Dyson Ball Animal
Dyson
An Upright Vacuum for Homes That Refuse to Stay Hair-Free
Living with a shedding dog or two moulting cats changes what you need from a vacuum cleaner. Regular vacuums clog, tangle, and lose suction exactly when you need them most — halfway through the sofa, with fur wound tight around the brush bar. The Dyson Ball Animal Corded Bagless Upright was built specifically to solve that problem, and it does so by leaning into everything Dyson is known for: aggressive suction, a bagless cyclone system, and a brush head engineered to stop hair from wrapping around it in the first place. It's also, notably, one of the few corded uprights left in Dyson's range at a time when the company has pushed almost everything else toward cordless sticks. That alone makes it worth understanding properly before you buy — because going corded is a deliberate trade-off, not a downgrade, and this machine makes that trade-off count.
Design and Build Quality: What It's Actually Like to Use
The Ball Animal follows the classic upright silhouette Dyson popularised: a large ball joint sits beneath the main body, letting the whole head pivot and steer around furniture legs and doorframes rather than dragging in a straight line the way older uprights do. Standing at just over a metre tall and roughly 7kg, it's a substantial piece of kit — this is not a machine you'll casually swing between rooms with one hand. That weight buys you a sense of solidity, though; nothing about the build feels flimsy or hollow, and the bin, cyclone stack, and floorhead all lock together with a reassuring, precise click.
Assembly out of the box is straightforward: the head clips onto the body, the wand slots in, and the tools have dedicated mounting points on the machine itself, so the upholstery nozzle and turbo brush travel with the vacuum instead of getting lost in a cupboard. The one ergonomic compromise worth flagging before you buy: the handle doesn't collapse or fold down for storage, so you'll need a cupboard, understairs space, or utility room tall enough to store it fully upright. If you're working with a small flat or limited hallway storage, measure before you commit — at 105.8cm tall, it needs real vertical clearance.
The instant-release wand is one of the nicer design touches. A single motion detaches the handle and hose from the main body, turning the upright into something closer to a canister vacuum for stairs, curtain rails, or high shelving. The hose itself extends from 4.4m to a genuinely useful 8.2m, which — combined with the long power cord — gives you enough reach to clean an entire room, and often an adjoining one, without switching sockets.
How Powerful Is It, Really?
Suction is where this machine earns its keep. The Motorbar cleaner head is a motorised brush bar that spins independently of the main motor, driving bristles deep into carpet pile rather than skating across the surface the way passive brush heads do. On hard floors, the same head switches behaviour: rather than scattering debris, it seals against the surface to keep suction concentrated at ground level instead of leaking air around the edges.
Behind that head sits Dyson's Radial Root Cyclone system — a ring of small cyclones arranged around the bin that spin dust and debris out of the airflow before it ever reaches the filter. The practical benefit is consistency: because the filter isn't doing the heavy lifting of trapping fine dust, it doesn't clog and choke the airflow the way a single-cyclone or filter-reliant vacuum can. In real terms, that means the vacuum should still be pulling roughly the same suction on your last pass of the day as it did on your first, rather than gradually fading as the bin fills.
Three cleaning modes let you match suction to the surface:
| Mode | Best suited for |
|---|---|
| Deep pile | Thick carpets and rugs, where debris sits buried in the fibres |
| Medium pile & large debris | Everyday carpet with bigger particles — crumbs, litter, cereal |
| Hard floor & ground-in dirt | Wood, tile, laminate, and stubborn compacted grime |
You adjust these via a slider on the floorhead itself, which means bending down each time you switch floor types — a minor inconvenience if your home mixes carpet and hard flooring throughout, since some newer vacuums on the market now detect floor type automatically. It's a manual step, but a quick one, and it lets you dial in performance rather than relying on the vacuum to guess.
The Features That Actually Matter for Pet Owners
De-tangling Technology
The headline feature is Dyson's de-tangling technology, and it's the reason this particular model exists in the lineup. Conventional brush bars wind long hair and pet fur around themselves until they either seize up or require you to physically cut the hair away with scissors — a genuinely unpleasant maintenance chore. The Motorbar here is designed with anti-tangle geometry that lifts hair strands off the bar automatically as it spins, feeding them straight into the bin instead of letting them accumulate.
Tangle-Free Turbine Tool
Alongside the main head, the tangle-free turbine tool handles the jobs the floorhead can't reach: pet beds, sofa cushions, car seats, and upholstery. It uses counter-rotating brush heads, which lift embedded hair from fabric without the tool itself getting wound up in the process — a common failure point on cheaper turbo tools. For anyone whose sofa doubles as a dog bed, this attachment alone is worth paying attention to.
