<p>I have a hoard of incoming house guests and the vacuum cleaner just died. What advice can anyone give me on one that is powerful (2 very hairy cats and a dog here) but not a back-breaker. Any and all advice is welcome! </p>
<p>I will search the back threads but hope someone has some current wisdom as well. thanks.</p>
<p>I have a Hoover Windtunnel upright and am less than thrilled with it. The worst part is the small “beater bar” attachment you can put on the end of the suction tube to clean stairs, etc. The beater bar part on that attachment isn’t electrically powered, it just goes by suction, and as soon as you put it down with any force at all onto the carpet it stops spinning. Useless.</p>
<p>We had an Electrolux cannister that I didn’t like at the time, but now I’m looking back on it fondly. It had to be better than this Hoover.</p>
<p>We got a Roomba a few months after the (very-sheddy) black lab arrived. It turns itself on everyday at 8:00 am and, viola!, we’re hair-free for another day. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend the Roomba for heavy cleaning. (We have a decent 15-year old upright for that.) But, it’s great as an everyday pet-hair-picker-upper.</p>
<p>for 15 years.expensive but it works well</p>
<p>Beam central vac…one of the best investments we ever made…but if your company is coming this week, you might not have enough time.</p>
<p>Dyson Animal</p>
<p>Get it at “Bad Breath and Beyond” with a 20% Off Coupon…haha!</p>
<p>My Hoover “died” last week. 25 years old; I have never done anything except change the bag… took it to a small appliance repair shop, he said it would be 4 days and $40 to fix it up. Not sure when your guests are coming, but it is cheaper than a new one.</p>
<p>Had a Dyson - worst vaccuum I ever had. Now, I bought a cheap Hoover at WM, and it works better that the Dyson ever did!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My experience exactly, lafalum84!</p>
<p>I’m still waiting for the perfect vacuum. My only advice is to avoid Eurekas.</p>
<p>I would say noooo to a Kirby. I don’t know that anyone buys them anymore, but if you get the inkling, back away from that very expensive machine and all of it’s lovely attachments. It’s heavy as heck (which stinks when you are trying to put young children to work), it doesn’t edge worth crud, and the shampoo cleaner makes your rug dirtier in the end because of the residue left behind.</p>
<p>I would love a new one. I’m not sure how long I thing I have to hate this one before I get a new one… I was eyeing the Dyson. I guess not.</p>
<p>Call me crazy, but I do my whole house with my ShopVac. I think it was $30 at Ace Hardware. You can even get a rug attachment. They make bags for them now, so cleanup isn’t bad. Works well on cat and rabbit hair, can’t vouch for dog hair. The down side is it sucks up everything, which may explain my husband’s missing wedding ring…</p>
<p>Your shop must be pretty clean if you consider bringing your shopvac in the house!</p>
<p>I used to rely on Consumer Reports and severla years ago they always seemed to recommend the Sear Kenmore canister vacs ( we have a lot of hardwood and tile floors)</p>
<p>I went thru several of those and then about 4 years ago got annoyed and bought a Oreck - which is guaranteed for 20 years as long as you bring it in for its FREE annual tune-up - I researched on some site like e-pinions first and everyone’s comments were alot alike - expensive but love it.</p>
<p>I do not love it - it is primitive as far as flexibliity and the little canister that came with it has no wheels and the hose pulls out of the attachment and it shows it sucking and holding a bowling ball - but there are no stray bowling balls in my kitchen and it doesn’t get crumpbs up as well as bowling balls. </p>
<p>a month ago I went back to Sears and got another canister.</p>
<p>I bought the Dyson Animal [Dyson</a> DC25 Animal Vacuum (Refurbished) | Overstock.com](<a href=“Bed Bath & Beyond | The Best Deals Online: Furniture, Bedding, Rugs, Kitchen Essentials & Moree”>Bed Bath & Beyond | The Best Deals Online: Furniture, Bedding, Rugs, Kitchen Essentials & Moree) from Overstock.com and like it very much. Fairly heavy but I can use it to clean up after grooming two poodles and all I have to do is open it and dump the hair–no expensive bags.</p>
<p>I have just the regular Dyson plus one cat and one hairy dog. Love my Dyson and I have had it for many years now. I love how it rarely clogs up and when it does it is easy to unclog. The only times it has clogged up has been when I vacuumed something I shouldn’t have- kitchen knife, sock, that sort of thing. I love not having a bag. I just go out and release the can over my outside garbage can.</p>
<p>We have two pretty old Miele cannisters and love them.
One we bought new about 20 years ago and have probably put about $200 into repairs along the way.</p>
<p>The second one I bought about two years ago USED on ebay and it is going fine.
I only bought the second one (which is about 10 years old) because I’m too old/lazy to drag any vacuum up and down stairs anymore. Now one lives up and the other down.
It’s heaven.</p>
<p>AND the two Mieles are in similar generations of Mieles so the hoses, powerturbobrushes, etc are all interchangeable…so I can cannibalize one for the other when (sigh) the time comes.</p>
<p>We have lots of carpet and the suction and pickup with the electric powerbrushes is superb.</p>
<p>Another vote here for the Sears canister! I bought one with a powered hand-held head that is great for getting cat hair off the furniture. In between I use a roomba, which is great at keeping the surface clean.</p>
<p>Miele if you like canister vacs, Dyson if you like uprights. My Dyson does a fabulous job!</p>
<p>A word of caution about using something like a shopvac with no HEPA filters inside the house: the microscopic particulate (dead dust mites, cat dander, etc.) will pass through a regular filter and will be blown into the air as you vacuum. Shopvacs are designed to handle bigger particles, like sawdust.</p>
<p>My first Sears canister lasted 17 years without a repair. Then I went through 4 uprights in 6 years - 4 different brands- and hated them all. I kept thinking I just had a lemon and would try another one because I didn’t want to spend the money on a canister. The sad thing is I am not even a fanatic about housework so there is much irony in them breaking so quickly. Three years ago I bought another Sears canister and I love it.</p>
<p>
I had a Windtunnel, and my opinion is the same.</p>