Where to get a good home Vacuum?

[GrantV]

I would like to ask the group here if anyone has ideas on where to search for and get the best deal on a good home vacuum.

I'm thinking a Bosch HEPA canister vacuum but they are kind of pricey. I've check Amazon but the vacuums don't seem to go on sale like tools do.

But heck home vacuums are a tool of sorts. Also if anyone has a subscription to consuumer reports and has access to the canister vacuum report....

Are there other forums for items like this?

[TB Roye]

WE have a Dyson purple Vacuum. The purple one is for people with animals. It is a little pricey, bought ours at Best Buy. It the best vacuum we have had only one problem and it was fixed under warranty. It does an excellent job of picking up all the dog and cat hair. The other colors are for different needs. It does what it is advertised to do on TV.

Tom

[maxparot]

I got a real nice Eureka from overstock.com a few years ago. I did the research on the vacuum and then Overstock had the model I wanted as a factory refurb at I price that was great.

[JSUPreston]

One question I've always wanted to aske: If a vacuum really sucks, is that a good thing?

[iceman61]

According to the Consumer Report Magazine (last month issue) Hoover Wind Tunnel 2 (bagless) beat them all in 8 catagories. I think they tested 20-25 different vacuums. I think the average price for one is about $250. They have 3-4 different versions of the Wind Tunnel 2. I don't personally own one personally, I'm still pushing around my Phantom until it quits. My father bought one after I told him about the review & he says it's the best vacuum he's ever seen. He also saved $200 because he had been eyeballing the Dyson at $450 for some time now. I would have bought the Dyson myself until I saw where it ranked on that report.

[Al Garay]

Spend a bit more and get a built in vacuum like the HP Vacuflo, http://www.vacuflo.com/

There are so many advantages over a regular portable, greater cleaning power, optional dust pan adapter you can put in the kitchen, no worries about exhaust inside the house and no filters to change ever. And it's not much more expensive than a nice Kirby, Miele vacuum.

We've done both our last two houses for about $1,200 entire house, 4-bdrm plus garage. It is not a DIY project but shop around for a good quote.

[tsbrewers]

According to the Consumer Report Magazine (last month issue) Hoover Wind Tunnel 2 (bagless) beat them all in 8 catagories. I think they tested 20-25 different vacuums. I think the average price for one is about $250. They have 3-4 different versions of the Wind Tunnel 2. I don't personally own one personally, I'm still pushing around my Phantom until it quits. My father bought one after I told him about the review & he says it's the best vacuum he's ever seen. He also saved $200 because he had been eyeballing the Dyson at $450 for some time now. I would have bought the Dyson myself until I saw where it ranked on that report.

This one seems fishy.


I too have the purple dyson and love it. Have you noticed every conversation about vacs ends up comparing to dyson? IMHO just buy the dyson and you won't need to compare.

Brew

[wouldchuck]

I got this Bissell upright recently from Circuit City, and have been very impressed with performance and quality of construction for a machine under $100:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Bisse...oductDetail.do

[Pathpounder]

We had the Dyson Animal for about a year and killed it. We have two long hair dogs that shed constantly. Wife and I used it about every other day and I guess we just wore it out. I took it apart several times and totally cleaned everything accessible. Just replaced it with a Sears unit. Can't remember the name but it has high marks on Consumer Reports. We have had it about 4 months and are very happy with it. I'm not knocking Dyson but what I paid for it I thought it would outlast me.

[rcp612]

Dyson (IMHO)

This one seems fishy.


I too have the purple dyson and love it. Have you noticed every conversation about vacs ends up comparing to dyson? IMHO just buy the dyson and you won't need to compare.

Brew

We bought the Dyson as soon as they came out. LOML says "it's the best". Need I say more?

[theminor]

Get a Roomba - I recently upgraded to a model in their new 500 series line and I have to say it really works! I just press a button and the little robot cleans my house and when finished it goes back to its charging base.

http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122

As a side note, they just released a "gutter cleaning robot" called the Looj. Looks interesting.

http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=354

[JimD]

I have a whole house too and we really like it. I had the builder put the tubing into the walls on the top two floors and did the basement myself. I put the motor/vacumn in later. The tubing is just 2 inch thin wall PVC. No more difficult to do than waste plumbing for a house and requires the same tools. The wiring can either be all low voltage or a combination depending on your setup. Ours is low voltage with the 120V for the beater bar coming from a nearby wall outlet. Some setups have 120V at the wall outlet for the hose but that would require doing some 120V wiring (not a big deal to me but not as low risk as the low voltage). The low voltage wires turn the central vacumn on when you plug in the hose.

You are going to spend $700 or so even if you do it yourself, however. The long hose you need isn't cheap and neither is the central vacumn. You get a more powerful system and a hose to carry around instead of a motor/vacumn. If you have basement or attic access to run the PVC piping around, doing it yourself is an option. If you have to cut into walls to do it, you need to be good at patching wallboard. The low voltage wires are normally taped to the PVC tubing so no significant additional effort for that.

Jim

[jking]

This one seems fishy.


I too have the purple dyson and love it. Have you noticed every conversation about vacs ends up comparing to dyson? IMHO just buy the dyson and you won't need to compare.

Brew

Dyson is a good vacuum. It doesn't perform as well as some others in certain categories. Do some research on Dyson's & you will find that one of the selling points is also a weakness in some instances. The Dyson's are designed with an automatic height adjustment feature; most vacuums have some kind of manual adjustment for carpet height. Since it adjusts automatically, the beater brush doesn't get down as deep into the carpet as ones with a manual adjustment. Also some people don't like the shape of the brush head. The profile makes it tough to get very far underneath things like beds. There have also been some questions about durability & ease of repairs as it is a relatively new vacuum to the US market.

We own a Dyson & like it. The main reason we went with the Dyson was the way the dust bin worked (very easy to open & dump) & we had a gift return which made the out of pocket for us much less than retail. All things considered the Dyson is a good vacuum, but, Hoover & Kenmore offer better performance dollar for dollar. Keep in mind Dyson has done an excellent job marketing their product. Just don't buy into the "8-root cyclone technology" hype. The main dust bin makes sense, but, the "cyclones" in the upper part of the vacuum seem to the set up backwards.

One thing to consider when buying a new vacuum is whether anyone in your house has severe dust allergies. If so, it is generally recommended to stick to bag vacuums since it is actually a cleaner process to remove most bags than to empty the dust bin. This advice is also generally based on the idea that most people empty their vacuums in the house & you will send less dust back into the air with a bag than a bagless. I always take our dust bin outside & empty directly into the trash bin, so, the dust issue becomes less of an issue.

The bottom line is there a lot of really good vacuums out there for as little as $200. Do some research online & then decide what makes the most sense for you.

[jziegler]

There's a vacuum sales and repair place that goes to the local farmers market near me every week. They sell all sorts of stuff, including some Kirby and Oreck I beleive. They pointed be towards a commercial model upright Eureka (I think). It's the same kind that you see in office building and hotels. Not as high priced as something like an Oreck and it cleans well. It's much heavier, but I'm young and don't care. If you have a store near you that sells commercial models, check them out.

Also, if you have anywhere that sells used, you could look at high end used (the place I bought from does that too).

Jim

[Jeffrey Schronce]

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