My new Dyson DC-41 Animal

This was one of my early Christmas presents, bought for me by my hubs. We had a Dyson DC-14 Animal and it was much worse for wear after several years. Overall I do have to say I LOVE THIS THING!!! But there are a few things that I would change. Lets start at the beginning it comes in pieces with assembly required. When you pay this much for anything you don't want to have to assemble it I don't care how easy it was to put together. My other irks are as follows:

1- There is no step to pull down the handle, you just pull it down with a very gentle pull this means you don't always know if it is engaged and will stay up so we store it by the wall so if it falls back its not bad. Not to mention I think overtime it is something that could fail with continued use as it is very easy to pull it back so I don't think it will be long before it either needs to be repaired or it lives permanently propped against the wall.

2- For some reason Dyson feels the need to have always made their cord storage on the handle which is also the extension tool, sorry for the shadow on the picture but you can still see what I mean. I have to completely unravel the cord just to use the wand.

3- I understand wanting to get all the way up against furniture and base boards but I know I have seen some with bumpers and I wish they would have put something to that effect to help protect not only my walls but the vacuum it's self. We have only had it about a week and it is already scuffed up. 

4- One of the filter placements is in the side of one of the ball chambers its takes allot of spinning to get it open which is good so it doesn't come undone as you are vacuuming but its also difficult to get back on. 

6- It also puts off allot of heat, allot more than my last one. 

NOW FOR THE POSITIVES:

1- It is much more light weight

2- The tools are merged together so you aren't as likely to lose the brush attachment like what happened allot on my last one. I was constantly  misplacing it. 

3- It picks up allot more stuff. I ran my dc-14 then we ran the new one and it picked up so much stuff, we emptied the canister at least twice per room. 

4- The other filter is really easy to access and doesn't require a bunch of dis-assembly like the last one did.

5- The self adjusting floor level is amazing I can really tell the difference with all the suction. 

6- Everything is labeled and colored so if you have a clog, want to use the attachments, or release the canister, or access the filter.

So overall while I would like to make a few adjustments the over all performance of the vacuum is AMAZING! The tools work wonderful, it does a great job at picking up the dog fur, and cat fur it gets it off the dog beds and sheets amazingly well. The bird seeds come right off of the carpet, and the hard surfaces as well.