This article is written from the perspective of a
consumer who hates vacuuming, dislikes changing vacuum bags, abhors
the usual vacuum cleaner noise, and wishes his or her house would
never get dirty! That being said, how does an allergy sufferer like
myself make a wise choice of vacuum cleaner since now we are all
told that a hepa
vacuum cleaner is the thing to buy?
Nowadays, allergy sufferers can choose from a wide
selection of models and brands. It is my experience that this is
one of the few appliances where paying a bit more, yields dividends
in terms of reliability and performance. Choosing a new vacuum cleaner
can now be a daunting prospect, as all the major vacuum cleaner
manufacturers seemingly offer the same choices and it is only when
you take a closer look do you start to see the fine differences
between so that you can choose a vacuum cleaner that best suits
your needs and tastes.
The first things to consider include:
1. Basic Style – Do
you want a canister
or upright vacuum cleaner?
Do you have mostly carpets? If you a ton of carpets, then a traditional
upright vacuum cleaner might be the best choice for you as uprights
have a beater bar which churn up dirt embedded below the surface
of carpeting. On the other hand, if you have mostly bare floors
and a few scatter rugs, then a canister can move seamlessly from
one to the other and not make wheel marks on your hardwood floors.
2. More Vacuums – Central and
Handheld. I feel compelled to mention both these types of vacuum
cleaners. Handheld
vacuum cleaners to my mind are only good as gifts for Father’s
day or if you live in an apartment and it is the only way to clean
your car. Some people swear by them but for sweeping crumbs up off
the counter a paper towel does well and just one of those Swiffer
mops or equivalent does quite an adequate job on a few extra floor
crumbs. I suppose that vacuuming the stairs in a hurry could be
a use but I just do not like them. They last for about 10 to 15
minutes and then you have to shake the dirt out of a microscopic
container.
Central
Vacuums are wonderful for allergy sufferers and all those who
want to change the bag only twice a year. The hose also extends
a long way, somewhere in the region of 30 plus feet. My cleaning
lady loves our central vacuum cleaner- but I blow hot and cold about
mainly because she has hidden the tools [which tells you something!]
and I can never get used to carrying around yards of hose which
is never hung up in a nice orderly fashion [is your garden hose?]
and even with the improvements to the weight of the hose they are
just inherently awkward. That being said, central vacuum cleaners
are the most allergy friendly vacuums of all, because there are
no local room emissions of particles of any kind, that all takes
place miles away and probably in the basement where the noise is
deafening. They also last for years but need professional installation.
Believe it or not they can be retrofitted to an existing home.
3. Hepa Filters – I used to
sneeze like crazy when I vacuumed, but nowadays a good post motor
hepa filter and if possible an entire sealed unit, [the encasing]
will do the trick. One nice recent enhancement is the washable
hepa filter by Eureka which you will not find anywhere else
- they made sure of that.
4. Weight and Comfort – Some
vacuum cleaners feel like you are moving a huge rock around which
is why I personally favor canisters, but even some canisters are
like great lumps with no real swivel ability and others obey you
without a hitch. Some handles fit into my hand nicely, and my favorites
have all the speed and mode controls right on the handle which has
me actually use the controls as the manufacturer intended rather
than battle my arthritis in bending down all the time to adjust
the controls. Of the uprights the Sebo
Automatic X1 is by far the lightest.
5. Attachments – Are you a
basic floor only type of vacuum cleaner user? If so, then attachments,
their number and quality, will not make any difference to you. On
the other hand, no good self-respecting clean freak should be without
a small army of cleaning attachments. In regards to attachments,
I have found that Miele
vacuums offer the best selection and in the uprights the honor
belongs to Sebo.
Canister vacuums are much easier to use with attachments. As for
upright vacuum cleaners, it is clearly an afterthought since the
tools have to go in the closet instead of the vacuum and the hose
is so short that the vacuum cleaner tips over when you use the attachments.
Once you have decided you are an attachment user then be mindful
that some manufacturers offer nice big soft dusting brushes and
there is a huge difference in the quality of floor attachments.
I personally use my vacuum cleaner on my tile floors in my kitchen
and bathrooms.
6. Noise – Where I come from
in the UK, people do not think a vacuum cleaner is doing its job
unless it makes the noise of small train. One UK manufacturer I
know actually made their vacuum cleaners noisier in order to have
people think they were doing their job. In the USA we like them
quieter and we think noisy means cheap and low quality so for the
US market some manufacturers muffle the noise with insulating materials.
7. Features:
- Performance Motor Power (amps)
– Measures the amount of current used by the motor. Higher
amps doesn’t necessarily mean more cleaning power. Airflow
is a truer test of effectiveness. Interesting facts on air flow:
Bags clog up and should never be used until full.
- Powerhead or Turbo head? My rule
of thumb is that if you have mostly carpets and a few scatter
rugs, you should get a turbo head because they can go seamlessly
from carpet to bare floor. On the other hand, a power-head has
a brush roll and an additional motor which gives it extra power
when it comes to sucking up the ground in dirt in carpets. Turbo
heads are purely air driven.
