Pleasant Ranch

It used to be easy to choose a new vacuum cleaner, they all used bags and did their job well, so you just picked the one you liked the look of or one from a brand name you liked, and you were happy with that. Since Dyson launched the bagless cleaner though then the market has had an overhaul as other companies strived to compete with them. Now there are a huge range of designs and new technology to wade through when you are shopping.

So now the humble vacuum cleaner has been dressed up in a wild melody of colours and has been given fancy names and even fancier attachments for even the most obscure of tasks. But do we need all that? Most of us are perfectly happy with a simple cleaner with a bag like we used to have. Below we look at the main choices you have when buying a new vacuum:

Bagless: The original design by Dyson to do away with the bag in a vacuum cleaner was supposed to solve the problem of a your unit with a bag losing power as the bag fills up with dirt, and it turned the industry on its head when it launched. The jury is still out though as to whether there is any significant benefit to the technology, and if there is one then if it outweighs the drawbacks. For instance if you have allergies then the fact you have to empty all the dust and dirt out into a bag or bin when it is full is a lot messier than just throwing away a full bag like with a normal model.

Upright: This is the normal design for a vacuum cleaner, with the mechanics of it being upright with a handle at the top so you can push and pull the unit easily. The big advantage of this design is that as you can push and pull it while the head at the bottom does the cleaning, then you can quickly and easily cover large areas of open floor.

Canister vacuum: This design is where you have a small unit on the floor which contains all the mechanics and the bag/container, and then a long hose attachment on it to allow you to clean around the room. The long hose with various attachments means it is easier to get under furniture and around things than with an upright vacuum, but it is a lot harder to do large areas of open carpet with it. It you have rooms that are stuffed full of furniture then this might be the right choice for you, otherwise stick with the upright.

Carpet cleaner: If your carpets are a bit grubby after years of use then sometimes a normal vacuum cleaner won’t help because they just suck the top layer of dirt off. Instead you could go for a ‘carpet cleaner’ which uses shampoo instead (this should only be used every so often though, so it is in addition to, not instead of, your normal vacuum cleaner). You put water and shampoo into the machine, and then it injects that into the carpet and works it deep down into the pile with brushes as you move about the room. Then you go back over the area on a different setting and it will suck all the dirty water back out of the carpet so they end up looking almost like they did when you first bought them!

The Hoover U5140-900 is one of the top selling models on the market that uses a bag, but it costs less than 70 dollars.