Multi-Cyclonic Bagless Bin
The bin operates on multi-cyclonic technology and empties with a simple push-button release at the bottom — you carry it to the bin, press, and the compacted debris drops out without needing to touch it. Given the fine, sometimes greasy nature of pet hair and dander, that hands-off emptying matters more here than it would with a standard household vacuum. The trade-off is capacity: at 1.1 litres, the bin is on the smaller side for an upright of this size, so homes with multiple pets or larger floor areas should expect to empty it more often than they might with a bigger-bin rival.
Side Suction & Antibacterial Coating
Side suction along the edges of the floorhead is designed to pull debris out from skirting boards and along walls — areas that a purely central-suction head tends to leave behind — and the whole unit carries antibacterial treatment on key touchpoints, a small but sensible addition in a household with animals.
How Loud Is the Dyson Ball Animal?
This is the trade-off nobody puts on the box, and it's worth addressing directly because it's the single most consistent complaint from owners. That suction has to come from somewhere, and the motor driving it is genuinely loud — loud enough that independent testing of this exact model measured sound output in the region of a busy kitchen blender running at full tilt. Owner feedback backs this up consistently: across the areas people rate this vacuum on, noise is the one area where satisfaction drops noticeably below every other category, while suction, features, and design are all rated highly.
Practically, this means you won't be vacuuming during a phone call, a sleeping baby's nap, or while anyone else in the house is trying to concentrate. If you live somewhere with thin walls, close neighbours, or a household that includes noise-sensitive pets, factor this in — it's not a subtle hum in the background, it's a machine that announces itself.
Corded Power: What You Gain and What You Give Up
What You Gain
There's no battery here, and that's the point. Every cordless stick vacuum on the market today makes a compromise between run time and suction — the harder it pulls, the faster the battery drains, and most cordless models can only sustain their highest suction setting for a matter of minutes before you need to drop down a gear or head back to the dock. The Ball Animal sidesteps that trade-off entirely. Plug it in, and it runs at full power for as long as you need it to, whether that's a quick five-minute tidy or a thorough, room-by-room deep clean of the whole house.
What You Give Up
The cost of that endurance is the cord itself. At 9.5 metres, it's long enough to cover a decent-sized room without unplugging, but you will need to move sockets as you go from room to room, and the cord itself becomes a genuine annoyance during use — something to step over, untangle, and wind back onto the two rear clips once you're done, since there's no automatic rewind mechanism. If you've grown used to the freedom of a cordless vacuum, this will feel like a step backwards in convenience, even as it's a step forward in raw, sustained cleaning power.
Who This Vacuum Is Built For
Right For You If
This machine makes the most sense for a fairly specific kind of household: one with pets that shed persistently, mostly carpeted or mixed flooring, and enough storage space to keep a full-sized upright standing somewhere out of the way. If your main frustration with previous vacuums has been hair wrapping around the brush bar or suction dying halfway through a clean, this addresses both problems directly and effectively. It also suits anyone who values a thorough, occasional deep clean over quick daily touch-ups — households that vacuum once or twice a week rather than skimming floors every day will get the most out of the large bin and sustained power.
Look Elsewhere If
It's a poor match, on the other hand, for anyone in a small flat with limited storage, a multi-storey house where the vacuum needs carrying up and down stairs regularly, or a household where quiet operation matters — young children napping, home offices with thin walls, or noise-sensitive pets. Anyone prioritising a light, grab-and-go vacuum for quick daily maintenance will likely find the weight and the cord more tiring than convenient, and should look toward a lighter cordless stick instead, accepting the suction and run-time compromises that come with it.
How It Stacks Up Against the Alternatives
Within Dyson's own range, this corded upright is consistently positioned as the most affordable entry point into the brand — cheaper than any of Dyson's cordless stick vacuums, while matching or exceeding them on raw suction power thanks to not being battery-limited. If your priority is maximum cleaning power per pound spent, and you're not precious about going cordless, it undercuts Dyson's stick lineup significantly while outperforming it in sustained use.
Against rival brands in the same corded-upright category, the broader picture from independent testing is that Dyson's suction and pet-hair performance remain a genuine strength, but competitors in the same price bracket sometimes edge ahead on manoeuvrability, noise levels, or overall value depending on the specific model and year. The honest takeaway is that you're not buying this vacuum because it's the only capable option in its class — you're buying it because Dyson's specific combination of de-tangling brush technology and cyclonic suction reliability has a genuinely strong track record with pet owners, and that reputation is earned rather than purely marketing.
The Honest Trade-Offs
The Strengths
There's a lot to like here, and it's worth being upfront about all of it: the suction genuinely doesn't taper off as the bin fills, the tangle-free brush technology solves a real and recurring problem for pet owners, the turbine tool is excellent on upholstery, and emptying the bin is about as hands-off as bagless vacuums get. The three-mode slider gives you real control over performance rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, and the build quality feels durable rather than disposable — helped along by a five-year manufacturer guarantee that signals real confidence in longevity.
