Also, look for a vintage Kirby. I hear those are indestructible.
Oh, I have a 1908 manually-operated vacuum. It still sucks! But cleaning an entire floor with it would also...
Also, look for a vintage Kirby. I hear those are indestructible.
Oh, I have a 1908 manually-operated vacuum. It still sucks! But cleaning an entire floor with it would also...
In reply to jere:
the answer to the shop vac on the stairs is picking up or improvising enough additional hose to be able to leave the unit at the bottom.
How about one of those industrial strength back pack types? I've seen one suck up a cat. 
When we bought this place 12 years ago, my wife's only requirement was that it have a central vac. I paid good money and bought what I thought was a good one. We are on the third motor-and they're not cheap. A few years after that, my friend bought a new house with the central roughed in. He installed a shop vac on it for a fraction of what I paid for my fancy central unit, and it worked very well. I'll probably do the same when it's time to replace this one.
wearymicrobe wrote:EvanR wrote: No luck with Dyson. Their DC41 "Animal" vacuum didn't make it 10 minutes in my house before it clogged and stopped working. 10 minutes for $650 comes out to almost $4,000 per hour. Too rich for my blood. Yes, their customer service is great. I told them it didn't last 15 minutes before it stopped working, and they gladly accepted my return.Dude what is on your floor, leafs, assorted fruits and berries. It takes some skill to clog a Dyson that fast, even with four long hair cats we cannot clog the darn thing.
^what he said. We have 5 dogs and 4 cats and the Dyson is the only thing that has survived more than 6 months in our house. Ours is going on 5 years old now with no issues.
Our house came with a central vac, wife used it once and then bought the Dyson, just too cumbersome in her opinion.
Yeah... I'm still trying to wrap my head around what they hell you're trying to vacuum that's clogging a Dyson Animal in 10 minutes.
Maybe you should start with this?
What is the fail point on your existing vacums? If hair is causing the rotating brush to fail, simply cutting and pulling out the hair should fix the vacum.
I think I'm understanding the real problem. I'm guessing your carpet pad is degrading below your carpet, as well as your actual carpet.
That's why you are vacuuming up so much material. You should consider spending 'expensive vacuum money' on replacing both the carpet and the pad. Or just go with hard flooring and a broom and never buy a vacuum again, except a shopvac for the shop!
Here is what I would do. Call one of those carpet cleaner places, like Stanley Steemer. Have them come out and do your carpet and then go out and get a Dyson.
I think that he needs to either get the landlord to replace the backing and carpet, or else just use the ShopVac.
Have you tried emptying the container after say, 5 minutes? 
novaderrik wrote:Grtechguy wrote: Do what I did. Get rid of the carpet and replace with hardwoods/tileswouldn't it be easier to just bring the air hose in from the garage and blow everything out the door?
Yeah, actually, what doesn't get blown out the doors lands on top of the ceiling fans and cabinets, where you'll never see it again!
OK, maybe a bit pricey, but these are pretty awesome:
petegossett wrote: Also, look for a vintage Kirby. I hear those are indestructible.
This. I watched my 9yo suck up a sheet of paper the other day with ours. It promptly shredded it and shot it in the bag. It weighs in at a little over 50 pounds, but it's self propelled, so even a 9yo can use it with no problems.
I think ours is from the 70s.
EastCoastMojo wrote: Have you tried emptying the container after say, 5 minutes?
True. When we first got the Dyson, we had to empty to container about 5 times the first time we vacuumed the living room carpet. It was amazing how much cat hair the thing picked up that her old Eureka couldn't budge.
HEPA-like filters are available for shop vacs (designed for vacuuming drywall dust), but you do have to clean them often, which is a freakin' dirty job...
I actually prefer a shop vac for our wood floors. Does the job great, gets in the crevices, and takes out cobwebs instantly. I have zero carpet in our house, so we got a Roomba instead. Little sucker does a good job but you have to clean it out every time.
I swear my Dyson is sucking dirt in from another dimension or something.
2 big dogs that shed [u]a lot[/u] in our household.
Been going over 2 years on a "E36 M3ty" $60 dirt devil vac from wal mart. I clean or change the filter sometimes.We have to dump the catch bin very frequently because of the amount of dog hair it has to suck up. I've had to tape the hose with gorilla tape because it started separating. But if I have to replace a $60 vaccuum every several years I guess I will do it, I'm not spending several hundred dollars on one. Because other than them sucking more, are they really THAT much better?
failboat wrote: 2 big dogs that shed [u]a lot[/u] in our household. Been going over 2 years on a "E36 M3ty" $60 dirt devil vac from wal mart. I clean or change the filter sometimes.We have to dump the catch bin very frequently because of the amount of dog hair it has to suck up. I've had to tape the hose with gorilla tape because it started separating. But if I have to replace a $60 vaccuum every several years I guess I will do it, I'm not spending several hundred dollars on one. Because other than them sucking more, are they really THAT much better?
Before I used my moms Dyson, I would have said no. Now I'm searching for a Dyson on craigslist. Easily worth the $300-$600, but I'm going to try to pay less than $100.
failboat wrote: 2 big dogs that shed [u]a lot[/u] in our household. Been going over 2 years on a "E36 M3ty" $60 dirt devil vac from wal mart. I clean or change the filter sometimes.We have to dump the catch bin very frequently because of the amount of dog hair it has to suck up. I've had to tape the hose with gorilla tape because it started separating. But if I have to replace a $60 vaccuum every several years I guess I will do it, I'm not spending several hundred dollars on one. Because other than them sucking more, are they really THAT much better?
Yes. We have had as many as 3 dogs and 4 cats in the house at one time and the Dyson is absolutely incredible at cleaning the fur out or carpets and pulling it out from under furniture and appliances. You can watch the hair tumbleweeds scoot across the floor to the vacuum on a hardwood or linoleum surface.
One of the tests that Dyson recommends is that you vacuum your house with your old vac, then vacuum over the same area (carpet of course) with the Dyson and see how much more it will pull out of that carpet. It will gross you out.
EastCoastMojo wrote: One of the tests that Dyson recommends is that you vacuum your house with your old vac, then vacuum over the same area (carpet of course) with the Dyson and see how much more it will pull out of that carpet. It will gross you out.
To be fair, if you do this with any vacuum, then take that same vacuum and completely clean it and change the filter and everything, you will get similar results.
mtn wrote:EastCoastMojo wrote: One of the tests that Dyson recommends is that you vacuum your house with your old vac, then vacuum over the same area (carpet of course) with the Dyson and see how much more it will pull out of that carpet. It will gross you out.To be fair, if you do this with any vacuum, then take that same vacuum and completely clean it and change the filter and everything, you will get similar results.
Want to be even more disgusted? Pull up your carpet and see what is under it. After yanking the carpet out of a house I was renovating I swore I'd never have carpet again. My 50 year old house has old school (not urethane treated) wood floors with tile in the bathroom and vinyl floor in the kitchen.
Not in my experience. I tried vacuuming over the same area after emptying the old vac, and the old vac didn't pull up anything significant the second time around. The Dyson however, did.
mtn wrote:EastCoastMojo wrote: One of the tests that Dyson recommends is that you vacuum your house with your old vac, then vacuum over the same area (carpet of course) with the Dyson and see how much more it will pull out of that carpet. It will gross you out.To be fair, if you do this with any vacuum, then take that same vacuum and completely clean it and change the filter and everything, you will get similar results.
No you won't. Just follow along after a Dyson with another vac and you'll see the difference. I don't know why the Dyson does such an awesome job but it does.
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