Industry tradeshows are always a great way for industry experts to stay up to date with big changes in their field. They’re also a fantastic way for regular individuals to have a cheap date and see some cool innovations they would never have heard of anywhere else. If you go to a Vacuum Tradeshow like any of those listed here you can expect to have a great time—and more than that you can expect to get some cool swag too!
But it isn’t all free Frisbees and demos. Tradeshows are also meetings where the best and the brightest come together, sometimes in high exclusive closed-door meetings, to discuss what they’ve been doing and what is coming up in the market. A number of vacuum industry meetings coming up are going to discuss ways to take the best parts of central vacs and standalone vacuums and mix them together, giving you the power and convenience of central vacs with the miniaturization and innovation that has gone into making standalone vacuums what they are today.
These events are also great networking tools—and if you need a job they are place to go. You get a chance to shake hands with and impress company heads and managers alike as they are talking about how excited they are for the future. These events often involve student readings and paper topics—another great way to get your name out there and meet others doing the same. Great innovators and leaders have to start small, and these events can be the stepping stone you need to climb up.
There are a lot of little ways out there to put a lot of value into your home and space, increasing its style and appeal, without spending a lot of money. In a market where property values are sliding across the board and so many people are returning to apartment living, knowing how to own any space, whether apartment, dorm room, or home, is the best way to keep your sense of style appeased and to keep a sense of worth around yourself and your processions.
But first, who am I? this stranger writing on a vacuum blog about homes and homey apartments? I am just a guy, but one who has lived in good apartments and bad apartments, door rooms that belonged in a magazine and dorm rooms that earned the name. Houses and homes, ruins and wrecks. I have seen them all and know exactly what steps you should take to make any space yours on a level that most people never really approach. Here are the best of my tips for you—and yes, one of them is about vacuum cleaners.
1) Central vacuum cleaners. There are a huge selection of central vacuum cleaners on the market now, some of the biggest being Nutone Central Vac, beam central vacuum, Hoover Central vacuum, and electrolux central vacuum. These units are incredible and I swear by them. Don’t believe me alone? Check online as to what happens when you install a central vacuum system in a home—look for property value. Central vacuums routinely, the moment they are installed and working, add between 1.5 and 3 times their own value to the value of the house. That is a lot of boosted asset in very short order. Plus you still get to pick up on all the great things that a central vacuum does. You only need to empty it every year or so, it runs so quietly in your home, you get an external vent for all your dust and air, and the actual vacuum unit is light and maneuverable enough that you can use it even to dust—and no more bumping or scuffing of your furniture (which will be mentioned next). If you are thinking of owning property, think about making changes that make it yours, like adding a central vacuum system.
2) Crowning. Another easy thing to do if you own a home is to add crowning to all the ceiling/wall corners in the house—or at least in the central rooms. These little wooden strips give the area a more rounded and elegant appeal that most modern home seem to lack. It is classic and classy and for those with more modern sensibilities there are more modern looks available. Check out pictures online to see if it is for you.
3)Keep the crap down. People accumulate things. Just think back to Christmas. So much stuff, some of it great but some of it absolute filler. Sell it. eBay Amazon or garage sales. Donate to charity—whatever. Just get it out of your home. Humans today live in a sea of junk but only actually interact with a few dozen household objects a week. If you can’t remember the last time you played that game, read those magazines, or used that set of dishes you probably don’t need them. Now there are special cases. Libraries and guest silverware, family heirlooms… but in general resist the urge to become an elderly packrat. Live light and don’t fill up your space with crap that obscures both you and your home. You will not miss it.
4)Buy smaller couches. Giant overstuffed couches have their place but if you are in a mobile living situation you cannot afford to have them. Go for a Euro couch or sleeper as these are infinitely higher quality and more comfortable than any futon. The advantage is that 1 – they will look stylish 2 – they will be very light to move 3 – if eventually you come into a more major living situation with room they always have a spot as a guest sleeping option or basement fixture. Bigger isn’t necessarily better when you’re looking at your first couch.