The Weaknesses
But it's not without friction. The noise is the standout weakness, loud enough to be genuinely disruptive rather than a minor quibble, and it's the one area where even happy owners consistently mark it down. The weight and bulk make it tiring to manoeuvre for extended sessions, particularly on carpets where the strong suction can make the head harder to push than you'd expect. The cord is a real inconvenience during use and a small chore to rewind afterwards, and the 1.1-litre bin, while easy to empty, will need attention more often than larger-capacity rivals if you're cleaning up after multiple pets. None of these are dealbreakers on their own, but together they paint a picture of a vacuum that trades convenience and quiet operation for raw, dependable cleaning power.
The Verdict: Should You Buy the Dyson Ball Animal?
If your household generates a steady stream of pet hair and you've been burned before by vacuums that clog, tangle, or lose suction exactly when you need them most, this is a genuinely strong buy. The de-tangling brush technology and consistent cyclonic suction are the real deal, not marketing fluff, and the five-year guarantee reflects a machine built to be used hard for years rather than replaced in eighteen months. Buy it if you have the storage space for a full-sized upright, you clean thoroughly rather than constantly, and you can live with the noise and the cord in exchange for suction that doesn't quit.
Look elsewhere if noise sensitivity, storage constraints, or the freedom of cordless cleaning matter more to you than maximum suction power — in those cases, the compromises here will outweigh the benefits, however capable the underlying cleaning technology is.
What People Say
174 commentsExcellent Vacuum Cleaner
I bought this Dyson vacuum cleaner to replace an old loyal Dyson vacuum cleaner which had literally decided it had served me long enough and fell apart. This new one is really solid. The carpet depth feature on the beater bar is good with 3 settings. If you have a newborn baby it is excellent to use while baby sleeps because it is so very quiet! The length of the cord to plug it in the socket is amazing - a lot longer than the previous Dyson I had. The hair removing feature on the beater bar is excellent because I have a long haired dog.
I have minor issues:-
a) Whilst I have managed to attach the tool holder for the crevis cleaner, unfortunately I haven't managed to work out where the other tools should be stored.
b) The beater bar picked up a stone or something which got stuck. Whilst eventually I managed to make it drop out, I could not easily remove the beater bar head to clear it unlike on my old dyson so will need to double check how to do that.
Essentially my new Dyson is really good and I feel confident that I will be able to resolve the minor issues I have in due course (I am a senior citizen)
Absolutely fantastic for pet hair!
I've tried other products from Vax, Shark and Henry over the years, but nothing comes close to how effective this is at getting pet hair out of the carpet. It is quite heavy compared to some others (especially cordless ones), but it is very smooth and easy to push around in spite of its weight. The only slight difficulty as a result is cleaning the stairs, but the trade off for how effective it is all round is definitely worth it for me. Also, all the different cleaning heads and accessories etc clip onto it directly so no need to find somewhere for them and worry about losing them.
Improvement?
I bought this because my previous Dyson Animal lasted over 12 years , but I can't see this one lasting that long, yes the suction is better but quality wise, it feels cheap and inferior in comparison, there's a big plastic clip that fits on the handle to hold one of the tools and it's so easy to knock off. On the previous version, you pressed a bar with your foot to release it from the upright position but with this all it takes is a little pressure to release it which I find annoying as it has fallen down when I place it in my storage cupboard
Functional, powerful and sleek
We bought this as a treat for having moved into our new home. We love that it picks up our mega fluffy cat's hair that used to remain stuck in the carpet with our old hoover (not Dyson).
It has several settings so I can change between hard floor to deep pile. You can feel how powerful it is when using, and the weight is on the heavy side, but the ball design means it is easier for maneuvers around furniture.
It's so satisfying to see all the dust, debris and cat fluff collected in the chamber and it makes the carpet feel so much cleaner.
Brilliant Machine
Superb machine which really does the job and cleans perfectly. Typical first class vacuum just as expected from Dyson. Its much quieter than its predecessors too . However, It is a self assembly which means that it's a bit fiddly to put the head on the machine especially if you are alone and struggle to reach the floor. Might be easier with two people if you are older or struggling with mobility.
Sadly the head didnt rotate and I had to return for another. This one is perfect.
Powerful suction
This is a good hover from Dyson, and it has good auction power, better that the battery power hoovers as cannot beat electric. The bug bear with this the hose and connector trying to get it to snap back into place. And not keen on the way the tools are now stored on the side of the hoover and miss the old brush tool as used to be better angled. It’s a good hoover and powerful but could have been better designed as miss the old Dyson style as much nicer to use.
