What handheld vacuum do you use?

Kiwibird · Sep 28, 2019

We have a really nice Dyson animal that sucks up every molecule of dust on the hard floors, but that is a full size upright vacuum that I have to put a special attachment on and is generally not very convenient to pull out every day or multiple times a day just for the living room. We used to have a Dustbuster but I think all the parrot detritus I sucked up with it eventually killed it:33: I don't think I’m getting another one by that brand again though, it only lasted a couple years.

Curious what brand of cordless/handheld vacuums you use for small jobs? I typically sweep up into piles and them vacuum up the piles with a handheld vacuum.

GaleriaGila · Sep 28, 2019

I, too, once killed a Dustbuster about 15 years ago and haven't ventured into handheld vacuums since.
But you'e tempting me. They really ARE handy. I'll follow to see what people have to say...

WakaWaka · Sep 28, 2019

We have a Dyson V10 animal.
A large retail chain had it on sale, plus they honored a 20% off coupon. The retail price is insane but the double discounts brought it into reality and we decided to go for it.
Its great because it is portable, no cords, charges quick, 3 levels of power, has a large dirt canister, and is dedicated to Arika's room.
Be advised that you need to blow it out with a compressed air to maintain its effectiveness.

Kiwibird · Sep 28, 2019

WakaWaka said:
We have a Dyson V10 animal.
A large retail chain had it on sale, plus they honored a 20% off coupon. The retail price is insane but the double discounts brought it into reality and we decided to go for it.
Its great because it is portable, no cords, charges quick, 3 levels of power, has a large dirt canister, and is dedicated to Arika's room.
Be advised that you need to blow it out with a compressed air to maintain its effectiveness.

We have the full size Dyson Animal so I know how good of vacuums they make. I’ve seen their cordless ones in stored and while I’m sure it’s excellent, it’s well out of the realm of what I’m willing to spend even if used or discounted or whatever. I’m more looking in the around $40-50 range. Probably should have specified what I was willing to spend.

ParrotGenie · Sep 28, 2019

Handhelds won't work for me as had a Dyson V10 and tried half a dozen others and had to clean it every couple of minutes which became a huge pain and then you need to take apart and clean nozzles with air compressor, as they make a huge mess and dust clog it up very quickly, same issue I had with the Kenmore vacuum. Plus the battery life on the Dyson is not that great. You think a portable would be more convenient, but having to take apart Cyclone to unclog and less then 10 minutes of battery life on high power setting. It just not not worth it, I ended up returning it and going route below.

I use now a shark professional lift away, or my miele C2 Canister vacuum, which both does great. I tend to use the shark way more in bird room as easier to clean and wash filters every once in a while after finish with it and the newer version has doors covers to tube areas that likely will get clogged and makes it easy to clean out and is bagless, so shark did some revisions over the years to the model, doesn't have the issues anymore that the earlier version had. The Miele uses bags and my birds tend to throw food all over the room, just don't want food sitting in a bag and to replace bags pretty much every day would get expensive, but does great and never had it lose suction in the middle of clean up as had with others.

I say avoid portable, just not powerful enough and clogs to easy and battery life not that great on high power mode and get a Shark lift-away. Unless you don't have a outlet nearby avoid portables altogether? Then again I have a few birds I have to clean up after, may not be as bad with just one bird?

WakaWaka · Sep 29, 2019

ParrotGenie said:
Handhelds won't work for me as had a Dyson V10 and tried half a dozen others and had to clean it every couple of minutes which became a huge pain and then you need to take apart and clean nozzles with air compressor, as they make a huge mess and dust clog it up very quickly, same issue I had with the Kenmore vacuum. Plus the battery life on the Dyson is not that great. You think a portable would be more convenient, but having to take apart Cyclone to unclog and less then 10 minutes of battery life on high power setting. It just not not worth it, I ended up returning it and going route below.

I use now a shark professional lift away, or my miele C2 Canister vacuum, which both does great. I tend to use the shark way more in bird room as easier to clean and wash filters every once in a while after finish with it and the newer version has doors covers to tube areas that likely will get clogged and makes it easy to clean out and is bagless, so shark did some revisions over the years to the model, doesn't have the issues anymore that the earlier version had. The Miele uses bags and my birds tend to throw food all over the room, just don't want food sitting in a bag and to replace bags pretty much every day would get expensive, but does great and never had it lose suction in the middle of clean up as had with others.

I say avoid portable, just not powerful enough and clogs to easy and battery life not that great on high power mode and get a Shark lift-away. Unless you don't have a outlet nearby avoid portables altogether? Then again I have a few birds I have to clean up after, may not be as bad with just one bird?

We seldom use the high power mode on the Dyson.
A full charge will last about 2 weeks with vacuuming her room every night, but we use the low power.
Agree on the frequent cleaning of the vortex type. We blow ours out with a compressor weekly to keep it running efficiently.

Miele makes a great vacuum too, we've had ours for about 25 years, no problems, but they are very expensive too.

We also only have one feathered monster to mess things up.
Others with multiple mess makers will find they will reach the limits of a portable quickly.

Bottom line, it may be tough to find something that will last, especially with daily use for less than $100.
If we find anything or can offer any other suggestions, we will post it.
Hopefully someone else has some suggestions.
Good luck on finding something.

ravvlet · Oct 3, 2019

Caveat- we only have two birds!! But we use a dirt devil stick (sadly it’s not cordless) that was only $20 on amazon. There’s almost nothing to it, one small filter that can be washed in the sink so it’s almost impossible to ruin. I still have to remove big chunks of food by hand but it gets everything else! I’ve even managed to vacuum food off the wall

it’s great for toddlers too, lol

Our regular vacuum on the other hand was a full size dirt devil that has thrown in the towel thanks to our longhaired chihuahuas!

I think there’s a full size dyson animal in our future...

What handheld vacuum do you use?

Kiwibird

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WakaWaka

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