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Vacuums, what do I need to know

4K views 60 replies 38 participants last post by  rosie 
#1 ·
I absolutely hate our dyson, so I may or may not be in the market for a new vacuum. I have pets and a wife who sheds hair like a dog so hair pickup is important. The auto floor adjust is nice but not a deal breaker. What have you guys had luck with? And yes I vacuum, believe it or not but my house is kept clean.
 
#38 ·
Doing it wrong...maybe.
Furniture needs to be vacuumed and so do curtains, cold air returns, baseboards, stairs, window sills etc. Most household dust hides in those places and gets moved around the house as people/pets move around it.
I highly recommend a hard floor attachment over a sweeping as well.
 
#34 ·
We have a Bissell Lift-Off. Its marketed for pet hair pickup. It work pretty good and we have been using it for 5-6 years now. There is a small hand held vacuum piece with a beater brush on it that hooks to the hose, that part never worked great.

P.S. I vacuum too.
 
#37 ·
We have a Bissell Healthy Home and love it. My only complaints: It's heavy and the top clip for the cord keeps popping off. Both rather minor things. The weight doesn't bother me, but apparently the ergonmic way to vacuum is to walk the vacuum more than pushing it back and forth with your arm and that does make it less work. i.e. You make long passes more like mowing a lawn.

We have had it for 5 years, and it has no appreciable loss in power. If you set it too low, it will still stick to the kitchen floor and try to pull it up. It will try to pull up carpet too if set too low. It has clogged once, from a large piece of debris, and it felt 100% like it was purposely engineered to make it simple to clear out and most of the path is clear plastic (including the corrugated tubing) so that you can see the obstructions. I'm a fan of the furniture "turbo" brush, which works particularly well on removing pet hair. That is also fairly easily to disassemble and remove tangled hair. I sometimes use it in our vehicles, particularly to get sand out.
 
#49 ·
Don't lisen to cc lol
We have the new shark and it kicks ass picks up dog hair pretty nicely

Paid about 200-220 I believe and it seams like your loaded so that shouldn't be a problem

Iv seen the reviews about people hateing the shark vacs but people hate every thing so read the reviews about each vacuum and make your own choice about what's good and what's shit.

We got the shark will it turn out to be a pos who knows with it last 20 years? Dought it. Is it a good vacuum that sucks up shit yes. Does it get pet hair? We have one cat and one 50 pound lab mix that sheds a lot it gets their hair great. Our house is half carpet, some wood and a bigger tiled kitchen works good on those floors to

I would never spend 1000 on a vacuum but that's me
 
#58 ·
In my experience, mind you not only am I a woman but some aspect of my job since I was 16has been cleaning. A home(nanny) and now a hospital


Sharks imo are shitty, they have the right idea with Their versatility and weight but as far as suction and durability they fold.


The family I used to care for had a dyson, it was decent did, the job though the suction was lacking when using the hose, namely for dog hair on furniture.

Ive used a variety of cheap no name vacs and for the most part they do a decent job but their lives are short

I currently own bissell and have no issues with them, I have a regular upright and a stick vac for stairs, edging etc.

Also I would suggest looking at comercial vacs, in my experience they've been the most reliable....tend to be kind of generic and ugly looking but if you want dependibilty and quality that's the best route. We use Windsor sensor at the hospital
 
#60 ·
I have used a lot of vacuum's for work. And have gone through about 10 in my own home. I have 3 uprights and one small eureka in my house now. Just spent. 50 on a new motor for my one 2-Kenmore's- Panasonic's. Motor actual was fine, but transmission was bad. Only came as a complete replacement part.
If you buy a commercial, it will usually have stainless steel parts and easily replaceable brushes. Will last longer than top of line retail. If you keep it in good working order. But for about the same price just replace the retail when it's shot. As for bag less - not recommended for people with allergies. Unless they have those expensive filters. All the filters should be cleaned or changed often and there should be no pet smell, dirty smell. I have not found the ONE vac, that I would recommend.
 
#61 ·
Any old vacuum will pick up pet hair. Pet hair sits on the surface. You need to find one that deep cleans your carpet. Everyone is going to have their preferences.

I have a Eureka (yes, a high-end one). It's not bagless - I hate bagless. I've watched various people in my family try nearly every bagless vacuum brand out there and no one likes what they have, including Dyson. I've had my vacuum for seven years now, and have only changed the belt once. It's easy to fix when your kid vacuums something up that she wasn't supposed to. All the attachments are onboard, so it's not an inconvenience to vacuum the edges of the carpet a couple times a week too.

I had to use it at work once because our store's vacuum broke and apparently our replacement was on backorder. I couldn't handle the floors being dirty so I brought mine in. It worked so well that it pulled the carpet squares up and I had to reglue a few high traffic areas.

The only thing I don't like is that I go through vacuum bags like mad. We vacuum every day since we have three cats and one bag lasts about three weeks. There is a noticeable difference in effectiveness when the bag is close to full so when it seems like it's not working well, it probably just needs a new bag.
 
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