We have a 4k sqft home. 2000 of that is hardwoods downstairs with a few wool rugs down. We live 2/3rds of a mile down a dirt/gravel road, with a 1/2 mile long dirt/gravel drive. We have a Dog that does some moderate shedding. It's a farm, It gets dirty. We do our best to stay on top of the dusting, vacuuming but it is a farm with a dog and two teenagers.

We currently use a commercial backpack vacuum for the downstairs hardwoods. This does jack shit for the areas with rugs and it corresponding love of dog hair and general grime. I have been tasked with looking for a one vacuum solution. I am not sure that there is something that can offer the versatility of the backpack vacuum on the wood and tile floors while having the robust cleaning ability of an upright or canister vacuum on the rugs, and carpet upstairs.

I spent 4 hours looking at vacuums and reading reviews tonight. I went from my preferred commercial brand Powr-Flite to Meile down to shark from target. I am just not seeing anything that fits.

So, maybe i pick up a supplemental vacuum, canister, or upright. My family wants a lighter upright than what we have had in the past. (another powr-flite commercial dual motor 25lbs) I want something easy to put up. So I was thinking cannister. I like meile as a brand, but i read a crap ton of it broke reviews. I looked at some of the commercial canister companies and did not really see anything worthwhile.

So, i looked at uprights. Back at the it will be broke in a year, made out of plastic.

So what I am looking for is
Must have:
Bagged (hepa filtration for our allergies)
Decent extension cord 20 ft or greater.

Would like:
Dual motor
Ability to adjust to wood and carpet manually.
Something that will last.

I am open to suggestions. Right now robot vacuums are not realy an option. I would need a fleet of about 6 or 7 for the downstairs based on the room layouts. The upstairs would need 4. I would be emptying them daily.

Anyone have any ideas.

Here are the top ones on my list.
Kenmore elite
Kenmore elite

Electro Lux
electro lux

Miele C3 Kona
miele kona


Sanitaire upright
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J...pa_dk_detail_6?psc=1


Anyone have any suggestions, experiences with any of the above?

I don't know if I'd call this the best, but it worked out great for us. I wanted a very durable, very high suction (have dogs and lots of hair), very serviceable (by me not the dealer), machine for our home that was simple and relatively inexpensive. As such, I bought this Santiare commercial upright, and its worked very well. And there's an 11% off code for Memorial Day available.

I really can't complain about my Dyson Animal. It's lasted through two Golden Retrievers, and I too live with a gravel driveway/road and the dust. No teenagers though, I've done that.

Spendy? Yep, but it works.

Riccar. Not widely known but very good and durable.

Look at Simplicty. We have one and it works well. Made is USA too. I would recommend it.

Dyson seems to fit your bill fairly well. I've been very impressed with our Dyson Animal. I have a very sheddy dog. As far as dust goes, I live in New Mexico. Enough said about that.

Consumer Reports has rated the Eureka Wind Tunnel with a bag as one of the best since I got my cat nearly 18 years ago. It's 60% less than any Dyson vacuum and beats them in head to head testing.

I buy HEPA bags for it on Amazon, and it's the 5th house I've had it and pretty much every flooring product out there (carpet, throw rugs, tile, marble, wood, engineered wood, etc). It's not the quietest, but it cleans well.

When I was a dumb ass and plugged mine in after it had been in a -7F shipping container for several weeks I replaced it with another Hoover Wind Tunnel with Bag.

Last year I went through something similar but not as tough as your situation. I have a Dyson Animal and a Shark but needed-wanted a canister vac. I think canister is the right term? I wanted a unit with 4 wheels with a hose and wand you pull around, you can vac stairs as well as get up on ceilings and walls and such with various attachments.

What I ended up doing was walking in to a local vacuum sales and service mom-n-pop store, all they do is sell and ***SERVICE*** vacuums and shampoo machines. They don’t sell the consumer grade units the big box stores do, I think this is so very important!

They knew their stuff, totally professional, with no BS.

I ended up purchasing from them a very nice used Miele. Can’t recall the model right now. I works great.

Check around in your area and find a few of these stores and give them a chance to help you.

Best wishes to you.

EDIT: I’m thinking you won’t find one machine that can do it all, you might be best served as a best Upright for part of your cleaning and also a best canister for the rest of your cleaning issues. This is what I had to end up doing and that works great for me.

My wife loves her Miele, and it has been no problem at all. We have another Miele that has the powered brush; it works fine if there's not too much carpet but if a lot of carpet an upright seems to be easier to push/pull.
We love having the HEPA filter; and the Miele is strong and quiet, with a nice retractable cord.
No experience with robot vacs.