Great vacuum cleaner
It's a great vacuum cleaner, gets all the pet hair off our ancient carpet, no problem. Like all Dysons, it does need a wee bit of looking after - it is a bit of a faff getting the hair out of the brush heads. I use a cheap stitch unpicking kit from Amazon (great for cleaning hairbrushes too!), only takes about 10 minutes every couple of months. You definitely save more time than that having decent suction etc. Strong recommend
Excellent vacuum
I bought a cordless vacuum (from another brand) and was left feeling very underwhelmed by it's performance. Both in terms of cleaning power and better life, when compared to the claimed specs
This is a proper hoover that cleans so much better, can really notice the difference in how it lifts the carpet fibres up compared to the previous one.
I recommend this over any cordless one. It's really quiet too.
My dyson
I purchased a shark but really couldn’t get on with it as I’ve always had dyson.Ive had cordless dyson for years but the battery wouldn’t keep its charge so I saw a good offer with Argos for the corded dyson ball.Excellent value for money and it’s unbelievably quite.I decided to look into a new battery for the cordless one which cost £25 so I now have my 2 Dysons , one up and one down.Absolutely chuffed👌👌
Sucks- but in a good way.
It’s an improvement over my older Dyson which was ~10yr old and wash worn out. This one is lighter with more suction. Tool kit is good- air powered spinny brush head is good, pointy nozzle thing is ok and seemingly beyond Dyson to improve. All Dysons are noisy, but not massively so- noise = power = suction. Good cable and hose length. Like all Dyson, keep the filters maintained and the cylinder clean.
Best feature - excellent suction and so quiet
I bought this to replace my 10 year old Dyson Animal. The previous model had served me well and never caused me a problem. I found it easy to service so when I had to replace it I was pleased to find a new Animal at a sale price with Argos. I am very impressed with the new version. Its suction is excellent, much better, it is lighted and much quieter. An excellent purchase.
Lots of suction!
Bought this but had to return as suction was too good !
I was unable to push this on my thick carpets even with the suction on lowest power but it worked great upstairs on my less dense carpets and on the hard floors .
Just needed a way to reduce the suction even more for less physically able or older people
I’d recommend this cleaner for the young fit and healthy
Always rate Dyson, they are the best!!
I have had Dyson vacuum cleaners for years, when I’ve tried other makes I have been disappointed,
This model is excellent, assembly was relatively easy except for one minor problem in that I still can’t work out how to attach one of the holders for one of the accessories, but I’m not bothered about always having it on hand as it is for a more specialised job
good start but now not working so well
I purchased this recently, but unfortunately the button to use on carpets is no longer working so will have to return to Argos for an exchange or ask Dyson what to do. Also part of it was quite difficult to put together as no instructions or those provided didn't show the part I had trouble fitting. Luckily the Dyson helpline was able to assist with this.
Brilliant as good as the first and second one
I started with a Dyson pull along then I went to a roller ball one about 5 years ago . It still works as good as the day I bought it but I gave it to my grandson and bought another one exactly the same . Again 10/10 . Long electrical lead and pipe for going up and down stairs , cleans up all mess . I just cannot complain about this Dyson in any way
Great Features, Cleans Dust we cannot even see!
Bought this a couple of weeks ago as a replacement for our old Dyson Animal hoover, as pet owners we value the Animal ranges, ...even though we hoovered with old one daily , this new Dyson found dust and pet har we couldnt see with naked eye!..amazing product. A little challenging to assemble but if you google how to, it quickly comes together.
Brilliant Machine
We are very happy with our new Dyson.. Our old one was 11 years old and, as it turned out, needed replacing... This one is amazing.. The snap on tool holder, which isn't mentioned in any instructions or videos, made us scratch our heads as to where it went... Wife found out in her usual manner... Trial and error... All in all very pleased.
Dyson upright vacuum cleaner
Let my daughter have my previous Dyson when she moved into her new flat so treated myself to this new one. Virtually the same features as my last model apart from an extra attachment. Excellent suction and easy to push but find it rather heavy especially to lift upstairs.
Excellent service as usual from Argos from ordering to collection.
Dyson Ball Animal Corded Bagless Upright Vacuum
Adapts to all floor types.
Vacuum filtration system ensures that allergens are trapped inside the machine, not expelled back into the home.
Can reach and vacuum in difficult places.
Cyclone technology captures more dirt and microscopic dust effectively.
Moves on a ball and steers easily into difficult places.
Includes Pet-Friendly Tools.
Dyson Ball Animal UP32
I already had one of these so bought this for my mother as she was fed up with recharging her Dyson and this is lighter than the UP34. The really long cord means I she can vacuum the whole flat without have to move the plug from room to room. Suction is fantastic unlike her rechargable one and you don't have to keep emptying the bin.
