vacuum cleaners

[Rod]

Hi, i'm new to this so please bear with me. My wife and I have a St. Bernard. We have gone through a lot of vacuum cleaners because of all the hair. Can anyone recommend a vacuum cleaner that will last a while?

Thanks, Rod:confused:

[mugsy]

Welcome aboard Rod!! My husband's and my answer to dog hair and other "doggie rewards" lol was to rip up our carpet and paint the floor until we can afford hardwood!! hehehehe I wonder if any of the bagless sweepers would be better...have you tried those?? Good luck and let us know what happens. And Welcome again!!

[ramanth]

My parents use a shop vac on the furniture and Kia's bedding in her crate.

They purchased a WindTunnel vacuum a few months ago. It's a bagless one and it's been great at getting up all the cat and dog hair.

We have 5 cats and a dog.

Good luck!

[Rod]

Thanks mugsy, another person here in town suggested a "bagless" vacuum so it sounds like a good idea. Thanks!

Rod

[DoggiesAreTheBest]

http://bestsmileys.com/welcome/welcome1.gif

I would recommend the Bagless Bissell Upright! I use it every single day in my house. I also use a chop vacc.

[Dixieland Dancer]

I use a Hoover Windtunnel with a bag. I like to capture the dust and hair and just throw it away. It is one of the best vacumn cleaners I've ever had. It's only drawback is it's heavy. Fortunately it's self propelled so it doesn't matter except for carrying it up and down steps.

[Logan]

I HATE bagless!!! I bought a windtunnel last year, and it has been the most disappointing thing I have ever done. A couple of months ago, I went to a "real" vacuum store, instead of KMart, and talked with them about what I deal with. I have two Golden Retrievers (my biggest problems, hair wise) and two cats, and now two birds who make quite a mess! I have no carpet in my whole house, only hardwood floors and 3 rugs, total. But my vacuum was constantly getting clogged, especially the tube for the accessories, plus the Hepa Filter had to be washed everytime I vacuumed because of the dirt I was picking up. It was quite gross.

I paid $499 for a system, mine was from a manufacturer called Riccar, but very much like an Oreck. I couldn't be happier. This from a person who bought a new vacuum every 2 years for the last 6-8 years. I learned my lesson the hard way, I guess.

The Riccar comes in two parts. You have an upright for the rugs, and it is very lightweight and has a bag. The little canister has a handle and all the attachments you need to clean the hardwood floors, lampshades, furniture, etc. The "sucking" power is incredible. They showed me on a meter how much more powerful it is, which will prevent the clogs I was having before.

If you have a lot of hair to contend with, I would definitely suggest that you consult a vacuum store, rather than buying off the shelf. I found the bagless to be wayyyyyyyy too much work for me.

[mugsy]

Logan, I wondered about that. I have talked to people who love the bagless and those who detest them...like I said, we solved our problem by ripping up the carpet!! lol Let us know Rod how it all works out...I have never been so happy to do something in my life as to get rid of that carpet!!

[Corinna]

With a newfy and a springer and two cats I have a Sears Shop Vaccum . Sucks up anything in sight.

[Logan]

Originally posted by SpencerTheLion


...so Rikkar is your Number One? :D =/\=

You are BAAAAAAAAAd!!!

[Rachel]

Why didn't somebody tell me there was a vacuum cleaner topic here? My heart is pounding as I write. As far as I'm concerned the answer to your question is unequivocally an ELECTROLUX . I have two of them. One an upright and the other a canister. I prefer the canister. You can use it for hard wood floors, furniture, and carpeting. I have had the upright for 14 years and the canister for 10 or so. I can't remember that it has ever needed repair. Once I thought it had a problem, and I called my representative and he came out and when he got here it was working again. Guess it must have healed itself. :p Yes, it does cost big $$$ but like you, I had gone through my share of Hoovers over the years and that was big $$$ and aggravation and a lot of dust spewing forth.

Oh, that felt good. I love talking vacuums!

[aly]

Well I don't have too much imput on vacuum cleaners, but I will say that I am borrowing my friend's Bissell deep cleaner right now and it is a LIFE SAVER. I recommend it for anyone with frequent pet stains. My own pets don't have accidents but I can always expect some from my fosters. This deep cleaner does really well at lifting the stains.

[slleipnir]

wow..we just use an old crappy one! Its like 100 yrs old..it works great lol! Still kicken after all that fur too..I'd hate to have to vacuum Mugsy's place with all those dogs..:rolleyes: Unless it ment having all thos dogs..:o

[shais_mom]

I worked in the Sears Sweeper dept for a year and a half. The ones I would not reccomend would be the Dirt Devil or the Eureka. Unless it is the Eureka bagless. I have the Sears Destiny which is equivalent to the Phantom bagless. It is great. I love it. I can't believe how much more hair I am sweeping up from Keegan compared to Shaianne. And I thought Shaianne shedded alot.
I preferred the Kenmores and the higher line Windtunnels, which would be the windtunnels. Be VERY aware of the other Hoovers, the cheaper ones. The advertise like 19.5 c.e.a or 25 cea which is
cleaning effectivness per amp It DOES NOT mean that it is higher than 12 amps. The HIGHEST amperage you can have is 12 amps. Shop vacs run on horse power so that is another whole story.
I told my customers that they could blow harder than these vacuums. They have no suction whatsoever. I didn't like them at all. No way would they pick up dog, cat, pet hair or cat litter. The Hoover Windtunnels are great they have awesome suction.
Rachel, my mom has had an electrolux for as long as I can remember so it is at least 20 years old. And it is a great sweeper, but it is literally falling apart! :) Another kind that is around here in Ohio is the Rainbow, it works with water to decrease the amount of dust. It is an awesome sweeper also. And also around here is the Kirby, it is top of the line also, and an awesome cleaner. BUT these sweepers run along the lines of $1000 or more and some people just simply and understandably can't afford that.
The bottom line is you do get what you pay for. If you go out and buy a $50-100 sweeper, you aren't going to have it very long. Especially with all the dog hair that you will have. If you go to a good honest sweeper shop and spend a little extra money you should have a sweeper that lasts you a good long time. If you want a nice upright for example the Top of the line Windtunnel Self Propelled like Candy has was about $399.99 and the ones that weren't self propelled were about $100 less. The top of the line Kenmores were about $300 also. Along the canister line which simply can't be beat when it comes to sweeping under beds and doing furniture, expect to pay slightly more. I wouldn't recommnend the Hoover Windtunnel Canister, if they still manufacture them. I wasn't impressed at all with them.
Another thing to look for then I will get off my soapbox (:)) If you have lineoulum, tile or hardwoods at all you will want to look for a sweeper that turns off the beater bar when it does bare floors. If not, they simply scatter the dirt which is redundant.
Goodluck and let us know what you decide!
BTW, WELCOME TO PETTALK!!! YOU WILL LOVE IT HERE!!!

