Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

We just had wool berber wall-to-wall carpeting installed in several rooms of our home. The manufacturer recommends a suction only vacuum, without a beater bar to "avoid excessive fuzzing."
First, is a beater bar and a brush roll the same thing on a vacuum?
And second what's my best bet for a vacuum? We have 700-square-feet of wool berber carpets, 600-square-feet of laminate and 200-square-feet of tile (including stairs) to vacuum. We own two boxers (dogs) that shed short hair and live in a dusty (agricultural) area.
At the recommendation of a local shop we tried out a Miele Titan (with 217 head) with the brush roll on (they're some of the softest brushes according to sales person). We used it for a while on a remnant of our carpet and I noticed what I think is some fuzzing so I worry that with extended use we will really wear into the carpet. Is there anything with some kind of brush roll or option other than straight suction to really get the dog hair up? Or something with enough suction not to worry about it?
The Miele seemed to do a very nice job but we're struggling for an accurate comparison point.

THANK YOU!!!

CarmineD wrote:

Also reinforces what I have said about Oreck for years.  $400 for a vac that will not remove dirt.  

HARDSELL wrote:
Doesnt really reinforce anything, HS. I'm already in dispute with Which having found quite a few errors in their test reviews where they are prepared to let mass produced European named products win "Best Buy," award seals where the Oreck's performance is poor. It isn't exactly black and white with this company!

vacmanuk wrote:

One of the features of note on the ORECK XL3 is a longer softer tuft of brush roll hair vice the traditional stiffer ORECK brush rolls.  Hence, I'm not surprised by the mediocre results claimed by Which? on carpets in concert with the lesser suction of a full sized upright vacuum.  The softer tufts work well on hard surfaces than on rugs.  It's a trade off [softer bristles] on rugs and edge cleaning vice the Classic ORECK's and stiffer brush roll hair.  Also, the XL3 is sold in concert with the ORECK compact canister for above the floor and edge cleaning.  Usually both at $299 or less [if you forgo the gifts provided for the in-home trial] on sale by most big box retailers in the USA who are now offering ORECK products.  And the traditional XL sells for $200 minus the compact canister.  Both sales venues, solo upright sales and big box retail sellers for ORECK products, are ORECK's latest marketing features to keep sales humming in the recession and the down USA housing market.

Carmine D.

In my opinion Dyson Models will work  for you. I know how frustrating it is to clean a wool carpet. Wool carpets are sensitive so be careful while you vacuum them.

i like rainbow vaccum cleaner.

Cleaning wool Berber carpets, laminate and tile is very tricky, anyone can't clean it simply. It is very trickier to clean this carpet, this carpets are made up of wool, so you have to give extra care while cleaning this carpet, you have to put extra precautions that will clean the wool demands, to clean this carpet make sure that buy a vacuum without beater bar, regular vacuuming is your best tool in keeping this tough. So use the best vacuum cleaner to clean to this carpet.

Brush rolls haven't had beater bars in a long time. It used to be that brush rolls had one or two rows of bristles and another row with a hard bar nearly as long as the bristles that literally beat the carpet as the brush roll turned. Great for bouncing dirt out of the nap and into the airflow where it was sucked into the vacuum. Nobody that I am aware of sells a modern vacuum with a beater bar brush roll but there are certainly plenty of older machines soldiering on out there with these old beater bar brush rolls hence the warning not to use them on your carpet. I'm not sure if considerations of carpet wear or the desire to sell quiet vacuums are what killed the beater bar. It certainly is an effective way to deep clean carpets but it was usually noisier than we are accustomed to today.

I don't know what your budget looks like, but I have the Shark Navigator Rotator at home and it works great. Costco (or Amazon) sells them for ~$200

Last year I ended up buying a Hoover Linx cordless stick vac and the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser hand vac, as I was so frustrated with our old Miele White Star. Both are decent for day-to-day touch-ups, but my Miele has now totally bitten the dust and I need to buy a new vac this week. As much as I'd prefer an upright vac, I use my hose and attachments all the time to vacuum my very textured adobe walls, furniture, crevices, lampshades, etc., etc. I've spent a lot of time this morning searching The Wirecutter and Get Cleaning Done. But, every time I check out the customer reviews there are always complaints that the rollers still get bound up with hair and have to be continually cut off. Or that the vacuums are falling apart! I found one that seemed to work well . . . as long as you got down on your hands and knees and used an attachment to get it up. I've been doing that for years with my Miele White Star and am so done with that! For a vacuum that expensive (back then it was close to $500), shame on them! Is there a vacuum out there that actually really works with pet hair on rugs and hardwood?????? I need recommendations and ones NOT to buy quickly, please. Help!

Mieles are over rated. Go to the nearest Sears and look at their Kenmore branded canister vacuums, specifically the 600 Series 81614, Elite 700 Series 81714 and Elite 800 Series 21814. The Elites are originally Panasonic designs and are the most powerful canister vacuums made. The 600 is a Cleva Industrial design. Test them against any Miele and I think you will be surprised at their basic excellence. Kenmore has almost always been about high airflow and the Elites in particular have massive airflow, more than even a Kirby. The Kirby sales guy was surprised to see my hard working Elite match the airflow of his brand new Sentria measuring them both at the hose end with his BAIRD meter. Then compare attachments, especially those on the 600 series with Miele's. The Kenny has traditional American sized attachments including an excellent horse hair dusting brush. Then look at the tiny little attachments Miele provides. Mieles dusting brush is especially frustrating as it has such a narrow cleaning path. The Kenmore dusting brush is wide. And where Miele gives you a cheap turbo hand brush that will bog on anything soft for lack of airflow, Kenmore gives you an outstanding electric motor driven Pet Powermate hand brush that almost never bogs. It out cleans any turbo tool. But if you are really determined to spend a bunch of money on a vacuum cleaner, look at Aerus Lux. Their Classic and Legacy canisters are made in the US and have been in production with very few minor changes since the late 1980s. Aerus Lux like Kenmore provides an outstanding electric motor driven hand brush called the Sidekick. These are top quality vacuums that will last decades given reasonable care. Reasonable care means using only cloth HEPA dust bags and changing the pre-motor and exhaust filters every sixth bag change. If there are big accumulations of dust in the bag chambers clean the bag chamber so the dust can't be sucked into the motor where it can clog and damage it. Suction air is what cools your vacuum motor. Anything that reduces airflow like clogged filters are dirt accumulating in the motor starves airflow and that will overheat and ruin a vacuum motor.