It’s almost a right of passage, a visable indicator of being responsible for one’s self, finally out of the house and in your own place.  Or, there’s simply  some dirt and it needs to be cleaned up.  Either way, purchasing a vacuum cleaner for the first time or the 50th time is a learning experience.

Who knew there were so many features and so many options from which to choose.  A bit daunting, but certainly navigable, and believe it or not this will not be the last machine that comes home with you and gets it’s own room – the closet.

Of course we all want to make the right decision and it is well known that advertisements have no affect on our decision-making.  Well, maybe just a little…

Where does one start in making a selection.  The best place to start is with need.  Understanding what the need is will narrow the selection and make things a bit easier.  When speaking of need it’s a good idea to separate it from ‘want’.  The word ‘want’ comes from advertising, and very persuasive presentations of vacuum machines as they are used by blissfully happy and contented people with very cute pets and sometimes cute toddlers.

Advertisers want you to attach happy scenes with warm fuzzy thoughts to their products.  Or, they want to convince you that people like you are only satisfied with their specific vacuum machine.  Surprisingly, this tactic works well, and vacuum sales show it to be true.

When these people go shopping all they see is what they want.  While there is some discussion covering other brands, the ‘wanted’ machine is scooped up like a new puppy and lovingly brought home power cord and all.

There is another approach to buying that still involves ‘want’, but tempers it with ‘need’.  This type of buying looks at the dirt situation and determines what is needed to correct the problem.  The machine selected is matched to the need at hand.  The type of dirt and the environment in which the dirt resides defines the selection criteria upon which a purchasing decision is made.

Let’s say the dirt needing to be cleaned up was located on a hard floor – like tile.  The dirt was mostly comprised of uncooked rice.  In this situation a carpet cleaner with a rotating brush and beater bar is not the right machine for the task.  A better style would be a stick vacuum that doesn’t sport a rotating brush (it would push the rice all over the floor).  Great for adventurous and hungry mice, but not so much for picking up dry solids on a hard floor surface.   In this case the stick vacuum cleaning machine is matched to the dirt.

The environment in which the machine will operate plays a significant role in the machine’s ability to perform.  A machine designed for hard surfaces will perform miserably poor on a carpet pile.  A wet-vacuum does marvelously well on wet smooth surfaces, and very poorly on burber carpet with sand.

Manufacturers design their machines for particular environments and types of dirt.  The stick vacuum manufacturers target the young homeowner that will often have children.  Since young children tend to toss food and other things, the stick vacuum is perfect for picking up little spills, plus its light and maneuverable around table legs and such.

The stick vacuum is not intended to deep clean carpets with pile, but it can sort-of be used to pick up some surface dirt on a carpet.

In the environment chart the dark green boxes represent where a machine type is best matched to a particular environment.  The lighter green boxes indicate the machine can be used, but it is not really intended for particular environments.  The grey box indicates the machine is not to be used for the environment specified.

What if the dirt is a fine sand which has been accumulating in the carpet for a few weeks.  Let’s understand where the dirt is located first.  The rule of thumb here is size of contaminant along with time the contaminant has been present determines the vertical location in the pile of the carpet.  The significance of vertical location in the carpet pile is that the deeper a contaminant resides in the carpet pile, the  more energy is necessary to liberate it into an air flow to be removed.

The more shallow a contaminant is, or closer to the surface, the less energy is needed to liberate it into an airflow for removal.  Makes sense when considering that surface dirt is easier to pick up than embedded dirt.

In our example of fine dirt in carpet pile for a time, the machine that matches this dirt and environment is an upright with a brush/beater bar to liberate the fine dust into a powerful airflow.

[ENGINEERS NOTE ==>] Fine particles are notoriously difficult for ALL vacuum cleaning machines to remove completely.  This is due to the particle sinking down into the pile of the carpet deeper and deeper with each step on the surface.  As the particle sinks deeper it increasingly comes into contact with polyester fibers that in turn create more friction the deeper the particle sinks in the the pile.  At some point it is not possible to remove fine dirt completely, even with a carpet steam cleaner or a Kirby.

If the dirt being removed is a more coarse sandy type, then it would be best to use an upright machine that can generate a significant airflow.  Coarse sandy dirt is the heaviest dirt to remove, and it needs a substantial machine to liberate the sand into an airflow.  A stick machine simply cannot generate the airflow necessary to keep sand aloft and deposit it in a waste container.

When removing accumulated dust, animal hair, or fuzz from normal traffic, a canister vacuum is probably the best choice with a hose and wand attachment.

These styled machines accommodate nicely the need to move a power head beneath large pieces of furniture. With the long handles and power head these machines work well with surface dirt that is not too heavy.

It no mystery that dirt particulates come in all shapes, sizes, and weights.  Surfaces that hold dirt particulates also come in a wide variety of styles from flat non-porous surfaces to deep highly-porous carpet.  As such, manufacturers are continually designing machines that try to accommodate the widest range of possibilities.  Unfortunately, the design characteristics that work well for one type of surface do not work well for another.  In like manner, dirt particulate types dictate different designs.

When sizing a machine to your dirt and environment consider the environment first.  The environment will be one of three types: smooth floor, pile carpet, burber carpet.  Of course there other floor types and textures, but these three show up most often in homes.  A smooth surface will generally not need as high airflow (CFM) as an upright.  This is due to the hard surface providing a non air-permeable area upon which a good airflow can be established.  Consequently, all the airflow can be concentrated on the surface dirt and liberate the firt quickly into the machine airflow.

Understanding the differences between machine types and their intended use will remove most of the confusion that surrounds machine selection.  Keep in mind that manufacturers will rarely indicate that their machine is not intended to clean a floor of any type.  Technically, this is a true statement.  All machines are able, in one way or another, to pick up some particulate matter from a floor without regard to floor characteristics.  It’s just that certain machine designs do a much better job than other designs.

In the Particulate Types chart different particulate types are presented with the machines that work best in removal.  Notice that there is both light and dark green indicating machine functionality.  Dark green indicates the machine type is generally designed for the type of particulate listed.  Light green follows the technically true logic of any machine can remove something from a dirty floor, just not particularly well.

All carpets accumulate sand.  Some styles of carpet accumulate more that others, and carpets near outside doors accumulate even more.  Once a new carpet is laid down, the owner of the carpet is in a never-ending time battle against sand.  The battle is one of the carpet being physically destroyed at the base of the pile just above the backing.  Sand will accumulate right next to the pile as it emerges from the backing.  All sizes of sand will accumulate here.  The smaller particles will embed themselves deep into the pile fibers, and the larger particles will push against the pile fibers as well.

As traffic moves to and fro on the surface of the carpet there is a slight motion and pressure transferred all the way down to the base of the pile.  This motion and pressure not only moves the pile, but it moves the sand that has found its way to the pile base.  Where the pile fibers are somewhat forgiving when bent and pushed in different direction, sand is not.  The sand, with its jagged edges, acts like tiny knives scraping against the pile fibers.  The fibers eventually break due to the continual abrading.  If the sand is not removed and the abrading action reduced, the carpet will wear out due to the fibers being cut away by the sand.

The same action by sand is found in rugs with permeable backing, except with hand-knotted rugs the sand not only cuts away the vertical pile fibers, it cuts away and the backing fibers.  Fortunately, quality hand-knotted rugs do not use cotton as much as they use silk as the backing.  Silk is incredibly strong and lasts a long time, even with the abrading action of sand present in the backing fibers.

Removing as much sand as possible from carpets and rugs is insurance against them having to be replaced too soon.  Investing in an upright with good airflow is a must if one wants to extend the life of their carpets.

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