"Where does the dust come from?" - the question is eternal and rather rhetorical. Nobody knows the answer to it, and one has to deal with this scourge almost daily, especially in urban apartments. To carry out this mission without a vacuum cleaner is extremely tiring, and sometimes even unrealistic - if the floors are carpeted and the rooms have upholstered furniture. Everyone wants to breathe clean air, not just allergies, for whom dust is the number one enemy.
Modern home appliance market
He is very diverse. Today it is difficult to imagine life without household appliances. It is designed to facilitate and improve the process of housekeeping, thereby freeing up time for other, more enjoyable, activities.
The production of modern household appliances is constantly being upgraded, models are improving, and new convenient features are appearing. If before the device had one task, today it is a multifunctional device.
Choosing and buying household appliances is not an easy task. It is necessary to take into account many mandatory parameters and characteristics in order to make the right choice.
Issues that a consumer faces when choosing a household appliance such as a vacuum cleaner
The variety of devices that simplify the life and life of people is constantly growing. Today, the home appliance market is easy to get confused. If it is not difficult to determine the price category, you can find the device according to the money available to the buyer, but what next? Choose a vacuum cleaner with a standard dust bag or container? Or maybe go broke on a device with an aquafilter? Do you need exclusively dry cleaning or wet too? And what power is considered optimal? How many filters will best help both clean and maintain health? What additional nozzles are offered by modern manufacturers? All these questions require careful study if you are considering what a good vacuum cleaner for the home to choose. Let's try to answer these and other questions.
One of the main parameters that you should pay attention to when choosing a vacuum cleaner
What should be considered first? The power consumption of a vacuum cleaner characterizes the energy consumption class of a household appliance, but not its performance at all. This indicator should worry the housewives only in terms of the load on the electric grid and the subsequent payment of electricity bills. With equal power consumption, the suction power of vacuum cleaners can be completely different. The quality of cleaning directly depends on this value. The maximum suction power, which is sometimes indicated in the product passport, is the power with which the vacuum cleaner could work under ideal conditions. In reality, it is observed only a couple of minutes after it is connected to the network. It is closer to reality, and therefore, such an indicator as the average effective suction power is of greater interest to consumers. This percentage is 30% lower than the maximum indicator and depends on the degree of fullness of the dust bag. It is worth noting that this does not apply to all models.
A bit about the numbers of household appliances
Any device has its own power consumption. It is very important to be aware of this indicator of your household appliances in order to correctly calculate the simultaneous load on the wiring. The power consumption of vacuum cleaners can range from 900 to 2000 watts, and the suction power can range from 250 to 480 watts. These indicators can be found in the instrument passport or on the official website of the manufacturer. What power is the most suitable vacuum cleaner - it depends on the size of the room and the degree of pollution. Here it is necessary to consider for cleaning in which room and how often the device is used. For frequent use in a small apartment, a power of 250 watts is enough. If cleaning is done only "on holidays" and in an extremely short time, you need a more powerful vacuum cleaner. Here it is worth considering the option where the best suction power of the vacuum cleaner starts from 350 watts.
Often, information about such a parameter can be difficult to detect, because in large numbers on the device’s case, as a rule, the consumed value of the unit is recorded. From the point of view of marketing, this is understandable, because the last characteristic is a more impressive figure, but there is absolutely no information about how good this model is in cleaning. Therefore, you will have to study the instructions and the product data sheet, and if among the characteristics you find the line is not just “vacuum cleaner power, W”, but “suction power”, then we can say that you are lucky. You won’t have to search for information on the model you’ve liked online or retrieve from the seller. It is worth noting that not every manufacturer indicates this characteristic.
Good models are those that provide for adjusting the power of the vacuum cleaner.
This can be either a lever on the device body, or, if the unit is equipped with electronics, a button on the control panel. Such a function will make it possible, if necessary, to increase the efficiency of dust absorption, but not to overload the device and the electrical network for no particular reason.
Household appliances with a cyclone system
The suction power of vacuum cleaners depends, as already mentioned, on how full the dust bag is. But this applies only to models with a bag. In those of them that are equipped with a container, such a dependence is not observed. We are talking about cyclone-type vacuum cleaners. In such devices, due to the centrifugal force, dust particles are pressed against the side walls of the tank, and clean air passes on. Some loss of suction power due to swirling air flow, of course, occurs, but not significant.
Why are these vacuum cleaners attractive?
Plus the cyclone system is not only in constant suction power. They won the love of consumers due to the lack of those dust bags. Well, if they are paper, and they can simply be thrown away. And if the supply of paper dust collectors has run out, and in order to save money and time, you had to use a reusable textile counterpart? Not only are such bags poorly retain fine dust. Cleaning them is a truly dirty business, and any housewife knows this. Although the plastic container needs manual cleaning, it is much easier. The disadvantages of vacuum cleaners equipped with a cyclone system, except in the creation of additional noise during operation.