- Emissions – We have tested
the room emissions right at the exhaust of a hepa vacuum cleaner.
The newest hepa models now say that the room particle count actually
goes down after using their vacuum cleaners so you get some air
cleaning benefit as well.
- Ease of Changing Tools –
You will use tools if they are conveniently stored on board your
vacuum cleaner, and if you can get them on and off easily. I particularly
dislike those tools, which expect me to squeeze and push them
to get them to fit or fall off once I have started vacuuming.
Miele
vacuums win the ease of changing tools prize with Sebo
or EIO
a close second.
- Automatic Height Adjustment –
Need to keep going from bare carpets to rugs? This feature will
make life a lot easier.
- Air Volume Adjustment –
Tired of sucking the curtains off the window or your precious
Persian rug off the floor? This is a really necessary feature
especially if you intend to use your accessories.
- Intuitive Controls – When
I test out vacuum cleaners one of the first things I look for
is whether I can just plug it in and go without looking at the
manual for assembly instructions and whether I can figure out
the on/off switch and how to change the bag without it being a
major production.
- Dirt Alert Light – This
nifty feature is worthy of special mention. It is for all those
people who just run the vacuum cleaner over an area once and foolishly
expect it to be clean. A dirt alert feature will tell you the
ugly truth. The Eureka
6996 vacuum cleaner has this convenient feature.
- Performance – Let’s
face it you want to get up the dirt as fast as possible so you
can put the vacuum back in the closet. One of the most annoying
demonstrations by those door to door sales people is to have you
vacuum your carpet until you think it is clean, and then show
you how theirs then picks up more dirt. Actually that trick will
work with all vacuum cleaners because none of them do a perfect
job. I have literally got on my hands and knees after testing
a vacuum to inspect the microscopic specks of dirt left behind.
And then of course there are those pathetic vacuums that leave
so much dirt behind it is very clear to the naked eye from five
feet away [your head height].
- Air Flow – Usually
measured in cubic feet per minute [CFM] Bigger is better.
- Fully Electrified and Adjustable Wand
– This is a biggie for me and for the vacuum cleaning neophyte
you will never know what the difference is unless I tell you.
An adjustable wand allows you to vary the length of the wand according
to the task at hand and the fully electrified wand allows you
to use the accessories for vacuuming everything else but floors.
If you use tools you will care deeply about these features. Miele
Silver Moon and Sebo
power canister models have both these features.
- Dust bags or Bagless –
type of bag and size of bag. Bagless vacuum cleaners in our opinion
are very allergy unfriendly and the non-allergy sufferer in the
family should handle the dirt disposal. The quality of the bags
does make a difference and the bags offered by Miele
are exceptional and improve the performance of the vacuum
cleaner.
- Construction Quality –
ABS plastic-non shiny finish When I have spent a lot of money
on a vacuum cleaner I like it if the finish is such that it is
scratch resistant and does not have a banged up look within a
month. It is like having a new car with it its first scratches
on it- it always feels like a let down...
- Cord Length and Automatic Rewind
– Putting your foot down on an automatic rewind of twenty
feet of vacuum cleaner cord can be a startling experience! A longer
length cord is handy if you do not want to plug and unplug. Upright
vacuum cleaners do not have automatic rewinds and you have to
remember to neatly wind up the hose after use- some members of
my family always forgot to do that and drove my father mad when
I was growing up.
- Brush Agitator (roller brush)
– The roller with bristles under the machine that spins
when the machine is on. It increases the cleaning effectiveness
on carpets.
- Edge Cleaner – Some
upright vacuum cleaners models have a special edge extension tool
for carpet edge cleaning; Canisters simply use one of the attachments.
- Optional Tools –
Never be so foolish as to think if you have tools which you do
not carry on board you will ever use them but in the case of car
cleaning or computer cleaning Miele
has special tools and is king of the tool options but Sebo
is closing in on them in terms of tool selection.
- Small Niceties –
Place to hang the floor tool, parking, under the bed fold down
flat. The Sebo
upright also can fold down flat for vacuuming under furniture
which is something very few uprights can do, although all canisters
can get at dust bunnies underneath furniture very easily.
- Durability and Warranty
– If there is one thing I hear often it is how people hate
it when their vacuum cleaner breaks down every couple of years
or so and they have to replace it. Your choices are simple; pay
less and replace the vacuum cleaner more often and be frustrated
when it does not pick up the dirt very well or pay through the
nose and keep the vacuum cleaner around for years until you wish
it would break down so you could have an excuse to buy a new one.
Those people who are into durability should opt for Miele,
Sebo
or EIO
canister vacuums or Sebo
upright vacuum cleaners. These vacuum cleaners will last forever,
often 10 to 20 years.
First Published: Thanksgiving 2003
Updated: May 2007
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