I’ve recently moved into an apartment that is carpeted. I need a vacuum cleaned to keep the place clean, but I don’t know what to buy. My parents have a central vac system, so I have limited experience with standard vacuums. The only ones I’ve used are the industrial strength ones that the dorms and the stores where I worked had. The apartment is small (420ish square feet, one bedroom and another room). The carpet is relatively nice and relatively deep pile. What vacuum should I buy? I don’t want to spend a lot of money, but I want something that will work well. What should I get?
Drop the “cheap” - with deep pile you need, want, and must have, a Dyson. Nothing else will do. Sell your grandmother to raise the cash if necessary.
Oh I’m glad this topic came up.
After my wife bought this zillion dollar bagless piece of junk that finally broke I was able to go vacuum shopping myself.
I started to compare the vacuums at wal-mart and noticed that regardless of price all of them had the same size motors. So I narrowed my choice down to what they had and what looked like it’d work for me, and of course price. I came out with a really good bissel that cost somewhere around $50.00.
I figured that if it broke I wouldnt be so upset because it was so cheap.
This thing is awesome. It’s got great attachments too.
I’m starting to feel gay so I’ll leave it there.
You might want check out a “Vac & Sew” type shop. I got a used model (some basic Eureka upright) for $35.
Brian
Check out Consumer Reports, they always have a “best value” pick as well as “best overall vacuum cleaner”. For what it’s worth, they don’t think the Dyson is worth the money. (I still lust after it, though.)
What Rooves said: go for cheap. Really. For $40-50 at S-Mart, you can get a vacuum with a good set of attachments that’ll suck harder than a cheap whore. And there isn’t that much in a vacuum to break down, so they last for years.
Contra N9IWP, it isn’t worth the trouble to shop for a used vac: there’s only so much you can save, and you don’t know how good they’ll be. To be worth the gamble, a used vac should be priced at about $10 or $12.
While I agree that the Dyson is a great machine, I doubt you need it.
I will say, that if you could afford it, even for apartment living it may be nice to have. For an upright, it nearly doubles as a shop vac. It takes maybe 10 seconds to go from floor vac to using it to vacuum behind the TV (like a shop vac).
I’ve only had one other upright that had that option, and frankly, it was useless. I’ll drag out the shop vac instead. With the Dyson, that’s not necessary at all. Unless you’re picking up construction debrise.
The vacuum suction it provides is that good. And it’s quiet. And easy to empty. It’s beyond easy, It’s no worse that walking to the trash and throwing a pop can away.
But it’s $500. I have no idea how long it will last, frankly, some of the hinges and clasps look a little weak.
Like Rooves said, buy the one with the higher amp motor. That info should be printed on the box. It’ll probably be small print, on a corner somewhere.
As an aside. It sort of depends on how much dirt you will bring in, do you have pets and a dozen other factors. What I don’t like about the bag machines is that it is very easy to not bother changing the bag. The bag machines I have had (3-4) where kinda messy to change the bag. And if you want to just do a quick clean up, it’s hard to justify changing the bag.
Last week our new puppy tore up a down pillow in our bedroom. She emptied it. It was everywhere. We picked as much up as we could by hand (it was four inches deep in places), and hit it with the Dyson. I did have to empty the dirt canistor a number of times, but it is so easy, it’s wasn’t a big deal.