A vacuum cleaner has become one of the more indispensable appliances in our busy lives. In just a few minutes, vacuuming can make a house look instantly tidy and clean. Manufacturers are constantly coming out with new models to tempt us to try a new and supposedly better product, but the criteria for choosing the right machine for your needs has not really changed. Using the following guide will help you decide which type of vacuum cleaner really suits your needs and lifestyle.
There are two types of vacuum cleaners available for household use: The canister and the upright. Which one you choose depends upon the type of floor covering that dominates in your home. Canisters do best on bare floors, uprights excel at cleaning carpeting, particularly wall-to-wall. Keep this in mind when you peruse the various models.
You will also need to decide between the two main methods of disposing of vacuumed-up waste, those being a disposable bag or a cup or bag that needs to be manually emptied. The cheaper cleaners usually have the latter disposal system, while the better-quality machines have bags made either of paper or cloth that you can remove and dispose of without muss or fuss. I highly recommend spending a bit more money to acquire a vacuum with disposable bags, even though it is a recurring cost. It is definitely worth it!
If you have mixed flooring
(some bare floor, some carpeting) think about which style machine will make the vacuuming job easiest. For example, if you have area rugs of primarily low nap or looped yarn (like berber), you will probably be better off with a canister vacuum of good quality. This is true particularly if you have a lot of heavy furniture that will be impossible to vacuum underneath with a bulky upright cleaner.
With vacuum cleaners, size matters. You may purchase a large, bulky upright that has a tiny cup that needs emptying after each room, which is very inefficient. Uprights with disposable bags usually take weeks to fill to the point where they need changing, so keep that in mind. Small canister vacuums are cute and easy to store, but do not have the cleaning power of larger machines. They also have smaller bags, which you will be changing very often. Since small bags seem to cost just as much as the large ones, the cost will add up quickly.
Once you decide which style and brand vacuum you want, buy the most powerful machine that has the least number of extras. For example, within the Kenmore and Miele brands, prices vary not so much because of the cleaning power of the machines within each class, but because of all the extras. Think carefully about which attachments and extensions you really need before you make your final decision. Don't spend extra money on so-called "beater bar" vacuum head attachments for canister vacuum cleaners. In my experience, they don't work any better on carpeting than the standard head(s) that come with the basic machine.
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