My difficult child is auditorily defensive and HATES being around when the vacuum is on, let alone having to help do the chore.
When he was a week old I bought a Hoover Wind Tunnel canister vac and it lasted almost 9 years, finally dying this spring. We bought a cheap Bissell from Walmart and by August you could tell was just not going to do the job with 3 cats and a young boy household (I'd walk along a carpet an hour after vacuuming it and could feel the bits under my feet).
So I did some research and found a company called Miele that makes highly rated vacs (by Consumer Reports). All their vacs have adjustable voltage so that you can control how much power you want to use which affects the noise level. The canister types are lightweight and small to be able to maneuver easier in small spaces (like our tiny apartment). They can be pricy, so I saved for two months for it!
So yesterday was the big day - had ordered a canister type, it got delivered, and I put it together. Was like a kid in a candy shop. difficult child loved it! We played around with the adjustable power, he didn't run screaming from the room like he normally does. This vac is QUIET! I had it on full power and my best friend couldn't hear it running on the telephone. My SO was sleeping in the next room and didn't get woken up. difficult child actually wanted to vacuum with it!
It's lightweight and a very low profile power roller brush head and he had no problem maneuvering it around the living room. It vacuumed beautifully! Then difficult child decided we needed to vacuum under the couch, he pushed the head under the couch and it got stuck. Next thing I knew he yanked hard (despite being told to wait I'd get it unstuck) and when the head popped back out from under the couch the plastic connector attaching the locking mechanism for the wand to attach to the turbo head was broken!
Had the $500 vac 30 minutes and ....
So now I get to spend time on the phone today with the company I purchased it from trying to get a replacement part.
After getting teary eyed I put the hard wood/low pile carpet attachment on the wand and was able to vacuum the rest of the apartment. It did an amazing job even without the power brush! I'm still in love with it
When he was a week old I bought a Hoover Wind Tunnel canister vac and it lasted almost 9 years, finally dying this spring. We bought a cheap Bissell from Walmart and by August you could tell was just not going to do the job with 3 cats and a young boy household (I'd walk along a carpet an hour after vacuuming it and could feel the bits under my feet).
So I did some research and found a company called Miele that makes highly rated vacs (by Consumer Reports). All their vacs have adjustable voltage so that you can control how much power you want to use which affects the noise level. The canister types are lightweight and small to be able to maneuver easier in small spaces (like our tiny apartment). They can be pricy, so I saved for two months for it!
So yesterday was the big day - had ordered a canister type, it got delivered, and I put it together. Was like a kid in a candy shop. difficult child loved it! We played around with the adjustable power, he didn't run screaming from the room like he normally does. This vac is QUIET! I had it on full power and my best friend couldn't hear it running on the telephone. My SO was sleeping in the next room and didn't get woken up. difficult child actually wanted to vacuum with it!
It's lightweight and a very low profile power roller brush head and he had no problem maneuvering it around the living room. It vacuumed beautifully! Then difficult child decided we needed to vacuum under the couch, he pushed the head under the couch and it got stuck. Next thing I knew he yanked hard (despite being told to wait I'd get it unstuck) and when the head popped back out from under the couch the plastic connector attaching the locking mechanism for the wand to attach to the turbo head was broken!
Had the $500 vac 30 minutes and ....
So now I get to spend time on the phone today with the company I purchased it from trying to get a replacement part.
After getting teary eyed I put the hard wood/low pile carpet attachment on the wand and was able to vacuum the rest of the apartment. It did an amazing job even without the power brush! I'm still in love with it