Tell me about your vacuum cleaner!

[Laurel]

Who has one that they love? I'm looking to replace my crummy old one. I have a very small home with both carpeting and wood floors.

I'd prefer not to spend dyson-type $$, but would be open to it for the right vacuum.

TIA!

[pb&j]

We bought a Kenmore bagless from Sears. Truth be told, I was happier with the bag. I hate emptying the cannister, I'd rather just detach the bag and pitch the mess without having to touch/inhale it. But other than that, it's a great vaccuum, and it was not very expensive at all.


-Ry,
mom to Max the one year old
and my girl in heaven

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/37124.gif

[Lovingliv]

We are going to bite the bullet and buy a dyson.....
we used my sisters and DH is in love with it. Since I have *never* vaccumed, I guess he gets to pick this one.

[BillK]

We have the "Costco only" Dyson DC14 and love it - I do the majority of the vacuuming now. It's worth the extra money imho. :)

[megs4413]

we have this one from target:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_7/602-8556577-0808605?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FFWGN4

i really like a couple of the features in particular: 1) the filtration system--the filters aren't very expensive and can be ordered with cheap shipping from bissell directly. we ordered extras up front so we won't just lose suction and have no filters to fix the problem with. i don't sneeze at all vacuuming with this one, but used to with our old one. 2) the canister comes off of the base completely so you can carry it around with you up or down stairs or out to your car! it makes vacuuming the car a lot easier. 3) it has settings and you can turn the brush off so doing bare floors isn't a problem witht he same vacuum.

got it in july and still love it! the pet brush would be a plus...but we dont' have pets....the price isn't bad either.

hope you find the perfect one!

[nfowife]

We have the original yellow dyson (DC07) and we got a refurbished one, so it was around $200 I think? We've had it for about 1.5 years now and it's great. But, we have 2 very shedding dogs and I vacuum a minimum of 4 times a week so I knew I needed a heavy-duty vacuum! If I were buying today I would get a newer dyson, they all work the same but the attachments are more user friendly on the new ones (I'm used to mine now, it's no big deal, but at first it was kind of annoying that you have to do a whole song and dance to use the hose with attachments).

[SnuggleBuggles]

We have a Kennmore that works well. I love it because it has no belt. I have had such awful luck with belts in the past so I set out to avoid them this time around. It's nice not to have to worry about buying extra crap all the time for the vacuum too. The bag lasts a while and the filters, well, I hardly ever remember to change those.

For our hardwoods and area rugs I usually use a cordless Shark. I love that! I use it on all carpets and such whenever I want to do a quick cleanup. No extras to buy for it either.

Beth

[supercalifragilous]

We got the limited-edition Miele Aluminium (yes, that's the way it's spelled - weird). I'm really happy with it but it broke right at the point of insertion of the wand into the powerhead. The warranty replaced it for free but if it happens again, I'm screwed - it's a really expensive repair.

When we test-vac'd the Aluminium, we also tested the Kenmore canister. It worked just as well and it was half the price, especially b/c Sears puts them on sale so often. Kenmore was actually trying to copy the Panasonic canister vac but ended up with a product really close to my Miele.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd just buy the Kenmore canister vac. It got really great reviews on Consumer Reports and for that price, I'd buy two - one for upstairs and one for downstairs!

FWIW, we have allergies and I would never buy an upright or bagless again (went through 4 vacs in 4 years before our Miele). I really pay attention to the filtering system and have more faith in canister vacs.

I did check out Dyson - that's what actually led us to Miele (the store had both) but based on James Dyson's history, I didn't want to buy a Dyson vac until Dyson was more widely used/established. It gets great reviews here, though!

[bubbaray]

We have a Kenmore canister vacuum that was the top-rated one on CR 2 years ago. We HATE it.

I would love to get a Dyson, but the majority of our main floor is "real" hardwood, so I can't imagine how an upright would scratch it....

Friends of ours have the Miele and swear by it, but honestly, their floors/carpets don't look any cleaner than ours done with the Kenmore.

ITA about bags and filters being important for people with allergies. Besides, emptying out bagless vacuums makes me gag!


Melissa

DD#1: 04/2004

DD#2: c/s 01/2007