We need to buy a new vacuum cleaner. We are looking at something to suck up all our cat's fur, not still attached to him, of course! We are looking at the Dyson Animal...however, would like to hear from you about your vac. cleaner experience! isn't this boring?

I like my (mom's old) electrolux...and the people at the electrolux store warn me about all the plastic parts that go bad on the Dyson and not many satisfactory repair places.

I like my roomba for animal hair...but it's not that good on carpet...great on hard floors tho.

I don't have a Dyson, but I've never seen any good reports on them. I have a Hoover that was a Consumer Reports Best Buy. It works fairly well for us, although I don't use it as often as I should. With 4 dogs and 2 cats it's next to impossible

Maybe you should check out Consumer Reports. We've never had a bad experience taking their advice on various products - TV, vacuum, BluRay player, etc.

I LOVE my Dyson Animal. Love, Love, Love, Love, Love it.

Our's is 5.5 years old. We have a German Shepherd. They have two shedding seasons: January - June and July - December. I was in love the first time I used it. We ran our Kenmore over the carpet. Then used the Dyson Animal on it and ended up with a full canister, though we thought it was clean!

As far as I concerned, the Miele is the way to go, all German engineered and all of the parts are made right there is their German factory, nothing imported in from China or elsewhere.

I love it and it has a 7 year warranty.

Miele

You say it me-la.

It gets my carpet super clean and picks up the pet hair off of throw rugs couches etc etc.

I got a Dyson Animal as a wedding present and LOVE it! It is amazing how much stuff it sucks up. My husband has really bad asthma and the Dyson is endorsed by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

I just want to know what the first word in the title of this thread is!!

LOL, our dogs are the same (akita and lab). I've even tried keeping the house a little cooler - doesn't work. If you just look at them the fur falls off and neither one of them will sit still for a brushing. The akita will if you hold his collar and let him chew on your arm

We have a Dyson; owned it for six years now. I went into a little bit of sticker shock when the Jokerwife wanted it, but I admit it's a heck of a sucker.

The difference between the regular model, and the animal, as I recall from six years ago was a $100 attachment. I can't remember if the Jokerwife decided that was an imperative or not. Ours is purple - whichever model that was at the time.

I'm glad to know that people have had success with them. I haven't used one. I have a Kenmore upstairs <cats> that was a CR Best Buy and a Hoover on the 1st floor <dogs>. They both work well.

I've always had Kenmore canister vacs and have a lot of success with them (especially with a fresh bag/filter). I'm not sure about the pet hair though. When I shampoo my rugs (right after vacuuming), it pulls a lot of fur out of the rug and flings furballs across the room. LOL. I know my stairs are pretty hairy - the akita likes to sit about halfway up so that he can look out the front door.

Now that's a picture. Luckily for us our steps are not carpeted and much easier to keep clean. We have a gate at the bottom so the dog doesn't go upstairs and harrass the cats. They sit on the steps and meow at me.

Do not buy a Bissell Pet Hair Eraser. It erased my pet hair alright....in addition to melting my carpet! After months of arguing with Bissell, they sent us a check to replace our three year old carpet, along with a new "upgrade" - the Bissell Multicyclonic Pet Hair vacuum (which is also a piece of junk).

We have a Dyson as well and are always amazed at how much it picks up.

The cleaning lady is not a Dyson fan though and uses her own. I am not sure what the make is, but we have done the Dyson after test and whatever one she uses is pretty darn good as well since our Dyson picked up very little after she vacuumed.

Come to think of it, I need a new vacuum cleaner too.

Any single ladies out there?

As I mentioned, I've always had Kenmore canister vacs (pretty reliable and minimal repairs after years of abuse). Myt neighbor keeps getting Dyson and has gone through at least 3 to my one Kenmore.

I bougth my vacuum at Costco and if I had to buy another, I'd go back! Costco usually carries good products and has good prices and even ebtter return policy.

I have a compact sized Eureka upright. It's small but full powered. One cool thing abotu it is it has a hose attachent that has beater brushes (rotating/spinning) on it which is great when I want to vaccum fur off chairs, pillows, pet beds, sofa, etc.

LOVE my Panasonic, complete with a cord that reels itself up for you by stepping on a little switch!

It does a great job on the pet fur, and working with animal rescue, let me tell you, I see a lot!

I'm in the market for a new vacuum cleaner as well. I have the dog and cat hair to deal with like many of you! I guess I'll look into the Dyson Animal...so, how much do they run??

PS, thsi little vacuum cost me about $80 and I've never had any complaints...been using it for 4 years.

This is the attachment that is awesome for vacuumming fur off stuff other than the floor: http://store.eureka.com/powerpaw.html

A_G The first word was nothing too bad in the language dept. Actually printable, I thought. Not like some of the words flowing through our minds throughout the day, that's for sure!
We have a place that sells the Miele. I'm going to compare them both (Miele and Dyson) I want to buy a cleaner that I will be buried with...just like my sewing machine. It needs to deal with cat fur and pine dust (we are surrounded by pine trees, for those of you that are wondering. Each Spring the trees shed a fine powdery light green dust. Consistency of powder sugar. Gets on every surface in the house. Everything.

My wife went through vacuum cleaners like poop through a goose. One corner of our garage looked like a vacuum graveyard. We have 3 indoor dogs (Husky, Boykin Spaniel and German Shorthaired). They shed daily and more often than that in spring and fall.

Most (upright and canister) lasted 9 months to 1 year. Four years ago we got the Sears (Kenmore) upright. Now, instead of replacing the vacuum, we clean the hepa and cartridge filters with each vacuum and replace them a few times a year. The vacuum is great and does what it should (pick up an inordinate amount of dog hair twice daily). Of course the basket gets full quickly, but it's easy to clean. This one has outlasted any four previous machines.

Miele has the HEPA filters so that should be helpful to you.

I'm not knocking Dyson but I have been to 2 separate vaccum (or is it vacuum?) stores and both of them said that they constantly have them in for repair.

I've only had the Miele for a couple of months so of course there hasn't been much time for breakdowns.

It isn't cheap, I paid about $600 but I can't believe the difference in my carpet vs using my Hoover. It's like I have new carpet when I'm done vaccuming. I didn't think there was anything wrong with my old vaccum and then it busted and I remembered that the store said I could take one home and try it out for a few days. I did that and was sold in an instant.

trees, maybe your local store will let you borrow one for a test drive, maybe you could test them both side by side and see which one would work better for you??

Trees, what kind of sewing machine do you have?

I used to work with a woman who was very serious about her sewing and she said she had a Pfaff(?) sewing machine as she liked those the best.