Vacuum for Woodwork
Hello fellow Brownstoners! My new housekeeper told me I should get a vacuum cleaner which can be used to not only clean my hardwood floors but also to clean the woodwork in my hard (i.e. wainscotting, moldings, fretwork) that collects dusts like nobody’s business. Any suggestions for a good vacumm cleaner to purchase for this…
Hello fellow Brownstoners! My new housekeeper told me I should get a vacuum cleaner which can be used to not only clean my hardwood floors but also to clean the woodwork in my hard (i.e. wainscotting, moldings, fretwork) that collects dusts like nobody’s business. Any suggestions for a good vacumm cleaner to purchase for this purpose, or additional wood cleaning, dusting tips??? Thanks!
i use a Dyson upright and love it. Great for cracks and baseboards, where the dust accumulates. The only negative is the weight if you have to lug it up stairs.
My original upright Dyson has been going strong for a dozen years, but weighs a ton. I recently got a DC23 canister and it’s a bloody marvel. Much lighter to carry, but with as much suction as the original.
When I grow up, I hope to be able to afford a housekeeper.
After decades of using traditional vacuums I got a wet/dry shopvac and I will never go back to those low-suction old models. They’re bulkier, but light, and the suction is good enough to get dust that’s nowhere near the nozzle. You can get a brush attachment and it works better than anything else I’ve seen for moldings. Shopvacs are also great for sucking-up puddles (or an outright flood!) and can suck the bedbugs out of the cracks in floorboards (not that I’ve ever had bedbugs, of course). The second-best method for dusting moldings is a compressor; blast it with an airhose to get the dust out of the cracks, and then just vacuum it off the floor.
My new housekeeper is only allowed to used linen sheeting to clean my house… vacuums bother my shih tzu puppies.
I am evangelical about my Miele vacuum cleaner. It was expensive, but it makes vacuuming so, so easy. It is a canister – so light, and it rolls and take turns so easily. When I finally broke down and got one, it was after reading this Times article…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/fashion/15Online.html
…where the writer calls up a shop in Hudson, NY, to speak to a vacuum expert and then orders the vacuum from him and has it shipped. I did exactly what she did – the guy told me what he thought I should get, I ordered it, and a week later the vacuum arrived and changed my feelings about vacuuming forever.
Seconding the Dyson love–they’re expensive, but a worthwhile investment. The suction is great, it’s bagless and has a HEPA filter, and it’s very easy to take apart to empty or to clear clogs. I use it for hardwood, carpets, and the attachment with a little brushhead for dusting of the molding.
Housenut’s right, though, it is definitely heavy and getting it up and down the steps would be a bitch.
I like the Electrolux EL6984A UltraSilencer. It does a great job on wood floors, is lightweight, and very quiet.
– http://www.amazon.com/Electrolux-EL6984A-UltraSilencer-Canister-Cleaner/dp/B002L3ART8/
I automatically discount whatever comes after “my new housekeeper” in a sentence.
I think I have the DC23 and it comes with the basic attachments: wide carpet, wide hardwood, corner pointy thing and small round brushhead. It has great suction and I like that the extension handle is built in. It is fairly heavy though. I hate lugging it up steps to get to different floors, so I may get a second one.