I remember when I was a kid there was basically one type of vacuum. It was upright, it had a bag, was noisy as heck and you lived with it, even if you didn't love it. I know I didn't, especially not when I was trying to watch TV and the only thing I could hear was the roar of the motor. Well, vacuum cleaners haven't really gotten a whole lot quieter but there are certainly more kinds to choose from, the most common ones to be covered in this article.

The traditional upright with bag is still, believe it or not, the most popular. Don't ask me why. They're bulky, hard to move around and a pain to change the bags. Of course today uprights aren't just uprights anymore. Today you have your traditional bag upright but also have uprights that are bagless. The dust accumulates in this kind of compartment that you empty out afterwards. The thing I don't like about them is that the dust flies all over the place when emptying. So please do it out in the street. Then there's your upright with a filter that traps the dust into the filter, leaving less to empty out. These are referred to as "clean air" designs. That's what we have today because of my allergies. I guess it helps. Ours comes with what they call a hepa filter. It's supposed to really suck the allergens out of the air. I do feel better since getting it so I guess it's doing it's job. Supposedly with the upright, clean air, canister design you get better suction too. I've put my hand against the nozzle to test this and it didn't really seem much better than the vacuum we used to have. So who knows?

Then you've got your two motor uprights. I never understood why two motors are supposed to be better than one but according to my research the second motor is actually in the nozzle which is supposed to provide the unit with more power and therefore better suction. I guess the question I have to ask is, if one motor isn't good enough to get the job done then why make one motor vacuums and if it IS good enough then what's the point of the second motor? They say the main benefit is for cleaning carpets. With one motor the brush rolls slow down when cleaning the carpet but with the second motor the brush rolls continue at their normal speed. I guess that would make cleaning the carpet quicker but I don't see how it will make it clean any better. Sometimes I just don't get progress.

Then you've got your canister vacuum cleaners. Those are the ones where you've got this kind of box shaped thing that rolls along the floor while you drag this hose around the house. These also come in bagless and filter styles. We've got one of these with the hepa filters too. My wife is a vacuum freak.

Then of course you've got your portable hand held vacuums like the ever popular dust buster. I never could understand how they got any power out of those things. Hand helds are very small, usually about 8 to 12 inches long. We still have our dust buster but we don't really use it anymore. Though they are very good for cleaning small places like chairs and sofas. Just don't expect them to suck up a mountain of soot off the floor. They can only do so much.

Then you've got your wet/dry utility vacuums which are designed primarily for picking up wet spills. I've never personally seen one of these but I hear that everyone should have one. I don't know. I haven't spilled anything besides water in years (since that's all I drink) so I think I can probably live without one of these.

Then you've got your steam cleaners which are basically used for making your dull carpets look like new again. Since our carpets are over 16 years old I seriously doubt that steam cleaning is going to do very much for them.

And that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Maybe in a future article I'll go into more detail about the strengths and weaknesses of each of these types. So stay tuned.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Vacuum Cleaners