Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

For those wondering how clean their rugs actually get after vacuuming, here's another way to tell.
First, purchase a "black light" urine detector from most local pet stores.
This is usually a battery powered wand containing a "black light" tube.

Steps:

1.  Turn out the lights in your carpeted room,
2.  Shine the black light onto the carpet at a distance of about 6".  Note the dirt you see.
3.  Turn lights back on, vacuum the carpet,
4.  Repeat step 2.  See if there is significant reduction in dirt level.
5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the carpet appears clean under the black light.

Why it works;
Some dust and lint contains elements that glow under black light.

Examples:
First, my house has FILTRETTE furnace filters for interior heating and exterior air intake.  Very little dust gets into the house.
Dryer is vented outside and has attic assist fan that assures a torrent of air goes through during drying.
Carpets are vacuumed at least once a week.  They are polyester, relatively new, with no signs of wear.

Under normal light, my WW dark brown carpet seems pretty clean, with an occasional white speck or two.
However, under black light, same carpeting revealed a major overlay of white lint.
So I got out the trusty Hoover LiION stick vac w/ clean filters, vacuumed over the rug, then checked with black light again.
The lint had been reduced by about 2/3, but was still there.  Hoover catch tank showed quite a bit of lint.
Next out came the Miele Blue Moon with Vortex motor, clean bag and filters,  and SEB236 brush head (their big head) with good bristles.  Vacuumed carpet at moderate speed with overlapping strokes.
Black light revealed a small number of lint specks still on the carpet.
Revacuumed the carpet   s l o w l y,   making sure that overlapping was occurring.
This time the lint was virtually absent, though an occasional speck still showed up.

Summary;
Black Light definitely helps finding dust and lint in rugs,
Hoover LiION stick vac gets some of the lint, but not all.
Miele gets it all, but only with slow, careful vacuuming.