So I bought a house with berber carpeting throughout the. Coming from my old house which had bamboo flooring I don’t have a vacuum cleaner. I have a small herd of dogs and two cats and I need to purchase a vacuum. I have been leaning towards a Dyson, but my parents insist that a Hoover is the only way to go. (My parents treat me like a child in many ways, despite the fact that I am 50 years old!)
I would really like some input on this from Dopers. I know there was at least one thread about this in the past, but people’s opinions may have changed since then, as newer models are now available. Please keep in mind the dog and cat hair I am dealing with.
Thanks in advance, Dopers have never disappointed me!
We have had quite a few vacuum cleaners over the years, but got a Dyson two years ago and it is the best we ever had. We have two cats, so also hair everywhere. This gets it off the rugs, and with the long hose extension, easily cleans the furniture.
They now have several models, including some specially for pets, so go to their site and study what is available. the plain one we have gets everything clean, and it is very easy to empty the bagless canister.
If you spend more than $300 it will not result in more dirt picked up. Beyond that, look for features you want and test them at the store. If you prefer a bagged unit then look at how easy the bags are to change. If you use a wand a lot then see how easy that is to work with and what tools come with it.
I bought a great vacuum cleaner for under $300 and it had a high quality rubber hose but I discovered after buying it that the vacuum was so powerful it pulled the hose to it’s shortest length when in use. I lose about a foot of extension away from the machine.
Consumer Reports ranked a Hoover model as best (not best buy, but best), for less than half the price of several competitors. I don’t know how they weighted the various criteria, nor how much attention they paid to animal hair. If you can find the article it may help you decide.
I bought a Dyson about four years ago, and it’s actually saved me money! Prior to my Dyson, I had a bagless Dirt Devil. The DD cost me approx $80.00, but in order to continue functioning properly, it needed belts and filters replaced annually, at a cost of $60.00. In the meantime, of course, performance would deteriorate steadily until I had it serviced.
So over the course of five years, it cost me more than $300.00 and would have continued to cost money to keep it functional. Finally I said “screw it” and bought a Dyson for about $350.00. I’ve never had to pay to have anything replaced/repaired. The filters are washable/reusable. It’s very easy to self-service if it gets clogged (which it occasionally does; I just had to unclog pine needles today!), and can be taken apart with no ‘tools’ save for the quarter you probably have in your pocket!
I’m guessing I’ll have my Dyson for at least a few more years, and when I do replace it, it will be because I’m jonesing for a Dyson Ball, not because I need a new vacuum cleaner!
I love my Dyson, and would absolutely buy the brand again.
I was coming in here to say this. Surprisingly, the Dyson didn’t do so well on carpets.
I use a Kenmore canister vac, which I love. Canisters really give you good reach for vacuuming under beds and low tables that you can’t reach with an upright.
ETA: I forgot to mention, that CR did rank the Dyson as Very Good on animal hair, Excellent on Bare Floors, but only Fair on carpets.
I just looked at the Consumer Reports website. The top-rated upright vacuum with a bag is the Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition U6485-900 (at $230).
Edited to add that the Kenmore Intuition 31100 is the top-rated model that gets the highest rating for pet hair removal.
Just don’t buy a Dirt Devil upright. For some inexplicable reason, the compressor exhaust is at the front of the base unit, so the damn thing blows dirt away from you until reach the wall. Possibly the worst design feature I’ve ever seen on a consumer product.
I got that exact vacuum last year, because of that rating. It cleans well enough, but I use the hose a lot and the damn thing is always falling over: it’s not heavy enough to let me extend the hose much at all. It also blows hot air on my legs when I stand anywhere near it. So I kind of hate it, and am thinking about leaving it behind when I move out of my rental townhouse this spring (as a “gift” for the new tenant).
I’m sorry for hijacking your thread, sir, but if it is not too much trouble and since it is a convenient thread about, well, vacuum cleaners, I would like suggestions on super compact vacuum cleaners that have very good suction. It’s basically for personal use (my own room, because I am selfish and weird that way), and normal cleaners have really huge heads (which are not favourable for tight, small corners). Also, why does my room (inhabited by a single person) accumulate so much dust? I only open my two miserable windows from morning to mid-afternoon, and I don’t live in a dusty, polluted area. Well, not for the most part, at least.
Oh, also, easy-to-use dustbags! I hate those cleaners with bothersome, complicated dustbags…
And I have a $100 in USD, it would be about $70 budget too D:
My sincerest thanks in advance to anyone who can assist me! >.<
Berber carpet is a special consideration though. If I understand correctly, you need a vacuum which relies entirely on excellent suction, because if you use the brush or beater it will ruin the loops and make them fuzzy.
I have a Dyson Animal Ball and I absolutely love it. It is easy to maneuver in any direction, as opposed to most vacuums which go back and foth easily but have to be wrestled sideways to the next “row.” It is easy and simple to epmty, and a quick button flick turns off the brush to work on the tile floor.
My only complaint is that the hose for the extention is not very long, so test that out before you buy. But it is so simple to pull it out and the atatchments are right there under your hand when you need them.
Another vote for Dyson. I got a refurbished model on Amazon for about 260.00 instead of the nearly 400.00 it would have cost new and I’ve never looked back. We were appaled by the amount of dog hair it found in the carpet despite regular vacuming with the old machine.
I have a Dyson Animal that I absolutely love. The attachments allow me to clean cat hair off of furniture, do a good job on the carpeted staircase, get spiderwebs near the ceiling and grab visible dust off ceiling fans when I’m in a hurry (when I’m not in a hurry, they get cleaned the old fashioned way).
The only cleaner that appears superior to a Dyson IMO is a Rainbow. Rainbows, however, are way over priced and you have to listen to an obnoxious sales rep try to stuff the purchase down your throat. It is both more expensive and less easy to manuver than a Dyson but it does do an excellent job of cleaning.
I don’t know if the basic design of bagless vacuums has changed in the last few years, but the way my Dyson empties was definitely a selling point for me. The bagless I had previous to my Dyson, you took the canister out, opened it up and turned it upside down over the trash can, and dust would fly everywhere! The Dyson, though, empties from the bottom of the canister; you take the canister out, and there’s a little “trigger” that releases the latch on the bottom. You hold the canister inside the trash can (hold it down several inches to prevent dust fly-up), pull the trigger, the bottom falls open, the dirt falls out into the trash can. Much cleaner way to do it, imo.
Of course, it’s perfectly possible that more low-end bagless models are emulating this now; I’ve noticed a trend in the past few years for lower-end vacuums to look more ‘Dyson-like’.
