I've got one. I've had two personally - the DC07 upright (which is still in perfect working order, is about 6 years old now, I just had to replace it as I couldn't manage to carry it up the three flights of stairs in my old home)
I now have the DC20 - Animal, which is a cylinder vacuum and that does brilliantly. I had had 5 cats since owning it 2 of whom are big shedders and both my ex and my fiancé lose hair at an alarming rate and it handles that well (although I do have to untangle the brush bar because my fiancé loses hair by the handful)
My mother had a DC01 upright which survived two Alsatians; one of whom had a condition which led to the complete loss of her fur and an excessive amount of dead skin shedding.
I'm not sure if they still do it, but they used to do a repair for a flat fee of about £76 where they would come out, check all the parts and replace all of them that were worn out/not working for that fee. I remember my mum having hers pretty much completely renovated under that scheme over the decade she had it.
The cylinders come with a multi floor tool that works well; my previous flats were partially laminate and then all but one room laminate and it handled them really well. There are a variety of brushes and attachments you can buy for various jobs and they come with several.
They are designed in a very modular way, so if there is a blockage you can easily get to it and replacement parts/spare are easily available online.
I would never have a different make of vacuum. When I left home I had a succession of vacuums that kept dying on me, bought my Dyson upright and as I say, it's still going strong now (I gave it to a relative
)
