Vacuum cleaners

[JakeS]

Not very woodworky, I know, but you guys are a mine of knowledge and I figure that there's a bit of a crossover interest with workshop vacuums...

The one ongoing argument I have with my girlfriend revolves around vacuum cleaners. For some time before we got together I managed with a bag-collector Bosch which I had no problems with for many years. Once we moved in she bought a Vax upright with a cyclone collector, declaring that my old Bosch gives off a smell that I'm incapable of detecting and that we should avoid using it.

I wouldn't care that much, but the Vax throws an inordinate amount of dust into the air whenever it's used, and it gives me problems with my asthma. Taking the HEPA filter out, there's a considerable amount of visible dust over the inside of the vacuum on the 'clean' side of the filter, leading me to believe that the filter simply doesn't work very well. (I've checked the seals and looked through the filter with a bright light, I don't see any obvious problems. I tried taking this up with Vax, they tried to fob me off with unrelated excuses and then started ignoring my emails).


She is adamant that bag-collecting vacuums are the work of the devil and should be outlawed, while I'm desperate to find a vacuum that we can use without me being unable to breathe for hours afterwards. My mother, who is also asthmatic, reckons that all bagless cleaners throw dust around like nobody's business.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Are the pleated-filter HEPA filters really so awful in general, or are the ones Vax supplies just rubbish? I've never had any problems with my dust extractor, which uses a bag over a pleated filter, and the Lidl wet-n-dry vac I got a little while ago gives me no problems (but apparently that smells funny too, is hard to move around and the hose is too long (?!)).

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Our Dyson is very good, the foam filter hardly gets dirty, so it must do a good job of removing the dust before it gets to the filter.

Pete

 

[JakeS]

Our Dyson is very good, the foam filter hardly gets dirty, so it must do a good job of removing the dust before it gets to the filter.

Cheers - I don't suppose you happen to know the model?

 

[Dibs-h]

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Yeah - change the gilfriend. :lol: Sorry only kidding mate.

We have a Dyson DC01 (yes still) and no issues with it & the kids don't seem bothered by it. Well, apart from the little one & she's never really tolerated the noise. :lol:

Dibs

 

[Racers]

Hi, Jake

I will look tonight, but any of the new ones will have the same performance.

Pete

 

[moppetsdad]

Sebo are the way to go they have a bag so you don't get covered in dust when you empty then and by heck they don't half pack the dust into it, I once weighed a full bag and it contained 5lbs of dust plus you can clean the carpet with them I would not touch a dyson with a barge pole after having one and then getting a Sebo

 

[kostello]

Miele

 

[toysandboats]

+1 for Sebo.
Dyson are very good but a visit to the local tip shows a large collection of dead Dyson machines.
My Sebo X1 is now 16 years old and still going strong with excellent suction


David

 

[cutting42]

There is only one answer and it is Sebo - The finest vacuum cleaner ever IMHO. I have travelled extensively and have seen nearly every hotel in Europe and the USA use a Sebo or a rebadged Sebo. Yes it is a trad bag type but it is built to last, all the spares are available and my mother in law, for whom the phrase "mechnically inept" was invented for, can strip it down and rebuild it with direction from the phone support line.

Ours must be 15 years old and can still suck the chrome off a trailer hitch, to coin a phrase. It does not lose its suck when the bag is full thereby dismissing the myth of Dyson and is perfect for a house full of asthmatics and hay fever sufferers.

Edit, ours is the simple X1

 

[No skills]

Miele

After some research last year Miele has become my choice for our next vac, a bagged model. After a few bagless vac's (including a dyson) I've come to the conclusion that they are crap. Well ok not crap but not as good as they should be.

JMO

 

[JakeS]

Yeah - change the gilfriend. :lol:

I figure I'm pretty lucky to find someone with whom my only ongoing argument is about a vacuum cleaner! ;-)

Thanks for all the recommendations, guys, you've given me some stuff to look for. Unfortunately the one point she's adamant on is that we shouldn't be looking at bag-collection vacuums, although I do get the impression that they're better at keeping stuff in!

(I saw a Samsung mentioned on the Allergy-UK site with a 'water filter' - no sign of it on the Samsung site, though!)

 

[Steve Maskery]

I have a Vax. I would not buy another one.
S

 

[jimmyhenson]

We have a Miele and the only argument is who uses it. The replacement bags come with spare filters, so on every 2nd bag change you change the filter. They do a few different models.

 

[moppetsdad]

Men talking about domestic appliances what ever next!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

K.i.s.s. - stick with a Henry, and always use a paper bag. Way cheaper and more efficient than most competitors.
I had a Vax, and wouldn't buy another.

 

[chippy1970]

Miele are the best vacs you can buy if your budget will stretch to them.
This is my expert opinion from years of borrowing customers hoovers to tidy up at the end of a days work :grin:

If not Henry's are the next best I have two one for home and one I keep in the van. They now have hepa bags and work very well.

 

[Harbo]

We have an Oreck which we saw being used in several USA hotels.
It's an upright, uses bags and has no fancy attachments but comes with a very long lead and still works really well after 20yrs.

Rod

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I worked in a hotel where Nilfisks were used (they were good) until someone realised that for the cost of the maintenance contracts, they could buy new Henrys every year.

 

[RogerS]

....

Does anyone have any recommendations? ....).

Yes. Get another girlfriend! Seriously, your health comes before any fancy ideas she might have about bagged vs bagless IMO.

 

[tekno.mage]

I'd recommend a Henry - yes they normally use bags, but you could probably use one without the bag (providing you frequently wash the main filter) or try the wet & dry kind, or a Numatic workshop vacuum. They don't throw dust into the air as they have very effective filtration - years ago Henrys were the only vacuums we were allowed to use in mainframe computer rooms (which had disk drives in that did not like dust of any kind).

I can't understand this desire for bagless household vacuums. Two of my small workshop dust extractors are bagless designs. They both have a paperbag filter over the motor inlet and a cloth filter. Neither chucks dust into the air when in use, but both are horrible to empty. Despite doing this out of doors and sliding a bag over the dust collector bucket before upending it to remove the dust/shavings you are surrounded by a cloud of the fine dust every time :-(