Recommend me a vacuum cleaner

[nuttycyclist]

Afternoon all, as per thread title please recommend a vacuum cleaner.

My history so far has been
Dyson -> Henry -> (return of Dyson from cupboard) -> VAX -> iRobot -> Shark
The Dyson was the original and good, but due to loop-pile carpet we were advised not to have a cleaner with a roller brush so Mrs Nutty bought a Henry after lots of research.   I hated it as it couldn't clean the carpet and the stench from the bag was awful even if I'd recently changed it (the same as being in the office after hours when the cleaning staff came around with their bunged up henrys), I just don't understand how that product is on the market with so many fans.  I once refused to use the Henry and wrote Mrs Nutty's name on the carpet with the Dyson as that brought the colour from grey back to the original cream.    The Dyson got noisy (too much brick and plaster dust abuse) and so Mrs Nutty gave it to the dustmen before I could replace the roller bearings.

I replaced it with a VAX upright that was on offer in Sainsburys, and it was ok but a pain on the stairs, and ended up in landfill for a reason I can't remember.  It might have been due to the arrival of technology of the iRobot.  Robert was stupid, always got tangled in shoe laces or other items on the floor, and was a pain to use since before starting it (or on the hearing of it automatically starting on schedule) you had to spend ages tidying up and preparing the area, then sit and monitor it.  It is much faster and easier to manually clean instead of using technology.  Robert is also battery powered so usually fails to complete a clean before limping back to the docking station which he is unable to mate with due to lack of energy.

The Shark lift away was a good replacement, but now out of warrenty has a snapped tube in the foot so is lucking its sucking skills.  I've stripped it down (despite the anti-tamper bolts) only to find the hose appears to be glued in and I can't find a replacement one available.  The only solution is a full £70 just for a new foot, but that doesn't address the dodgy carpet/hard floor switch that also needs to be investigated.  I am reluctant to pay that price just for a part when we'd bought the machine new for not too much more on a decent offer.

Daytime TV is flooded with adverts for vacuum cleaners, mostly unappealing as they talk about batteries for convenience.  I don't want a battery as it chews power to keep it on permanent charge, is flat when needed if not on permanent charge, and doesn't have enough life for a decent full house clean when I get a day to dedicate to it.  I also don't want to throw money away just for a cheap machine that'll quickly fail as the VAX did.  My eye has been caught by the carpet washing machines, but I have limited experience and whilst I need to attack the children's bedrooms it'll be a one off and my main need is a regularly used vacuum.

What is the panel's opinion as to good or bad, based on requirements of
- mains powered
- able to clean the stairs
- bagless
 - - possibly a carpet wash capability.

[Canardly]

The small Meile vacs are very good. No washing ability but reasonably priced, low weight and well put together.

[ian]

I have a cleaner with a Henry but owing to some variability in her availability during the plague times, I bought a Vax Blade thing. I'm as happy as I can be about a vacuum cleaner with it.

It holds enough charge to do a four-bed house, no need to keep it on charge, just give it a re-charge at the end and it holds onto it fine until next time. Judging by the dust bin, it does a far better job than the Henry. I like batteries, no messing with wires, and it's light and easy to use. I'm not sure who spends an entire day vacuuming a house, I could do a stately home in that amount of time.

[T42]

The small Meile vacs are very good. No washing ability but reasonably priced, low weight and well put together.

+1  We have a special head that actually does what it claims and gets dog hair out of rugs.

Don't have dog hair any more. 

[rafletcher]

We have a Miele cylinder pet and something, albeit several years old and not bagless. If it breaks a Miele bagless cyclinder will replace it.

[fruitcake]

I bought a small cylinder-type Vax which is only rated at 800W but the suction is remarkable both when the cylinder is empty and full of dust. It came with the various upholstery brushes which meant it was sold as a 'pet' model (i.e. suitable for those with a dog or cat). The plastics are noticeably thinner than Dyson but, I think, good enough, and it's small enough that the cylinder portion can be comfortably held in one hand while hoovering a stairs carpet. Bought about ten years ago at Argos for about £40.

I occasionally have cause to use a Dyson; I just dislike it and I'm not quite sure why. I think it's the play in its numerous joints.

I'd be tempted by battery tech if I were buying now. A lithium battery shouldn't lose charge during one week of non-use.

