Current home design trends are breaking away from a household full of wall to wall carpets in every room. Now a mixture is in play with many consisting of laminate or hard wood floor surfaces, lightweight area rugs, and oriental rugs, a few rooms with wall to wall carpet and steps wooded or carpet. With all these types of floor surfaces to clean along with upholstered furniture and curtains, the question of the best vacuum for a household arises.

Carpets and Rugs

A vacuum with an electric motor powered revolving agitator brush roll is the best choice. This could be any upright vacuum, a canister vacuum with a power nozzle or central vacuum with electric power nozzle. Agitation on a carpet not only removes dog hair easily and leaves a gorgeous groomed appearance but it also separates the carpet fibers allowing the suction stream and bristles to sweep and suck out damaging gritty objects such as sand, small stones, dust mites and other foreign objects all the way down to the base of the carpet pile. The electric powered brush roll is much better than air powered for allowing higher more consistent RPMs of the brushroll. Generally a faster spinning brush roll provides the best cleaning performance.

Hard Floor Surfaces

Suction only cleaning is the only recommended method. A bare floor brush with soft, stationary bristles or felt padding type material that dusts the floor and sweeps any fine matter into the suction stream. These tools are generally extremely low profile, very gentle, lightweight and highly maneuverable allowing the user to easily clean floors behind toilets, around chair legs, under refrigerator doors and of course large open areas to immediately suck in dirt along baseboards or wherever it hides. They also are great for dusting walls and removing cobwebs from ceilings.

Gentle is the key word for cleaning hard floors. Cleaning is just that as the purpose is to help restore and preserve a surface to look its best without damaging it. A spinning agitator brush is terrific for carpets but for hard floor surfaces the marks of the spinning brush roll are quite unappealing, and ruins any waxed or polished finished including scratching the surface of the floor and chipping grout. On linoleum flooring, rubber mats and some other delicate floors a vacuums spinning brushes can actually burn through the surface all the way to the bottom leaving permanent damage. A spinning brush also causes many fine particles to just be kicked out the back of the machine instead of sucked away. This is counterproductive for cleaning a house and causes more dust on furniture and elsewhere.

Best Choice

The all around best of both worlds is a canister vacuum with electric power nozzle. Many canister vacuums have electric power heads that provide excellent carpet cleaning results. The power nozzles are lightweight and low profile for easy cleaning under beds, low furniture or even automotive interior. The power nozzles detach very easily with a step on quick release button to attach a most likely included separate bare floor tool. Otherwise for about $15 it’s a very easy to get accessory from your preferred vacuum repair shop, which they can help you find the best one to fit your needs and machine.

If you’re a Die Hard Upright fan you can do one of two things. 1) Pick out an excellent deep cleaning upright vacuum for your carpets. Buy a separate canister vacuum for your bare floor needs and any attachment work that you have. There are many sizes of suction only or included power nozzle canisters on the market to fit your needs and desires. 2) Find an upright vacuum with a brush roll shut off switch. You can try doing your hard floors this way with the brush roll shut off or better yet, ask your vacuum shop for an extension hose, bare floor tool and some extension wands to fit with your upright vacuum that has included on board tool storage. Evacuumstore.com can help you outfit your vacuum with adapters, wands, bare floor brushes, etc. to turn your upright vac into an easy to use attachment ready machine at a very reasonable price.

In order to move towards a more sustainable future, Green Seal and other related companies are working in an eco-friendly manner to expedite the process.  The floor cleaning industry is working together to provide green cleaning alternatives to abide by standards set by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) and Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).  Vacuum cleaners are no exception.  In fact, vacuum cleaners are one of the major frontiers being explored regarding the expansion of environmentally friendly products.

The CRI categorizes vacuum cleaners into three levels based on certain factors that pertain to reducing emissions while cleaning with high efficiency.  These three levels of classifications are gold, silver and bronze, each of which has their own requirements that a vacuum cleaner must meet to be considered.  A bronze level vacuum must clean up 40 to 49 percent of soil and its emissions must hold particles less than or equal to 100 micrograms.  A silver level vacuum must meet the same emission requirements but must also remove 50-54% of soil.  For a vacuum cleaner to be classified in the gold level it must get rid of greater than 54 percent of soil and contain particles less than or equal to 35 micrograms within its emissions.  All of these statistics are calculated in a testing environment sanctioned by the CRI.  Among these tests, vacuums must also not alter the texture of a carpet or rug based on a simulation of a single year of cleaning.

There are obvious benefits found from using a CRI approved vacuum cleaner, validating why Green Seal recommends them so highly.  They encourage individuals to clean with machines containing only high-efficiency filters which have a vacuum bag, in order to help guarantee the best possible air quality for the home or business in question.  Green Seal advises that vacuum cleaner bags should be emptied when they are half full, as this helps to further prevent the escaping of harmful particles into the air.  Filtration is one of the primary factors to concern oneself with when in the market for a new sweeper, especially if allergies and asthma are an issue.  However, as outlined by LEED requirements, a green vacuum cleaner must operate at less the 70 decibels in order to keep noise pollution to a minimum.  Green Seal urges consumers to stray from cleaning products like dusters and move more towards self-contained vacuums in order to trap particles as opposed to circulating them.

