Can I get a good vacuum cleaner for under $150? Any recommendations?

[traces7]

Our vacuum cleaner has to be over 20 years old! We need a new one. There are so many to choose from, I have no clue what would be good. Our old one is a Hoover and has done well. Those Dysons look and sound nice, but don't think I want to spend that much. Any good ones for a little less money? Thanks!

 

[ines248]

Our vacuum cleaner has to be over 20 years old! We need a new one. There are so many to choose from, I have no clue what would be good. Our old one is a Hoover and has done well. Those Dysons look and sound nice, but don't think I want to spend that much. Any good ones for a little less money? Thanks!

You are lucky! Amazon has a sale! You may want to read reviews and maybe consider the vavuum cleaner that comes with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_ex_k...0,n:510106,n:3743521,p_9:25%+-+50%+off&page=1

An example of several good deals:

Bissell 5770 Healthy Home Bagless Upright: Reg: 349.99 Sale 249.99 with free ship:
http://www.amazon.com/Bissell-5770-H...636193&sr=1-10

Hoover U5262-910 EmPower Bagless Upright: Reg: 109.99 Sale $83 with free ship"
http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-U5262-9...636193&sr=1-12

Hoover U5507-900 Elite Bagless Upright Reg: 129.00 Sale $55 (no free shipping though)
http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-U5507-9...6636549&sr=1-3

Refurbished Eureka Boss R5892A Boss Upright: Reg: $169.99 Sale $69.99 and free ship:
http://www.amazon.com/Refurbished-Eu...6636549&sr=1-6

Hoover S3765-040 Wind Tunnel Electronic Bagless Canister Vac: Reg $349.99, Sale $174.59 with free ship:
http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-S3765-0...6636753&sr=1-2

 

[Lisa_M]

We have a Panasonic upright that we bought from my uncle's vaccuum shop. It's been really good for us. It was about $100. You should check out local vaccuum shops as well as stuff online.

 

[cheerbop]

We have 2 vacuums. One is alot heavier than the other, but honestly, I really like our lighter one better.
It is the Hoover Empower listed in the one post above, except the part on it that is orange is blue on ours.
Best of luck.

 

[bumbershoot]

We bought this Hoover Elite from Amazon a few months ago. It's noisy, but it's really good!

omg now it's 30 bucks cheaper than when we got it. Augh. And at the time it was a great deal! Oh well. I guess at that time it was sold directly through amazon, and qualified for Prime shipping (that we had a trial membership to), so it all works out.

Anyway, it's a good vacuum. We now can't BELIEVE how must dust accumulates in a short amount of time. We had a little Eureka before, but I destroyed it by stupidly trying to vacuum up a big spill of comet cleanser caused by my son as we were moving. Coated everything inside instantly, the poor thing died quickly. Don't try to clean that sort of thing with an already wimpy vacuum.

 

[noahynav]

I just bought The Boss by Eureka. I love it!!! It retails around $140, I got mine on sale for $125. Amazing suction, Hepa filter, easy to use on board tools.
It replaced my Hoover, which I only had for one year before it died and numerous things broke on it.
I would definitely go online and read reviews about all of them, thats what I did.
BTW, The Boss by Eureka was rated as well as Dyson in suction power by several consumer magazines.

 

[Tinkerbelle32]

I just came back from buying the Bissel Healthy Home from Target. I've read nothing but excellent reviews for it. Still half of what I would have spent on the Dyson. It was $249.

 

[Robinrs]

Another vote for the Boss! It's consistently considered one of the best under $150.00!

http://www.vacuumwizard.com/vacuum-cleaner-ratings.html

 

[jenk99]

I have heard really good things about Panasonic vacuums. I wish that I had heard these things before I spent $500 on my Dyson (which btw has lost suction).

The best suggestion that I have read about shopping for a vacuum is to go to a Vac Repair shop and ask them which one they recommend. They know which ones to avoid and which are best.

HTH!!

 

[englishteacha]

As a bagless owner with allergies, I'll look into something with a bag for my next vacuum. I have a Hoover bagless upright with a HEPA filter. It was a wedding gift. It works well but I hate to empty the dirt cup. I get all dusty and sneezy. I have to empty it outside or it just gets dust all over everything in the house. I also have to empty it just about every time I vacuum because I have a lot of carpet in my house. My next vacuum will have a bag so I don't have to deal with the dust cup. Or maybe I'll steal my SIL's Rainbow. The Rainbow collects the dirt into a container of water, so there's no dust and no bag. You have to find somewhere to dump it, though. I know I wouldn't want to dump it down my drain! I'd never buy a new Rainbow as they're ridiculously overpriced, but sometimes you can find them second hand at a vacuum shop. My SIL's was actually my MIL's, and it's well over 20 years old...it might be close to 30! I don't know if I even answered your question...I guess I'll close by saying, my Hoover works well, but I hate the bagless "feature" and would prefer a bag. I would purchase a Hoover as long as it was a model with a bag.

