Anyone care to advise on vacuum cleaners? Not the most riveting subject I know :)

Get one upstairs and one down . I have a Sebo which is good for hair and a Dyson animal for light sweeps when there is a breakfast crumb trail(glaring at DH)

One up (old Hoover cat and dog), one down (lightweight Vax)
Both have extension hoses for the stairs.

I just went in to a shop and wandered around trying various makes then ordered the Vax on line with a hefty discount

I would have two, if possible. A robotic one for downstairs, and a cheap cylinder for upstairs and the stairs. Although I do take the robot upstairs quite often. My back and my sanity have been saved.

I have a big Vax, which I use for upstairs and the stairs, and a Neato. The newer models are supposedly very good if you get the model with pet hair brush and filter option. I have a cheaper older one, too much hair means fiddling about with the drive belt rather too regularly, but as a cleaner I can't fault it.

I have a Dyson Animal and find it very good, I have a mix of carpet and wood and long hair rug, its fine and even with my decrepit bones I can manage perfectly well taking it up or downstairs. I've had it a long while and when we had cats it was great on animal hair.

I have the Miehle Cat and Dog, but if I could afford it I would have a lightweight /handheld one upstairs as well for the occasional spill.

We have a Roomba - and wish we had bought one years ago. It is a robotic cleaner and whizzes around carpet and hard floors to brilliant effect - and neither of our bad backs is put under stress - they are cheaper than you think!

We also have a dust buster style hand held for the stairs.

I've gone down the low weight options now...bad back plus prolapse. So am a big fan of the GTechs air RAMs and have both sizes. But we still have our upright Sebo and husband uses it now and again - they are very good just too darn heavy for me now.

I've got a Roomba but I worry that it roughs up the surface of our Berber types carpets. Read somewhere you should use a suction only cleaner on Berbers. I am often glad to say 'dammit' and just use it anyway.

My main cleaner is a Miele, but it is heavy.

Son has got a Dyson cordless upright, which you can use as a small handheld for stairs etc. it's good, but you have to keep your thumb on the switch all the time to keep it going, which I find tiring.

Go for a Miele every time..... I have one, it's not heavy and the cord rewinds at the touch of a foot button.... brilliant! Cannot recommend them highly enough.

My worst choice would be a Dyson (or Die-soon) as I call them - I have owned many who have died. They get clogged, they stop suction (despite their adverts) and the 'wands' get twisted and won't go back onto the handle where they should go! You only have to go to the local tip to see how many end up there, it's like a Dyson graveyard.

Why push around a cleaner when you can sit down with a cup of tea and watch it perform by itself!?

I love my Henry. Very simple, not a lot to go wrong, bag less. Very efficient on all surfaces. It comes with an extension hose for the stairs.

If you empty it frequently it's not very heavy.

I would have agreed on a Miele, had one for 13 years and had it refurbished, by Miele after about 6 years. The suction problem started again several years later. Couldn't decide whether to go for another refurb or buy a new one.
DS2 had a Henry! What a wonderful machine, so we bought one in JL, great price. No complications and sucks up everything in sight. Cheap, lightweight and cheerful! X

Mishap does the 'Roomba' ever miss bits?

I have a Miele cylinder for downstairs and a Miele Cat and Dog cylinder for upstairs. I have a variety of floors, laminate, tiles, cushion flooring in kitchen and r. The ordinary cylinder is marginally lighter than the Cat and Dog one.

I have a very elderly Dyson which I use on the door mat, vet bed and one rug I have downstairs as well as my office. Apart from being able to see all the sand and dog hair it sucks up, it is very good, but heavy. I have a lightweight but powerful small cylinder vacuum for the stairs and caravan (depending where I am) which is light enough to carry around. I also have a Vax which is pretty useless for standard vacuuming, but I use for the car and cleaning the wood burning range(DBH managed to set fire to the bag when the ashes were a bit hotter than he thought ). My favourite Hoover was the one I inherited from MIL which had a DC motor and would suck up everything including small lego pieces with no difficulty. I don't think I would have the muscle power to lug it around these days.

NanaDenise - l like the image of the burning vacuum! Maybe we should have a thread on how vacuum cleaners have met their demise.

Years ago DH ran over our Vax wet and dry, in the garage. It wasn't much good after that! x

J52, I just hate the ones that give up the ghost with a bang and a cloud of dust!

GTech RAM has been an absolute blessing! (Think I said this on the last thread on this topic, a few months ago) the old Vax is consigned to the garage, for what I don't know.

I have the GTech carpet sweeper thingy upstairs, and the RAM goes up when my cleaner is here. She thinks it is superb too.

nina - the Roomba misses nothing. It is circular - a bit like a flying saucer - and sticking out from it is a tiny little brush that whirrs round, grubs the dirt out of the edges of the carpet and corners of the room, and then vacs it up. The other wonderful thing is that it goes under beds, cupboards etc. It is very thorough, and we were startled my the amount of stuff it filled with the first time we used it!

We got the basic cheapest model and shopped around for a good price. It is a bsic model but does everything we need it to do, including kitchen floor.

The slightly less basic one can be set to vacuum on a timer. It is so nice to hear it whirring around while you are still in bed.

Was it your Roomba Mishap that featured on a hilarious thread some months ago? I wish I could find it again, just thinking about it makes me grin!

That was probably mine, loopylou I forgot to open all the downstairs doors wide so that it could buzz round everywhere early in the morning. It nudged the study door enough to get in, then knocked into it from inside on its way around and shut itself in. When I came down it was almost out of power and couldn't get out to its docking station in the hall. It was still moving weakly and aimlessly about looking for an exit. On its maneouvres it has bumped over an extension socket lying on the floor and switched off the phone base. We thought maybe it had been trying to phone for help!

Another time it pushed into a big tray that I kept leaning against the kitchen wall and knocked it over, and was trying to vacuum with it perched on its back, like a turtle shell.

That was it Elegran !
Absolutely hilarious, I'm giggling just reading this!

Thank you x