[kugino]

i need to buy my parents a new vacuum cleaner. something fairly light-weight, does both carpets and hardwood floors, and is preferably bagless. any recommendations/suggestions? something i can get in the USA, too.

 

[jirams]

Try to find a Dyson - made in UK but best in World. Bagless and will suck the flames out of Hell.

 

[fabool]

Heh, I was just about to say don't get a Dyson. About the only good thing about is that it's bagless and presumably good for those who have allergies or asthma. Otherwise, the model I have (an older model of this, I think) is poor.
The ergonomics are horrible. the unit is clunky and cumbersome, and doesn't follow well. The tube that connects to the wand is stiff and has the tendency to bend so that it doesn't suck anything. The main floor tool (and actually the whole unit!) has lots of totally unnecessary holes and weird angles where dust and dirt get stuck in. The floor tool is also relatively big and hard to use in tight spaces. The unit does retract the power cord pretty well though.

A poor buy in my opinion, especially considering it cost more here than most other models and ended up poorer in the categories that really matter.

I suggest you go and test them out in a store yourself, a blind buy for a vacuum cleaner is not a good idea.

 

[RYCeT]

Whoa, what a coincidence. I just post a woot alert for Dyson DC14 for $250.00 + $5 shipping.

Read this thread about dyson http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/dy...h-hype-241830/

I'm happy with mine, for $250, great price for a good vacuum.

 

[fatcat28037]

I bought a new vacuum not long ago. After MUCH research I purchased a Panasonic. Well build, filtered air, reasonably quiet and will suck the chrome off a '55 buick.
Vacuums from Panasonic

 

[ingwe]

But, the Dyson guy is English! With a proper accent!

Couple of years ago I bought a Hoover Wind-Tunnel vac. Plastic and fragile. yuck

 

[Ingo]

Get them a Kirby, Kugino. They look so damn cool. Sure... they're noisy, the bags are a pain-in-the-@ss to change, and they might not work as good as some modern vacuums... but they're just so neat looking and fun!

 

[appophylite]

My parents are quite happy with the Dyson we bought. We were having problems with our vacuums breaking down withing 7-8 months. The Dyson we bought 5 years ago is not vacuuming as powerfully as it used to when it was new, but it still hasn't lost suction and is going strong.

If you want compact but still powerful, the Dirt Devil Dynamite is a very small, light unit that works well on both hard and soft surfaces and has great suction. It's a very simple unit though, and lacks such amenities as the detachable hose unit and the various adapters.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatcat28037 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bought a new vacuum not long ago. After MUCH research I purchased a Panasonic. Well build, filtered air, reasonably quiet and will suck the chrome off a '55 buick. Vacuums from Panasonic

i've seen other good reviews of the panasonics and they're very competitively priced...i might pick one up.

it's funny how polarizing the dysons are...honestly, i don't know what to believe. i saw the w00t deal last night and thought about it, but it's just too clunky and heavy for my parents.

 

[lisnalee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jirams /img/forum/go_quote.gif Try to find a Dyson - made in UK but best in World. Bagless and will suck the flames out of Hell.

x2 We have had ours about 6 or 7 years now and its still working fine.

 

[fordgtlover]

I just posted this response to the other vacuum cleaner thread.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/3517485-post53.html

 

[kurt6652]

Consumer Reports rates the Kenmore(Sears) as one of the best, it has won for at least the past 5yrs. The top rated bagless version is model #36932. The vacuum has twin motors and direct drive, meaning it uses no belts. My brother has the bag version and really likes it. I've had an Oreck xl for the past 5yrs and have been happy with it. Its easy to service yourself and its light, but I don't think it cleans as well as my old and heavy Hoover. I have a bad back and I needed something light, so I got the Oreck.

 

[Chu]

You might want to check out this thread, especially the "quick summary" in the 2nd post (albeit the thread moved fast enough that it's a bit outdated and information-lean). Ignore the thread title, somewhere along the way a vacuum collector/fanatic takes over with a lot of advice, recommendations, engineering background, and history. Some industry people pop in and out as well. A lot of it is just interesting, at least to an engineering geek, like:

Quote:

Originally Posted by cycloneman Re: Hoover shroud holes It would not be possible to alter Hoover's shroud holes. One of the reasons I'm so delighted with the copy Bissell made of the Dyson design, is that they copied Dyson exactly. Hoover was so afraid of another lawsuit from Dyson (they lost over nine million dollars in the last one), and since the shroud was still under patent when Hoover designed their Fusion (on which all multi-cyclonic Hoovers are based), the mold used to manufacture the shroud was designed with the holes going Up. James Dyson spent over five years of his life in the garage, creating over five thousand prototypes of the multi-cyclone filtration system. His biggest challenge, as detailed in his autobiography "Against The Odds", was keeping hair and fluff OUT of the high efficiency cyclone (which is designed for fine dust separation only). He tried making the shroud holes come up from the bottom, he made them go up from the top (like Hoover) and finally, he realized that making the holes go side to side (as well as positioning the intake tangent slightly above the top shroud holes), he could achieve his goal, making the cyclone filtration system work "properly". Ironic, though, that Bissell only copied Dyson exactly with respect to the Healthy-Home model, not the Velocity models. Dirt Devil copied the Dyson exactly, with respect to their Spinnergy model (also known as Vax Zero in Europe). Yet Hoover, who has the most to lose, failed to alter their design once Dyson's shroud patent was up. LG has done a great job of copying Dyson's performance, without directly copying his designs. They change it up some (such as the way the high efficiency cyclones are arranged in the LG-built Kenmore Premalite). Since James Dyson designed his machine by the Edisonian approach (making only one change at a time, and testing it), and since it took him five years, the Dyson design will most likely prove the most efficient and perfected way of creating multi-cyclonic filtration systems. Like Air-Way Corporation and the disposable vacuum bag, he had longer to work with it than anyone else.

After reading through the thread I went with the Hoover Mach3. It's a $80 Dyson. Essentially Hoover took the original Dyson patent (which is expired), blatantly copied it, made a few minor adjustments, and put their name on it. It's essentially the cheapest Dyson-clone you can get.

It's obviously not better then a Dyson since they've had 15 years or so to work on their design, and it's a bit heavy, but it's by far the best vacuum I've ever owned. It's much better then that $80 2nd place CR recommended one that it was replacing.

 

[NeObliviscaris]

do i dare mention roomba? i have one, and i enjoy it!

 

[gritzcolin]

The Dyson's are nice vacuums but they are expensive. If you want quality and half the cost go with a Kenmore they have been some of consumer reports top vacuums for more than 8 years. Not sure if its still going but the #3 Vacuum according to Consumer Reports is the bagless direct drive Kenmore someone else mentioned and it was $100 off the other day might have gone up since the weekend.