We were buying a $200 vacuum every two years (Hoover Wind tunnel types). They'd work great new, but just wore out after two years. Then we bought a Miele canister that's been going strong for 10 years now. Because the bags are small and expensive, I'm not sure if it would be my first choice with a shedding dog. The 35 year old gold colored Electrolux my wife made me get rid of in favor of the crap $200 vacuums because it was too heavy would have been my choice for pet hair. It worked great while I had my Shepard/Husky mix. That Electrolux was a beast and they don't make them like that anymore. Probably not HEPA though.

We have two Mieles. One cannister and one stick upright. Both have hepa filters. They are great.

quote:

Originally posted by djinco:
Riccar. Not widely known but very good and durable.

I concur with Riccar. I bought one last summer. Best $400 I’ve spent. I had been using ~$100 Bissel vacuums for the last 15 years. I might get two years out of them with weekly use before something broke and I’m not talking about belts. Never again.

If I had to do it again, I’d get this Riccar model over the one I got. I bought a house a few months ago and the amount of hard surface flooring went up quite a bit over my apartment. It’s be nice to turn off the brush to just suck up the dirt on the hard surfaces.

Dyson cordless are awesome for quick cleanups. I am a big fan.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
We have two Mieles. One cannister and one stick upright. Both have hepa filters. They are great.

I've got a Miele canister. It's a high quality vacuum.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Consumer Reports has rated the Eureka Wind Tunnel with a bag as one of the best since I got my cat nearly 18 years ago. It's 60% less than any Dyson vacuum and beats them in head to head testing.

I buy HEPA bags for it on Amazon, and it's the 5th house I've had it and pretty much every flooring product out there (carpet, throw rugs, tile, marble, wood, engineered wood, etc). It's not the quietest, but it cleans well.

When I was a dumb ass and plugged mine in after it had been in a -7F shipping container for several weeks I replaced it with another Hoover Wind Tunnel with Bag.

Which model number, please? Hoover makes several Wind Tunnel bsgged vacuums.

quote:

Originally posted by djinco:
Riccar. Not widely known but very good and durable.

We have a Riccar and are happy with it.

The owner of a local vacuum shop thinks Dyson's are crap, but he is glad they are a popular brand because they are a majority of his repair business.

We had a Dyson Animal 26 that did serve us well for maybe 8 or 9 years and the beater-brush was worn down and needed to be replaced. Can't to that. The entire vacuum head had to be replace for ~$150 or so.

Hello Riccar!
__________

My wife regularly clogs our Dyson Animal with cockatoo down feathers.
So they will clog and stop working.

My brother has one of these: Quite a bit of kit.

https://www.nilfisk.com/en/pro...t.aspx?pid=107415450

I went to the CRI last night and looked through their approved Vacuums.
http://www.carpet-rug.org/certified-vacuums.html

I had several customers who had riccar/simplicity (sister brands) in the past. So I spent some time taking a look at each of them. I am glad to read a few members here have them.
http://riccar.com/
http://simplicityvac.com/

I am also very familiar with Sanitaire/Powrflite models. I had one of their 8lb uprights for maybe 10 years. Until my mother and law got ahold of it and burned up the motor vacuuming the pet hair off our small wool rugs for 4 hours. Clearly, the rugs were not getting clean so she washed them in our LG Trom washer, plugging it up but not burning up the motor unlike the vacuum.

I liked the Sanitaire upright. My issue is that it may not do well on our wood floors. It would do just fine on the upstairs carpet, and the rugs downstairs though. It is also one of the least expensive options for well-proven performance.

Hah, that explains it Riccar, simplicity, powr-flite are all part of the Tacony group.
https://tacony.com/brands-innovation

Now on to Miele, Could those of you that have them tell me how long and what models you have. I am seriously considering Miele C3 Kona, or a Miele c3 Marin. The difference between the two is the head unit. The Marin has a lighted unit versus the Kona's non-lighted.

The biggest complaints i have seen are that the head units break at where the wand meets the head unit. The other thing is that the plastics on the head unit's hardwood floor attachment breaks kind of easily. One of the small complaints is that the hose does not swivel at the base of the canister. The second is that the wand handle can be fairly uncomfortable to use based ont he weight of the unit.

Does anyone here have a Riccar and a Miele for comparison? Does the Riccar mitigate a few of those complaints of the Miele?

I appreciate all the help.

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:
My brother has one of these: Quite a bit of kit.

https://www.nilfisk.com/en/pro...t.aspx?pid=107415450

That is pretty much a canister version of our backpack vacuum.
https://www.powr-flite.com/pro...pack-vacuum-bp6p.do?
They do a great job on our wood floor. Our issue is it just does not have the ability to effectively clean the rugs, and carpets.