Vacuum Cleaner Reviews

This vacuum cleaner will vacuum your floors for you. That sounds great in theory, but I was very sceptical about this vacuum cleaner. I am a firm believer in “if you want it done right, do it yourself” and this just seemed like the kind of thing that would drive me crazy. I figured there was no way a tiny robotic vacuum could clean as good as me with a real vacuum. I turned out to be in for a suprise.

Since this vacuum cleaner is unlike traditional vacuum, I’m going to take some time to explain exactly how it works. First of all, there are two parts to the vacuum: the actual vacuum robot and the wall unit. The wall unit can be placed on the floor at a doorway. The wall unit will send out an infared beam across the doorway to close off the vacuum to a specific area of the house. You start the Roomba in the center of your room and press start. Then the iRobot will start vacuuming from the center of the room toward the outter edges of the room in a spiral pattern. The Roomba can also go from carpet to hard floors effortlessly. It automatically detects what type of floor it is on and adjusts accordingly. It can vacuum carpets, rugs, tile, wood floor, etc. The iRobot Roomba can do up to 120 minutes of continuous cleaning before it must be plugged in to recharge it’s batteries, which gives it enough time to clean atleast 1000 sq. ft.

I must admit- I was amazed at how much the Roomba picked up. The first time I tried it, I had just cleaned my floors, so I didn’t really expect it to pick up much, I was just testing it and playing with my new toy. But to my suprise it sucked up a lot of dirt and dust. More than my regular vacuum usually picks up on a dirty day. Its even great at picking up dog hair.

There were only a few minor flaws I found with the Roomba. For one, you can’t leave anything out that the Roomba could possible get caught in. This includes wires, cords, long tassles on rugs, etc. If the iRobot rolls over a wire it could get caught in the rollers. So, you may not want to leave it running while you are away because it doesn’t auto-shut off when this happens. Also, the Roomba finds its way around the room my running into walls, so it does get a little scratched up with normal use.

Overall I love the iRobot Roomba, but I’m not ready just yet to completely disregard my “real” vacuum cleaner. I suggest using the Roomba for weekly maintenance and pull out the big vacuum every now and then to get things extra clean.

The Electrolux Harmony is a light weight canister vacuum that claims to be the quiested vacuum in the world. It is so quite, you could vaccum while someone was sleeping and they would never wake up! This canister vacuum not only works great on carpets, but also on hard floors, furniture, drapery, and stairs. Its also great at picking up pet hair. The vacuum is ergonomically designed so that you don’t have to bend over as much, thus saving your back from pain. The vacuum also lets you know when the dust bag is full and needs replacing. The one downside we found to the Electolux Harmony was the size of the dust bags. They are small and require requent changing. They are also difficult to find in local stores, but you can buy the a set of 4 bags for $9.99 online. I would also note that Electrolux advertising claims the vacuum comes with a washable HEPA H12
filter, which it does not. The HEPA filter is optional, and must be bought in addition to the vacuum. Currently the washable HEPA filter cost $30.

The Hoover Floormate works on hard floor surfaces and it cleans both wet and dry. To use the hoover floormate vacuum first you vacuum up the dirt, dust, etc. with the dry side. Then, you use the wet side of the hoover floormate to scrub floors with special cleaning liquid. Lastly, you can vacuum up the excess liquid left behind. One draw back of the hoover floormate is that you must buy the special cleaning fluid, which tends to be expensive. The hoover floormate is still a great solution for anyone who has a house full of hard floor surfaces. It tends to work especially well on hard wood floors. The hoover floormate is faster and easier than traditional mopping. However, don’t throw away your mop and bucket just yet. You may still need a thorogh mopping job every now and then because the floormate just can’t replace the mop for deep down clean. I would suggest the Hoover floormate for anyone looking for a quick and convenient way to clean a house full of hard floors.

This Eureka Whirlwind Vacuum is a bagless vacuum that uses whirlwind technology to suck the dirt out of your carpets. And I was amazed at how much dirt it vacuumed up from my carpet. The Eureka whirlwind has such great suction that it will pick up more than your average vacuum. It also has a sealed HEPA filter, so it won’t recycle dirty air back into your home. This eureka vacuum’s head has a wide head of 15 inches, which allows you to cover more ground quickly. You also have the option of turning off the brushroll usually used for carpets and use only suction to clean hard surface floors as well. The Eureka whirlwind vacuum seems to clean hard floor better than most upright vacuums because of its good suction. One flaw with the whirlwind is that it is a little messy to try to empty out the bagless collection compartment. Also, because its made of plastic and difficult to get out, I could see how it could break if you weren’t careful. Although, for the price of the eureka whirlwind, you’re still getting a great vacuum at an even better value. Currently Amazon is offering free shipping plus $25 off this product, which is already priced 57% off the list price. It’s a great deal for the Eureka Whirlind.