Choosing Canister Vacuum Cleaner

The major criteria involved with choosing a canister

vacuum cleaner is what floor surfaces you plan to

clean versus the power of the vacuum. Almost all

canister vacuum cleaners offer 3 choices of tools

for the surfaces of floors:

1. A bare floor hard plastic brush that's

about 10" - 12" wide with soft bristles.

2. Turbo brush that features a spinning

drum roller with harder bristles.

3. A power head brush that is similar to

the turbo brush although it is powered by a seperate

motor.

Both the turbo brush and power head brush vacuums

have a spinning drum roller with bristles that

resemble that of an upright vacuum cleaner. While

the brushes look and perform pretty much the same,

the power head brush vacuum has a smaller seperate

motor that turns the brush on the bottom of it,

therefore making it more powerful and much more

aggressive than the turbo type brush that is

turned by the flow of air being pulled past it.

These types of brushes will snap the fibers of

the carpet and allow the air to get beneath the

dirt particles. If you can't get air to go under

these particles, then you won't be able to suck

them out, regardless of how much suction power you

are able to apply with a vacuum cleaner.

When you purchase a turbo or power head vacuum

cleaner to be used primarily on carpet surfaces,

you'll also receive a brush for bare floors as

well that is perfect for areas without carpet.

The rule of thumb as to which model of vacuum

cleaner you should choose is:

1. The bare floor model of canister

vacuum cleaners are perfect for smooth surfaces

with no expectation of having rugs or carpeting.

The best choices for bare floor vacuum cleaners

include Eureka Oxygen 6992 and the Miele Solaris

Canister.

2. Turbo types of canister vacuum cleaners

are best for scatter rugs and low pile wall to

wall type carpeting. The best picks here are the

EIO family vacuum cleaner, the Miele Solaris, and

the Sebo Turbo canister vacuum cleaner.

3. The power head brush types of vacuum

cleaners are great for wall to wall carpeting and

very important if you deal with pet hair. The best

picks here include the Sebo Canister 3.1, the

Miele Silver Moon, and the Eureka Oxygen 6996.

Some of the other important features for canister

vacuum cleaners include reliability, purchase price,

HEPA filter and sealed unit, the cost of replacement

filters and bags, weight, storage and quality of

tools, control locations, noise, adjustable wand,

retractable cord, ease of changing attachments,

bag change indicator, filter change indicator, swivel

hose, and other extra features such as dirt alerts.

Almost all canister vacuums are similar in size,

offer similar radiuses of cleaning, and come with

the same tool attachments.