Monday, February 1, 2016

How to buy a new vacuum cleaner

I know this might seem like a bit of a weird topic, but the truth is, everyone needs a vacuum cleaner and there are so many on the market that it can be a very difficult decision to make!

The main things to consider are the following:

Upright or canister:

If your house is mostly carpeted then you will want to get an upright vacuum cleaner. These work best on carpets. They have very powerful motors and brush rolls that can easily penetrate the fibres in the carpet all the way through the pile.

If your house is mostly bare floor, then a canister is best. These are very easy to use, can get under furniture easier and are very user friendly, usually coming with a few attachments.

If you have a mix of carpets and bare floors then you have to think a bit harder about what kind of vacuum to get. Consider that when using an upright, they can spit bits of dirt out if you are vacuuming a hard floor. Also consider that if you use a canister vacuum on carpet you will mostly just remove small amounts of surface dirt, but that ultimately the carpets will not get vacuumed properly and it will be a lot of hard work!

Sometimes it's useful to look into machines that are very good at doing both!

For example, Miele, Sebo Electrolux and Dyson have canister machines that have removable heads so you can switch to a motorized head for carpets and suction only for floors. These tend to be a bit more expensive than your average vacuum. I know that the Sebo and Miele machines that do both cost about $800.

Bissell also make canister machines that have removable motorized heads, and they also tend to be much more affordable than other machines. However, they are not known to be the most reliable machines, so you should consider how important that is to you.



Bagged or Bagless:

This comes down to personal preference or needs. If you suffer from severe allergies, then it really is best to get a bagged vacuum. In my opinion, even if you buy the highest quality bagless vacuum cleaner that has the most amazing filters and is perfectly sealed so that no dust can escape the machine while you are vacuuming, there is still the issue of then having to empty the dust container! This can be a very dirty and messy process which often results in some dust escaping the garbage, and landing on the floor and in the air. I've read directions on vacuums describing how to empty the canisters, and they recommend going outside to do it! Well, I live in a northern location where temperatures drop below freezing for several months a year, so going outside to empty the vacuum dust cup is simply not an option! I think you are also supposed to empty them in to a fairly large garbage container to avoid making a mess.

If you are on a tight budget, not suffering from allergies and are not at all fussy about the quality of the vacuum, then buying a bagless machine will be easiest. Most machines on the market these days tend to be bagless. Going to places like Walmart, you will see that most of the vacuums sold there are bagless.

A lot of people argue that the best thing about bagless vacuums is that you don't have to worry about buying new bags all the time. There is the extra cost involved, and also the possible inconvenience of running out of bags and not having any on hand when you want to vacuum. However, one thing to consider about bagless vacuums, is that you will usually have to clean the filters regularly. Dyson have created a machine where you don't have to clean the filters anymore, so that could be an option for you. Just keep in mind, that you will be spending upwards of $600 for that privilege.

Bagged vacuum cleaners usually have less maintenance involved. The filters are replaced, once a year or so. There is no dust container to empty or clean. You just replace the bag when it's full. Believe it or not, this doesn't have to be done as often as you would think. Somehow, when all the dirt gets sucked into the bag it gets compacted inside so it holds many times more than what a bagless can hold. I used to empty my bagless machine every time I vacuumed. With my bagged machine I only change the bag every month or two and even then, the bag is only half full!!!

Running out of bags isn't a problem, you buy a box and when you see the box getting low, you buy a new box! Most boxes have at least 4 bags in them.

One thing that is nice about a bagless vacuum though, is that you get to see how much debris you have vacuumed. This can be very satisfying! Also, if you accidentally vacuum up something valuable, like jewellery, you can just open the canister and retrieve it. Where as with a bagged vacuum, you might end up having to destroy the bag to get something out of it.

I used bagless machines for years, and they served me well. But one of the reasons I used them was because I thought I was being friendlier to the environment by using them. In reality, I usually emptied the dust cups into plastic bags to avoid a big mess. I was having to empty the vacuum every week, which means that I was using about 52 plastic bags a year! With my bagged vacuum, I have used about 5 bags in almost a year.

Cost:

Apparently there is a "sweet spot" in terms of price vs quality, and it is in the $300-$600 range. Therefore, you can get a really great machine within that price range. When you spend more than that, you will still get a great machine (at least one would hope!!) but it's a bigger investment, so in terms of how satisfied you are vs how much money you spent, it isn't always the best choice. Machines less than $300 start to become less reliable and not as well built.

