Vacuum cleaner

The strengths and weaknesses of the many vacuum cleaner styles may make it necessary to buy different machines for different purposes around the house.

“You won’t find any one vacuum cleaner that cleans all surfaces superbly, operates noiselessly and maneuvers effortlessly,” Consumer Reports says in How to Clean and Care for Practically Anything. “Base your ... choice on personal preference.”

The upright vacuum cleaner is the most widely used for cleaning home carpeting, and especially excels on deep, plush pile. Some uprights enable cleaning hard floors by turning off the rotating brush, and feature onboard tools and an extendable hose for detailing. Uprights are often bulky and cumbersome to use on stairs, however.

Canister vacs are a better choice than uprights when you need to use attachments, but they are more complex to assemble for use and bulky to store. They often provide more suction than upright vacuums.

Backpack vacuums — essentially a canister that is worn on the back — offer a highly mobile alternative, with options for cleaning carpet, hard floors and above floors. Backpack vacuums are faster than standard vacuums because of their nimble, portable nature, enable access to more areas, and are very effective on stairs. Care must be exercised to avoid bumping objects with the unit.

“Stick” and hand-held vacuums are lightweight and easy to use, but many battery-powered models lack the suction offered by corded models. They're also not as good as canister vacuums at cleaning in corners and along edges. These vacuum cleaners are handy for interim cleaning and effective at picking up dirt, grit and crumbs from hard floors.

Robotic vacuums can be helpful additions for unattended cleaning, but have some of the disadvantages of stick vacuums — lack of power and effective edge cleaning. Less than impressive suction makes the current robotic offerings fall into the "sweeper" category rather than that of deep cleaning machines. Still, they can be very handy for spruce ups while you attend to other matters.

Wet-dry vacuum cleaners are best suited to garages and unfinished basements since they tend to spew fine dust out with the exhaust air if you don’t install an optional filter. They can come in handy for limited jobs in the home, such as clearing out a clogged sink, sucking up pet accidents, etc. In some upholstery situations, you may need to cover the nozzle with an old nylon, secured with a rubber band, to prevent fabric stretching or distortion.

Many persons find that, for them, the easiest and most efficient home vacuums are central vacuum systems. Central vacuum systems have large, permanently mounted canisters with a motor attached. These are usually placed near or on an exterior wall in a utility room or basement. Most of these units are vented to the outdoors, although some models are designed to vent indoors. Of the two, the exterior-venting types are considered much healthier. With outdoor-venting, the air that’s pulled into the vacuum is sent outdoors (not back into the living space) after it passes through the filter. This eliminates any concerns over particulates getting past the collection container.

Vacuum filtration is an important topic that is covered separately.