[anna_66]

We just bought a Kenmore Progressive (bagless-$280 on sale!) from Sears about 2 months ago and it has been awesome! We talked to the guy there and he also has pets, a long haired persian and a golden. He says he's had his for a few years now and nothing has happened to it, and it picks up great. And he's right.
We were like everyone else, buying a vacum cleaner at LEAST 2X/yr. So someone came along selling vacums, almost a $1500 vacumn! Well we must have really been impressed because we bought it, turns out it's ok, but the distributor that worked this area is no longer here and we would have to drive out of state or send it to the company to be fixed, and of course, after 2.5 yrs, it need to be fixed. Sooo....make a long story short, I really like my Kenmore and I got the extended warenty ($30 I think) and I have 2 yrs to tear it up plus the year already on it! The guy said, just take it to Sear repair center (10 min away!) and they fix it for free or give you a new one! You can't beat that!

[Tucker216]

Speaking of vaccumes lol Does anyone else vaccume their dog? Tucker wasnt shedding much until we went camping for a few days Now he is shedding so bad I vaccume our bed EVERYDAY! I do brush him twice a day but its never enough so I started in on him with the vac lol He just kinda lays there like "ok here she goes again on one of her MOM THINGS" I swear he should be bald by now but he aint even close lol
Hugz
Jessica and Tucker
:) :p :) :D :cool:

[Stenograsaurus]

I have a Kirby G4. As already stated, it's a little expensive, but it's worth it. I've had it for six years now and I think I've had to replace a belt once. I go through a lot of bags though with all the hair. (I have a husky, long haired shepherd, had a rotty, and two cats.) The Kirby still sucks up like it did the day I bought it. It is expensive, but you get a vacuum, a sander, a leaf blower, and a scrubber, (I think that's it) all in one. The one drawback is that it is heavy and with a bad back, it really hurts carrying it up and down stairs, so I just recently bought a Eureka 12 amp. bagless. I ran it in 1/3 of my living room and I had to stop to dump all the hair out. The filter needs cleaned already because of all the hair and coal dust. (Have a coal furnace too). So I'm taking the Eureka upstairs where there's less hair and dirt and keeping the Kirby downstairs. As stated, you get what you pay for. Good luck in your decision.

[ramanth]

Originally posted by Tucker216
Speaking of vaccumes lol Does anyone else vaccume their dog?

The neighbors would use a shop vac on their malamutes in the summer. However, they would not 'suck' up the hair, but switch the shop vac to 'blow'. Every other week we'd help 'blow out' the dogs hair. :D

[kobieeli]

I too have seen my neighbors Shop-Vac their Chow-Chow. What a hoot to see them blow the dog's fur right off of him! The dog looks like he loves it too.

Sorry about having no vacuum advice for you, but welcome to PetTalk! :D

[shais_mom]

YES Anna the Kenmore Progressives are AWESOME.
I am so glad you had a good experience at Sears!
I would also advice (this sounds odd I know but I would do it if I had a dog like a St. Bernard in the house) Collect some dog hair and take it to the store and lay it on their patch of carpet. Step on it, ground it in, then sweep it up. I had a customer bring in a bag of cat litter and we threw it all over the floor and tried and tried different sweepers until we found one that swept it up the best.
On a side note, the only reason I am gonna say this is b/c I worked straight commission for more than a year and it is very hard work. If you go to Sears, or somewhere like that, and the sales person gives you a business card, please please please honor it. If you go back another day to buy it then take the card with you and give it to the sales associate. Usually they are permitted to ring the sale in the other person's number. I had more trouble with stuff like that in the time I worked at Sears. I wouldn't know that someone else talked with a co-worker and they would walk in and say "I want that" and I would ring it up to find out that it was another person's sale. Round and Round we would go.
I even had people try to barter with me for sales and Sears just isn't that type of a company I would always think "You wanna make a deal, go to a garage sale or pawn shop!" This one guy whined about it so much that I finally said "You know that sale price is so cheap now that you are taking food off my table and food outta my dogs mouth" He said "Oh you get a base rate plus commission" and I said "No sir I do not, if I don't sell anything today I am paying my employer for me to be here, they will pay me x amount for showing up today but when I make that on my next check, they take it right back out, its called the draw system. And when things are on sale, I lose money"
AND YOU CAN ASK ANYONE THAT KNOWS ME, I LOVE A GOOD SALE!!!!
Just some tidbits of info that might be helpful!!! :D:):D:):D:):D

[anna_66]

Wow! That's crazy I had no idea it worked like that there. Thanks for the info!