Cheap joke, I know. Anyway, I need to buy a new vacuum, but have been vacillating for ages on what brand and type to get. There are just too many options! Upright, stick or cannister?
Bagless or bagful? Hoover, Dirt Devil, Eureka, Shark, Euro-Pro, or other? HELP!
My history with vacuums is checkered. On the plus side, I had a good experience with my first vacuum purchase back in my college days: a Eureka Mini-Mite cannister that did a great job and was kinda fun to pull around. On the downside, a couple of years ago I bought a $50 Hoover Stick designed for hardwood floors that sucked – and not in a good way. (Seriously, what genius puts an nonretractable brush around a vacuum head? It only serves to push the dirt away from the sucking action!)
So anyway, what types do you guys prefer? And can you recommend the ideal, most affordable vacuum for my circumstances?
Things that may make a difference in a recommendation:
It’s for a fairly small studio apartment with hardwood floors – parquet, which is annoying 'cause there are so many damn crevices).
I’m financially strapped, with a budget is $125 or less (with the emphasis on less).
The vacuum will be living with three cats who aren’t shy about shedding.
No allergies but would like to avoid too much dust.
I did mention I’m poor, right?
I have almost no storage space, so I guess I should lean towards a stick/upright, but I like the maneuverability of a cannister/hose combo.
Well, Dopers, my floor is in your hands. Any thoughts?
Oh, can I please get in on this, too? We are buying ourselves a vacuum for Xmas, and any suggestions would be welcome. Our budget is up to and including $300, but not more than $400. Our house carpeted everywhere but in the bathrooms and the kitchen area. We have three cats. Bagless, with a HEPA filter would be nice. Attachments for everything. We’ll be able to get it in about three weeks. Any suggestions will be most welcome!
Thank you so much for starting this thread. I’m very interested in answers.
I started a thread a while ago asking about experiences with the Hoover Floormate. I didn’t get many responses and one poster suggested I read the reviews on Amazon. Those reviews aren’t interactive and weren’t much help. Hopefully your thread will fare better than mine did.
I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a vacuum cleaner as we’re entering super-saver-budget mode because my husband’s going to attend law school soon. Hopefully, not many people will suggest a Dyson <drool>.
Miele is best on wood floors, but it ain’t cheap. I scored mine as a hand-me-down and I worship it. Good with dirt, sand, dust, dog hair- you name it. But they can run upwards of $200-600.
For my carpets upstairs I use a Royal- heavy metal and killer performance. Plastic vacuums just don’t cut it around here, with 2 kids and a ton of dog hair! HEPA bags work great. I think it was about $200, but I can’t recall.
I’ll second that. My parents recently bought one of these (I’m not sure which model, but it’s purple). I tried it out when I helped them with pre-Thanksgiving cleaning. This thing is incredible! My parents just moved into a brand new house, and the Dyson sucked two full canisters of dust out of their new carpet. When we tried it at the old house, I got six canisters of dirt in my brother’s room alone.
It’s a lot more expensive than the other vacuums on the market, but IMHO, it’s worth the money.
HEPA filters are largely a waste of time, since the rest of the machine is not normally designed for HEPA-type cleaning. HEPA has become a selling buzz-word. In other words, vacuums are not normally hermetically sealed, so much of the dust blows right back into the air. The filter is HEPA-rated, but the vacuum is not.
This is the cannister vacuum cleaner that I have. I love it. I have four cats that are Olympic shedders and deep pile carpet . It works so well. IT is @220.00, but Sears does have a lower end model cannister vac . They do store upright and take up the same amount of room as an standard upright vac.
I had a HEPA filter/bagless vac before ( a Hoover) and it had crappy suction. and it was worse for my allergies- not better. Dust went everywhere when emptying it out.
Thanks for the recommendation of a Dyson. It looks like we’re getting the 07 Full Kit, which is about $100 less at Sam’s Club than it is from Dyson. The Full Kit model is the vacuum made for animal hair, which is exactly what we need, and it comes with extra tools that you don’t get with the other models. A clean house! Yay!
That’s what I have, the Full Kit. The difference between it and the base model is that it is a different color, it comes with the turbo brush attachement, and a floor attachment. We don’t use the floor attachment, but I do like the turbo attachment for cleaning the sofa, car seats, carpets, etc.
In addition, how much suction does the average home need? I can’t believe that industrial suction, repeated month after year, is good for carpeting. When people pick up lots of “dust,” might not a lot of that dust be carpet fibers? Once the inbedded debris is removed, the upkeep involves surface dust–unless you have a diseased yak.
We begrudingly bought a Dyson. I’m rather glad we did. It fairly well rocks.
The claims that the cones generate ‘150,000 g’s’ seemed a little far fetched, but when I vacuumed up some grain bugs, I didn’t have to worry about emptying the cannister where they’d get back inside. The cannister had bunches of bug parts innit.
We had a phantom Thunder before and it performed rather well. We’d still be using it if they still made beater bars and rubber bands for it.
Heh. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! And I’m glad all y’all who piggybacked on my humble thread are getting what you need, but I’m still stuck here with grungy floors!
'Cause alas, when I speak of a budget of $125, I ain’t kidding. That’s the ceilling, and even that is more than I should really spend. Geeze louise, aren’t there any other low income Dopers 'round these here parts? Or anyone who’s just not able/willing to spend $200+ (!!!) on a vacuum? Surely some of you without Mieles and Dysons and Electroluxes and Orecks are still kinda happy with what you have?
Have some pity on me! Hath not a poor person floors? If we spill something, do we not require decent suction?
When I was poor, all of my vacuums were second hand. Our perception was that we wanted to spend enough money to get a good product that lasted a long time.
We purchased a Bissel handheld rug shampooer for a song and the B@stard broke in four months. a $.12 piece sheared off, making the thing useless. We bought a Bissell upright shampooer and it lasted, maybe 16 months with regular (but not overly so) use.
We then bought a Hoover - got the cheapest version of their shampooer at, like $170 at Walmart. The only differences between it and their Gold Star bestest model was about 6 feet of cord and three add on pieces we’d never use. That sucker has run so well, for so long, under heavy use (senile, puking cats and twin two year old boys) that we’ve been exteremely happy with it.
So use this as a guideline: Find a neato cool vacuum cleaner, then look at the cheapest member of the line. I’ll bet good money that the part you’re interested (the vacuum), has the exact same pieces as the top of the line model.
Yes! This is what I have too. The turbo brush ROCKS!! It is awesome on cat hair. I use the floor attachment to vacuum my kitchen floor. It is much better than sweeping.
I have a Kirby Generation 3 and it is the best vacuum I’ve ever used. I have three dogs that shed like crazy and it keeps everything looking top notch. The accessories are easy to use and the shampoo attachment rocks.
I know they are pricey but you can probably find one used or refurbished. I bought mine from my neice who gave me the rock bottom price because she was getting ready to quit that job. Word to the wise though, if you do buy one new, don’t use their financing (Union Financial Services) because they have a reputation for being overbearing and at times unethical. I paid mine off a couple of months later and still got monthly calls asking where the payment was for several months. After doing some research later I found that I was not the only person to have trouble with them.