Aquafilter Vacuum Cleaners
They are popular among consumers at present. As a dust collector, vacuum cleaners come not only with a bag or container, but also with a tank filled with water. Water, precipitating dust, is an excellent cleaner. Therefore, a vacuum cleaner with an aquafilter has a high degree of filtration, and simultaneously also humidifies the air in the room. Such devices are distinguished by impressive dimensions and high cost. After harvesting, the water from the flask is poured out, and the tank itself is washed and dried. The vacuum cleaner with an aquafilter is necessarily equipped with an additional filtration system. Actually, such a system is in any model, and it is worth talking about this in more detail.
Filters for vacuum cleaners
Another important parameter that you should pay attention to when choosing an assistant in the house. We have already talked about the first stage of filtration - this is a dust collector, whatever type it may be: replaceable, reusable or water. The next stage is a motor filter, which, as is already clear from its name, protects the device’s motor from clogging. Most often it is permanent, it is only necessary to periodically clean it. The third stage is represented by fine filters.
Everyone knows that after cleaning with the help of old vacuum cleaners, the smell of dust is distinctly felt in the air, because part of it, mostly the smallest particles, is simply thrown back with the air stream. Modern models lack this drawback. It is filters for fine cleaning that perform the function of cleaning the air at the outlet of the vacuum cleaner, delaying the smallest particles of dust, allergens and even microorganisms. The suction power of vacuum cleaners with an abundance of filters may suffer slightly, but perhaps it's worth it. To maintain this parameter, it is necessary to maintain the cleanliness of the component parts.
Vacuum cleaners and vacuum cleaners for dry cleaning
Vacuum cleaners for dry cleaning are most in demand among consumers. Indeed, if the room is not so large and is not particularly dirty, then with the help of such a vacuum cleaner it is equally possible to clean carpets on the floor, as well as simply uncoated floors, upholstered furniture and even clothes. In most cases, dry cleaning with an ordinary vacuum cleaner is more than enough.
When is such a home appliance useful
Washing vacuum cleaners are designed more for general than daily cleaning. They spray moisture and collect it back: this way you can wash carpets, floors, tiles, collect spilled liquid. The degree of water supply is adjustable, but surfaces that are poorly related to excessive moisture should not be cleaned with their help - they will remain moist after cleaning. This applies to natural carpets, parquet. Any carpet, by the way, will also have to dry for some time after cleaning, which is associated with certain inconveniences.
Vacuum cleaner models with the possibility of wet cleaning are much more bulky than their "dry" counterparts. And this is understandable, because they contain not one, but two tanks. The first tank is designed for clean water with the addition of detergent, and the other fluid is used, dirty. Caring for such vacuum cleaners is also more difficult: they must be disassembled, washed, dried. Their cost makes such devices not quite affordable for everyone, and they will also require additional costs, because you have to buy detergents and pay more for electricity - these are high-power vacuum cleaners. For owners of large houses, such vacuum cleaners will become serious helpers in the household, as for small-sized apartments, it is unlikely that these units are appropriate there.
Types of nozzles for vacuum cleaners
A standard nozzle for a vacuum cleaner is a wide nozzle for floors and carpets, equipped with a switch that either extends the bristles of the brush, then removes it. In cheap models of vacuum cleaners this may be limited, but, as a rule, there is also a flat nozzle for crevices and a small round brush with a high bristle. The first is suitable for cleaning inaccessible places, and with the help of the second you can clean furniture, both soft and polished, or clean, for example, dust from the roots of books on shelves.
Extra brushes
There are special nozzles for parquet, vacuum nozzles for washing vacuum cleaners, special nozzles for cleaning vertical surfaces. A very good option for carpet lovers and pets are turbo brushes. The bristles on such brushes are arranged in a spiral on the shaft, and it, in turn, rotates in the air stream. Due to this rotation, the suction power of vacuum cleaners is slightly reduced, but such brushes are able to overpower impurities that are not amenable to conventional nozzles: animal hair and hair are easily wound on a turbo brush.
The suction power will not suffer if the vacuum cleaner is equipped with an electric brush, because in this case the rotation does not occur with the help of air, but through electricity. But here you have to put up with additional wires on the suction pipe.
Additional functions of modern vacuum cleaners
Manufacturers in a competitive environment are always striving to interest consumers with something new. In our time, however, it is difficult to surprise a consumer, but some additional functions of modern devices are very useful and curious. So, with prolonged cleaning, it may be useful to protect the vacuum cleaner from overheating, which will turn off the device in time. The aroma function will save households from a specific “vacuum” smell that appears due to the heating of dust. For this purpose, there are plates, there are granules, and there may be special carbon filters.
Automatic cord reeling is no one's imagination, as well as compartments for storing additional nozzles, but the presence of a safe rubberized bumper on the vacuum cleaner will save your furniture from damage. So that the device does not suffer from your forgetfulness, it will not be out of place to refuse to turn it on if the dust collector is missing, or if it is filled to capacity. And the bactericidal lamp, which some models of home cleaners are equipped with, makes them multifunctional devices that help to maintain not only cleanliness in the room, but also the health of its inhabitants.