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Purchasing Tips

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If you choose to purchase a canister vacuum, your first difficulty will be sorting through vacuum advertisements that distinguish their products based on their features or on their performance. Below is a brief introduction to some of the features you may find on a canister vacuum.

Features:

• Full bag alert—As you would expect, a full bag alert light tells you when it is time to change your bag.

• Retractable cord—Retractable cords are fairly standard among canister vacuums (unlike uprights). With this convenient feature, you simply press a button and the cord retracts into the canister.

• Dirt sensor—A dirt sensor notifies you when you are over a heavy patch of dirt and then the light goes off when your vacuum is no longer picking up dirt. This feature can be helpful, but it only indicates when your vacuum has stopped picking up dirt, not when all the dirt is gone.

• Crevice and upholstery tools—These tools, along with an extension wand, come standard with many canisters and allow you to reach areas that you could otherwise not reach effectively

• Suction-Control Feature—Most canisters have this feature, which allows you to reduce the suction power so that you can appropriately vacuum on curtains or other delicate objects.

• Power Nozzle—This feature is, to some degree, the opposite of a suction-control feature; a power nozzle gives you more power than a traditional nozzle. This extra power can be very helpful on carpet, where canisters usually struggle.

Performance:

• Amps—The number of amps that a vacuum advertisement boasts refers to the amount of electrical power coming into the vacuum. It does not, however, give any indication of how powerful the vacuum is; that depends on how efficiently amps are used.

• Microfiltration/HEPA filter—A microfilter or a HEPA filter are secondary filters that stop dust particles that the vacuum sucks in from escaping back out into the air. Consequently, this second filter can help allergy sufferers to avoid increasing the number of dust particles in the air. However, not all HEPA filters are created equal. True or absolute filters retain 99.97% of dust particles of a certain size while other HEPA filters may only stop 85-90% of these particles. In addition, some vacuums with a HEPA filter may sweep dust into the air before it ever makes it into the vacuum, so look at the overall information about a vacuum, not just what the filter does.

When you shop, compare several different canister models, and think about what features are important to you. If you suffer from allergies, determine which vacuum reduces the most airborne particles. If you care about the weight of a vacuum or the noise of a vacuum, ask a salesman about those issues. See if you can test models in the store, or ask friends what kind of vacuum they have and whether they are satisfied with it. Finally, don’t forget to keep your price range in mind; some canisters costs as much as $1,900 (though they may not work any better than a cheaper model).

Consumer Reports named the $500 Sears Kenmore 25914 as the top performing canister vacuum (it was also the top vacuum overall, including uprights), but the $350 Sears Kenmore 25614 also performed very well and was significantly cheaper. For value-minded customers, the magazine recommended a $150 GE model, which also performed well and is in the price range of most uprights. Rainbow canister owners, however, actually reported the fewest major repairs while Eureka, Hoover, and Kenmore owners reported the most repairs (although still under fifteen percent). There are fewer options among canister models than there are among uprights, but there are still several quality choices on the market.

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