5) Plan ahead and build a stove into your home, not a fireplace. They look the same but stoves cost more to put in. Bu the advantages are huge. Fireplaces are pretty but they waste heat, even when they are lit. The air moves out the top with your heat and when it burns the air rises rapidly out of the top. Stoves work more efficiently to transfer the heat into your living space while still removing the smoke from the house.
A little while ago I was browsing a fairly well known Vacuum Forum and I came across some interesting information.
First of all whether you get a central vac or a standalone back you want something with a powered brush head, as opposed to a pure suction powered central vac. This is far more effective for sand and for hair. Even if you need to cut girl hair off it once in a while. Also modern vacuums (in this case Dyson) have a massive reaching capacity—17 feet on the hose and 35 feet on the cord. It still doesn’t measure up to a central vacuum in a number of ways—but at least when you move with a standalone vacuum your money moves with you (although you lose any increased property value that typically goes along with the addition of a central vacuum in most homes).
Central vacuums, as most people who know them would expect, are super quiet because the main motor can fit nicely into people’s vacuums or mechanical rooms, keeping the house ‘whisper quiet.’ Plus (and this is news to me) they have new microfiber mop attachments for central vacs to help you keep your floors clean! And the vacuum, because it is hidden away, doesn’t leave the slightly acrid “vacuum” smell all over your home when you finish. Which is also definitely a plus.
Really the only problem with central vacs is with installation. Several posters commented on the amount of time it took them to put in their system themselves—and it sounded significant. At least a full day of work.
Appliance blogs like this one spend a lot of time talking about horsepower, filter changing, relative values of toasters, Central Vac Comparisons You get the picture. You should always do your research before you invest your own hard earned money into an appliance—and you should always take care of your appliance (or vacuum cleaner) when you have it. But lets not forget what vacuum cleaners are really good for—scaring pets.
My family has two cats. We’ve always had two cats. Even when one cat died we had a replacement remarkably fast. And they shed and that shedding does a lot of damage to our vacuum cleaners. But our vacuums do have their revenge!
Pet fur (in my family’s case, long golden yellow hair and short black fuzz that always seems to pile up in the corners) looks really bad on your furniture and can keep friends with allergies away. But when we turned our vacuum on in a room where those cats were sleeping they woke up fast. It was incredible to see their spines go rigid at the sound, to see them shiver and bunch up as you went around their couch. And if either bravery or sloth kept them in their place there was always the edging attachment—which with its higher pitched whistle sent them flying.
I’m not advocating picking on cats, dogs, small children, or anything else. I just think it ironic and even poetically just that our vacuum, so often stopped up with cat hair, can give something back.
Air pollution is nothing to laugh about. Smog, smoke, dust, allergens, coal… what we breathe affects us. All the chemicals in the air around you end up—in you. That is why second and third hand smoke is such an issue, that is why restaurants all over the US are banning smoking inside their doors. But really, how often are you outside or even in restaurant or someone else’s space? People spend most of their time working or at home. So when studies show that indoor air pollution is more harmful to your health than outdoor air pollution it means you should be concerned. You should also be concerned as global weather continues to change and air pollution continues to flood into our lungs, more and more of it coming into our homes and lungs every day. All of this has made vacuum cleaners, and good ones, more essential for our lives than ever before.
So how unfortunate is it that normal vacuum cleaners don’t effectively filter air, and actually stir it up and can make allergy sufferers lives far worse. Whereas central vacuum systems have an external vent and expel all air (and all particle pollution contained in it) from your home—completely—normal vacuum systems suck air in, run out the big items at the filter, but eject all those bits and particles into the air creating a worse dust storm than was there already. You can see it when the sunlight comes through the windows.
Other central vacuum parts also highly contribute to the healthfulness of the vacuum system. Unlike push vacuums or even the rare backpack vacuum central vacuums are a complete system that spans your entire home. They have a central engine or motor that sits in a little-used part of the home. Either your garage or possibly a mechanical room or closet. From this motor, complete with filter and collection tank, PVC pipes radiate throughout the home and walls via crawl spaces or the attic. Though it sounds complicated the actual set up is easy to complete in a day with a service, or even by yourself if you have the knowhow. Plus many newly built homes actually have the hosing “roughed in” or set up in advance even if the current owners don’t invest in the central unit.