 

[traces7]

Thanks to everyone for all your advice. I'm going to check out all these recommendations. I also got last month's Consumer Reports which has an article on vacuums.
Another question, what's better bag or bagless? I see the last post mentioned that she hated emptying the dust cup, got me thinking. My old one has a bag and it doesn't really bother me.

 

[MushyMushy]

We bought this Hoover Elite from Amazon a few months ago. It's noisy, but it's really good!

omg now it's 30 bucks cheaper than when we got it. Augh. And at the time it was a great deal! Oh well. I guess at that time it was sold directly through amazon, and qualified for Prime shipping (that we had a trial membership to), so it all works out.

Anyway, it's a good vacuum. We now can't BELIEVE how must dust accumulates in a short amount of time. We had a little Eureka before, but I destroyed it by stupidly trying to vacuum up a big spill of comet cleanser caused by my son as we were moving. Coated everything inside instantly, the poor thing died quickly. Don't try to clean that sort of thing with an already wimpy vacuum.

I second this vacuum, but I don't agree that it's all that noisy -- must be a subjective thing. Anyway, I love it! When I got it, it was eligible for free shipping, and if you look to the right, you'll see that it'll be available through Amazon soon, so you should be able to get it for free shipping then.

 

[MushyMushy]

Thanks to everyone for all your advice. I'm going to check out all these recommendations. I also got last month's Consumer Reports which has an article on vacuums.
Another question, what's better bag or bagless? I see the last post mentioned that she hated emptying the dust cup, got me thinking. My old one has a bag and it doesn't really bother me.

The cup on the Hoover Elite isn't bad at all to empty. You just hold it over a trash can and push a button and it all falls out the bottom. It doesn't seem to me that a lot of dust comes floating up, but then I don't have a problem with dust, so maybe I just didn't notice.

 

[denise5374]

I bought hte Eureka Boss upright like one of the PP said about 1 months ago. I love it! I had an old Eureka that was maybe 20 years ol, thjat finally died. I bought another Eureka, cheap maybe $70.00 adn it broke within a week, took it back bout a Dirt Devil somthing or other, it wa sawful. It broke n about a month, threw it in the trash! That one was about $50.00. I didn't want to spend alot of money on one but after those two disasters, I bought the Eureka Boss for about $150.00. I was going to get the Dyson but I talked to two people that I work with that have it and they said it was heavy and the on board tools weren'treal easy to use. Plus I wan't looking forward to spending $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

 

[bumbershoot]

I second this vacuum, but I don't agree that it's all that noisy -- must be a subjective thing. Anyway, I love it! When I got it, it was eligible for free shipping, and if you look to the right, you'll see that it'll be available through Amazon soon, so you should be able to get it for free shipping then.

It might have a higher price, though. I've been watching this happen with a stroller I want to buy. Lower price through another seller when amazon it out of stock, but higher shipping. Once it's back in stock with super saver, it's a higher price (and I'm in WA so have the honor of paying almost 9% tax), up, down, up, down.

***********
Bagless vs bag. They're about 50/50 to me. I like bagless b/c I have a sick fascination with how much crud goes into the cup. At the same time, seeing that makes me nauseous. And of course a bag will get heavy, and that's a way to find out how much crud it sucked up.

I can have pretty bad allergies too, and they can go into asthma, so I cite health-reasons for me to NEVER empty the cup. If it fills, I'm done for the day, and when DH gets home he empties the cup. Lucky, lucky him. When we had a cat, he did the litterbox, too. Good man.

The vacuum we have now, you *can* empty it a bit less hands-on than our old wimpy Eureka. There's a button you push and the bottom flips out. BUT if you have "solid" gunk, like hair, or really really thick dust (there's construction AND a farm right around here), you (and when I say "you" I mean "one's dear significant other" if one has allergies or aversions to nasty things), might have to stick one's hand up in there to get it all out. Bleah. See, that's why I have DH do it.

There are downsides to bags, too. Only one I can think of is...if you do NOT fill it, or you don't want to waste a hardly-used bag, then you end up with a partially used bag just sitting in your closet/hallway/garage/whereever, until you do fill the bag. And that's pretty gross, too!

 

[MushyMushy]

It might have a higher price, though. I've been watching this happen with a stroller I want to buy. Lower price through another seller when amazon it out of stock, but higher shipping. Once it's back in stock with super saver, it's a higher price (and I'm in WA so have the honor of paying almost 9% tax), up, down, up, down.

I bought mine about a month ago and it was at the $79 price, and according to Amazon, the shipping would have been $18.56, so I definitely made out with it!