Green vacuums are some of the best options to consider regarding floor care products of any kind.  They guarantee increased suction power with lowered emissions which means cleaner floors and better air quality.  Whether you’re a homeowner or a business owner this style of vacuum cleaner is sure to meet your specific needs and then some.  College students are also encouraged to make use of these eco-friendly machines as most colleges attempt to go green.  The low sound output from these sweepers make them the ideal sweepers for college dorm rooms and apartments, as they are less likely to disturb others.  The advancement in filtration and technology in general has been a beneficial process for the vacuum cleaner and there are certainly more improvements to come in the near future.

Electrolux has been making high quality vacuum cleaners in the U.S. since the roaring 20’s and has been recognized by the Smithsonian.  Using quality cleaning equipment like Electrolux vacuum cleaners is the best way to keep your home clean.  Many homes have varieties of surfaces that need to be cleaned. Purchasing the right type of vacuum cleaner requires that you know what kind of surfaces you need to clean such as: wood, vinyl, tile, walls, ceiling, rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture and draperies. Maneuverability is an important factor.  Is your home multi level?  Do you own pets?  Do you have allergies?

Electrolux central vacuums are designed for multi surface flooring and have highly effective cleaning attachments.  The motorized power head is a most effective tool for removing dirt and pet hair from the nap of the carpet. If weight is a problem than you will no longer have to carry a heavy vacuum up and down stairs.  You can have better than HEPA filtration with the option to exhaust the central vacuum outside.

Electrolux Canister has been upgraded from their original design and use HEPA filtration to remove harmful particles from the air and provides relief from allergies and asthma.These machines are very lightweight and easy to pull around and work extremely well on both carpets and hard floors.

Electrolux Upright Vacuums cleaners are either bagged or bag-less and both styles come with HEPA filters to keep air in your home clean with superior filtration. The Upright has a revolving beater brush that works well on rugs and carpets.

Be a smart shopper make sure the company you are dealing with is an authorized dealer for the manufacturer. Electrolux Central Vacuums can be installed in a new or existing home.  To learn more what is the right vacuum cleaner for  your home call 866-972-8227 and a customer service consultant will be able to help you. 

Have you been noticing a reduced amount of suction in your central vacuum system? Does your power unit’s motor sound strained? Does one cleaning inlet provide more suction than another? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your central vacuum system may be clogged. Thankfully, it is a simple task to find where most clogs are located. There are three different types of clogs to look for: 

*Bag/Filter Clog: If you have neglected to maintain your motor unit, or have recently vacuumed up fine particles, the motor unit’s bag or filter might be clogged. If this were the case, you would experience low suction from every inlet, including the inlet located on the unit itself. If you own a bagless unit, washing or replacing the filter will solve this problem. In a bagged unit, replacing the bag will do the same. A dirty pre-motor filter should be replaced as well. 

*Hose Clog:  If you are experiencing low suction at each of your inlets, and you have made sure your motor unit’s bag or filter is not clogged, your hose may be the problem. An easy way to check for a hose clog is to turn on the motor unit manually, opening an inlet without the hose, and feeling the suction there. To turn on the unit manually, refer to your owner’s manual, although most units will have a switch on the side marked AUTO and ON, or something similar.  You want to turn the switch to ON. If good suction is coming from the inlets, your hose is clogged. This can be solved by running a  plumber's snake through the hose. 

*Inlet or Piping Clog: If just one or a few inlets experience reduced suction, then the clog is located within the walls. There are a few ways to solve this. The easiest way is to insert a shopvac or canister vacuum hose into the inlet and try to suction out the clog.   A product called TornadoPower Maintenance Cloths might be able to remove the clog. You could also try to run a plumber’s snake through the inlet. If all fails and you can’t remove the clog yourself, call your local central vacuum dealer for help. 

Keeping your system free of clogs will not only allow you to clean better, but will also prolong the life of your motor.  Happy Cleaning! 

It has come to our attention that that one of our competitors is selling a vacuum cleaner for $1,000,000 which they claim to be gold plated.  The weight of this vacuum cleaner if only 16 lbs and there are 16 ounces in a pound.  The current market price of an ounce of gold  is $1570 as of 6/27/2012.  When you break down the math, the vacuum cleaner weighs 256 ounces and therefore the current gold value of a solid gold machine would be $401,920.  Since our competitor sells a gold plated vacuum cleaner the value would be significantly less so therefore this vacuum cleaner is not worth its weight in gold!  As the old Latin saying goes “Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware.” 

UPC-60893974724

Model Number: GV62711

*Note: 60893974724 is not a valid UPC, this can be checked by doing a Google seach for a UPC validater.  The picture of the vacuum cleaner they advertise is a Royal Vacuum Cleaner.