For any homes with people dealing with long hair, pet hair, dander, or allergens these large central units also lend the power necessary to complete intake all of this crud and get it out of the room at a level even advanced modern vacuums cannot. Whether you chose to go with any of the central vacuum big players, from Drainvac®, Canavac®, Purvac®, Hoover®, Duovac®, and Powerstar®, Drainvac®, Duovac®, Purvac®, Canavac® or nutone central vacuum, or someone smaller you can rest assured that your vacuum will be able to deal with liquid messes, hardwood floors, dust or dry messes, and will have less maintenance than any portable vac. Plus with specialized attachments connecting to the hose assembly, giving you power rotors and the ability to edge corners there really are not advantages which portable vacuums hold over their more integrated counterparts.
With the central motor located further from the inside of the house central vacuums also cut down on another major source of pollution—sound pollution. While other types of vacuums may advertise ‘whisper quiet’ central vacuums actually provide it. You can vacuum with someone asleep on the couch, you can vacuum while listening to the radio. You can actually finish your work and not rush through it because the sound is hurting your ears.
And possibly the best advantage central vacuums possess? Even in a small apartment a vacuum cleaner needs to be emptied rather often, usually once every two cleanings. While the old bags have gone the way of the dinosaur (thank goodness) modern canisters are in some ways little better. They fill quickly and are dusty and dirty to try to take care of. Each attempt to empty it is a risky procedure. Central vacuums, as previously mentioned, are isolated. Size is not an issue. While this greatly increases the size and power of the motor it also greatly increases the size of the canister that holds your dirt dust and debris. GREATLY. You only need to empty the canister perhaps twice a year and, if your vacuum is in the garage, you don’t even need to worry about accidental spills. Central vacuums are the foremost solution for indoor home healthfulness, look for yours soon.
I have a pretty decent vacuum if I may say so myself. Yes it is a push vacuum and that presents some problem with Vacuum Maintenance which I will get to later. But it works well. This article should help to inform you of the common issues with vacuum maintenance and how to fix them nicely.
If you live with girls you are well familiar with the first issue of basic vacuum care,taking. Long hair (more than short or animal hair) will wrap around the spinning bristles on the bottom of a ground vacuum. This, after a surprisingly short time, can clog the mechanism and stop your vacuum from functioning. Try to run it like that too long and you can even burn out the motor. The solution is a little gross but very effective. Get a screwdriver and scissors, cut down the spinner, and then pry the hair off. Central vacuums, however, never have these problems as nothing spins—there is only suction.
Also you will need to vacuum out the filter assembly once in a while. Usually this is a later of staggered meshes above or below the vacuum assembly. In central vacuums it is large and may be difficult to get too. Smaller vacuums, if they are more modern, usually have a more modular system that is easy to take apart and put back together.
And of course you will need to every once in a while change the debris tank. Older vacuums use bags and these should be discarded—the vacuums, in addition the bags. Go for a central vacuum with a huge tank or at least pick a modern vac that has a reusable chamber to open and close easily
Now, my mother (as we were gearing up for marriage and all the appliances and this and that that we would need) wanted to get us something modern and amazing. She looked at the Cool Vacuums and went a little crazy-thought we would like it so much.
Personally, a little folding vacuum was all I was after—something that would sit on a shelf and that could come down easily enough for us to actually use. The problem with that idea, of course, was power. A little folding vacuum that runs on batteries, like the one that my roommate used all through college, will pick up bits and pieces of man mess.
However, have you seen girl mess? We have wood floors and one area rug in our apartment, which you think would limit the amount of debris that it grabs, and we are still treading on a sea of long blonde hairs. It was rather unexpected to realize just how messy females tend to be. That cool vacuum that my mother did end up getting us (or one similar to it) is absolutely necessary to strip those hairs off the rug and into the system. And even with its oversized turbine the device gets stuck up with hairs all the time. I’ve never experienced cutting hair off a vacuum’s roller before, but now it is almost a daily occurrence.
