My Hoover windtunnel supreme just blew up spectacularly after 5 years of daily use. I’m looking at either paying Sears 5 to fix it (replace the motor, etc), or approx 0 to buy a good replacement elsewhere. If you have fulltime shedding machines like I do, what would you use?
Lemme tell you what NOT to get.
I was all ready to buy a Dyson Animal upon a week of research and asking my fellow dog-affiliated friends. I went to the store, and made the mistake of allowing the penis-bearing people in my household, in other words the two children I gave birth to and the one child I married, to go with me. When I was pulling the Dyson off the shelf, they saw the Eureka Capture, and decided it was too cool looking to not buy it over the well-recommended Dyson. "It’s CHEAPER too! Buy it!" I fought long and hard against those three neanderthals who couldn’t get past the "coolness" of the Eureka, but in the end I lost. My words were, "If I buy this damn thing, you three are totally responsible for ALL vaccumming for the rest of eternity, as I REFUSE to push that hunk of crap around." Mind you, this place has 6-12 shelties in residence at any given time. So now, less than a year later, the Eureka Capture sits in the closet waiting for one of the penis-bearers to buy and install a new beater bar, out of which the bearings are shot. The filters clog incessantly, and are expensive to replace. It needs to be emptied three or four times every time you vaccum. And for the last three months, the old Hoover that this space age looking hunk of crap was to replace has been what the Neanderthals have been shoving grudgingly over the carpet. So DON’T buy the Eureka, and DON’T take any males vaccum shopping with you!
Another Hoover wind tunnel is $169 at wal-mart.
Here is a trick to save your vacuum.
Those grooming brushes for cats with the metal needle type points are the ones I use. Take it over the part of the rug that usually collects the majority of the pet fur ( we have 6 dogs and 4 cats here )
You will be surprised as you brush your rug just how much fur comes out of it, more than most vacuums will get. With the fur out of the rug, more of the dirt comes out as fur is not blocking it. It does not seem to take me long to do this and It sure saves wear and tear on my vacuum.
Added bonus is that your rug stands up and looks new longer using this brush.
Feed raw and you won’t have shedding problems
Check out Lowes first. They carry a wide assortment of the newest vaccums out, and come with a warranty. I bought a Hoover from them and its been great.
I LOVE my Dyson Animal Ball!!! It is really expensive, but it works wonders on ALL surfaces. IMHO it is well worth the money.
I broke down and spent the big bucks on a Dyson Animal. It truly has more suction than any vaccuum I’ve used and abused before. It has its drawbacks (the attachments don’t stay on well), but in terms of sheer sucking power, it’s pretty impressive. I got it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon, and I think it was in the $350 range.
We currently have a crappy old Eureka upright that works pretty well. We find it is not so much about the vacuum, but about the sweeping up of the hair prior to vacuuming. I use something called a "Sweepie", which is a rubber bristled broom with a metal handle. I think it cost $20 or something like that – you can get them online. It works better than a regular broom in terms of clumping the hair into piles because the hair doesn’t get as stuck as it does the straw bristles.
Growing up we had a 65 lb yellow Lab, and we could have easily gone into the dog-hair stuffed pillow business. My mom used the Sweepie in conjunction with a 30+ year old Eureka vacuum. She is the one who taught me the importance of clumping the hair into piles first!
Now, if you can figure out how to get dog hair out of a car interior, let me know!!
I’ve been very happy with the Hoover Wind Tunnels as well. My mom also uses one, and she has 6 English Setters (the show, not the field).
If you have a long-haired dog, you may want to occasionally take a look at the beater and cut the hair out of it. Once it becomes wrapped around the beater, it can make the motor burn out. A few times a year, I take the frame off the bottom of my mom’s vacuum (very simple–it’s just a few screws) and get all the long hair that’s wrapped around the rotor out.
I use a normal vacuum, I really don’t know the brand but I got it from walmart, and for the couches, I just use one of those pet hair remover things for Petsmart.
Every month or so I will borrow my grandparents vacuum, which is a Dyson Vacuum. It literally picks up ever thing in the carpet right down to the last strand of pet hair. The Dyson vacuums are really expensive ranging anywhere from $500 – $300, they have different kinds, including one just for animal fur.
Spend the money…get the Dyson made for pet hair.
It in unbelievable! I don’t normally care about household products, but this vacuum is amazing! lol
I have to agree with Nikko – since my dogs have been on a 100% raw diet, lot less shedding. I only use a broom to sweep the fur off my wood floors. I have more dirt on my floors than hair – so I use a Oreck to get up all the dirt.
Let me tell ya from experience. The cheap ones are just as good as the overpriced.
That’s my opinion and I am sticking to it.