba my mil gave me. So far I am not impressed with it though. But dh says give it time. I've only run it twice and frankly it didn't do what I expected, so I didn't run it again.

Consumer Reports will tell you that the Kenmore Elite sucks up hair better than the Dyson Animal. I've had mine for a couple of years and as long as you spend the time keeping the filter clean it's really good and half the price of the Dyson. The best part is that even with 10 cats, 3 dogs and lots of pet debrie in the house (dog bone chunks), it sucks up everything without it every being clogged or tangled. But the filter is a real pain to clean - I have to take it out every other time I vacuum and use a separate vacuum to get in between the folds of the filter. It's that or replace the filter once a month (at $25, not worth it).

If I had to do it all over again, I would probably buy the Dyson based on what people say here.

I have a Eureka The Boss SmartVac 4870 which Consumer Reports has also rated better than the Dyson Animal on pet hair. I've had it for 5 years now and it's still going strong. My vaccuum now comes in a Pet Lover's version, that if I had to get a new one - I would love. It has more attachments.

Bags for it are about $5 for a 3-pack, and they last quite a while. I buy them 2-3 times a year, at most.

I vacuum quite a bit because of allergies, and it's held up very well. When we bought our house (all hard floors, except for 1 area rug) we just bought attachments that wouldn't scratch the floor from Sears.

Yet another for the Dyson Animal. It was pricey but worth it. My old vacuum wasn't picking up my jack russell's hair. Her hair sticks in everything, but the Dyson picks it up with no problem!

The Dyson Animal. It's great. It is loud, but it does the job. And I don't have to mess around with bags. Just dump the canister and I'm done. It is more expensive though.

Weldrwomn, we started using compressed air to clean it out. About once every two weeks.

My parents just bought me the Dyson DC 25 Animal Ball vac for my birthday and I am in love I never thought I would say that I enjoy vacuuming, but with this, it really is a pleasure

I did a test - I first vacuumed with my old hoover, and then immediately again with the new dyson. The bin was almost completely full of dust and squeaky hair I've only used it on carpets, but my parents have another dyson ball model (since they don't have pets) and they use it on their hardwood and tile floors and their carpets

http://www.dyson.com/store/product.a...ct=DC25-ANIMAL

We have the Dyson DC25 Animal. LOVE it. So worth the money. My mom ended up getting one as well for her 2 DSH and one DLH.

Originally Posted by momto3cats

We need a new vacuum cleaner, and I really want one that can handle the amount of pet hair in the house - we have two cats & two dogs, with one of the dogs being a Lab. I also have long hair of my own that gets tangled up in everything - so, there is a lot of hair to deal with. The last few vacuums we had seemed to wear out pretty quickly because of it.

I keep hearing about the Dyson Animal - does anyone have one of them? Is it worth the price?

We have carpet upstairs & in the stairwell, hardwood and tile floors downstairs. I want a vacuum that can handle all three types of flooring, plus the furniture.

If you've found a brand you really like, tell me!

Click to expand...

I see you are from Dallas. Perhaps you would like to join our local group of Dallas area cat lovers. Go to Youtube.com and search on KatKlik and you will find several short movies of our get together in my home. We are planning another get together quite soon. Would you like to be included?

my parents have two cats and a gaint German Shephard but you would never know because they have the Dyson Animal and that thing is a beast

I have the Dyson Ball and it works well for getting the cat hair up.
The reason why we chose the Dyson Ball over the animal was because the animal is a HUGE vacumm cleaner and i live in a tiny apartment. The Dyson ball comes in a smaller more apartment friendly size.

But when we get a house DH and i agree we are getting an animal all the way!