This was my second Dyson. My first one lasted 10 years! This one has lasted less than one year. The suction and cleaning power is second to none. Pulled out the deepest of dirt and pet hair. The design was cumbersome and the cheap plastic was a constant source of concern, but I was willing to overlook that for the cleaning power. The real disappointment came last week when, less than a year after I bought it, the roller brush stopped working. After some internet research and repair video watching we have determined that there is a switch that has failed somewhere and will need to be replaced. There are no repair facilities in my state, nor in the surrounding states, so I now have a hunk of cheap plastic trash. So disappointing. I won't buy another one at these prices.

First, thank you Dyson for recyclable cardboard packaging. No styrofoam! Coming from a ~2012 DC14, I was concerned about review references to cheap plastics. Yes, the plastics are different, lighter, than the DC14. I do not feel like it will start crackling & breaking. Time will tell! This Animal 3 is like a "scale model" of the DC14. Thru & thru, it is about 80% of the size. For me, great. My small home likes this. The maneuverability of the ball is great, and the smaller main head gets under cabinet overhangs and kitchen chairs, where the DC14 was always "a smidge too big". But if your home is large, Animal 3 may feel like going from a push broom to a toothbrush. Performance. I needed the tangle free hair function. Was skeptical, "too good to be true?". OH NO! IT'S TRUE! I have long hair and a medical condition causing hair loss. My Animal picked up bin after bin of hair, and NOTHING left in the beater brush. Folks mentioning it being too heavy & cumbersome, perhaps they need a lighter cordless model. I fully expected what I got in an upright corded machine - heavy duty! Not a dusting job. Dyson - we old-schoolers like it. Other reviews mention the machine suctioning to their floors. I did not experience this on my tile, aging pile carpet, or large dense weave area rugs. That said Dyson's many feedback comments suggesting folks need to contact their carpet manufactures about this problem... disturbing. If my car's tires perform poorly on pavement, suggesting I contact the pavement manufacturer would be silly. Do you get that analogy? Ease of transforming modes. This Animal is clunky by comparison. The DC14, about 10 seconds, three motions, from upright to attachment & tube mode. This Animal takes more wrangling of slide this, click that, push here. The on-board attachments are no longer integrated. They fit more like an "oh yeah, we forgot" goiter, and mine is wiggly. Lacks the solid "built this way" of the DC14. Minus 1-star there. Overall, yes, I recommend this. Yes, hair-free is true.

We have a black lab, and I always vacuum the carpet before I use our carpet cleaner! Every time I clean out the carpet cleaner it's partly full of black lab hair! This tells me the Dyson isn't doing it job very well! I believe its the new anti-tangle brush because our previous Dyson worked better!

This is my second Dyson. My first is an Animal Ball 2. It is still going strong other than my hose has a tear in it. It is almost 5 years old and I use it 7 days a week! I have OCD really bad so I clean every day. If something can take the abuse I put it through it has to be good. I wanted to get the latest model so I got the Animal Ball 3. I love the new motor bar cleaner head. It works very well and is easy to adjust between my thick carpet and my tile. It is also easy to clean. There is a button on the side that allows it to swivel up to pull the beater bar cover off to clean. The head is also smaller than my 2 which allows me to get in between chairs and such that my other wouldn’t allow. I won’t ever use another vacuum again. I’ve tried two of the biggest competitors and they don’t even compare. Seems like all the negative reviews on here are people being babies. Yes, my machine will fall over sometimes when I use the hose to clean something. Big deal. Most of the time I don’t go out far enough for it to fall over. The main thing I want my machine to do is pick up the stuff on the floor and this one does it incredibly well. I cannot believe how strong the suction is. So far I am very happy with this vacuum. Also, I have read many reviews talking about how heavy this vacuum is. I can pick it up with one arm and it ain’t very heavy at all. And my shoulders are terrible. It’s actually one of the lighter ones. Much lighter than older dyson’s. I have thick high pile carpet and it goes over it easily. You have to adjust the cleaner head to the floor type you are using. I also read someone say this animal 3 doesn’t pick up as good as the animal 2. That is NOT true. If someone isn’t satisfied with this vacuum, they won’t be satisfied with any.

This will be my very first Dyson upright vacuum cleaner. Ordered this online after one of the sales representative did a whole spiel about it. Excited to received last night but to my surprise, my delight turned into disappointment. Straight from the box, the parts are used and dirty. Had to video chat with the Dyson representative to show him my discontent. Representative said he will process a replacement and will send a "brand new one". So is Dyson sending in returned products? That is flat out cheating the consumers Dyson!!!! Please don't dare try that trick again on the replacement.

