help me find a vacuum for hardwood floors!

[chel]

help me find a vacuum that is great for hardwood floors and decent for carpets.

i just moved and the dust on the hardwood is unreal. the home is 2/3 hardwood

[LZP]

oooh I love my Bosch Electro Duo (canister vac) more than a person should love a vacuum. We have hardwood and area rugs in our whole downstairs, and 1/2 of upstairs. it also works GREAT on the wall to wall in the other bedrooms too. it's got onboard attachments and HEPA filtration. works AWESOME. telescopic handle, comes with power upholstery brush too. Pricey, but IMO, totally worth it- and we got it for a steal when an online store was going out of business. you might be able to find a good deal somewhere online too.
(We do still need to use a microfiber mop on occasion, because obviously a vacuum isnt wiping the floors the same way, but it does a great job for the dust tumbleweed!)

My mom has a Champ, made by Simplicity. It's also a canister, and is wonderful too! That's how I decided a canister would be our friend.

Both are super light (the Bosch is like 9 lbs or something) have retractable cords and onboard attachments.

the champ has a longer hose and power cord which is nice. The bosch has a power brush that you can turn on and off for carpet/hardwood. The bosch is SUPER DUPER quiet. seriously, I've never heard any vacuum so quiet.

Again, both are not cheap, but my mom has had her champ for like 15 years. we just got the bosch 2 yrs ago, but it's going strong. both take bags, but the bags seem to last a really long time, and you can get them on amazon for cheap.

ETA: i think that electrolux makes a much more "affordable" model of a canister that has similar features, and you can get it at Kohls and other dept stores. just as another option. I'm partial to canisters, obviously.

[cristeen]

FOr mostly hardwood and some carpet what you want is a canister vac with a powered head attachment. The carpet really needs the powered head, but the canister itself is for the hardwood. We have and adore our Riccar, bonus being it's made in the US and has a lovely warranty.

I would definitely look around for vacuum shops, and not purchase online. You want to find a place that you can buy from that can also do repairs if at all possible. Besides, most vacuums you buy online (like at a large retailer) or at a place like Target are meant to be disposable and will only last a few years. Something like a Miele or a Riccar (the two I looked at) is meant to last 10-15 years at least.

[vm9799]

miele. hands down.

[sunnysandiegan]

I love our roomba for our floors. It also does a great job on the carpeted areas. Got it on woot.com for $144 with $5 shipping back a few years ago. It bounces all over and vacuums without any effort on our part and does a better job since it is a robot and doesn't care how long it is vacuuming.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I love love love my new Electrolux ergorapido. It's wonderful! It's cordless and nice and light. Our whole house is hardwood floors, so it's used on a daily basis. It works great on our low pile rugs too. I ordered it on Amazon for $100, but Target and Lowe's sell it too.

[texmati]

[Vancouver Mommy]

A vaccuum is essential, but I also broke down and bought a $35 Rubbermaid dust mop the other day for those times I don't feel like lugging the vaccuum around. It's great for the accumulation of dust under beds and furniture and helps me haul out the infinite number of toys and crap that get lost there as well.

[greenmansions]

I love my Riccar - my mom and my neighbor have the same model and we are all very happy with them. It's a canister with a HEPA filter.

[Farmer'sWife]

I really like my Kenmore Magic Blue canister vac on my hard floors. I use it sometimes on my carpet but I mainly use an upright I already had on my carpets...not sure if it does a better job but it seems like it. It's totally worth having a little canister vac just for the hardwood. I especially use it in the kitchen a lot to suck up all the toddler crumbs, I think it's easier than sweeping.

[Barbee]

We have the Dyson ball and I love it. The hose attachment alone is worth it. You can also turn the brush off if you are worried about scratching the floor.

[Grace and Granola]

Ooh ooh ooh!!! I LOVE my Bissel Versus vacuum. It has a "V" shaped head the gets in and out and around furniture. It is very powerful for how small it is. It's very lightweight. The only thing I don't love about it is that the power cord is too short. But they may have remedied that in the past two years.

ETA: We have a shaggy dog, which caused me great frustration using a regular vacuum. They always seemed to just blow alot of the dust and hair around, but the Bissel Versus really gets all of that without blowing it around.

[luckygreen713]

I have hardwood floors and area rugs throughout my house, so I too really appreciate a good vacuum. We have a dyson animal (supposedly good for pet hair, we have a dog and cat). I use it on my rugs and the wood. You can turn off the brush roll when doing the wood. I think it's just *ok*. It works, but not wonderfully. My mom has floors like mine and she has a Hoover that seems to be a knock-off of my dyson, but I like it much better than mine. It seems to have better suction (this surprised me!), and does a better job when going around corners/against walls. I tend to sweep my wood everyday because my broom does better than my vacuum.