Dyson Cinetic Big Ball Animal

We owned and old Dyson powerhead vacuum and loved it. The Animal couldn't be more opposite. The head quality is fragile at best. The brushes have not survived 12 months of domestic use. The lack of a true powerhead has significantly degraded the ability to remove dirt from carpet. The bin empty process has been someone that must have been tasked with with designing the worst possible mechanism. The bin capacity appears to be about 1/10 of the older Dysons and has to be emptied far more frequently in a house that has long-haired girls and a dog.

I won't be buying another one.

The ball is lighter and easier to use. it sucks like mad and is easier to clean. The container for dust is a little smaller, but it seems more robust and is easy to take out and in.

My 3rd Dyson.
This was to replace the previous smaller model.
Use on tiles, timber, carpet, painted concrete.
Especially surfaces.
I believe Dyson over-engineered what they thought would be the bigger better market offer.
It is just that.
Bigger.
Heavy, clunky, clumsy, obstinate.
Heavy to drag around.
Drag is the word.
And I am 6' 6" and strong.

Weight and centre of gravity make it get stuck on corners.
Then it turns over and there is a delay even if it does respond to return upright.

The trigger handle does not work on surfaces so has to be taken off every time.

The push levers (start/stop) & rewind are flimsy and prone to impact.

As usual, the cannister emptying method has a knack to use, commonly opening half-way through the extraction procedure.
To get it off completely there is a silly lever akin to the stick models have.

The inlet gets clogged often, a small object will do it.
A stone is fatal.
To clear the obstruction, the whole canister has to be removed from the machine and opened mid-use.
Thus, cannister has to be emptied before carrying on.
Usually, this makes a mess.
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The previous model was powerful, lightweight, easy to use.
Dyson then fixed something that wasn't broken.
I believe the whole thing has backfired on the market hence the new push for cordless.
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As usual however Dyson after sales service has been the best experienced ever.
I got them to fix the old one.
How I really just want to get rid of this new $800 beast.

Bought to replace a 10 year old "high end" Electrolux Barrel that had a few broken bits of plastic. I have a mix of hard floor, carpets and stairs. Do not have pets as such, but family members with long hair. I have used Dyson's before, but not owned one. Cannot comment on reliability as only a month old.

Good:
The small roating head accessory is great for stairs
Suction is excellent: on first use I found "extra" dust
Does not fall over
Light to carry
Most accessories attach to the wand
No bags !!

Needs be Improved in order to get 5 stars:
The cord is rather short, leads to a lot of swapping of power points as you move about the house.
Not very tolerant to items such as tissues that can "hide" under beds.
The base of the barrel needs a firm "push" after emptying to ensure that it is correctly closed, otherwise it will open unexpectedly.
Auto sensing of power (it's a manual "air bypass" mechanism)
On/Off switch on the handle would help
The small notch to attach the wand to the machine (for storage) is not robust
It's not cheap compared to competition

I have 2 high-shedding indoor dogs and need to vacuum every day. Dyson vacuums are great at picking up pet hair with little effort, and many of their machines even come with special attachments (mine does) that quickly gets pet hair off furniture or bed covers. I’ve owned 2 Dysons, 2 Wertheims and an Electrolux, and for pet hair removal, you really can’t beat a Dyson. But unfortunately that’s all they have going for them. The new ‘no touch’ cylinder emptying is a terrible design; you can’t get to the barrel or metal filter to properly clean it, so over time you end up with a build up of dust on the cylinder and fluff in the inner barrel and (in my case) pet hair in the filter. I try to use a soft brush to reach as many nooks and crannies as I can, but I’m sure this build up of debris will eventually give me problems. Plus it defeats the ‘no touch’ feature. And despite the large barrel, the fill line on any Dyson barrel is about 2 inches from the bottom, so in my case I have to empty and clean it twice a week, sometimes more.
There is a thin strip of felt material glued onto the bottom of the power head (presumably to protect floors?) that keeps coming off after very little use. Within 6 months I had to get the power head replaced because the felt was coming off and kept getting caught in the rotating brushes, and now after only 3 months the second power head has done the same thing.
There are other little annoyances with the machine, like the fact that you have to be careful with pressing the button to release the cylinder from the machine because it often empty’s as it releases, so you end up with dirt all over your floor and on the machine; the touch free clip on the cylinder canister allows for easy opening, but has no way of facilitating closure unless you pry it up with your fingernail; or if you want to quickly whip off the power head and vacume along the skirting board, the machine loses suction because of the design of the rod which has a groove cut out to connect the attachments to the rod - the only way around it is to use another tubular attachment.
In summary, the number of design flaws undermine the hefty price tag ($1000 when I purchased mine). There are other machines on the market that tackle the problem of pet hair and when this one goes, i’ll definitely be looking at other brands.

