What we should consider when replacing our vacuum cleaners
The beater bars are clean, the engine is loud enough to loft a 737 jet plane, and yet the thread remains stubbornly unmoved. Veins bulge, your life buffers, and you know the time has come to ditch the wheezing anaconda, and look for a new vacuum.
Push or pull, everyone tends to favour one or the other whatever the room-scape, but if you have stairs to deal with, parking up an upright and waving the hose attachment around is wearing. In a larger house, there’s an argument for both types to cover difficult terrain and changes in floor-covering. If you have wrist problems, a cylinder will be potentially less weighty.
Air watts given with every machine are the best measure of its suction power over the size of the engine. This should be shown as a European test standard (IEC60312). 100 air watts are a minimum value for an upright and 220 for a cylinder, so expect more.
Make the most of your hose in a cylinder or upright with a selection of tools. A slender crevice tool will target the crumb canyon in the back of chairs and sofas. With a small separate motor, a head can be a powered turbo-head and not simply a scrub tool.
A machine can only move with you, so judge your strengths and extend and enhance them with a suitable machine. Uprights that lay flat for example are only useful if you can plunge into a squat. The Dyson Ball machines and uprights with twist chassis such as the Miele S7, can shimmy around furniture effortlessly.
A HEPA S class filtered machine has a multi-layer construction that will ensure that nothing larger than about 0.3 microns will be expelled back into the room from the vents. Dyson have just introduced the first filter free machine in the DC54.
If you have a mixture of carpeting and hard flooring, look for a machine that can handle both with a multi-floor head. This can be powered or idle. Counter rotating brushes (divided in two and going in different directions) in a floor head or turbo-tool, cut down on tangled hair and threads in a powered brush head — just about a must-have for pet owners
Bigger bags reduce the number of empties, but keep in mind that with most budget machines, as the bag fills the efficiency of the machine to pick-up goes down. Capacity is not everything. Bagless machines with a trigger action are convenient but respiratory sufferers should be wary of the clouds of dust inevitable when doing the dump. If you have a bagless machine with a filter, it’s vital to keep the filters clean to optimise the vacuums performance.
A good addition to the arsenal. Having checked the unit for weight, take the most of the 15-20 minute running time of a charged machine with a trigger action ON/OFF switch. Great for stairs, upholstery and tidying up the car too. With a wand handle, some machines convert from hand held to a cordless upright. Try out the Hoover CO180B2, €179.99; Argos.
This year, as most years, James Dyson has got the wind up the competition with some innovative technology all his own.
The Cinetic™ cylinder vacuum, launched last month, is filter free and carries the promise of no loss of suction with use for at least 10 years. The much trumpeted new engineering introduction is the oscillating tips on the cone shaped cyclones. These stop dirt being re-distributed back to the air, removing the need for a filter system on the machine. Frankly, I don’t feel stressed at the idea of rinsing my filter a couple of times a month. Sorry James. The machine is quite heavy for a cylinder at 7.6kg but like all Dysons, a humming poem in terms of clever design and ergonomics with legions of followers worldwide.
Best price: €549 in the Animal version, Harvey Norman. DC54 Multifloor, €529.99, www.dyson.ie
While we’re dusting off the top of the tree, I have to mention a machine that really caught my attention, dubbed the Swing in the US.
The S7 Autocare HEPA here in dull, reserved old Europe is a powerful 1800W upright that operates over 14.5 metres, and includes variable power, a swivel-neck that allows it to snake around the legs of furniture with a push of the wrist, an LED headlight for you sport scar enthusiasts, and active HEPA filter that effectively captures 99.5% of particles.
Best of all, it has a patented ‘silence’ setting that drops the motor noise when passing the grazing, dozing family members too elevated, (or lazy), to vacuum. Best price €440. Debenhams.
Robotic cleaners may have seemed like demented science fiction a few decades back, but even the starchy technicians over at the history-making Hoover plant now offer their own robotic cleaner, the Robo.com. I-robot was one of the first and remains the most prestigious of the robot makers, and has gone on to launch an automated floor washer, the Scooba.
The 760 is one of their latest imaginings and features iAdapt® Responsive Cleaning Technology, mapping and vacuuming the entire floor, including hard-to-reach spots under furniture and returning to scrub its little wiry heart out where more effort is needed with its AeroVac boogie with brushes.
Bouncing off the soft-touch bumpers, and with HEPA filtration as standard, you can set the robot to clean up when you’re not even home, returning obediently to its dock to re-charge. €479.99. www.irobot.com/global
They might seem a bit 2006, when our pretensions were high and the last euro had yet to be whisked from our wallets, but central vacuum systems still have a lot to offer, even broaching four figure prices, (self-installed).
First of all, they are quiet — very quiet, as the motor is remotely located in the garage, utility room or basement.
You can listen to the radio, watch TV, and chat while enduring the chore.
They are also a very clean option, floor to dust-bag. Conventional vacuums rely on a system of fine filters to prevent dust, pollens, and other allergens being blasted out the rear vent back into the room. With a central vacuum even microscopic dirt is removed directly to the power unit in whatever storage area you are using without re-circulating pollutants.
This is a fantastic advantage for asthma sufferers.
Also, as the motor is not 3m from your head, the power of the unit does not have to be dampened for noise, and can be let roar out in an extremely powerful motor (four to five times that of a standard upright).
As there is a large receptacle to take the waste, you will only have to deal with emptying the bin about twice a year. The 8 to 10m hose may take a little skipping practise to start but overall, it’s hard to argue against a central system if you can afford and plan for its inclusion. Installation in an extant house involves some disruption.
Walls and floors will have to be opened to carry the ducting to flit that grit invisibly out of your life.
A vent to the outside will be included and you can have a hose position close to your car parking area too.
Best case scenario for a retro-fit according to Cyclovac in Ireland, is a one-day installation, and you should take advantage of the standard free survey and quotation service. Each inlet will cover about 65sqm of floor, so three to eight inlets depending on the floor size and layout.
In a new build, the vacuum system will be positioned during first and second fix in the same way as plumbing and wiring, so it’s important to co-ordinate trades. The diameter of the wand in a central vacuum system should be large enough to rarely block up (Beam offer 28mm as standard, and 50mm in their ducts).
If you have a smaller home with a single car garage, choose a power unit based on economy of size, and ensure the power (wattage) matches the square metres of your home.
Pricing depends on the square metres and layout of the home and the number of inlets required, but for a standard four bedroom, professionally installed, think about €2,000 as a baseline.
Compare features, quality, and pricing when shopping for your system. Ensure your supplier has a number of years in central vacuum system supply and installation, as this is an element buried into the structure of your home.
¦ Beam: www.beamcentrasystems.com
¦ Cyclovac.ie
¦ Aldes from RVR.ie
¦ Husky from www.vacuumsystems.ie (Murphy Enterprises)
¦ DuoVac (Canada). www.ashbrookgroup.ie
¦ Sach at www.centralvacuumireland.ie
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