That is not to say that you won't find your dream vacuum cleaner for under $300! As I mentioned, bagless machines tend to be cheaper. I am not going to post all kinds of reviews on the different makes and models. There are just too many to name. But generally, the expensive well known machines tend to be Miele and Dyson and the cheaper machines tend to be Eureka and Shark. I've read hundreds of reviews on all kinds of machines, and believe me, there are plenty of people that absolutely love their cheap Shark, and there are plenty of people that despise their expensive Dyson!

What I'm trying to say is,  you really shouldn't buy a vacuum cleaner just because you like the name brand! Even within each name brand there are so many different models that it's really important to do the research! Dyson have upright, canister, cordless etc. Every machine does something a bit different. Yes, they all vacuum - that's true! But some are easier to use if you have pets, some are better for small spaces, and some are best for large houses with wall to wall carpeting!

At the end of the day, it's a bit like driving. Some people hate driving, have no money and just need a very basic car to get from point A to point B. They are probably not going to end up buying a Lexus! As with cars, I think that there are "luxury" vacuum cleaners!

Some machines are just very easy to use, are very easy to clean, are super quiet, have lot's of great attachments etc. For some people, none of that matters in the slightest!

For me, I like vacuuming! Or rather, I like having my house free from pet hair and dirt. Therefore, I tend to vacuum on a weekly basis. Therefore, I prefer to have a machine that isn't dreadful to use - otherwise I will not be likely to ever want to vacuum!

I have several vacuums! Ten years ago we bought a Bissell upright bagless. We had mostly carpets, and didn't know anything about vacuums, it was probably on sale and it just seemed like a good buy. It worked quite well, and in fact it still works! The problem is that we changed our floors to laminate. I found that the vacuum was spitting dirt everywhere and that it was not at all easy to get under furniture. It's also very heavy, so vacuuming stairs is a bit tiring. I have tiny bathrooms so getting that machine in it was not at all fun. I then bought a really cheap canister vacuum for about $80. It was great, it was so easy to use, very compact so it was easy to do stairs and furniture. But it was also very loud, and it was very hard to empty the dust cup. It got static in the dry months and the dirt and cat hair would cling to the dust cup, and dust would fly around making a big mess. It also stopped working as reliably, but that might have been my fault for not replacing the filters and having possibly vacuumed plaster dust!!!

After that I bought a Bissell canister vacuum with a detachable motorized head. I found it to be very heavy, very loud, a bit awkward to use due to it's size (it has two big wheels at the back and it gets stuck around corners!). It's also very hard to remove the floor attachments! So having to switch between carpets and floors is a real pain! Then there are all the filters that need cleaning all the time, which is a time consuming messy process. Plus the motorized head brush gets completely clogged with fur and string so I have to spend time pulling it all out with tweezers and scissors! Needless to say, it was not a very smart purchase considering it was $200.

My latest vacuum cleaner is the Sebo K2. It's a bagged, lightweight, fairly compact canister vacuum. I ended up choosing a bagged machine, because after almost ten years of using a bagless, I was tired of having to constantly empty the dust cup and clean all the mess that it caused, and was tired of washing all the filters! I did extensive research, and in the end, the Sebo K2 was the machine that most closely matched my needs. It was $399, but had great reviews and looked solid and well built. It uses special bags that actually work like an extra filter which keeps the machine extra clean. It's also a very quiet machine. It comes with three attachments, none of them motorized (so fairly basic). I would have loved to get the next model up that had the motorized head, but it was twice the cost. I couldn't really justify it, as I only have a couple of floor mats, and no large carpets. But all in all, for me it's a great machine and I love it! A year later and I still look forward to vacuuming!

Keep in mind, there is no perfect vacuum! There are pros and cons to every machine. You just have to decide which features are most important to you. Most of my friends own a Dyson, and they have all been extremely happy with them! I did not want a Dyson though, first of all because they were not within my budget, but most importantly, I wanted a bagged machine!

So try not to get too frustrated when searching for a vacuum cleaner. Check out Amazon.com for reviews, that can be very helpful. Particularly for well known machines. The more well known, the more reviews you'll find.