Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Looking For a New Vacuum Cleaner, Any Suggestions

Back in the early 1990's, hubby purchased a Silver King vacuum cleaner and I was shocked at the price. Who knew they had vacuum cleaners that could be financed? After using it a few times, I was absolutely inlove with it! It didn't require a bag (that is always a plus), had an excellent filtration system, was easy to pull along since the body was basically an empty shell with the motor mounted on top.

It wasn't just a dry vac, you could use it to clean your floors, vacuum up over flowing dishwater and when the kids spilled an occasional pop (yes, we say pop) in my car, all I had to do was haul out the Silver King and within seconds, all the pop and gunk was out of the carpet. Disconnected the vac and hosed out the body!

It had an attachment to literally squeeqee your floor so you could mop and dry it all at once. Forget carpet cleaners, I would just scrub with oxyclean and get out the Silver King. In over 20+ years of having that Silver King the only time it needed repair was for a worn hose and it was covered by their excellent warranty.

The paper filters were reasonable and lasted years. Then, we moved and the vacuum disappeared. I think it was inadvertently left behind and since then, we have gone through 4 vacuum cleaners in 4 years and not one of them worked well.

We had a Dirt Devil upright that did clean the carpets okay and better than any other, however, I couldn't use it for stairs and it was awful on the hard wood floors, so our dear friend John brought us a stick broom, you know one of those little light weight vacuums? It was amazing for the kitchen and wood floors, but alas, it was older and one day when hubs was cleaning the indoor/outdoor carpet on the patio, it went to vacuum heaven.
I don't remember the brand, but I know it was the only vacuum that could clean our patio carpet and clean it well! We had a Dirt Devil hand held for the stairs, it cleaned up surface dirt but not the stuff that hung around the walls well and it clogged easily.

Then we purchased another canister vacuum and I thought it was a Shark, but hubs says no. It was horrible, removing the cup and putting it back took an engineer each time to figure it out. Within a few short months, the dust cup broke and the plug stopped retracting. Tossed it straight into the trash.

Lastly I have this yellow Eureka vacuum that I shouldn't complain about since I only paid $39 for it, but it takes a bag (a very small bag) and the only way it cleans is when the attachments aren't on it and all you do is use the hose.

So, I want so input from my readers to let me know what you have and what has worked. We have stairs, so I need something that I can lug up and down but not to heavy due to my Fibromyalgia and the kids love for some reason to vacuum the stairs, so light weight. Does it clean well? Does it take bags? Does it have attachments? How long have you had it and any problems.

I could purchase a new Silver King and since I am a prior owner they will cut me a swell deal and only charge me around $1500, however, it may as well only be $10000 for all that is worth because my unemployment check won't pay for it.

Hubbies mom used a Filter Queen and he said it was great, however I have a friend who said she had one for a short time and got rid of it because it was very heavy, difficult to pull along and the hose ripped over and over again.


I am open to doing a product review on a vacuum cleaner, however Shark and Oreck weren't interested, Electrolux told me they would get back to me and have someone contact me for a product review of one of their store models (they never did) and Dirt Devil was more than willing to give me a discount on theirs, however, if I can't see how it works, I don't want to spend the money and thats why I am looking to hear from you.


7 comments:

Sue from Cyprus said...

I've heard the Dyson makes are very good.

NanaNor's said...

Hi there, I so understand what a shock it is to look at vacuums. When I was a young wife & mom I got a Panasonic(a copy of a Reiker)and loved it-it was an upright and so lightweight my young daughters could vacuum. It was pretty cheap at the time and the best one I ever owned. When it died, I was talked into a Hoover by a salesman and have hated it ever since I got it-it is so heavy and isn't very good. I've looked and we looked at one canister type but honestly for me they are so heavy to pull around(I grew up with an electolux). I've gone to a specialty store and really like several. I guess you should try that and see if there is one that meets your needs-without a $1,000+ tag on it.
Good luck, it will be good to see what you end up with. Also look on line, you can often get better deals there.
Noreen

Vicki said...

Over the years I have used several different vacs. (I use to clean houses) Some were expensive ... some were cheap. A lot of the expensive ones are bulky and hard to handle, not to mention if you take it apart for cleaning or to add an attachment and then don't get it back the right way... headache city.

The vacuum I have now, I just bought this past Fall. It is a bag-less Eureka and I bought it atWal-Mart for around $100.00. It has washable filters and I think is guaranteed for 3 years. We have a dog and many visiting dogs and it does a great job. It has a green canister and says On Guard Antimicrobial Hepa Filter on the front.
I know you are looking for something fantastic, but fantastic isn't always what it is cracked up to be.

Love Of Quilts said...

I have a Oreck it only weighs eight lbs. and works fine it takes bags...but it doesn't have a hose so it only does the floors. I don't know about stairs I don't have any. I also have a rainbow that you fill with water in place of bags. I really like it too but it's hard to handle and heavy it doesn't get used until I really need a good cleaning....or a hose. Both are good and don't allow the dust to get back into the air. Good luck. Trish

Quiltingranny said...

Thank you all for your wonderful input. Oreck has a nice hand held that is light, but I think it only comes with their upright. Right now we have a cat and her hair is all over, it just grosses me out!

rubyslipperz1052 said...

I've had many vacumns in the last 40 years. Some really expensive and others not. After about 7 years of having a Bissel "lift-off", I feel it is theee best deal for the money. Our DIL bought one of those really expensive Dyson "pet hair" ones and after reading about the Bissel Lift-off, she went to buy the Bissel. She said it worked every bit as good as the Dyson...so she took the Dyson back. =)

hugZ,
annie
anniesrubyslipperz.com

Unknown said...

I buy what I call disposable vaccuums.....the ones that last a few years and then die...mostly cause thats all I can afford though when I could, the heaviness of them bothers me....I have a upright oreck and I love the thing...it picks up like crazy and it is light too...I kept it when don left...I probably wouldnt call it disposable...it probably cost more that I would spend....I also used a dyson when I lived on whidbey at the fabric store and it worked great, but they are so heavy it is a pain in the you know.......pick up an amazing amount of stuff though.....