Select a Vacuum CleanerChoose a vacuum cleaner that works on your flooring or carpet and includes all the attachments, accessories, and features you need. Make sure you can transport your new vacuum cleaner easily throughout your home as well. Upright vacuum cleaners have a motor, bag, hose, and beater included in a single unit. The wheeled carriages on upright vacuum cleaners make them easy to maneuver around furniture and some can self-propel to cover large, open areas of a room. Upright vacuum cleaners typically work best on carpeting and have adjustment settings for carpets of different heights as well as a bare floor setting. While many come with hose and wand attachments, upright vacuum cleaners cannot easily navigate closets and you may have to lift them on stairs. Popular upright vacuum cleaner brands include Dyson upright vacuum cleaners, Bosch upright vacuum cleaners, and Electrolux upright vacuum cleaners. Canister vacuum cleaners, composed of a long hose and canister containing a motor and bag, make a good choice for hardwood floors, vertical surfaces, curtains, and stairs. All canister vacuum cleaners offer excellent suction for hard floors. Some come in smaller, more portable sizes than upright vacuum cleaners, and some include beater attachments. Popular canister vacuum cleaner brands include Electrolux canister vacuum cleaners, Rainbow canister vacuum cleaners, and Kenmore canister vacuum cleaners. Some upright vacuum cleaners and canister vacuum cleaners deposit dirt and debris into a container instead of a vacuum bag. These hard bag vacuum cleaners, also called bagless vacuum cleaners, usually include HEPA filters that more efficiently remove dirt particles, dust, pollen, and dander from the air passing through the vacuum cleaner and make a good choice for households with allergy sufferers. Broom vacuum cleaners, sometimes called "stick vacs," have a similar design to thin, light upright vacuums, but do not have rollers and beaters. Broom vacuum cleaners, such as Eureka broom vacuum cleaners and Dirt Devil broom vacuum cleaners, perform well on hardwood floors, furniture, curtains, hard-to-reach locations, and in tight spaces. Since they have a small and lightweight design, most broom vacuum cleaners use a dirt cup instead of a bag to catch dirt and dust. Also, their small motors don’t use as much power as larger vacuums, and many cordless models are available. Small, light, and typically cordless handheld vacuum cleaners offer a convenient alternative to larger vacuums and are ideal for smaller cleanup jobs. Most handheld vacuum cleaners use a dirt cup instead of a bag, have a wand attachment to reach tight spaces, and some have an agitator attachment for carpets and furniture. Popular brands include Black and Decker handheld vacuum cleaners, Dirt Devil handheld vacuum cleaners, and Hoover handheld vacuum cleaners. Robotic vacuum cleaners, the newest trend in carpet cleaning, save you time, hassle, and work. Self-powered, self-navigating, and self-timing models such as the Roomba, Electrolux Trilobyte, and Samsung Robotic Vacuum come equipped with dirt sensors that tell the vacuum when to spend more time on a particular area of floor or carpet. Robotic vacuum cleaners have heads that can adjust for carpets of varying heights as well as hardwood floors. Many come with side brushes to clean the edges of the room and around furniture. Most have a bagless system that makes emptying out the collection area easy. Instead of carrying the motor and cleaning bag with you, consider installing a central vacuum, such as an Imperium central vacuum, Kenmore central vacuum, or Beam central vacuum. In a central vacuum system, pipes in the walls connect to a powerful motor in some out-of-the-way place such as a closet or the garage. When you want to clean a room, connect a vacuum hose to one of the three or four inlets spaced throughout your house and allow the pipes to carry dirt and debris to the motor and bag. The whole process is very quiet since the motor is located in a remote location. Deep-cleaning carpet steamers, also called "steam vacs," such as Hoover carpet steamers and Bissell carpet steamers use steam or steam and a detergent solution to clean and sterilize carpets. Carpet steamers look similar to upright vacuums, but instead of a bag, they have a tank to hold vacuumed cleaning fluid and dirt. Many have carrying handles, which makes them easy to transport and empty. Instead of beaters, most carpet steamers have multiple rotating heads that agitate dirt out of the carpet and allow the cleaning solution to get deep into the nap. Powerful suction then lifts the solution, and the dirt, out of the carpet. Many come equipped with a spray feature to help remove dirt from heavily soiled areas. To fight heavy soil and grease on your carpets, consider a carpet shampooer. Carpet shampooers combine hot water and a cleaning solution to form foam that sprays onto your rug. Rotating heads then massage the nap of the carpet to ensure the cleaning solution can get all the way to the base, bringing dirt to the surface. When your rug dries, you can vacuum the dirt away. Carpet shampooers produce a clean that is much deeper, and more thorough, than dry vacuuming or steam cleaning. Some steam cleaners and carpet shampooers have handheld attachments that can be used on stairs, curtains, or other hard to reach areas. Another type of deep cleaner is the hard-surface steam cleaner. Hard-surface steam cleaners use steam heated to 220 degrees F to clean and sterilize hard floors. While not a replacement for a vacuum, hard-surface steam cleaners are great if you don’t want to use chemicals on your floors, since they only need water. The temperature and pressure of the steam breaks apart any kind of dirt that has built up and makes it really easy to clean. | 
