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How To Choose The Right Vacuum Cleaner

The era of the one-vacuum-cleaner household is fast becoming a thing of the past. The reason? Over the years, the vacuum cleaner has been refined and improved, giving rise to a new generation of specialized vacuums.

However, purchasing multiple vacuums doesn’t simplify the shopping process. If you have several machines that aren’t tailored to your home and habits, you will not get housework done as efficiently as you would with one cleaner that really suits your needs. So before you make any purchases, answer a few questions that will help you choose the right model (or combination of models).

How to Shop

What size is your home? There’s no need for a huge model if your closet won’t accommodate it or if you have a lot of bare floors. On the other hand, even a small home with thick carpeting won’t be easy to tackle with a mini-machine.

What types of flooring do you have? If you have a sea of wall-to-wall carpeting, a powerful upright will probably be most effective. Lots of tile and wood will be maintained well with a suction-type canister or even a mini-broom vac. An even mixture of surfaces might be best cleaned with a powerhead canister or possibly an upright and handheld combination.

What type of vacuum cleaner are you most comfortable using? Logic may lead you to a certain type of cleaner, but if you’re most at ease operating an upright and your home is crying out for a canister, it may be best to go with what you know. For some, vacuuming is unpleasant enough–there is no need to choose a machine style that goes against your grain.

The best shopping tip of all is to be educated about the advantages and disadvantages of the various categories of cleaners. Before you get started, keep in mind the following basic facts about vacs:

Look for features that suit your needs, such as a HEPA (high efficiency particular air) system if you have allergies; good tools if you have a lot of furniture, molding, and drapes to clean; longer cords and hoses if you have a large space; and lighter-weight machines if you need to transport the unit between floors. Try out a vac and make sure the attachments are easy to use, the dirtbag is easy to empty, and the unit is easy to maneuver.

More and more vacs include a HEPA system, which refers to a sealed filtration system that retains almost all (estimates range from 99.97 to 99.99 percent) of the dirt, dust, pollens, and mites in the air. It supposedly filters better than any other system and it is used in hospitals. Don’t be fooled by such special features. Even though a vacuum may have a HEPA suction system, that doesn’t mean it is a perfect performer. For example, a vacuum’s ability to pick up all the dust, dirt, and pollen possible depends just as much on the design of the whole vacuum as on its filter system. The same applies for recently-introduced dirt sensors. They only let you know when the vacuum has stopped picking up dirt, not necessarily whether there is still dirt left in the rug, because it doesn’t actually detect the dirt in the rug.

Don’t be misled by the amount of amps. More amps do not necessarily mean more power. Amps refer to the amount of current the unit draws when its power is on; it doesn’t have anything to do with cleaning power.

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