Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was definitely taken in by the commercials and rave reviews here. I have two short hair cats that shed like the dickens and an ancient 85$ Hoover I purchased at K-mart one desperate day in college when family was coming to visit. My Hoover finally gave up the ghost and now that I have a real job I thought I would splurge a little. Is the Dyson better than the ancient $85 Hoover - definitely yes. Many hundreds of dollars worth? Not so sure. I've had this vacuum for about two months now. Pros -Like everyone has said, the vacuum has great suction. When I vacuum my 1,000 sq feet of carpet, I generally empty the bin twice. It's filled mostly with loose cat hair and kitty litter dust. -What's in the bin is visible. It's rather satisfactory to see all the junk you are pulling off your carpet and into the trash. -The handle at the top of the bin is well positioned to carry the vacuum up and down stairs. Or, to hold on to while vacuuming the stairs. -The cord hinge twist thing is great. The cord hinge on the top, swivels so you can dump off the entire cord with one motion. It is nice to not have to unwrap the cord for every use. -The high quality plug. This plug is built tough. Every other vacuum I've ever has a wimpy plug that gets quickly bent after being pulled out of the wall wrong. -The pet attachment thingy with the moving roller. It does work fairly well on steps or upholstered furniture. Too bad I have to use the accordion hose to use it. I've given up using this on the stairs and now just carry the vacuum and use the regular upright part to do stairs. It's very heavy but not as much of a struggle. -Emptying the bin is very, very easy. It can be a bit messy because of all the loose dust and cat hair so I tend to bring a small trash container into the living room, empty the bin into it and they quickly re vacuum the area. -Hand cleanable filters. I haven't had to do it yet but I'm very much looking forward to the hand cleanable filters. Cons -This vacuum is NOT lightweight. I have NO IDEA what they are comparing this to when they say this. Perhaps there are gold vacuums out there I've never heard of?? My old Hoover which had the same variety of attachments was much lighter. My mom has an Oreck which must be half the weight. Is it too heavy?? Not really but it borders on it. I just feel the ads were deceptive here. -The attachment hose is very awkward to use. Its accordion design pulls back on itself - that is, it always is trying to fold back into to its smallest possible configuration. So, to use it, I must always be actively pulling against it to keep it extended. This is exhausting and awkward. It will also pull the vacuum right over on its side. Or down the steps. Which is not just annoying but pretty dangerous considering how heavy the thing is. Most vacuums have awkward hoses. I'd put this one down as slightly more awkward than most. -The plastic extension piece is too long. It's around three feet long so it is beyond awkard to use to clean off furniture or reach around in small spaces - say behind a toilet or around the cusions of a sofa. It took me a few weeks before I realized you could remove it when using the hose. This is a little better but without something firm to hold onto, the accordion hose is even harder to wrestle with as it tries to shorten itself back to its original size. Sigh! -Switching back and forth between the attachment and regular upright vacuuming is awkward. I keep figuring I'll get better at it with practice but not so far. I have to beat back the plastic extension piece and then aim it into the holder - which always misses a few times. It always gets locked against the hose at the wrong place, etc. -Angle end attachment is not angled. Ummmm... What's up with this?? There's nothing to use for cleaning baseboards, etc that can get in nice and close with corners. -Combo angle attachment brush thing is useless. Since the brush is on the non-angled angled thing, I can't use the angle attachment to into tight spaces like between seat cushions or behind a book shelf or what not. Neither here nor there: -The ball. It's fun to look at but it doesn't really do anything for the vacuum. Yes, it could turn tight corners but only if you could actually steer the bottom portion of the vacuum. Since I'm only holding the handle, I'm still stuck doing the standard back and forth of a usual vacuum. The ball also won't fit under a bed so you can't sneak the vacuum very far under anything like I could with my old Hoover or my mom's Oreck. -No light. I love the light on my mom's Oreck. Since I don't think it really helps anything cleaning wise the lack of one just makes the vacuum less cool but it doesn't take anything away. -It's just a loud as any other vacuum - no better, no worse. -Too big to fit on a stair. All vacuums are but I wish one day they'd invent a good one that could safely fit on the stairs and still work as an all around the house regular vacuum. So basically, It works fine as upright vacuum but using the attachments is really difficult and they are poorly designed and poorly thought out. I think Dyson clearly knows a lot about suction and self promotion (their ads are fantastic!!) but a lot less about attachments. I'd recommend staying away from this model and look for Dyson with a different attachment design. July 2012 update: I'm really regretting this purchase now. The hose is so hard to use that now I rarely do - which means dust, cat hair and dead bugs are accumulating along my baseboards, in corners and under furniture. All Dyson had to do was put a spring in the hose that was less strong. So simple but they didn't bother. It would not have even have costed any more money - I'm guessing less strong springs actually cost less. It's like they never bothered having real women test this thing. All their money was paid to their advertising company. Grrrrr.... I'm also sick of hauling this thing up and down the stairs - it is too dang heavy. I'm thinking of buying another, lighter vacuum for the upstairs.