How To Choose A Vacuum Cleaner

From Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports offers these suggestions for picking the right vacuum cleaner:

• Prioritize Cleaning - Uprights are still better overall on carpets, but canisters remain best for cleaning bare floors, stairs, drapes, and upholstery.
• Be Picky About Features - If allergies or respiratory problems are an issue, uprights and canisters with a bag hold more dirt and spread less dust when emptied than bagless vacuums. Manual pile-height adjustments allow users to raise or lower brushes for carpets and bare floors, and a brush on/off switch helps prevent scattering dirt and debris.
• Choose A Cord For Bigger Jobs - While cordless sweepers ran up to 49 minutes per charge, most small cordless vacuums lasted from six to 15 minutes per charge, which is fine for small spills but a cord frees you from the time factor.

The full report on vacuums is available in the October 2008 issue of Consumer Reports and the full story is also available online.

Source: Consumer Reports