Vacuum cleaners

[Moemg]

What vacuum would you buy ? I need a new one and I'm leaning towards a Dyson . The hype finally got to me but are they worth it ? My house is two stories with mostly hardwood floors and area rugs .

[Khan]

Do you really need one for hardwood floors?

Didn't they use to take rugs outside and beat them?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg ... I'm leaning towards a Dyson . The hype finally got to me but are they worth it ?

According to Consumer Reports, no . Dyson models rated #16 & #17 out of 40 uprights tested . Kenmore models with Direct Drive rated #1 & #3, Hoover Windtunnel 2 rated #2, and Eureka Boss Smart Vac Ultra rated #4 .

However, the Dysons as well as the top 4 models all rated "excellent" on bare floors .

[Notmuchlonger]

Dyson has the new "ball" model out. Says you can move it with a flick of your wrist. Looks cool at any rate

Explore the DC15 The Ball™ Animal™

[happy2bretired]

I have a central vac...love it (Beam). The canister/motor is located in the garage.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Dysons are overpriced underperformers. 50% vacuum cleaner, 50% marketing. Dyson got tired of being bashed in the objective tests so they claimed they were best on animal hair. Then CR added animal hair tests and found the Dysons were among the worst at picking that up. Their primary claim is that it "never loses suction", but that doesnt relate how good the suction was in the first place You also have to stop vacuuming at a fill point and dump it. If you do that with any other vacuum, it wont lose suction either.

I think people get excited about them when they replace their $50 10 year old vacuum with one and it pulls up so much more stuff. Which would be the case with any decent new vacuum vs an old cheapie.

The Bissell healthy home vacs get good ratings and arent too expensive. They use a similar technology to the higher end dysons with some mods that make it work better.
Amazon.com: Bissell 5770 Healthy Home Bagless Upright Vacuum: Home & Garden

We use the hoover windtunnel self propelled vacs and my wife wont let me buy anything else. They come in bagged and bagless and we have one of each. Powered in forward and reverse and can be had for well under $200 and as a refurb for around $100-120. NOT good on hard floors though, the power is too much and the wheels can spin and mark up the floor.

Amazon.com: Hoover U6436-900 TurboPower Self-Propelled WindTunnel Bagged Upright Vacuum Cleaner: Home & Garden

The Sears progressive vacs often top the CR ratings but are around $300. A eureka boss model that sells for around $150 also ends up in the top 3 all the dang time.

Basically on hard floors and area rugs, almost anything will do an adequate job. Look more for ease of use and handling. You might also consider a canister as those are a lot easier to manage on stairs and tote along fine on hardwood. There are some nice electrolux oxygen models and we have a spendy Bosch unit thats incredibly quiet and has very low emissions. My wife likes that one a lot too. The bags for the Bosch are realy expensive though.

[Janet H]

Ditto cfb on the Dyson! I have terrible luck with vacuum cleaners including a Dyson. In the last 5 years I've bought 3 - all name brand, all fairly spendy and all broken! The plastic parts break, the motors wear, the roller mechanisms grind them selves to powder. aarg.

I don't really have unusual use (i don't think) I have about 1800 sq ft of medium pile wall to wall, some wood and tile surfaces, one border collie and one husband with size 10.5 mildly dusty shoes. After the last (well rated) kenmore bit it, I went to a store that sells commercial vacuum cleaners. They are no more expensive than consumer models, but the specs and warranties are sturdier. The housing parts are all metal - nothing to crack off. They have fewer bells and whistles - but i don't really need 6 attachments. I got a Riccar Commercial model and so far, so good.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet H The plastic parts break, the motors wear, the roller mechanisms grind them selves to powder.

Thats why I buy the $100 refurbs of decent performing models and keep 3 of them. One for each floor in the house so we dont have to carry them up and down stairs, and when one gets more than a couple of years old I start using it to vac the carpets on the patio and as a quickie shop vac around the house and yard. When that dies a painful death from sucking up bits of drywall and sawdust, I'm about ready for a new one inside somewhere and roll the oldest to the outdoor duty.

So I'm spending about $100 every 18-24 months.

Except for that $375 Bosch to do the stairs and hard floors with, that is...

I notice that the ratings on the cannister vacs have gone way up. Used to be there was one or two that were decent and the rest were junko. Now the top ten are competitive with the uprights.

[FIREdreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet H I have terrible luck with vacuum cleaners including a Dyson. In the last 5 years I've bought 3 - all name brand, all fairly spendy and all broken! The plastic parts break, the motors wear, the roller mechanisms grind them selves to powder. aarg. I don't really have unusual use (i don't think) I have about 1800 sq ft of med

Same here. Went through 3 vacuum cleaners (all uprights) in 4 years. Two Hoovers and one Eureka. All expensive pieces of junk. One caught on fire. Another one kept overheating and shutting down for no apparent reason (the tech people never found what was wrong with it). On the last one the belt broke and the new belts that were installed kept burning leaving a disgusting burnt rubber smell everywhere in the house.

