First off, I can’t even believe I’m writing on this blog about a vacuum cleaner, but we recently purchased a new vacuum and I am amazed at how well it works.
When my wife told me we needed a new vacuum I wondered why she didn’t just buy one, but when she told me she wanted to discuss the purchase because we would be spending quite a bit to replace the one we had. When she told me the price I was shocked. If you haven’t shopped for a vacuum lately, let me tell you, this ain’t your grandma’s Electrolux.
We talked it over and I convinced her that at these prices we didn’t want to make a mistake and we should evaluate what kind of vacuum we really needed. More shocking than the price of these things, was the fact that she agreed to wait to buy one while we evaluated what our vacuum needs were.
We started our evaluation process by looking at our house and the kind of surfaces we need to clean. We live in a 2,500 square foot, two story house with hardwoods and plush carpet throughout. We also have draperies, ceiling fans and of course we have furniture. I have some mild allergies and we have a dog (she doesn’t affect my allergies).
Top on my list was weight. I don’t vacuum the house and I don’t intend to start any time soon. It was clear to me that this thing had to be light enough for my petite little wife to carry up and down the stairs. Top on my wife’s list was its ability to clean. Well, yeah! But she explained to me that we’ve had a number of vacuums during our marriage that didn’t clean worth a hoot. She wanted it to clean our hardwoods as well as our deep pile carpets.
Second on my wife’s list was maneuverability. Many vacuums are self propelled and that’s OK, but she explained to me that it was more important for her to be able to maneuver around objects than simply moving the vacuum across the floor.
While price was important we decided to look at all the vacuums and the various features and benefits they offered before we factored in price. We also agreed to stay with products from manufacturers we recognized.
With our game plan established, we started our search. The first decision we had to make was “canister or upright”. I had done some research prior to our getting started and found that upright vacuums develop more power and suction than canisters. My wife also preferred the upright to the canister because she felt the upright would be easier to maneuver and carry upstairs – bless her heart. So we just focused on upright vacuums.
The next thing we focused on was power and to be more specific, sucking power. We wanted to make sure the vacuum would remove pet hair from our deep pile carpet. We listened to the salesman, we read the web sites and we talked to our friends who owned different kinds of vacuums. Our research, and
even a number of salesmen representing other products, told us that the Dyson Animal vacuum was the best at removing hair from carpets.
We found a Dyson and a number of other brands at our local ACE Hardware Store. I was a little suspicious when I told the clerk that we were looking for an upright vacuum that was good at extracting animal hair. She said you want the Dyson DC25 Animal Upright. She brought one out and demonstrated it for us. The first thing I noticed was that the machine sat on a ball. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but the DC25 sits on a ball that rotates which allows the vacuum to be easily pushed forward and pulled backward. The ball also allows the entire vacuum to rotate around the ball so it can be turned on a dime in any direction by simply swiveling around the ball. This feature answered our question about maneuverability.
The DC 25 Animal is a bag-less vacuum and frankly I’d never heard of such a thing. How would that work? My mother’s vacuum had a bag. Doesn’t everyone’s? My wife has sent me to the hardware store many times for vacuum bags and I’m always amazed at the number of different kinds of bags they carry and I know from experience that bags are not interchangeable. So, not having to worry about a bag would be an advantage, but would it work? The sales clerk demonstrated the DC25 and vacuumed up piles of very fine dust and lint. It worked well and my wife felt it was light enough for her to carry upstairs. Bless her heart.
Even though the Dyson appeared to pick up a pile of dust in the vacuum store, I was concerned that, without a bag, my allergies would be a problem with this vacuum. The sales clerk explained this was a HEPA vacuum. I didn’t know what a HEPA vacuum was, but the clerk explained that a HEPA filtration system cleans the air as it passes through the vacuum and in the process removes allergens and other particles from the air that gives allergy and asthma sufferers fits. The Dyson DC25 Animal Upright has a HEPA filter that can actually be removed, cleaned and used over and over again.
We were impressed, but not ready to buy. I think the clerk could tell we were not totally sold, so she offered us a “loaner” that we could take home and test. We took her up on it. When we got everything home we realized that the DC25 had a number of attachments we were looking for but forgot to ask about. It has an attachment for cleaning furniture fabrics and it does so quite well. As I mentioned, we have a dog and the furniture attachment is very effective in removing dog hair from furniture. It also has an attachment that lets us clean down between the cushions in our furniture and an attachment that lets us clean our ceiling fans.
All of these benefits were great, but the thing that sold us was the way the thing got dog hair out of our carpets. It was amazing. As a matter of fact I couldn’t believe we had so much dog hair in our carpet. I mean, the dang dog should be bald. We were sold. We returned to the hardware store with the loaner and were disappointed to learn they were sold out ad not expecting another shipment from Dyson for a couple of weeks. But, the clerk told us we could order one from online. We left the store and looked up Ace Hardware. There were a few different ones but www.buyacehardware.com was the best we saw as far as price. To our surprise, the DC25 was considerably cheaper through their online store than it was in their brick and mortar store. In fact it was the cheapest of all the Dysons being sold through any online store and they shipped it freight free in about three days. We’ve never looked back. In fact, this thing is so amazing that we talk about it at parties. Well, it’s better conversation than politics.
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