[Hot Flatus]

Nobody has mentioned Sebo. I guess that cult is over.

[Jurek]

I've just bought one of these, to replace a 20 year old Miele which hadn't actually stopped working - it just wanted to retrieve the cable back into the body all the time. A problem easy enough to fix with a clothes peg - as Ham OTP has noted elsewhere.
How hard does it suck?  I hear you ask.
Well, hard enough that pushing the head across the carpet requires significant effort 'cos the vacuum is gripping it with such vengeance.
Having yesterday clipped my hair and, as a consequence of which, vacuumed the flat, the process (vacuuming, not hair clipping) left me breathless.
ETA - It is worth noting that there is no correlation between the wattage of a vacuum cleaner and its efficiency. That is determined by the placement and radii of the steel plate beneath the head. There are only a handful of manufacturers making these, and they supply all of the vac cleaner manufacturers. In the same way that vac cleaner bag manufacturers are the same people who design the material that tea-bags are made from.

[fruitcake]

I've noticed that workplaces like to own Henry, I guess because those things can be thrown in cupboards and kicked about the floor, and they carry on working. But they ain't lightweight, and I reckon lightweight is key for use on stairs.

[Jurek]

I've noticed that workplaces like to own Henry, I guess because those things can be thrown in cupboards, kicked about the floor and carry on working. But they ain't lightweight, and I reckon lightweight is key for use on stairs.

I've managed to terminally stop a Henry in addition to making it produce magic blue smoke by getting it to vacuum up a load of glass balls when it didn't have a bag in it.

ETA - The Nilfisk is significantly lighter than the Miele.

[fruitcake]

That'll do it.

[pcolbeck]

Yup your not really supposed to run them with no bag.

I managed to kill our first Henry eventually. It had no issues with all the brick dust and plaster from renovating a Victorian terrace but when I used it to hoover the inside of an oil boiler that had gone a bit bonkers and was full of greasy oily soot it called it a day. I think that got through the bag into the motor.

After having a Dyson for ten years I gave that to my son when he moved out and we have had a VAX Pet3 for the last five years and its been brilliant.  Sucks much better than a Dyson. I have a second hand Henry for the garage / cars and for cleaning up after particularity messy DIY jobs.

[ian]

We have a Dyson upright. It sucks well enough but it weighs about four tonnes and moving it is like wrestling a hippo. It's probably great if you're hoovering an unfurnished room the size of a football pitch, the average British stairwell, on the other hand.

[Jaded]

I bought a Vax Blade thing. I'm as happy as I can be about a vacuum cleaner with it.

It holds enough charge to do a four-bed house

What are you vacuuming someone else's house? Is it because there isn't enough battery for your house

[Mrs Pingu]

We have a Dyson upright. It sucks well enough but it weighs about four tonnes and moving it is like wrestling a hippo. It's probably great if you're hoovering an unfurnished room the size of a football pitch, the average British stairwell, on the other hand.

Having not had our own stairs to hoover before I was immensely glad of having a hand held Dyson as well as an upright. Although I can totally see why my Mum bought a 2nd Dyson for the 1st floor.

[Jaded]

I managed to kill our first Henry eventually.

You don't have to kill them.

Just shut them away

[rogerzilla]

SO swears by her Shark.

[Ashaman42]

It's that bad eh?

[quixoticgeek]

They all suck, just some in different ways to others...

I'll get my coat...

J

[phantasmagoriana]

Yup your not really supposed to run them with no bag.

I managed to kill our first Henry eventually. It had no issues with all the brick dust and plaster from renovating a Victorian terrace but when I used it to hoover the inside of an oil boiler that had gone a bit bonkers and was full of greasy oily soot it called it a day. I think that got through the bag into the motor.

I killed Hetty after 12 years and 2 house renovations, but then I resurrected her with a new motor. Taking her apart and cleaning all the accumulated dust and grime from her inner workings was weirdly satisfying.

[perpetual dan]

We’ve got a cumbersome Dyson that is many years old. It cleans well enough, but I struggle to recommend Dyson on principle.

We’ve also got a battery powered thing. A mains lead is undoubtedly simpler, but tends to encourage the designers to aim for power over portability. It does need breaks to recharge if we’re doing pull all the furniture out type cleaning, but will certainly do more than a floor of our house at the usual weekly cleaning levels of enthusiasm. The recharging is nature’s way of reminding us that a duster, wet cloth, and mop are the appropriate tools for quite a lot of cleaning.