The vacuum is stable however we get balls of fluff all over carpet. The head doesn’t seem to pick up mess on floor at all but rather moves it around. Seems that the head of vacuum moves and blows dirt around... vinyl head does same. Only head that works well is small one for car.We bought this as we thought it would make life easier for our mum but it hasn’t. Really disappointing.

Purchased to replace old Dyson that still worked but was time for an upgrade.

Good points:
the turbo head does a great job on my carpet
The cord is longer than the old one

Bad points:
The dust bin is supposed to be no touch, everytime I empty I have to reach in to pull debris out or it would stay in there, even if I shake it.
Clip on the base of dust bin is very flimsy and I doubt will last long. It doesn't close and latch easily.
Emptying is a messy process. The old way of removing the dust bin and up ending into a bin much easier, quicker and cleaner
Power and cord wind buttons are very flimsy
The tangle head is a great idea but very impractical as it is very small.

If I'd known about these things I would not have purchased.

The rotating head is not as good anticipated. It does not pick up visible dirt easily. Often it will blow items away from vaccuum. I have to keep going over the area several times before I am satisfied. The rotating head is useless on hard floors for the same reasons.
I bought a hard floor head (unfortunately this was not standard) but this also blows waste away from the head.
I purchased this because of its reputation. It is an expensive machine which I saved for. I am unlikely to recommend it to any one.

I have had my cleaner for just under two years and it has continuously had a high pitch squeal. I have had it in at Dyson and they told me that there is nothing wrong with it. As I reported this after 30 days it was basically too bad you are stuck with it. Also it doesn’t vacuum up the dog hair and I have been told I need to buy a different head. I would not recommend this vacuum. Buy another brand if you want your floors cleaned properly because they are very overrated.

Ok here goes..the carpet head is very noisy..the barrel is constantly getting stuck on corners and tips over.
They have changed the design of the attachments so you can’t use the ones from older machines..the new design has too many guides which makes changing the heads harder..you have to line up slots on the pipe with attachment slots...our major bug bear is that it now stinks of dog when we use it as there is no removable filter to clean. Also the handle material is too hard on your hands..a curved design would be much better..
I feel like the designers have forgotten about the end user.

I purchased this product a month ago ND started using it 2 weeks ago when I moved into my new place. It took a while to get used to as I had a backpack vacuum before. This vacuum suckes really well and manoeuvres easily into smaller places. Happy so far!

I am disappointed in this product, which we purchased to replace a 10 year-old Turbo DC08 only because the attachments eventually disintegrated and Dyson was no longer making new ones. I have used the Big Ball for four months before posting this review (sorry, but reviews posted after just one use are not terribly helpful).

As an existing user, I received a discount from Dyson and I am grateful for that because these things are not cheap. "Oh, the Cinetic Big Ball is a wonderful machine," gushed the Dyson sales person over the phone. Happy with my previous DC08, I believed her. But I feel let down.

1) Compared to our Turbo DC08, the overall build of the Cinetic Big Ball Animal - both the vacuum cleaner body and the attachments - is cheap and plasticky. One gets the distinct impression Dyson has tried to economize on materials and pocket the difference as its profit margin at the expense of the customer.

2) Seriously, whose idea was it to replace the on/off and cord retraction buttons (recessed in the body of the DC08) with toggles that protrude from the body? I fully expect these toggles to snap off at any time.

3) The machine rolls over too easily. If you tug on the handle and move sideways, it will tip over. This won't damage it, but it's a nuisance to stop your vacuuming and stand it upright again.

