Where to get a good home Vacuum?

[Sam Conder]

This thread should be in Around The Coffee Pot or possibly Home Improvement (since whole house DIY installation was discussed).

I agree and it has been moved from Bargain Alerts to the Home Improvement & Maintenance forum.

[cgallery]

Call me old-fashioned but I still like the Hoover bag-type vacs. The cyclone units require emptying too often, have problems going horizontal (for under beds), are messy to empty, and are too spendy (all the extra money pays for plenty of bags).

[cabinetman]

When I was growing up our family had a Kirby. I helped pay my way through college by selling them door to door. Yeah I was one of those fast talking guys that offered free gifts and rug shampoos to show the machine. Truth is, it's a fantastic machine. We have two, both of which are about 30 years old, and still gets the carpet cleaned. It has an attachment for hard floors that doesn't scratch.

As an upright, it does the job. For making it into a cannister, it works as good as any. You can only move so much air through a hose, Being pricey is one of the drawbacks, but the basic design is why it works so well. They can be purchased used at a Kirby distributorship for a lot less than new.

Tell them I sent ya, so I can get my commission.

[footprintsinconc]

we have been meaning to buy a good one aswell. i had the oreck in mind. has anyone tried it or have comments that they had from friends or family who owned one at some time or .....

[jking]

Call me old-fashioned but I still like the Hoover bag-type vacs. The cyclone units require emptying too often, have problems going horizontal (for under beds), are messy to empty, and are too spendy (all the extra money pays for plenty of bags).

I agree the bagless have some space/manueverability limits the bag vacuum may not have. Even though many of the bagless hold less than bag-type counterparts, the fact that you can see the dirt is a good reminder to dump the canister when you're finished cleaning. I would argue a majority of people who own bag vacuums do not empty their bags often enough. If you remember to do as needed, it's not an issue, though.

Some of the bagless are more expensive compared to bag vacuums, but, I disagree that the extra money will pay for the bags. One of the ways we were able to justify the additional $ of our bagless was amortizing the cost of bags over the life of the vacuum. Decent bags are relatively expensive; we figured 2-3 three years of not buying bags would cover the extra cost. Anything beyond that is money in our pocket.

When I was growing up our family had a Kirby. I helped pay my way through college by selling them door to door. Yeah I was one of those fast talking guys that offered free gifts and rug shampoos to show the machine. Truth is, it's a fantastic machine. We have two, both of which are about 30 years old, and still gets the carpet cleaned. It has an attachment for hard floors that doesn't scratch.

As an upright, it does the job. For making it into a cannister, it works as good as any. You can only move so much air through a hose, Being pricey is one of the drawbacks, but the basic design is why it works so well. They can be purchased used at a Kirby distributorship for a lot less than new.

Tell them I sent ya, so I can get my commission.

All my mom has ever owned are used Kirby vacuums. They perform well, but, get knocked on CR reviews because of the high cost. The current model my mom has is even self propelled. I've used it, it certainly makes vacuuming a breeze. Of course, if you have two levels to vacuum the thing still weighs a ton.

[mschrank]

I don't have a specific recommendation, but I'll add another vote to stay away from bagless...huge mess to empty.

I have a midrange Hoover upright...it's junk.

Recently converted to mostly hardwood floors, so only have the bedrooms to vacuum. Also got rid of our chocolate lab, so no more dog hair.

[scmhogg]

We had a central Vac unit installed after the framing stage of our house. It works well, but I still use Roomba in the main living areas.

We bought a Dyson Purple for my SIL. She has three pugs that shed constantly, and she loves it.

Steve

[iceman61]

This one seems fishy.
Brew

Wasn't anything fishy about it. Just read the report and make up your own mind.

[prlundberg]

I also don't care for bagless, what a mess. I'll never go back. I'll pay twenty bucks or so a year for the convenience.

We recently bought a Lindhaus Diamante at a small vacuum shop. Lightweight, powerful, and small enough to get under beds and coffee tables, it works really well. Also has two motors, a dry cleaning mode with no suction, and stops the brush when something gets tangled in there, like a shoe lace.

Wife was not too impressed with the highly-rated Kenmore or Dyson. Both are heavy, and I don't understand the HEPA bags on the Kenmore. If you have HEPA bags, why do you need another HEPA exaust filter? Or vice-versa? With what bags and filters cost for it, seems like a scam.

We got our Lindhaus for $300, which is about half of what it normally sells for.

[eezlock]

where to get a good home vacuum?

If you want a good one, get a Rainbow....they are pricey, but well built and will last for years. Also, if they give any trouble they are the type that is worth the cost of having them repaired down the road. Got one for my wife
a few years back...she still loves it! eezlock

[prlundberg]

If you want a good one, get a Rainbow....they are pricey, but well built and will last for years. Also, if they give any trouble they are the type that is worth the cost of having them repaired down the road.

I agree. A premium vacuum will probably cost you less in the long run.

I'd also recommend checking out a small local vacuum shop. It's nice talking to people who know what they are selling and understand your needs. I found out about things like the importance of proper brush height and the differences between 3M Filtrate and HEPA filters.

For what it's worth, Riccar has the only vacuums that are still made in the USA. I think they are the only ones anyway. For me, that's always a factor to consider.

[gsmittle]

+1 on the Roomba. We have a Scheduler, a Discovery, and a Scooba, all bought from Woot.com. I'm trying to talk LOML into a Looj. And a Dirt Dog for the shop. Can you tell I like electronic toys?

Instead of a separate whole house vac, couldn't you add some pipe and a couple of blast gates to your shop DC???

g.

[Tom Slick]

I believe oreck vacuums are made in the USA. They are a pretty good vacuum but are way overpriced for what you get. they are much more simple than a cheapo dirt devil yet cost $300-400. they also require occasional maintenance that they don't tell you about when they sell it to you.

For those of you with a purple dyson, you need to change the hidden hepa filter once in awhile. if you suck up any moisture it will ruin the filter. my mom just figured this out the hard way.

[Tom Slick]

Instead of a separate whole house vac, couldn't you add some pipe and a couple of blast gates to your shop DC???

g.

a DC has alot of volume but not much "negative pressure". vacuum cleaners are the opposite, lots of "negative pressure" not much volume.

[cgallery]

If you want a good one, get a Rainbow....they are pricey, but well built and will last for years. Also, if they give any trouble they are the type that is worth the cost of having them repaired down the road. Got one for my wife
a few years back...she still loves it! eezlock

Aren't the Rainbows normally sold as a sort of pyramid scheme? I know a guy that paid $1000 for one of these, with the pitch that if he finds twenty people to watch the demo, he gets his money back.