I’m a bit of a vacuum fanatic. Always was. Some of my earliest memories were of vacuuming the house!
I don’t know why that was, maybe my mom was just trying to keep me occupied. Or perhaps it was an indicator of my future career path. Or some combination of both.
Whatever the case, I love to talk about vacuums. So today I wanted to get some feedback on what brands everyone out there uses. Do you have a favorite brand? Do you only purchase uprights or do you like backpacks? For that matter do any of you use a canister style vacuum?
Do you have a collection of different brands or do you do what I did and buy a bunch of one specific type of vacuums so you have spare parts when you retire one or more. Do you like vacuums with attachments or without? As you can see, I have lots of questions for those who want to “talk shop”.
For the record, I’ll go first. My favorite brand overall (for uprights) was Sanitaire Vacuums (paid link). I had well over a hundred at one point. My all time favorite (SC785) was recently discontinued, so I’m on the lookout for a new “favorite”. And YES, I liked having attachments (the carpet needs to be “edged”).
For backpack style units I had a several ProTeam Vacuums (paid link). These were awesome. NEVER gave me one problem. They are pricey however but they work and don’t have any issues (which made them worth the money for me anyway). I did stumble across a nice looking Hoover Backpack (paid link) that is well priced and has decent reviews (I never bought one though).
And I did have a few canister style vacuums. They were Oreck Compact Canister Vacuums (paid link) in particular. I used these on a lot of turnover type apartment cleaning jobs. They were small and easy to bring on the job, and my staff liked them so I had several.
So I went first so to speak and hopefully everyone out there will add their two cents as well. I love hearing different points of views on things, and especially on vacuums! So feel free to leave a comment below and get the conversation started.
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Jim Bulkowski says
I started using only Dyson vacs until one of my customers told me she was sucking up lots of dirt after I vaced with her Shark. I went home and vacuumed my carpet with my trusty dyson and then I grabbed a Shark and revacumed the same carpet and I was amazed how much more dirt was coming out of my carpet. Sold all of my Dyson and only use Sharks. Durable strong vacs that suck!
Tom Watson says
Awesome info Jim! THANKS for sharing.
gary says
big fan of oreck, light weight, cheap bags via amazon, last forever
Tom Watson says
THANKS Gary! Much appreciated.
Gayn Borland says
Tom, we started out using Eureka uprights, but they died too soon. For the past year and a half, we’ve been using the same Shark NV500 upright. It runs very quietly but still has the suction power of a ShopVac. Its versatility makes every vacuuming task easy. And it’s reasonably priced at $119.00 so when we expand our business, they’ll be less expensive, too.
Tom Watson says
Hi Gayn! I love your info. Thanks for sharing!
Helen Wilson says
I love the Miele Complete C2 Hard Floor Canister Vacuum Cleaner with SBD285-3 Combination Rug and Floor Tool + SBB300-3 Parquet Floor Brush. I bought 4 of them. It is great on hardwood floors which we do a lot of. For rugs/carpet we use the Shark Rocket. I also love the Sanitaire Vacuums that you recommended. I only bought one before they were discontinued. Boy do I regret not getting more!!! Thank you for all your support!! You have been a huge help to me!!! Very grateful for your wisdom!!!
Tom Watson says
Great info Helen! Thanks.
Nann says
My favorite upright is the Windsor. Made for industrial use. It automatically adjusts height for different types of carpet. All tools are on board. I bought one used 6 years ago and it still has never needed repairs.
Most of the time we use our Hoover Backpack which Tom mentioned above. It has very good suction. It is smaller in size than the ProTeam backpacks and weighs only 10 pounds. Back pac vacuums are the most efficient for vacuuming stairways and furniture cushions and large areas of carpet. We vac under beds and sofas easily. It gets the fine gravel out of the sculptured entry mats better than the “beater brush” upright vacuums. It has 50′ cord, easy to vac hard floors too.
Tom Watson says
Hi Nann! Thanks for the info (and happy to hear about the Hoover).
joanna says
Need some advice please. I service a (same) company in two separate buildings. There are MULTI stairs to the second floor. The company supplies only one vacuum per building. Hence I bring along my trusty cordless Dyson to lug up the many stairs to clean the second floors. However, I notice that using my Dyson is putting stress on the bristles on the power head rollers. Does anyone know of a light (I need to lug it up all those stairs), powerful and cordless vacuum other than a Dyson that would do a good job of sucking up a lot of small fragments of wood chips and/or tiny gravel pieces?A unit that would also suck up all the dirt/gravel lodged in the crevices of the plastic edges of the steps? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And thanks for all the great info.
Tom Watson says
Hi Joanna!
Though expensive… this may work https://amzn.to/2G3mXQU
Maybe someone else may chime in with a cheaper option.
Royal Cleaners says
My favorite brand is Sanitaire Vacuums too 🙂
Tom Watson says
THANKS for your comment!
Howie says
After trying a 2 Sanitaire uprights and a cheap Hoover, and killing them all–we are standardized standardized on Proteam back packs. They are more pricey, but durable especially in offices where they gobble up paperclips without damage to belts (there are none). In apartment buildings, they suck everything in site and are great on steps.
We recently started to keep a 6 quart Proteam backpack with attachments on our van to vacuum before each room or flight of steps we carpet clean–both commercial and residential.
The backpack also gives my staff a free hand to hold a microfiber cloth to spot-dust while the’re on the move…
Tom Watson says
Awesome info Howie! THANKS.