I have a Golden Retriever and a long-haired cat in the house and most of main-level is hardwood. So I have a TON of hair to deal with and I vacuum at least twice a week in the master bedroom, living room and kitchen/breakfast room where they spend most of their time.
My Shark came with a Pet-Hair Upholstery Tool and Pet-Hair Motorized Turbo Brush, both of which make vacuuming off the furniture a piece of cake. It also has enough suction to actually pull all of the pet hair out of upholstery.
Mine also has a hard-floor attachment that does an excellent job of getting all the hair and dirt off my hardwoods. But there is a never version of mine now that has the hardwood/carpet capability integrated into the unit and you just press a button to select one. But the new one does come with the two pet-hair tools I mentioned above.
As for clogging with pet hair, I usually need to empty the canister halfway through vacuuming (my Golden sheds a lot) but the vacuum doesn’t loose suction even when it’s almost full. And emptying the bagless canister takes about 15 seconds.
It looks like they’re offering the newest model on the SharkClean.com website for $249.75 including free shipping. It is model NV750W and it includes a LIFETIME Warranty and a Free Steam Mop, Canister Caddy (to make the vacuum into a canister-type vacuum when needed) and an under-appliance cleaning tool. They also have a 60-day Money Back Guarantee.
I probably sound like I work for them or something, but I am just really impressed with how well their products work and that they’re reasonably priced. My sister has a $600 Dyson and, just to piss her off, I vacuumed over her carpet once after she had just used the Dyson…and I picked up a significant amount of additional dirt! =)
I replaced mine a couple of years ago even though it wasn’t broken. It was one of those old style Eureka uprights which draws everything it sucks up through the impeller and blows it into the bag. Got tired of how anything larger than a grain of sand would just get knocked around by the impeller and spit back out.
I swear by the Miele brand. I’ve had Dyson’s before, and they don’t compare.
When it comes to electricals, those Germans really do know what they’re doing.
Modern vacuums are just so light in comparison with old ones. And you probably don’t know how ‘meh’ your old vacuum’s sucking ability is til you’ve directly compared it with a new one. Worth a test, methinks.
I bought one of the vacuum cleaners which was highly rated on Consumer Reports.
I cannot compare it to your current vacuum for obvious reasons.
However, we have been quite happy with our current one.
We bought it when we had two very, very, very sheddy dogs. It worked wonderfully well.
The upholstery attachment was amazing. It took ALL of the dust out of some old love seat my wife picked up at a thrift store. The test I used was to wait until the afternoon sunlight was just so, then smack the padded arm of the love seat with my hand to watch the dust rise up in a little cloud. Ran the upholstery attachment over the thing. Slapping the love seat no longer produced a cloud of dust. I was honestly surprised. I expected a reduction, but not an eradication of the dust cloud potential of that old love seat.
The fact that the vacuum cleaner rated very highly for how much dust it returned to the room in its exhaust was a big selling point for us as well. Apparently, not all cleaners do such a good job.
The Dyson’s weird, it’s a skill-based vacuum. If you know how to use it, it’s awesome - there’s a reason the other manufacturers came out with Dyson look-a-likes shortly after it was introduced, and it wasn’t 'cause it was pretty. Mine’s over 12 years old now (DC07), and I haven’t spent a penny on it since I bought it.
I really like my Dyson because I have dogs and can fill the canister on just one daily pass of their room. Sure, it was around $500 when I bought it, but using two bags every time I vacuum the whole house would be expensive. Or I’d just keep “vacuuming” on a full bag without actually cleaning anything.
…and my wife really wanted one and I had great fun telling women I bought my wife a cleaning implement for mothers day while she was working full time with two children under two years of age. Trolling IRL!
I’ll just say this. When I was first married, my mother gave me an old Hoover upright that had belonged to my grandmother. It wasn’t pretty, it weighed a ton, but it worked. I’ve alway had multiple pets, some who were more hair than pet, and that old behemoth kept my house clean as a whistle. When it finally gave up the ghost, I’ve purchased approx. one vacuum every two years trying to find something/anything that works as well.
Bagless vacs are crap if you have pets. They simply don’t pick up the hair and they are so dirty to clean out. What good is vacuuming when you have dust flying everywhere when you empty the canister? Bagged is still the way to go if you want power and performance.