The major criteria involved with choosing a canister
vacuum cleaner is what floor surfaces you plan to
clean versus the power of the vacuum. Almost all
canister vacuum cleaners offer 3 choices of tools
for the surfaces of floors:
1. A bare floor hard plastic brush that's
about 10" - 12" wide with soft bristles.
2. Turbo brush that features a spinning
drum roller with harder bristles.
3. A power head brush that is similar to
the turbo brush although it is powered by a seperate
motor.
Both the turbo brush and power head brush vacuums
have a spinning drum roller with bristles that
resemble that of an upright vacuum cleaner. While
the brushes look and perform pretty much the same,
the power head brush vacuum has a smaller seperate
motor that turns the brush on the bottom of it,
therefore making it more powerful and much more
aggressive than the turbo type brush that is
turned by the flow of air being pulled past it.
These types of brushes will snap the fibers of
the carpet and allow the air to get beneath the
dirt particles. If you can't get air to go under
these particles, then you won't be able to suck
them out, regardless of how much suction power you
are able to apply with a vacuum cleaner.
When you purchase a turbo or power head vacuum
cleaner to be used primarily on carpet surfaces,
you'll also receive a brush for bare floors as
well that is perfect for areas without carpet.
The rule of thumb as to which model of vacuum
cleaner you should choose is:
1. The bare floor model of canister
vacuum cleaners are perfect for smooth surfaces
with no expectation of having rugs or carpeting.
The best choices for bare floor vacuum cleaners
include Eureka Oxygen 6992 and the Miele Solaris
Canister.
2. Turbo types of canister vacuum cleaners
are best for scatter rugs and low pile wall to
wall type carpeting. The best picks here are the
EIO family vacuum cleaner, the Miele Solaris, and
the Sebo Turbo canister vacuum cleaner.
3. The power head brush types of vacuum
cleaners are great for wall to wall carpeting and
very important if you deal with pet hair. The best
picks here include the Sebo Canister 3.1, the
Miele Silver Moon, and the Eureka Oxygen 6996.
Some of the other important features for canister
vacuum cleaners include reliability, purchase price,
HEPA filter and sealed unit, the cost of replacement
filters and bags, weight, storage and quality of
tools, control locations, noise, adjustable wand,
retractable cord, ease of changing attachments,
bag change indicator, filter change indicator, swivel
hose, and other extra features such as dirt alerts.
Almost all canister vacuums are similar in size,
offer similar radiuses of cleaning, and come with
the same tool attachments.