…are they better than the ones that use collection bags? My old vacuum cleaner is on its last legs, so I will need to replace it soon. Do these “vortex” uprights really clean better? And, not having a bag, do they trap as much dirt?
I own a Fantom Lightning. Its a bagless/vortex jobbie but a canister, not an upright. Sucks real well. Compared to my old Elextrolux, well, theres no comparison. Plus it has a HEPA filter that IMHO keeps the dust down a bit. The carpet even feels “cooshy” after I vacuum. I really like it.
Downsides? Well, I think I empty it more after I vacuum (like every other time). My old bag style vacuum probably went a couple weeks between bags. Then again, maybe its because it collected more dust/dirt?
It can also be a bit messy emptying the canister if you don’t do it carefully.
As a former salesman of terribly overpriced vacumms, I can tell you this much: price is no particular indication of quality. In my experienc an ‘average’ $100-$200 vac cleaned just as well as more expensive brands. (a particular model, sold on it’s 8 pound weight comes to mind as a particularly big loser.)
As far as the bagless models, they have 2 downsides that I know of.
1.) you have to empty the cansiter into something and if you do that indoors, you send a lot of the dust back into the air.
2.) You have to periodically replace the filter, which often costs as much or more than just buying the bags.
Also, many bagless machines sell themsleves as ‘hypo-allergenic’ meaning their filter wil trap many allergens, but many brands of bag-style machines incorporate these filter into the bags nowadays
As far as cleaning power, stay away from canister-style machines, as these lose most of their suction throught the long hose.(Berillis’ principle?)
Weight can tell you a lot. Generally, the heavier the machine, the bigger the motor, the more suction you get. Stay away from featherweight machines, they’re worthless.
Unfortunatley, there is no standard measurment of cleaning power. Most machines sell themselves on the number of amps of electricity they consume, this is like selling a car based on it’s high gas milage. Amperage does roughly translate to power, but it could jsut be inefficient too.
that_darn_cat
who knows way too much about vacuums
Are these the ones with the neat-o looking plastic cylindrical dirt containers that allow you to watch your carpet crud whirrling around in a mini-cyclone? I would imagine that the plastic would get all scuffed up after a short time with all of that abrasion going on inside.
Makes sense. FWIW, We’ve had the lightning for almost 2 years now and have never had to replace the filter. They cost about $35 CDN too, so I would imagine you could buy quite a few bags for that.
I don’t know if I would agree with losing most of their suction in the hose but I’m sure you would lose some. But I tells ya! Mine sucks good! 
I personally prefer the manuverability of a canister over an upright.
Another Fantom owner here (upright model)- it’s the best vacuum I’ve ever owned. I’ll agree that it seems to pick up much more than the bag models I’ve owned in the past. About six months ago it just quit working so I bought a Hoover Wind Tunnel. I got frustrated with the cleaning it did (it was nowhere near as good as the Fantom), so I took the Fantom apart and it turned out the only problem was a burned contact. Easy fix. The Hoover is now just collecting dust (sorry about the horrible pun).
To address a couple of points that have been brought up:
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The plastic canister is not scuffed at all, even after a couple of years of heavy use.
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I haven’t replaced the HEPA filter yet, and don’t plan to until it’s completely clogged. They are expensive. I periodically blow compressed air through it, seems to do a good job of clearing out the crud.
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- A pal of mine’s dad has a vacuum cleaner shop too: his opinion is that any decently-priced one probably cleaned about the same, but the ones that look nicer clean better- <;) - A couple points:
-Early on, there were actually bagless and filterless vacuums. These used a totally centrifugal dry cannister and could draw a lot of air, and picked up most stuff really well. The problem was that if they were handled roughly (bumped) or tipped over during use, they could “cough” huge amounts of dust out the exhaust, which is why they discontinued making them without filters. The vacuum cleaner companies lifted this idea from helicopter engines, by the by…
-Rainbows use a filterless centrifugal design with water; to help the dust stick to the water surface, there’s a scented oil you add a bit of to coat the water. These pick up everything really well but tend to blow a lot of moisture back into the air, which can be a problem for people with allergies. -And people picky about their vacuums usually have allergies. Rainbows don’t (or at least, didn’t previously) have any filter at all. You just dump the dirty water somewhere convenient, such as the toilet or an unused corner of the yard. They’re usually overpriced, but there’s nothing else that functions similar to them.
-There’s also a couple that have regular bags and electrostatic filter systems too. IIRC, Merle was one a few years back. These clean absolutely everything out of the air, but didn’t draw much air and were among the most expensive to own. The logic goes something like, if you’re allergic to pet hair, there’s no sense spending a bunch more money on a vacuum that can clean all the other smaller stuff out of the air too.
-Lots of vacuums advertised as “vortex” are just salesmanship: there’s a filter inside like always. Often two filters, a regular one and a HEPA. I have noticed the HEPA filter on mine has never gotten dirty, which leads me to suspect that it doesn’t help all that much anyway, -or maybe I don’t vacuum enough. -But either way, the fact that the junk kinda spins around where you can see it doesn’t help the thing clean any better. - MC
- A pal of mine’s dad has a vacuum cleaner shop too: his opinion is that any decently-priced one probably cleaned about the same, but the ones that look nicer clean better- <;) - A couple points:
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Got a Fantom Fury about a month ago. It is SO much better than the old vacuum we had. I know this is going to sound like a commercial, but…
We thought our carpet was clean before, but literally 10 seconds into using the new one, the cup was full of all manner of stuff, mostly dog hair. We could not believe how much was left uncleaned by the old machine that this thing picks up with no problem.
It could very well be that our old one was just a piece of junk, but the Fantom Fury cyclonic dealy is pretty darn good.
Consumer Reports confirms what MC and tdc said - most reasonably priced units perform about equally with higher priced units, and none of the gimmicks made a lot of difference.
nineiron: so what make and model was your previous vacuum? And how old was it?
I’ll toss in another glowing testimonial for the Fantom Fury. I think it’s the best vacuum I’ve ever used. When we moved into our new house the Fantom clogged repeatedly for the first month until it finished picking up all the loose carpet fibers. And the carpet had already been “lived in” for two years by the previous owners, and presumably they vacuumed regularly.
Mrs. Tonk prefers her Hoover Windtunnel because it was rated the highest in Consumer Reports. She’s a smart woman - but if Consumer Reports said that dog shit in a can was better than Campbell’s Chicken Soup, she’d buy it.
Here in England we have a bag-less cleaner made by a company called Dyson, previously I had a Phillips. What I can say is that it seems to clean just as well but doesn’t need any annoying bags, and its much smaller and lighter, as well as pretty groovy looking. On the down-side it does need to be emptied more often.