Who know's vacuums?

[Exodus_2pt0]

I'm sick of spending 1-$200 on the not-bottom-shelf-but-not-top-shelf-either vacuum's just to have them fail to give good carpet head after 3 months.

Been looking around Craigslist at things like a Dyson ball, can be had for $150 or so used.

Any advice on buying a high end vacuum on the used market? Things to look for?

Going to be a late Christmas present for my wife, she has been begging me for a new vaccum but as I said, I'm sick of having the lower end ones die, but I'm not willing to drop $500 on one.

[Holland]

When I was looking for Vacuums, I couldn't find one with a good review. I read quite a bit about the Dyson Ball being quite disappointing as well.

[Swanny]

Shark

[Shangsta]

We have a dyson(the older yellow version that came before the ball) that has been working trouble free for the last 10 years. It is only now starting to lose a bit of its suction power.

[flyboyx]

this week we just bought a new dyson dc40 animal. that thing is light weight, will suck a golf ball through a garden hose and only cost 250 shipped to our door. up until now, my wife has had orek's for years. in comparison, the latter are overpriced pieces of dog shit.

after years of the orek, (she vacuums 2x/week) we ran the dyson across the carpet and filled the canister with one pass of pet hair and dust/sand that was imbedded in the carpet. the orek is going on the trash pile. its criminal what a piece of shit that thing is.

[LJ851]

Read this.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_repair_technician_and_i_cant_believe/

[F34R]

Rainbow, it is a bag less water bowl style. Only draw back is the price. They cost as much as a used e30. My mother had to buy one due to getting Lupus. Pretty much any mold or spore causing an infection in her lungs. You would be shocked at what conventional vacuums leave behind/spit out of the filter.

Electrolux is my next best suggestion.

[blunttech]

I bought the Dyson ball for the office. I got it with airline miles but you can get them for 150. Thing works really well. Its lightweight and feels somewhat cheap in a few areas because of the plastic construction but if youre careful it will be fine. It handles really nicely in stock form and can really corner. Im looking at some Condor bushings to see if I can adapt them so I can really rip it up . I may set up an autox course if I do follow through with it

[Todd Black 88]

My wife and I went through 4 upright, shitty, vacuums in about 6years. Then we bought a Meile canister style and have not looked back.
It's very quiet, and has not broken in 9 years.

[Stanley Rockafella]

my GF and I got a new Bosch canister off CL from someone. Dunno the original price, but we paid something like $100.

It's been the best damn vacuum we've ever owned! her previous one was some crappy thing that hardly did anything. this one is amazing, esp considering how old it is now

[jhaurimn]

Read this.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment..._cant_believe/

READ THIS! Was going to come in to post this.

[Kevinl]

Why cant they build a F'ing bag vacuum that last 20 years like the old days these canister vacs are all junk

I know oreck makes some but when did it become okay to buy a $300 vacuum

[mrsleeve]

you ought to be able to find a old Kirby on Ebay or Clist or something for about 8 bucks. They are HEAVY but they are decent and LAST FOR EVER, everyone has had at least one of those things. They my be ugly, heavy and cumbersome, but did i mention they LAST FOR EVER. The biggest thing I always liked about them is that they are serviceable my moms is pushing 30 years old, and still going strong, my inlaws have one as well and its about that old as well, though they bought a mid level hoover about 10 years ago and semi retired the kirby. Its one of those cases where the dont build them like they used too, these are built like a tank

[Todd Black 88]

My sister still has my mothers Electrolux canister vacuum from the 70's. Works a treat.

[MC Hammered]

I needed to get a new vacuum to help get rid of a carpet beetle hair issue.

Looked at buying a Dyson ball unit, started doing the research and almost fell into the marketing hype. Ended up buying a refurb Meile S762 from www.mchardyvac.com.

We have a local Meile showroom where I could go test out their entire lineup. Skip the S4 units as they are not a sealed canister, start with the S6 and up. The Meile agent performed a few tests to show me there is more to a vacuum than just suction.

- dropped a cup of white flour on a carpet and let me suck it up, no flour was being expelled out of the exhaust of the vacuum as it was being trapped by the bag and standard non-hepa filter. The vacuum bags had a sealing flap so when the canister is opened to extract the bag the flour (dust) is kept inside the bag.
- sucked up a few plastic bags with no loss in suction power
- put a bunch of fur on a carpet, sucked it up with the power head attachment with no tangling and loss of suction power.

I went to a Dyson showroom to do the same tests and brought my own white flour and plastic bags to do the same tests.

- Dyson unit sucked up the flour but it ended up coming out of the exhaust, flour was everywhere inside the bagless canister which meant I would have to open it and clean it up.
- sucked up some plastic bags and after 3 of them there was a loss of suction because the bags wrapped up around the center of the vacuum blocking the airflow.

What also sold me on the Meile was the fact the agent never tried to upsell me on the vacuum I needed to solve my problem. I thought I needed a HEPA filter unit, she said most people do not so try the standard filter first as it can trap fine dust (the flour test) and if I really needed a HEPA filter is a an easy upgrade by just swapping out the filter element.

The Meile cost $400 shipped and I can see this vacuum lasting a long time as it is a well built unit. I have easily spent more than this amount for crappier, cheap vacuums in the last few years.