upright or canister?
 

following up on the "best vacuum under $500" thread, how do you vote on the upright v. canister side of things? And how about bags v. bag-free? I like the idea of bag-free, but prefer canisters.

I'm leaning towards this:

http://www.vacandsew.com/miele/miele_carina_s4210.html

I have hardwood floors, 2 cats, and need to vacuum almost every other day. I need a vacuum that actually works, and doesn't spray the frickin' litter all over the place (POS dirt devil).

I don't have one myself, but I have heard nothing but praise for the Miele vacs...I'd prefer a canister.

"They" say upright for carpets, canister for wood/tile.

We just bought an upright Kenmore:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&fromAu to=YES&bidsite=null&pid=02036922000

Very happy with it so far. It moves from floors to carpeting without issue. (You can turn the brush off with the push of a button.) Also very good suction, and the filter is washable.

Cannister.
Miele.

Pretty hard to do the base molding, furniture, car, etc. with an upright.

Animal issues?

Shop vac works best for me on my tile flors.

Scott

Uprights suck. Or blow. Whatever. I don't like them.

Two cats? Funny, same here. We now have a Sears Cannister Vac, seems to work well. Previously, we'd had more expensive brands...but when one blew up and "company coming" panic set in, we bought the Sears. Nostatic? Do your cats FREAK when the vacuum comes out of the closet? Ours do...scares 'em to death, for some reason.

i am sucking my floors everyday. one cat, two dogs. i have a eureka upright, bagless that does a great job. i want to hack up a lung everytime i dump the container tho. the nastiness is mindboggling. oh, i have hardwood, with area rugs. you know you have too many animals when you have an upright vacumn being used on the spare bed!

we're super happy with our Dyson canister. It looks like a jet pack, it's tiny, and it really sucks. The HEPA filter and the easy emptying are its two best features though.

/ Johan

vacuums are for women :p

I see no Dyson canisters on their website?

I believe they've been discontinued in the US, but I believe you can still find them through some on-line retailers. We got our through some guy on Amazon a few months ago. The model number is DC-11.

Here's a link:

http://www.dyson.co.uk/range/range_overview.asp?model=DC11&sinavtype=menu

/ J

I live in DUST HEAVEN....LV...the stuff is grey and finer than flour. If you don't dust every 2 days you can write in the dust on yur furniture....It is unbelieveable how much cr@p the Dyson will pick up...I usually have to empty it 3 times for a 3700 sq ft place..

Amateur! I get to watch a haboub blast through our area on a frequent basis.

I want to go to an actual store and see the Mieles and maybe Bosch and Dyson. I was intrigued by the Dyson canister too, but it appears to be either discontinued or gray market at this point.

Go with both. We have a regular upright for the carpets and a cordless vac for the hardwood floors with a drawer for emptying. The bad thing is for dust the cordless vac doesn't pick it up with making a mess. This is where the upright comes in handy. The upright also has portable attachments for cleaning corners and whatever else that the cordless vac cannot pick up.

Don't you guys watch infomercials? It's got to be an Oreck!

Get a free air cleaner too!:p

I just got one of these:

http://www.gadgetmadness.com/archives/roomba_off.jpg

It's pretty nifty. I DO have an old upright that sucks just fine, but I'm lazy. The Roomba does a pretty good job. It's not quite as powerful as the upright, but it does get up a lot of hair and dust and such.

The best thing about it is, you start it and let it go, and then go do something else.

Look at a Nilfisk, primarily commercial but available for homes. We have had one for 7-8 years. Before that we burnt up a vacuum about every 2 years, including the commercial panasonics. Large home- 5000+sq feet, several birds, dogs, cats, kids, sand, hardwood, carpet, etc- vacuum hell. This thing will suck up anything- it is designed much like a small shop vac, with a hepa filter. Suck up fireplace ashes, no problem, no smell. Suck up a bunch of bolts in the garage, again no problem. It doesn't do well with water as it does use a bag. They are canister models with powered beater heads- best of both worlds. Cost more than most others, but worth every penny- kind of like our cars:)
Gary