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Questions: A good vacuum for hardwood floors?

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      CommentAuthorMidwestkids
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2006 edited
     
    Any good recommendations for a vacuum that can be used both on carpet and hardwood? Keeping it relativity affordable ($100-300) would be great too.
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      CommentAuthorkithouse
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2006
     
    We bought a Bissell upright for 35 dollars last year for my mom. She's been very happy with it, though our main buying requirement was its weight (she has lifting restrictions).

    For our house, we're using our little 8 gal ShopVac. But all our carpets are area rugs and small enough to easily go outside for beating :)
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      CommentAuthorBungalow23
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2006
     
    For your hard floors, you'll definitely want a canister with a wide unpowered brush head. For carpet, a powered beater bar is the best way to pull dirt out of the fibers-- this is the standard head on nearly all uprights and most canisters.

    The Sears Kenmore Progressive line always does well in consumer reports. That's where I'd start looking.
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      CommentAuthorGreenTV
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2006
     
    We use a Eureka Optima on our bamboo floors, polished concrete and carpet in the master closet. They are about $65 at Walmart or Target. It has the option to turn off the beater brush and just have suction. It's filter is washable and it has a hose with a brush and crevis tool attachments. It's a lightweight upright and small but very powerful (12amp). Ours gets an almost daily workout (we have 2 Dobermans and a Chihuahua). I have tried several other makes/models and this is the one that works the best for us with our 3 different floor surfaces.
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    For folks who are either in or about to be in a deep home renovation, I can't recommend highly enough installing a central vacuum. It's actually pretty easy to do once the walls are open: just 2" lightweight PVC pipe and glue. The total cost to install my Vacuflo was about a grand. While that's about twice what you'd pay for a high-end vacuum cleaner, it works a lot better. It's even replaced my Shopvac and it does double duty as my dust collector in the shop.
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      CommentAuthorJocelyn
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2006
     
    I love love love my Dyson vacuum- highly recommend. My house never felt as clean (we have 2 dogs also)
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      CommentAuthorJeannie
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2006
     
    Okay. I have a Sears Kenmore Progressive with the Hepa and I'm a bit of a geek about it. It has the little red light/green light thing that tells you when the floor/carpet/upholstrey is clean and you can move on. That little green light makes me sooooooooo happy.
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    We have a 70's electrolux that my dad saved from the trash. It's still going strong. We only have a few area rugs, mostly hardwood. You can use a dust mop on hardwood too, I guess that makes dust though.
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      CommentAuthorCPDay
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2006 edited
     
    smanes, I also am a central vac enthusiast. There is nothing better if it's done right.You're right about getting it in while the walls are open. Trying to retrofit a central vac system into a finished house is very difficult.

    The challenge on new construction or major renovations is giving the vac lines priority over other systems. OK, maybe the drain/waste/vent system has some gravity issues that take precedence, but getting the vacuum piping right must be #2. I've lived with central vac systems installed by others and they suffer from poor flow and noise. Since I've started doing my own installs I've had nothing but great performance.

    Beam Systems has a great PDF installation manual available at their site.

    The biggest factor: Minimizing bends and using only the large radius bends except at the wall ports. It requires planning, but it pays off. With the right piping, even a cheapo Nutone vac unit does the three-story Shore House ( http://www.cpday.com ) (see 'systems') and won't disturb anyone's nap.
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    CPDay, that's absolutely true. I've installed two Vacuflo systems: one for me and one for my friend around the corner. When you design the pipe runs you have to think like a chunk of concrete inside the pipe. For instance, it doesn't want to go "up", it will tend to get stuck in turns, etc. I also installed the bends in spots I can get to later without having to rip out a wall but I haven't had to in the five years I've had the system.

    My friend's house suffered a bad basement fire early this year and the insurance company's GC replaced all his central vac piping. Now my friend is complaining that the new system doesn't doesn't work well at all, even with the same power unit. I suspect they added a lot of elbow fittings where I did straight runs. IIRC, each elbow reduces suction equivalent to that of a 20 foot section of straight pipe.

    My installation was relatively easy because, for some odd reason, all of these houses were built with old tin air ducts in the walls even though the house has ancient steam heating. I just ran the central vac pipes through that. I reorganized all of the basement utilities to run through a centralized soffit so no port has more than two elbows between it and the power unit, excluding the ports themselves.

    This was especially critical for the shop because I also use the central vac as my dust collector on the table saw, planer, router table and sanders. A typical day in the shop can generate between three and seven gallons of sawdust and chips.

    You can see that soffit in this shot during the basement construction:
    http://images.magpie.com/house/photos/basement/image025.jpg. I need to take an updated shot, if only to show off the new tools (Delta X5 table saw, Jet jointer, etc) <g>
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      CommentAuthorCPDay
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2006 edited
     
    smanes- How true! On the last house we had with a central vac installed by others everyone complained about the weak suction and the whistling noises. I finally replaced the Nutone unit with a more powerful Modern Day unit. The suction got a little better, but the whistling just got worse.

    I can never throw away usable equipment, so I put the old Nutone vac in storage (i.e. the junk pile). It clearly didn't deserve all the blame it had received.

    When I was finishing up the Shore House I had a "what-the-heck" moment, dug out the old Nutone and hooked it up to my new vac piping. I just wanted to test the system. I didn't expect usable performance. Boy, was I surprised by how strong it was and how quietly the system ran. This was that old junk, underpowered, dog Nutone vac?? Hard to believe. I dropped plans to buy another unit and we are still using the Nutone.

    Careful planning of the system really pays off.

    BTW, nice shop in the photo!
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    Thanks for all the posts! I'll come here again for other various house questions for sure.
    We decided to go with the Kenmore Progressive...Good old Columbus Day sales and a Sears right around the corner had something to do with our decision.

    Took a run around the house with it last night and was impressed with its ability on hardwood and carpet (and the ugly linoleum in the kitchen).
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      CommentAuthorSantin
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2006
     
    Dyson is the only way to go. With 2 large white/yellow labs and cherry floors it is the only thing that keeps my wife sane.

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