Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Hello, My wife has asked me to try and find a new vacuum for us but we have a unique situation. We live in a 2 story house with a laminate wood floor in our living room with tile in our kitchen and dining room. The stairs leading up to our second floor and hallway are carpet and the 3 bedrooms upstairs are carpet now but we are going to be putting wood down shortly. On top of that we have birds that make a mess. Which vacuum would you suggest would be best for us to clean up the mess from the birds along with being able to clean the carpet in the hallway and stairs? Thanks, Glenn

Glenn;

I would suggest that since you have/will have quite a bit of flooring, a canister vacuum cleaner with a power nozzle would get the job done.  All you have to do is use the power nozzle for the carpeting, then put the floor brush on the wand and clean the floors.  A floor brush, on the end of a wand, is much easier to use and move around on the floor than an upright. 

I would like to ask what brand/model vacuum cleaner you are using now?  Pulling up the carpeting also plays a part in what vacuum cleaner you have now and what you should get.  If you have an upright now, you may want to keep it and use on the carpeting while you still have the carpeting.  Then just purchase a suction-only canister for the floors and everything above the floor.  After all the carpeting is pulled up, you just need to use the suction-only canister.

For a canister w/power nozzle, I would suggest very good quality brands like Riccar and Simplicity.  These two are made by/for the same company.  Also look at Miele.  If you cannot afford any of these, take a look at the HOOVER S3670.  It is a very good vacuum cleaner, with many good features.  Another vacuum in this category would be a Panasonic w/power nozzle.

If you just need a suction-only canister, you will find many which would fit what you need.  There is not much required when vacuuming floor.  The above brands of Miele Riccar, and Simplicity have canisters without power nozzles also.

Alot of the vacuum cleaners today filter very well.  I have not commented on what is the "best filtration", since you did not make that a priority.

Good luck w/your search.

The other alternative would be a central vac. Then all you do is swap around the floor heads rather than carry about a machine up and down stairs all the time.

Miele cans are great as well they offer the s2 for as low as 499 inc power brush

If you are going to replace your carpeting with hardwood floors i would definitely go with a canister vacuum. You just don't the power of an upright vacuum with wood or tile floors. As for which vacuum to get well thats up to you and your circumstances. 1 thing i've learned to do is to check to see how readily available the bags, filters, belts are. Nothing worse than paying good money for a vacuum just to find out 6 months later that you cant get the necessities.

Bear in mind that if you are going to go for a Miele canister vac, the S2 has a shorter power cord length than the S6 and newer S8. SEBO's D4 Premium (sadly the non-electric versions have yet to land elsewhere other than currently in Europe) has a 12 metre power cable, large dust bag capacity and electric power nozzle as standard WITH an additional hard floor brush. However, Im sure there are plenty of other canisters with just the same amount of longer cord available. There is nothing worse than constant plug hoping, especially if you have to get around a large home.

The SEBO Felix is a great upright machine. It not only is very easy to carry up and down stairs thanks to its long side handle (where the hose is stored), but it also is great on hardwood and bare floors. It comes with a great parquet brush which does a fantastic job on your hardwood. Also the neck of the machine is great, it rotates 180 degrees, giving you a lot of flexibility to get under beds, couches, tables, etc. As most upright models do these days, it has an instant use suction hose as well as a nice light that will illuminate when your brush roller isn't at an optimum height to clean your floors. The brush roller can also be turned off to clean your moor delicate floors. It is fairly lightweight and is also pretty sleek looking and doesn't take up much space. I highly recommend the SEBO Felix models as far as upright vacuums are concerned.

vacmanuk wrote:

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Buy the Riccar vacuum, it is made in America for American homes. 97% of vacuums are made overseas for foreign homes. Our way of living is totally different than say for example european homes. You need a vacuum that will create a mini earthquake infront of the vacuum. Suction only clean or remove loosened dirt, embeded dirt require a v acuum capable of loosining the embeded dirt, only than the suction can tranfer the dirt from point A to Point B. Definitly a canister based on the flooring you have.

Why don't you purchase amtidy robot vacuum cleaner A325? Got this for my mother who has 2 cats and 2 dogs. It is amazing how much animal hair it picks up and general dirt. Her house is very clean too. It fills up the on board dump bin every other day with animal hair and I mean it is completely full....

ShopVac is good and helpful for cleaning birds mess but another option can be iRobot Dirt Dog it is mainly designed for garage workshops so it can can pick up bolts and pieces of wood also. It is also good for hardwood flor. I think it can be perfect machine for you.

Careful, not all Riccar and Simplicity vacuums are made in the US. The mid and low priced machines, mid and low being relative here, are still made in Korea to the best of my knowledge. Their TOL uprights and canisters are made in Missouri alongside Maytag uprights and their commercial CleanMax brand. My understanding is that as Tacony, their parent, brings new models to the market those new models will be manufactured in Missouri, but a lot of Korean built Tacony products are out there so read the label carefully. Kenmore and Panasonic have a very complete selection of canister vacs and you don't have to pay Riccar or Aerus Lux prices to get equal performance and durability. Panasonics in particular are light weight and have a tradition of having durable high powered motors. I have some 1980s vintage Panasonic Jet Flo canisters that led hard lives and in every case their motors are still quiet and strong. You could do a lot worse than to buy a used Electrolux (pre-2004 before the name change to Aerus) or Aerus Lux machine. There are some very nice professionally refurbished Electrolux and Aerus Lux canisters on the market for around the same money you would pay for a new plastic vacuum that will die long before your used Lux ever will. Yes it's used but Lux does a superb job of providing support and parts for their vintage machines. Only Kirby can match them for supporting the old iron. They have great attachments and a wonderful powered floor brush, plus one of the better pet brushes called the Sidekick 2. It is electric powered, not air powered, and digs into dirt and dog hair with gusto. Their floor brushes have no height adjustment, which seems odd at first, but in practice they don't need one. Durable timeless machines that you can buy once and use for as many decades as you want.