Help, please can somebody recommend a vacuum cleaner? Not a Dyson.

[ineedaknittedhat]

I have three dyson cleaners, none of which work properly. I am at my wits end. I can't afford anything too fancy.

Can anyone recommend a reasonable vacuum for around £250 that isn't huge as my house is small. I can't use one of those drag across the floor ones as I have a bad back.

All you shark people are making me jealous! I hate my dyson.

Got shedding cats, hard floors, rugs, carpeted stairs and carpets upstairs. I can’t work out the difference between the models!

Any specific model recommendations? Please

I think they are all good

Decide between corded or non corded

Then look at the pets ones - out of those some have an allergy filter.

I paid a bargain price on eBay for mine.

AND the kids have used it in their bedrooms!!

Sebo. Ours is over 10 years old and beats our Dyson any day

We have the G-Tech Air Ram, it was actually a set of two- one is a handheld job, the other is an upright that looks like one of those sweepy things my gran used to have.

We've been really impressed, though with a small house and 3 dogs we use them frequently for very small bursts (currently hoover at least twice a day in order to combat the annual summer moult) Not sure how they would do with prolonged use.

Looking at sharks
Do do do do.

I have just bought a Shark Duo cordless from Curry’s, where they are currently are selling a bundle with the single battery model plus an extra battery for £20 cheaper than buying the vacuum on its own:

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/home

It seems too good be too good to be true as the hoover costs £349.99 and the battery costs £69.99 when bought separately but together they are £329.99.

Not sure why the link didn’t work, it’s still there is you search on the Currys website.

“Currys”, annoying autocorrect!

For all those who recommend Shark cordless over Dyson cordless, please explain why Shark fails so badly in this video when up against a Dyson V7. Shark is all about good American style marketing. But when tested against Dyson, it's comes up short. A 300W Shark duoclean is always going to lose against a 350W Dyson V7.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=UfZBhhPMris

Dz1000 because (assuming you don’t work for dyson and want a genuine answer) I didn’t have a dyson v7, I had a cordless DC59, with rubbish battery life that either pinged crumbs etc across my wooden floor, or, if I used the attachment, scraped said polished floorboards. The dyson d7 may well outperform the shark, but I wasn’t prepared to spend more money on a dyson finding out in case it was as bad on the hard floors as my previous one. More than half my house is hard floor. The shark was recommended to me and is far far better. On carpet it’s probably much of a muchness but the shark stands up on its own so...

Another Shark-lover here!
I have the Liftaway which is fab and does not have a problem in picking up cat hair.
As an added bonus - it is rose gold!

The first Dyson we had was brilliant, 2nd was rubbish and then we tried the Dyson Cylinder one which was bloody heavy and bloody useless.

Our Dyson won’t pick up any type of hair in a carpet. They are expensive and don’t do the job properly.

The sharks spinning rollers help pick up everything.

KTCluck The Dyson DC59 is nearly 6 years old. I think technology has moved on from those early Dyson cordless cleaners. Battery was terrible and it didn't come with a soft felt roller for wooden floors, which the later dyson models came with.

GreenTulips. Doesn't look like those Shark rollers were doing a good job in that video i posted above.

Could the people recommending Shark lift away or Duo please be more specific. If you look on their website there's many different versions....

Dz1000 I don't trust these kind of tests.. they are paid by whichever supplier to make the other look shit.
Word of mouth is a good indicator

Dz1000 you’re so right, I’ll sell my shark sharpish and get the new dyson. That biased video created by Dyson has convinced me that what I’m seeing with my own eyes is wrong

Whisky2014 I got mine from the sharkvacuum UK site - genuine shark site with the full warranty emailed to me but slightly less mind boggling choice than the UK division of the main eu one. It only seems to have the ?newest models on. Mine is the duoclean stick vacuum with 1 hour run time, IF260UKTH, which is currently £349.93. Obviously I don’t know how this one compares to the slightly older versions which could be a bit cheaper.

Shark have an eBay outlet

Worth a look

I have bought a Sebo after reading this thread. It is being delivered today. I may report back on my findings.

A bit above your budget, but these are supposed to be amazing!

The cleaners at our gym have cordless Henry machines- they look much smaller and lighter than our Henry. I do love Henry, ours is a heavy beast but does a much better job than our old Dyson.

Agree that the Bosch Athlet is a bit so so. Does a reasonable job but clogs way too easily then it spews dust and crumbs all over the floor. Plus, it stands up on its own but quite shakily so after one too many falls the handle broke.

I've just bought a EufyHome robovac and I'm in love! Good old Prime Day purchase! I just say 'Alexa, ask Robovac to clean' and off he trundles as I run around picking stuff off the floor. We use him daily and he still fills the bin with cat fur and crumbs. We haven't used him upstairs yet but that doesn't get too dirty as food and shoes are banned upstairs. Obviously he's useless on stairs but ours are wood so I can just sweep the dust down.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of a stick vacuum?

I've got a Dyson stick vacuum. It drives me mad as the brush head gets hair tangled and I have to use scissors to cut it free. Do any vacuums overcome this issue? Or do they all get tangled with hair? Three females with long hair here...

Whisky2014 You make bold claims about that video but you don't explain how it was rigged to show Dyson winning. I don't see how random biased owners, some real some fake, saying theirs is the best can be better than actual video evidence.

KTCluck You haven't done a head to head test against Dyson, so why pretend you have? Another shark owner who claims the video is biased but can't say how.

I’ve got a sebo felix and a shark liftaway. The sebo is an amazing vacuum cleaner but to lift pet hairs the shark out performs it. I tend to use the sebo on hard surfaces and the shark on carpets and stairs as it’s just so easy to use.

If I had to pick one of them it would be the shark