This is my first and last Dyson. I was so excited after hearing how great Dyson is, but it is my biggest regret when it comes to appliance purchases. It is unbelievably heavy, and the hose used for attachments is so difficult and unwieldy. I cannot impress enough have physically difficult and demanding it is to use this machine. I can't imagine a frail person being able to use this. You need strength, stamina and patience. In addition, the piece that keeps the vacuum upright while using the hose broke on the 2nd use. Now I have to hold up the heavy vacuum upright while trying to maneuver the hose, which is next to impossible and physically exhausting. If you live in a small apartment, the hose is so stiff, it won't bend well and if there is not a lot of room between furniture, you'll be knocking things off and hitting the walls and ceiling with the attachments. It's hard to believe this machine passed any serious testing. I am so disappointed. For the expensive price and reputation, I feel duped.

Generally I absolutely love Dyson products (had or have two previous upright vacs (including animal), hand vac, hair dryer, and hair wrap), but this is the worst product I’ve purchased from Dyson. This newest animal vac is so much unbelievably heavier and also bigger than my two previous versions (also appears cheaper made). It is so hard to maneuver/bulkier on any type of carpeting that it is burdensome to use. Truly regret this purchase and am surprised this made it through their design/acceptance team.

I wish i stuck with the dyson 2. This one is way heavier, and it seems to have less power than my dyson animal 2 ball. I'm a huge fan of Dyson and this is the fourth Dyson vacuum my phone I own the portable ones and the non Portables but this one is just a total disappointment and I never use it I wish I could return it unfortunately

Just got my Animal 3 after my DC41 broke after 10 years. I had issues with shipping since it took over a week. Definitely didn't get 2 day shipping but it was Thanksgiving week so I'll chalk it up to that. The performance is great. A lot more suction than my DC41 which performed great. May be too much of a good thing. The suction makes it a workout to use on carpet. It may get better after using it a while. Using it on hardwood floors is great and I like being able to turn off the beater bar. Luckily my tools from my DC41 fit the Animal 3. Using it on small rugs is impossible due to the powerful suction. Even with the beater bar off it will suck the rugs up off the floor. I've found a way around that even though it's an extra step. Use the turbine tool on the end of the wand on the rugs. It works great. The head is smaller than my DC41 but I don't see that as a negative. Now the bad: using it on carpet is a workout. The powerful suction is a double edged sword here. It might get better after using it a while. My DC41 broke at the lower hose assembly point which is made of cheap plastic. Sadly the new Animal 3 has the same assembly and it's still made of plastic. It will break after 5 years. I think it is a little bit heavier than my DC41.

As other reviews note, this machine is very heavy and a little clunky. That was surprising to me as I always thought these machines moved with ease. There was a learning curve to using it and has a lot of attachments to figure out what works best & where. I will say we have 5 pets and the suction is great-It is also nice that machine easily comes apart to clean.

I had high expectations when I bought this vacuum, for well thought out compromises and clever design. Some features are well done like the ball that turns the vacuum by twisting the handle (took me a while to figure that out) and the easy to empty debris container. But some features are not good compromises. One is the self storing hose. While this works well to store the hose, it is like fighting an elephant to use it. It constantly wants to collapse to the storage petition while using it, causing the vacuum to move toward you and the hose to kink near the wand. This is unlikely to improve with time because it is partially caused by the strong vacuum and negative pressure in the hose. The strong vacuum also makes it very difficult to vacuum an area rug. When you get to the edge of the rug and try to reverse direction, the vacuum sucks the rug up and jams the rug beater. You have to shut the vac off to detatch it. To avoid this you have to vacuum one direction and then lift the vac off the floor and put it back in the middle of the rug for each pass. I would prefer a non-collapsible hose that I don't have to fight. It might make sense to offer that as an accessory. The beater bar head is too high (and not wide enough) to get under many objects when used on a hardwood floor. Perhaps an accessory without a beater bar that has a low profile (and wider) that can be mounted in place of the beater?

Old house, carpet, single pane windows, desert sand, wind, 3 dogs and 1 cat . . . and my Dyson Ball Animal 3 gets it all seamlessly and without any hair stuck on the roller. Absolutely amazing!! I love it.

This is my 3rd ball! Love the extra long cord and ease of cleaning. I still have my old ones and they work fine. The latch to empty the cartridge sticks but the vacuum is 12 yrs old. Also love my Dyson hairdrying equopment!

Nice step up from our previous Dyson model - does a better job with pet hair for sure and easier to clean

Have 2 wooly coated Siberian Huskies and their hair is all over everywhere. Their hair is no match for this model. The self cleaning brush head really works! The hair never tangles around it. I don't have to clean the brushes like I do with my Dyson powerhead.