Vacuum Cleaners Buying Guide
February 3, 2008
Vacuum cleaners have found their way into millions of homes. They are the best tools used to clean the house and offices of stubborn dust. They make daily chores a lot easier, making a lot of people more productive because their work can be accelerated.
Vacuum cleaners vary in sizes and strength. There are small vacuum cleaners used for cleaning tiny parts of the computer, medium sized vacuum cleaners for cleaning cars, big to heavy duty vacuum cleaners to clean the house and industrial strength vacuum cleaners to clean factories.
So when deciding to buy your own vacuum cleaner, you need to consider how much you want to spend and how heavy the chore will be.
You can even opt to purchase a bundled cleaning tool that has a vacuum cleaner, floor polisher and blower.
Upright Vacuum Cleaner
This kind of vacuum cleaner can be perfect for large areas with carpet. They are more efficient for cleaning hidden surfaces such as under rags and carpets because they are heavy and have strong sucking power. They can be less effective for vacuuming wooden floors.
Upright Vacuum Cleaners generally come with powerful brushes designed to remove stubborn dirt and dust from carpets before being sucked in.
However, because they are large and heavy, it can be a problem moving an upright vacuum cleaner around the house, especially on different floors in a multi-storey home. It can also be quite difficult to maneuver around furniture.
Another problem is that it can be difficult to clean curtains and lampshades although some models have additional accessories to overcome this issue.
Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner
A cylinder vacuum cleaner is composed of a hose with a cleaning head attached to its main body. This can be ideal when the area you want to clean has mixed floors and carpets. This is also efficient for cleaning hard to reach places.
Bagged Vacuum Cleaner
A bagged vacuum cleaner unit may be cheaper than the bag less, but changing the bags may cost much more in the long run. Also, as the bag fills up, the vacuum cleaner’s power slows down
If you have asthma or allergies, you will want to buy this because dust and dirt are sealed and will not affect you in any way. There are special bags that have extra layers just for allergy protection.
Bag less Vacuum Cleaner
As this kind of vacuum cleaner has no bag, suction power is stronger. In place of a bag, there is a plastic bin so you will never have to run out of bags plus you are more environment friendly. You can also opt to have a washable filter which means you only need to buy once.
The downside to the bag less vacuum cleaner is that when you try to unload the bin of its dust and dirt contents, you might get allergies or have an asthma attack. So make sure you know you health limitations before you decide to buy a bag less vacuum cleaner.
Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner
You choose this kind if, aside from merely vacuuming, you also want to clean up wet spills or do special shampooing on your carpets.
Wet and Dry vacuum cleaners come with several tools suited for the different purposes and can be cumbersome to change.
Steam Vacuum Cleaner
This is a very effective vacuum cleaner because steam is used to loosen very sticky dirt. Also, since no chemical is used, there can be no problem with the asthmatic or those with allergies. However, this is a more expensive type of vacuum cleaner.
Extra safety should be observed when using steam vacuum cleaners such as an internal temperature monitoring with a reliable thermostat.
Handheld Vacuum Cleaner
These are small and light-weight vacuum cleaners ideal for storing inside your car or for cleaning personal computers and laptops. Since this is ideal for mobile people, most handheld vacuum cleaners are battery operated.
Robotic Vacuum Cleaners
These are vacuum cleaners that only the elite few own. They are programmed to sense dirt, scrub the floor and navigate around the house without human intervention. Of course humans are needed if they need repairs.
Powe
This refers to motor power which is measured in watts. As in all electronic appliances, higher power means better performance in general. This is not always true with vacuum cleaners, whose other indicator is the suction power. Motor power here generally ranges from 800 to 2000 watts.
Suction Power
A more accurate way to determine cleaning power is suction power measured in air watts due to the combination of airflow efficiency and motor power.
Variable Power
Some vacuum cleaners are intelligent enough to auto-sense cleaning need and automatically adjust power when needed on heavily dirtied places like soiled carpets.
While most vacuum cleaners manually set the variable power feature, this feature is very good when you want to save power and money on bills.
Bag Full Indicator
You will be alerted to change the bag or unload the bin contents so that the vacuum cleaner can function to its full power.
Cleaning Radius
This is the distance between the vacuum cleaner’s head and the tip of the plug. If you have a problem with this, it can be easily overcome by buying an extension wire.
Cord Auto Rewind
Rewinding a vacuum cleaning cord can take time, but with auto rewind, the cord can be in place with one push of a button.
Dust Bags or Dust Bin Capacity
This depends on the overall size of your vacuum cleaner. Common sizes can be between four and nine liters.
Cleaning Hose
A longer cleaning hose means farther reach for difficult places, but this can be difficult for storage. Make sure you get stretch and durable hoses.
Direct Drive
Vacuum cleaners having this feature have separate motors for suction and another one for beater bar. Cleaning becomes more effective.
Noise Levels
You need to consider the lowest noise levels for vacuum cleaners if you have a baby or sick person in the house. A decibel level of 71-73dB can be considered quiet.