We then bought an Electrolux Harmony canister vacuum and it has never failed us in the past 5 years. The motor has never overheated. Parts are a bit expensive, but I think it's well worth it. My mom has had the same canister vacuum cleaner for 21 years and she uses it everyday! There is no excuse for an expensive vacuum to break down after just one year of use.

[Moemg]

I 've used a Hoover wind tunnel for years and it worked great . I think I'll keep that upstairs and maybe buy the Eureka Boss for downstairs. I looked at the Kenmore but I think they are more for wall to wall . Khan , thanks but we are talking about some really big area rugs . I'd be beat before I got to beat them .

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg I 've used a Hoover wind tunnel for years and it worked great . I think I'll keep that upstairs and maybe buy the Eureka Boss for downstairs. I looked at the Kenmore but I think they are more for wall to wall . Khan , thanks but we are talking about some really big area rugs . I'd be beat before I got to beat them .

Also looking at vacuums and regarding area rugs - tried an Oreck and found an issue i hadn't considered: at the end of our rugs, when i get to the fringe i push the handle down to lift the beater brush so it doesn't shred the fringe - with the Oreck it wouldn't lift the beater, so i ended up lifting the vacuum up and replacing it on the rug when at full arm extension - not good for the back.

[Darryl]

DW seems satisfied with the Kirby we bought a couple years ago. Local shop wanted over $1,500 so I bought it on ebay for $800-900.

Was Kirby part of the above mentioned tests

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, they ended up in the middle of the pack most years but came in at #6 this year. Most of the expensive ones like the oreck, the kirby, miele, etc all ended up middling in the performance tests.

Like Janet pointed out, you might get some heavier duty construction and longer life out of them. A vacuum cleaner starts grossing me out after 3-4 years though...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Heres the list from the CR 2008 buyers guide, in order.

Kenmore progressive
Hoover windtunnel
Kenmore progressive
Eureka boss
Electrolux oxygen
Kirby sentria
Riccar supralite
Hoover tempo
Bissell healthy home
Dyson dc17
Oreck xl21-700
Hoover windtunnel self propelled
riccar radiance
hoover empower
hoover windtunnel bagless
hoover savvy
dyson dc15
Dyson dc14
dyson dc07
Aerus lux legacy
dyson dc18
Sebo automatic
Electrolux intensity
Bissell Liftoff
Miele Powerhouse
Dirt Devil Ultra
...

Top cannisters were:

Kenmore progressive
Electrolux oxygen
Sebo
Hoover windtunnel bagless


The above all did very well on bare floors. The Kenmores had much better scores overall but the rest were more or less lumped in a score band between 61-67 with most of the difference being in noise, emissions and handling/tool ease of use.

The bargains were the Eureka Boss at $150, the hoover tempo widepath at $60 and the hoover windtunnel bagless canister at $180. CR gave their best buys to cheaper models of the Kenmore direct drive and the hoover tempo.

Models that scored well on pet hair were the kenmore, eureka boss, riccar, miele and the electrolux oxygen cannister. Probably better brushes on those.

[Dave J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny Heres the list from the CR 2008 buyers guide, in order. The bargains were the Eureka Boss at $150, the hoover tempo widepath at $60 and the hoover windtunnel bagless canister at $180. CR gave their best buys to cheaper models of the Kenmore direct drive and the hoover tempo. .

We bought the Hoover Tempo widepath 3 months ago for $60 and were very happy with it. We bought another one a month later for upstairs for $50 when it was on a door-buster sale. For $110 we have two new vacuums that work well.

About 10 years ago, we bought the cheap consumers report best buy GE vacuum at Walmart($45 or so) and it is now still working and down in the basement.

I'm a believer in consumer reports.

[figner]

Thanks CFB for the CR list. I'm looking for a canister vac for a small carpeted apartment with a cat. I'd like to mitigate my friends' cat allergy symptoms when they stay over. So far I've tried to find the Kenmore progressive canister, and there's no "progressive" listed for canisters, even on Kenmore's site. Does anyone have a link or model number they could share?

I notice there's also a Hoover windtunnel bagged canister, but is there a reason the bagless one listed in CR would be better? I read up a little on bagless vs bagged and so far I lean toward the bagged, but am open to changing my mind.

[Marquette]

We have a Dyson and the Kenmore? that CR rated #1 last year.

Go with the Kenmore.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marquette We have a Dyson and the Kenmore? that CR rated #1 last year. Go with the Kenmore.

Is it good on wood floors ?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Is it good on wood floors ?

CR rated all the Kenmore uprights it tested "excellent" on bare floors.

[Moemg]

Thanks , I've been reading good reviews on it . So I guess I'll check it out .