Dyson V8 Animal cordless vacuum review

I am beyond excited about this new addition to my home. No, it’s not a stylish piece of furniture or a beautiful piece of art but a cordless vacuum. A CORDLESS VACUUM! Believe me when I tell you that this is a life changing moment for me and I squealed when it arrived at my door last week.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about keeping your house clean living with a dog that turned out to be very popular and a few readers who are also dog owners left comments recommending the Dyson V8 Animal cordless vacuum (the Dyson V8 Absolute is very similar but choose the Animal if you have pets). I always like getting personal recommendations so I decided to take your word for it and try it out. The lovely team over at ao.com sent me one to review and it arrived the next day with a one hour delivery slot – great service!

I am being completely honest when I tell you that the vacuum is completely brilliant and has made keeping our flat clean so much easier. Our current vacuum is big, heavy, bulky and just getting it out of the hallway cupboard is enough to put me off using it, let alone dragging it around the house and having to bend down to use any of the attachments. I constantly bash it into the walls when I pull it around corners and knock stuff off surfaces with the hose every single time I use it! Let’s just put it this way that vacuuming is my least favourite chore but the one I need to do most because of all the dog hair.

I knew a cordless vacuum would solve a lot of these problems as they are so easy to store on a charging dock and not having a hose or cable to worry about is pure bliss and makes moving around so much easier and less hassle. However, after doing a bit of research the Dyson V8 Animal not only gives me the benefits of being cordless it actually provides better cleaning than my current vacuum. Let me tell you how…

The Dyson is extremely versatile as you can use the handset with the attachments so it’s like a hand-held vacuum, especially good for our sofa and bed to get rid of Otto’s hair or more generally for getting rid of crumbs on the table, in kitchen cupboards or use the brush attachment for dusting shelves. We can also take it out to our car to get rid of dog hair and mud, which is invaluable. I talk more about the special pet hair attachment in the video below and you can see me using it on my sofa and Otto’s bed. My regular vacuum doesn’t come close to removing dog hair in the way this does.

When you add the extender pole to the hand set it changes in to a regular vacuum and because it is so light (only 2.6 kg – some cordless vacuums are up to 5 kg) you can easily reach up to the ceiling to get rid of cobwebs, add the brush attachment to clean skirting boards without the need to bend down (something I have to do with my regular vacuum) and the main attachment for the floor pivots on a ball head so it is very, very easy to use.

I now use the Dyson several times day, just a few seconds at a time, to keep on top of the dog hair and it makes a massive difference to how clean the house feels generally. If I use it on the maximum suction setting the charge lasts for up to 7 minutes but I only really need to use that setting when I’m cleaning the sofa, car or Otto’s bed to get rid of hair. Generally, it only needs to be on the minimum suction setting for vacuuming the floor and in that case it can last up to 40 minutes. If I want to do a big clean of the whole flat I still use my regular vacuum as that can take up to an hour but otherwise it is the Dyson V8 Animal all the way!

Here’s a bit more detail…

Thanks to my lovely readers for recommending this and to ao.com for sending me one to review – I am so, so pleased with it!

Katy x