[Kim]

I've gone for the n+1 approach, as it seems anything that's good at stairs will be a bit rubbish elsewhere.

So:  eBay FrankenKirby^[1] upright:  It's built like a tank^[2], easily dismantled, parts are readily available, and it sucks so hard the wheels are powered in order to make it pushable by mortal humans.  Beats carpets into submission, and eats wood shavings etc. without a fuss.  Uses a bag, so you don't conclude your cleaning experience by sticking your head in a wheelie bin with all that lovingly HEPA-filtered dust.  We finally made use of the carpet shampoo feature the other week after I regained consciousness in a pool of not-so-precious bodily fluids three steps from the bathroom.  There's now a suspicious clean patch on the carpet.

Makita cordless handheld: Uses the standard 18V power tool batteries, which neatly sidesteps the crap proprietary battery issues (and means my tool batteries get more regular use, so don't degrade in storage).  Built like something a tradesperson would use to suck up small quantities of plaster dust, rather than a plastic toy, and the brushless motor means the point of failure is probably going to be the membrane switch.  Performance is best described as adequate, but I've been spoiled by the Kirby (which is a faff to switch to hose mode for the stairs).  Is doing good service removing bedcrumbs from the vicinity of barakta while she's immobile post hip surgery.  Like all bagless things, emptying it is fine if you've only sucked up sawdust or LED legs^[3], but horrendous if it's standard household fluff and human hair.

Needless to say, the accessories have different pipe diameters.  But even Makita can't get that right with their dust extraction outlets.

ETA: N+3 would probably be a Henry of some sort.  They do one thing, which makes them unsuitable for an n=1 hoover in a house that combines long hair and carpets, but they seem to do it extremely well.


_{[1] Irregular reminder:  Never buy a new Kirby.  It's a scam.  The machines are well-engineered (probably one of the best implementations of the classic bagged upright vacuum cleaner), but their sales practices are deeply unethical.
[2] I carefully bought an older model from before they started switching parts from metal to plastic.
[3] Ie. the little bits of wire, insulation and solder splatter that end up everywhere when you've been molishing prototype electronics.  It's brilliant for this.}

[L CC]

We have a Henry. It came from the bloke, he having got rid because 'it always smells of vomit'. I changed the bag, and magically the smell went away. Thanks to a previous employer taking advantage of a great offer with an awful MOQ we have a lifetime supply of bags. I never use it, because of the PITA of dragging it up stairs.
When the bloke & I shacked up together, he brought his Roomba along. She hated my hair and would hide under furniture sulking after trying to eat bras. Eventually we sacked her.
I have a (cheap but adequate) battery thing I use in my office and in the gym about twice a year.
The cleaner uses the Henry, every week, she minds much less about the lugging it about.

[quixoticgeek]

Makita cordless handheld: Uses the standard 18V power tool batteries, which neatly sidesteps the crap proprietary battery issues (and means my tool batteries get more regular use, so don't degrade in storage).  Built like something a tradesperson would use to suck up small quantities of plaster dust, rather than a plastic toy, and the brushless motor means the point of failure is probably going to be the membrane switch.  Performance is best described as adequate, but I've been spoiled by the Kirby (which is a faff to switch to hose mode for the stairs).  Is doing good service removing bedcrumbs from the vicinity of barakta while she's immobile post hip surgery.  Like all bagless things, emptying it is fine if you've only sucked up sawdust or LED legs^[3], but horrendous if it's standard household fluff and human hair.

[3] Ie. the little bits of wire, insulation and solder splatter that end up everywhere when you've been molishing prototype electronics.  It's brilliant for this.[/sub]

I have one of these too, and it's bloody brilliant. Is it the most effective vacuum ever? no. But, it's easily available, and easy to deploy. The mains powered vacuum cleaner is a right faff to get out the cupboard, deploy a cable etc...

The Makita just sits next to the fire extinguisher, and is easy to grab for when you knock a plant over, or such like.

J

[ppg]

Another +1 to Miele cylinder, though not bagless - over 12 years old and can still pull a carpet up despite bits have fallen off it through total abuse.
I can see why they offered a 10 year warranty on it

We also have a Dyson V6, bought at discount when the newer model arrived, and it is good (on Turbo mode) but no match for the Miele.