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Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Vacuums-A Housekeepers Guide Part 1

I don't claim to be an expert on vacuums.  Are there any really?
          If you can find an expert please let me know!
Hmm.
I got to thinking about it.  And so I looked it up!

ex·pert
ˈekˌspərt/
noun
  1. 1.
    a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

    "experts in child development"

    synonyms:specialistauthoritypunditMore
adjective
  1. 1.
    having or involving authoritative knowledge.

    "he had received expert academic advice"

    synonyms:skillfulskilledadeptaccomplishedtalentedfineMore


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  1.                   You can decide if I fit the claim.

  2. I am a house keeper.  I am a home maker
  3. I have managed our home for the over 40 years we've been married.
  4. I am a professional house keeper.  
  5. That's a fancy way of saying I clean houses for a living.
  6. My clients provide all their own cleaning products and equipment. So I don't have to lug anything around!

And so I have used almost every vacuum that is available. 

From the over $1,000.00 Miele (canister) which the client told me many times how much it cost; to all the vacuums available at WalMart and Sam's Club.   And everything in between.
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I have a client that said during our initial interview . . . 
"I buy cheap vacuums and just replace them when they quite working." 
And I have to say the two inexpensive models she's bought from Walmart do the job in her home. (no dogs only 1 small cat)  Both models are a few years old and have been used a little.  I've been cleaning the house almost a year.  When I began both were so full of debris that it took weeks to get them cleaned out.  I used one to suck the collected debris out of the other.  These are the type that are bag less and you can wash the filters.  
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I won't go into a long drawn out discussion about your needs. 

We all know if you have a dog it sheds and you need a good vacuum to deal with all that hair!  

What you want to know is which one is best for your home and if you have pets etc. 

It definitely depends on how much carpet you have.  
Most homes have a little laminate or tile or hardwood.  
Many homes no a days have no carpet at all.  

What about stairs? In this post I am going to focus on stairs.

As I've said I have used the most expensive to super cheap.

And let me tell you.  Unless you just won the lottery and you are all prissy and want everyone to know you have a
vacuum that cost over a grand don't waste your time with a Miele canister vacuum.  I have not used the Miele upright. 

The unit I used had bags.  And was heavy.  It was very hard to move up and down stairs.  The carpet attachment was very heavy as well.  Thankfully the client only had antique rugs in the main areas and carpet in two unused bedrooms.  I could avoid that heavy carpet attachment!

Based on my experience with the canister and since I haven't won the lottery I am not buying one for my house!

Which brings me to a discussion about which upper end of the road vacuum cleaner to buy.  

The thing is there is much more to it than just what type of flooring you have.  If you have pets.  And actually how much dirt your family tracks in etc.  

I think the biggest thing to consider after all the above is 
Who is going to use it? 

Who is really important.  In my case since I am almost 60 there are many things to consider now that I didn't when I was 30 or even 40.  

Think about if your pregnant or planning on being?  Will you be carrying a unit up and down stairs?

The biggest thing for anyone I think is the weight of the machine.  And if your carrying up and down stairs or using on stairs.  

The Shark and the Dyson lift away models are similar. 
I have used both in the same house.  The client was not happy with the Shark and bought a Dyson. 

 It was an upstairs house.  Although both models had the lift off feature in my opinion neither were easy to use on the stairs.  

The Shark has a complete Lift A Way system.  The video I watched which was short claims the system weighs 8 pounds.

You can google Lift A Way System Carpet Cleaning several informative videos.

The Shark is easy to use on stairs but cumbersome to carry unit up.  Although it detaches completely your still plugged in so consider how long the cord is. 

The Dyson model was different in that the hose lifts off.  
I needed an engineer to figure out how to detach it.  
I wasn't impressed with the Dyson model.  

The Dyson was considerably heavier.  

Since I am not showing you photo's or the specific models this information isn't really meant as a review of a specific
product. 

I am only providing you with information and my opinion about the performance and how easy the units are to use.  

It is my hope that my thoughts will give you something to think about if your looking at making a new investment.  

Whether your spending on the upper, middle or lower end I know you want to get the vacuum that is going to work best for your home and your lifestyle.  

I hope that the information has maybe answered some questions or prompted some questions you need to ask.

In my next post in this series I will be discussing stairs again and talking about hand held devices and how they work. 

Thanks for visiting!  Leave a comment! Have a Good day!

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