4) Emptying the bin is a HUGE pain. I have taken as much care as possible to correctly remove the bin for emptying by pushing down on the red release button as directed by Dyson, but on more than one occasion, the bin base has flipped open before I can lift the bin clear of the vacuum cleaner, spilling a bin-load of dust all over the floor and the vacuum. My message: MAKE SURE you keep one hand underneath the bin base when you release the bin from the body of the vacuum to prevent it opening unexpectedly.

5) When you open the bottom lid of the bin, any dust or hair trapped at the top of the top of the barrel will usually not fall out. You must therefore manually detach the lower section of the barrel and pull the trapped debris from the upper section of the barrel with your hand. Yuk.

6) The DC08 featured a handle with a retractable/extendable tube, which was useful when you needed to retract the head of the vacuum cleaner and get into awkward places. The Cinetic Big Ball features a long (45 cm) rigid handle which is difficult - if not impossible - to get into tight places.

7) The Cinetic Big Ball comes with a range of head attachments. I have no idea what some of them are intended for. There was no information booklet in the box to explain what the various attachments are designed for. I have experimented with some of them but others just baffle me.

I am disappointed. Compared to the DC08 of a decade ago, I feel Dyson has sacrificed functionality and convenience. I can only assume the design changes made over ten years were in pursuit of fatter margins, because they absolutely do NOT make for a better vacuum cleaner.

I want my DC08 back.

Animal love this monster. Let me start by saying this, Dyson has only gotten better with their product. Known for their incredible suction, this vacuum does not disappoint. While the canister capacity is not comparable to the uprights, this thing makes up for that shortcoming by the incredible suction it delivers. Mainly using this on hardwood floors, some rugs, and bedroom carpets, this vacuum is an absolute pleasure to use.

I love my Dyson, this is my second vacuum from Dyson. My boys have dust allergies and the Dyson is the best on the market for them.
Save a fortune by going bagless.
The only faults I do have is that the pipes thar go in to the vacuum is now half flat instead of full circle, hence it gets jammed a lot. It's hard to unblock it. Also it's not the best for vacuuming my shaggy rug, maybe there's another attachment for that ?
Over all I do stil love it :-)

Got a Dyson Cinetic Big Ball during mid year sales. So amazing . Love the extra pieces you can connect to it. Compacts nicely. Get's animal hair out of everything! Used it to get dog hair out of my car seats (had tried with many other vacuums) This one worked straight away

Got this vacume because our cat was dropping so much fur and other vacume cleaner did nothing. Dyson made the carpet look brand new, even the colour looked different! We had our carpet done by professional carpet people and they even commented on the cleanliness! Definitely recommend. Also very easy to use and takes no effort which l love.

We bought the Dyson Cinetic Big Ball Animal vacuum cleaner because we have a long haired German Shepherd. It is absolutely amazing. Pup’s hair is everywhere and the Dyson Big Ball just sucks it up no worries. It is powerful and has no issues picking up his hair both on floorboards and carpet. it’s easy and light to maneuver and the head fits underneath most of our furniture. We have quite a large house and the collector tube holds all of the hair and dirt from the house. Love it!

Very powerful vacuum can be hard to push if you don’t pull the trigger in my opinion a good users DVD would have gone down well and can be very tricky to empty but you’ll work that out after a few goes all in all great powerful unit i buy another one the wife loves it

I was told a lot about Dyson so I invested and bought one. Never regretted it since.. the suction is great! No more having to go over and over the same spot. It fees weightless and manoeuvres really well. Best investment I’ve made. Don’t think I will ever go another brand again. very happy

I've had nothing but trouble with my kinetic barrel vac. I've replaced the cylinder but when emptying it still spews dust all over the place. Now it's spewing dust into the air when I'm vacuuming. I've checked out the videos to change or clean filters but my model, although fairly new, is not the same. Also I don't like the fact that you have to bend down to unblock brushes, which for people with arthritis is not easy. You pinch your hand when clicking in brushes if you're not careful. I personally think this system is a money making venture as it's not universal & you have to use only Dyson products. Just my opinion

September 5th 2018 Update: Crap

I'm amazed that Dyson are sending me e-mails telling me I've helped 2046 people - does this mean all of these people think that Dyson products are CRAP??? I have now sent my vacuum back to Dyson and am awaiting their response - they suggested I return it to the retailer for a refund which they have refused as they say that Dyson don't want to accept that their products have any issues. Watch this space to see whether they actually do something about it.