Get guinea pigs. Keep cage in a room with carpet. This leads to lots of hay spillage which must be vacuumed up. Hay killed our Hoover upright. Twice (we had it repaired once).
However, we didn’t get a Dyson. We got a Miele canister, which we like quite a lot. We wanted a closed-bag system instead of bagless. Not as cool-looking as those Dysons but ours is working very well. And for a kid with mild autism, a most excellent toy. Leading to us telling Dweezil, DO YOUR HOMEWORK or YOU CAN’T USE THE VACUUM CLEANER!
Oh - and when you get the new vacuum, the piggies and their hay won’t be good for it either so find alternate arrangements! (we put hardwood in that room so now the hay can be swept up).
heeheeeee - ever seen the movie Ruthless People? Very intriguing use of a Dustbuster :eek:
Can anyone tell me if a Dyson is better than central vacuuming? We’re building a new house and everyone keeps telling me how great central vac is but I’m more used to the Dyson type vacuums. Any thoughts?
That’s exactly what I did! Got the “Best Buy” Sears Kenmore and then the Dyson came out. I’m reassured to see that Consumer Reports doesn’t think much of the Dyson but then I read all these glowing testimonials and get all covetous…
I have two rather odd (but possibly useful) suggestions for what to do with all the animal hair that accumulates in the Dyson canister…
My mom lives about 5 minutes away from me in the country (I’m in town). She has more than her share of trouble keeping the rabbits and voles out of her garden. She read somewhere that putting pet hair in the soil keeps the critters away. Not sure if it works, but she just left with a ziplock back full of icky pet hair, so I’ll let you know!
Also, my husband likes to put the pet hair in our yard so that the birds can use it for their nests.
And then, there’s always the ever popular cat/dog hair pillow idea…
While I can’t honestly complain about my Miele as it does remove visible debris from the carpet, I don’t have stupendous results getting the cat and dog hair off the furniture. And who knows what lurks below the surface of the carpet… :eek:
I also take Consumer Reports with a grain of salt. I don’t know why, but I honestly feel better about a product that’s got glowing reviews from many than not so luminous results from a consumer reports. I really like to check out epinions.com and amazon.com too.
I’ve been through a Kenmore progressive upright and canister. I like Kenmore products. I think once I find an amazing vacuum, I’ll know it.
My mom is pretty keen on her electrolux right now. That could just be attributed to the fact that she’s technically still paying it off… LOL
Part of the “problem” with Consumer Reports is that they don’t just affix a fair/good/fantastic rating to an item and call it done. They’ll test multiple aspects and functions and mix in the price. With vacs, they’ll examine how well it picks up their test dirt from smooth floors and carpet, how noisy it is, how easy it is to use attachments, and so on. All things otherwise equal, the cheaper model will get the best-buy pick.
I looked at their vac ratings not long ago, and while something like a Kirby might have gotten red donuts (icon for their highest category score) all across the chart, they still ding it heavily because of that $2700 price. I forget what they picked as Best Buy, but I almost choked, knowing that I could smash that vac with my Kirby and suck up all the pieces.
I do feel sorry for people that feel the need to buy a brand-new Kirby at full price, though.
I really want a Dyson, but recently when my old piece-of-crap vacuum died mid-prep for selling the house, I had to replace it and fast, and simply couldn’t afford a Dyson on the spot. So I got a Bissell that cost less than half as much, and to my surprise I absolutely love it. With two dogs and a cat, that thing was pulling multiple cups full of muck and hair and who knows what out of my carpets every day for a couple weeks, but eventually it caught up with the accumulated stuff and by the time I moved out the carpets were cleaner than they’d been the whole time we lived there.
Someday I’ll get a Dyson, but for now I’m very happy with my far less expensive substitute.
I hope this doesn’t sound “duh” but, aren’t Kirby’s only uprights? I used to work at a vac/sewing machine place and I saw several come in for service. Those things looked pretty intimidating. I wouldn’t want to be a shag carpet for anything.
And HEAVY! My goodness. No need for security system, just park your valuables under the kirby. LOL
I took my lemon Dyson back to the dealer where I bought it. He tried it out for himself and agreed it didn’t work as it should. He thought he knew which part was defective, but he just gave me a new replacement machine anyway! It was only a few months old, but he didn’t give me any hassle or runaround at all. I was quite relieved…and impressed.
Now I get what people raved about. The connections etc. are still a little stiff to work, but they will ease up with time. The vacuum itself does a great job. It picked up dog hair with no trouble at all, and it went to town on the carpets. Best of all, it’s light enough that I could finally get those high ceiling moldings, hanging light fixtures, etc. really clean without half breaking my back.
