Saturday, January 13, 2007

Any ideas for a Vacuum Cleaner?

Any ideas on a new vacuum cleaner? Chrissy has been asking for one for months. I finally broke down and started shopping with her for a vacuum cleaner. I was amazed that the preferred vacuum of every salesman/saleswoman we talked to was also the most expensive one; the Dyson. Anybody ever heard of this brand? Before I spent $300 for a vacuum cleaner, I wanted to do a little research; or at least have Chrissy do some research. According to the internet, there is not one vacuum with 100% approval. After hours of research and talking with others, we're more confused than ever.

I bought our vacuum cleaner 1-1/2 years ago from Walmart for just under $50. Before we went shopping again, I was going to do a little troubleshooting with the one we've already got. After 15-20 minutes of dismantling this thing (worried I'd forget how to put it back together), I got to the vacuum tube. No surprise, it was full of Maggie hair and dust balls. After cleaning it out, it works like a charm. I'm still planning on getting her a new one some day so I'd still like to here some other people's suggestions/experiences. Maybe I'll get her one for her birthday (just kidding).

2 comments:

Mark and Abbie's blog said...

We were looking for vaccums about a month ago before Mark figured out we had a broken something or other and a spare part to fix it. Now it works great. We have a Kenmore from Sears. It was a wedding gift so I'm not sure how much it was and we had no idea what kind to register for so we just picked one. This recent problem was the first problem we've had with it. I do know Consume Reports basically said the Dyson is overpriced. It's a great vaccum but there are others out there just as good. I was looking at the bagless vaccums with the hepa filters that were washable (so you didn't have to buy bags or filters). I currently have to drive 30 plus minutes to our Sears to buy vaccum bags and that is a hastle with three kids. Plus, we never do much shopping in that area so one trip over there needs to cover everything! Hope this helps!

Carolyn said...

I have a Fantom Fury, which I love, but Fantom was bought out several years ago by EuroPro, so no guarantees on quality now. Out of curiosity, I just checked the Good Housekeeping website to see what they said. I like to check their ratings before making purchases (since you have to have a subscription for Consumer Reports). Their Best Overall is the Hoover Savvy. Top Value was Eureka Boss 5855. They said the highly priced Dyson (best pull) and Oreck (lightest weight) vacs do not have the best overall cleaning ability. You can check details on the GH website under "Savvy Consumer."