If you have wood floors, and carpets, and lots of stairs...

[kijip]

what vacuum do you like? We have an awesome upright. But it has no attachments or brushes or anything really to get up the stairs. Also, maybe something that can be used on wood floors too would be best since we will have both. Any ideas? What do you have and love?

Would you get a canister or an upright with on-board attachments for this situation?

[caleymama]

I have been thrilled with our Dyson Animal - the purple one. I bought a refurbished model through Amazon (Factory-Reconditioned Dyson DC14 Animal Upright Vacuum, to be exact). Ours came looking brand new. We've had it for over a year now and it has seen us through 3 different living spaces while we moved. Our old house was all hard wood with some area rugs and old, narrow steps. Worked great there. Next was a rental duplex that was all carpet and again, I especially LOVED the Dyson there with all the carpeting. Our new house is a mix of hardwood, tile, with carpeting in the bedrooms with steps going upstairs. Love the Dyson here. My parents always had canister vacs and I had a Hoover upright prior to getting the Dyson. I feel like the Dyson is the best of both worlds and in addition to that it just works so well. I like the different attachments and find them easy to use and I love that the wand/hose extend 17 feet. No more trying to lug the vacuum up and down the stairs and balance it while I vacuum - It can just stay at the bottom.

Honestly, I used to only vacuum when I really *needed* to - I will not reveal how infrequently that was lest you think I'm a horrible housekeeper. Since the Dyson, though, I find that I love to vacuum and get it out every couple of days and even more if it's needed.

I just checked and the same one is at amazon now for $399 with free shipping. Haven't shopped around recently for one but I think that's about what I paid last spring.

[kijip]

We have a Fry's (or is it Best Buy, I can never keep those stores straight) certificate we could use to offset the cost of a Dyson. My question is since we don't have animals, is there a better model for us? (I love animals the way many love children- so long as it is not mine. The shedding hair would make me lose my mind :P)

Also, anyone have thoughts on Miele or another brand besides Dyson? What we have right now is a Sanitaire upright with no attachments. I love that thing, but it is impractical now so my mother gets the Sanitaire and I get a different vacuum.

[BillK]

the only difference between the various colors of each model (dc07, dc14, dc17 etc) are the supplied accessories. So a purple dc14 "animal" is the exact same as a yellow dc14 "normal" or a white dc14 "costco" - only the extras you get with it are different.

edit: I should mention that Dyson recently introduced their own canister vac - the DC21 - which gets great reviews. We're getting hardwood floors in our first floor soon - so once I see how our DC14 (which we love) works on them - I may end up buying the DC21 canister too. I've heard that normal upright vacs tend to blow all the filth around in front of the head on hardwood and a canister does better since the exhaust is way back at the canister. We'll see.

[ellies mom]

I love my canister vac for hardwoods/carpets. I have cats and the exhaust from the upright would just blow the cat hair along in front of the vacuum. With the canister I don't have that problem. It it also very convenient on stairs because the one I have (some Kenmore) holds itself up on the stairs so I don't have to fuss with it. I should say that I usually did use the hard floor attachment rather than setting the regular power part to hard floor. It seemed to do a better job.

[kijip]

Ahh, the joys of marketing. Thanks for filling me into the secret. :P

[DebbieJ]

We have a Kenmore canister that works great for carpets and hardwoods. I use the floor attachement when doing the hardwoods.

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
Breastfeeding After Reduction is possible! www.bfar.org

http://www.bfar.org/members/fora/style_avatars/Ribbons/18months-bfar.jpg

[zuzu]

My mom has a Miele canister and thinks it's great. She has wool carpet, wood, slate, tile, and misc. throw rugs. I've only used it a few times, but agree it's very nice. It's lightweight, but powerful and also manouverable enough to get into every spot.

I'll try to get the model number from her.

[brittone2]

I really want a Miele as our next vac. Someone here or another board I read mentioned that the ones w/ a true HEPA filter are supposed to have the filter replaced very frequently. I think she said the filter is $50 and I swear she said every 3 bags you are supposed to replace the filter (???)

I haven't dug into that fact and I'm not sure if it is true. Obviously not something you'd want to be surprised w/ if it is true. I still want one though.

[kristenk]

I have a Miele with a HEPA filter. The HEPA filter needs to be replaced after about 50 hours of use or approx. every 12 months.

If you use the regular filter, I believe you replace that much more often. A regular filter comes with each box of vacuum bags, so you replace the filter when you open up a new box of 3 (or maybe it's 5) bags.

[kristenk]

I have a Miele and absolutely love it. I don't have much stair experience with the Miele (there were stairs in the apt. DH and I moved to after we were married, but we were only there for 9 months or so). Our house has carpet, laminate flooring and tile. The Miele works well on all of them. It's incredibly quiet and does an excellent job sucking up the tons of cat hair that roam my house.

When I use the Miele on tile or laminate, I just turn off the powerbrush so that it doesn't rotate and it works well on hard surfaces. I rarely sweep now b/c it's so much easier to just run the vacuum in the kitchen and it usually does a better job than I do with a broom.

Our model is a Solaris Electro Plus. We've had it about 6 years. It's a pretty quiet vacuum.

[emilyf]

I also have a kenmore canister, and really like it-it's great on stairs, we have lots.
Emily mom of Charlie born 11/02 and Zoe born 9/05

[kijip]

Thanks for all the leads. I am going to go try a few different ones out (Kenmore, Dyson, Miele). I am leaning canister at this moment but we shall see. :)

****Rocking out while parenting my smart little munchkin Toby. Just trying to do good in the world, a little at a time. Words to live by: it is *never* the wrong time to do the right thing :)

[new_mommy25]

We have the Dyson Animal and love it, but we are all carpet here except for the kitchen.

When I was growing up we had all tile and we always had a canister vac. I think they are supposed to best for hard floors.

[brittone2]

whew!!! That makes me feel way better LOL. I had only bumped into that info online without a more thorough explanation. Thanks for clarifying!!

Back to lusting after a Miele ;)