M + M : Just the 2 of Us: November 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Vacuums.

So, for the past 3ish years Ryan and I have been using a Dyson Ball Animal vacuum. It was expensive as hell, but we found a deal shortly after our wedding that threw in a free hand-held Dyson so Ryan jumped on it and brought it home.

I was pretty impressed with the Dyson when we first got it. It seemed to do a good job vacuuming and had good suction through the hose -- which is incredibly important for us with cat fur on our furniture.

However, in the last year or so, I'd noticed that the Dyson seemed to be declining. It didn't seem to do as good of a job and it took more effort to get the cat fur off of the furniture. We cleaned all the filters and checked to make sure the belts were fine and the brushes were turning freely. Everything seemed to be fine and yet, the Dyson just wasn't performing as well as it used to.

Monday the whole house was vacuumed and in the evening I was sitting on the floor in the family room and realized that it really didn't look like it had been vacuumed. Grrrr Dyson! Then, yesterday I saw that Amazon's "Deal of the Day" was for a new Dyson DC25 for $200 off. I decided that we needed a new vacuum, like yesterday. So, I started researching. I asked lots of friends for their recommendations. From that, I got lots of reccs for Dyson, Shark, Oreck & the Hoover WindTunnel. So, I went on Consumer Reports and started looking at how they ranked.

By far, the best was the Hoover WindTunnel...but, it was the bagged version. And, well, I really didn't want a bagged vacuum. So, I kept looking to see if I could find a vacuum that did everything I wanted. My requirements were good on carpet as well as wood floors (which means it has to have a "brush off" option), awesome at picking up pet fur, manual pile height adjustment, canister, and reasonable price. I figure, we spent a boat load on our Dyson and it didn't even make it 3 years. I'd rather spend $130 on a vacuum every year than $500 on a vacuum every 2 years. Also, interestingly, I found that every.single.Dyson on the market ranked in the bottom on Consumer Reports. I was under the impression that they were supposed to be amazing...apparently not. Wish I had known that 3 years ago.

Eventually, I found a Kennmore that had everything I wanted....except for a "brush off" option. Dang! So, I went back to the recommendations from my friends and started looking at each of those. While the Hoover seemed to be my best option, I was still dead set against a bagged vacuum AND it weighed more than I was looking for. Eventually, I settled on the Shark Navigator with pet attachment. The only category it rated "excellent" in was removal of pet hair. However, I had several friends say that it did a great job for them and they have had it for several years.

So, I ended up breaking my Walmart ban yesterday. I make an effort not to shop at Walmart. I don't like Walmart. But....they had the vacuum I wanted in stock and for like $60 less than anywhere else. I brought it home and busted it out after work HOPING it was as awesome as all of my friends said and not as bad as some of the online reviews claimed.

Now, I knew my Dyson had declined in performance...but I didn't realize how much. I took one pass just thru the open area of the family room and was shocked at the amount of crap I pulled out of the carpet. The carpet that my daughter plays on daily. ::shivers::

So, all in all, I'm pretty darn happy with my new Shark. It really cleaned up the carpets. The pet attachment tool is pretty awesome and make cleaning up cat fur plastered to the couch a pretty easy chore. It seems to clean up the wood floors just fine without spraying the debris everywhere. It has a long enough cord and what seems to be a long enough hose. It's only 15 lbs, so it's really easy for me to take up and down the stairs. There are only a couple things I'd change...1) I would have a release foot lever like the Dyson instead of have to step on the head of the vacuum to recline it and 2) I'd probably change the hose configuration so the whole vacuum didn't tip over at times while using it.

While I don't know how long the Shark is going to last, I do know that it seems to do a great job cleaning and it was like 1/4 the price of the Dyson. You do the math.