So, if you are a bachelor in any sized area don’t worry about getting some beastly vacuum. Your mom will probably take care of that when you get hitched. And then, once you are hitched, take the newest beastliest monster vacuum you can find because you will need it.
Recently I was married. Yes yes I know. Congratulations and many happy returns and such. But it did create a hassle for me after all. Registry shopping takes so much time and so much energy. And dealing with items disappearing from the list or going out of stock (I swear I registered for 8 pairs of dishes before my wife and I finally scored a set) took numerous visits to both the stores and to the online calendars. It required my wife,to,be and I to really sit down and discuss our different views on design, on our ideas for the space we wanted to occupy together, tastes, colors, space (we ended up in a studio apartment with less square feet than my parents attic—lucky us), and plans. And it forced me to do a lot of math to figure out just how much we could expect to get away with on the actual day of our wedding and out of our own pocket.
There was one aspect I was particularly fond of. Using online posting sites I actually managed to get a hold of two end tables for 15 dollars, a coffee table for 50 and a table for another 40 (which we sold and instead went with a table sitting on the side of the road outside a mini storage). Plus we annexed my wife’s parent’s chair set from their RV and we were fully ready to go as far as furniture. Some varnish and paint and things looked better than ever too.
Appliances were harder and I had to do some Vacuum Comparisons . While a central vacuum would be nice eventually I decided we needed a small apartment vacuum, one that was easy to store. Instead my wife picked a monster. So we have a monster.
Central vacuums are much larger, heavier, and harder to move around than normal vacuum cleaners—fortunately you don’t have to move them around. All you need to deal with is a lightweight plastic attachment that plugs into the wall, and is incredibly adaptable as well. Rachel Ray recently did a whole segment on personalized Vacuum Attachments, and anyone who has scuffmarks on the corners of their couches, or has taken paint or varnish off from their coffee table or bed while vacuuming around knows how ungainly a push vacuum or their handles can be. It only goes to show how important having the right vacuum attachment can be for keeping your home clean.
Push vacuums fall so far behind in this area that it is hardly even amusing to watch friends or relatives try to keep their homes clean, if you have a central vacuum in your own home. What you really want is an attachment with a very long extendable hose leading to a hard plastic handle, and ending in a narrow, long nozzle. The narrow profile will increase your motor’s suction power (which should already be considerable) while the length will let you reach more space in less passes. With the right handle you should be able to draw it up and around your furniture and even up your walls and onto the ceiling. However, you will also want something narrow and pointed for reaching corners and around tight spaces. It is very similar to a push vacuum, but so much easier to move around and your nozzle collection should fit in the same space.
Central vacuums have rapidly gained in popularity over the past twenty years and experts are continual in the praise of the benefits of a central vacuum over more traditional push,around vacuums that can harm the edges of your furniture and stir up harmful allergen particles during their use. To select the best possible central vac you are going to want to turn to consumer report sites online and weigh not only the price of the models available to you, but a number of other factors that, over the life of your product, can have a huge impact on your home and vacuum experience.
Power: When you shop online check the power rating on the different vacuums you are considering. Different measures (volts, liters, etc) may make it harder to get a clear estimate and may result in you having to do some quick conversions, but that is fairly easy using online tools. More power means a bigger engine, a cleaner run, fewer clogs, and more usability.
Tank Size: one of the favorite benefits of a central vacuum is the huge storage tank size which typically only needs replacing once or twice a year. A bigger tank means you can vacuum much more before you have to worry about doing any work on your vacuum.
Type of Filter: If your vacuum is reported to have a filter that is hard to reach, clogs easily, or is very expensive to replace you may want to reconsider your choice.
Central Vacuums are the only way to go if you want good air quality in your home. Ask someone who owns one for their take on Central Vacuum Information and they will tell you the same.
Central vacuums have an external vent. That means that when they intake air they don’t filter it briefly and then spray it around the room. The air is pulled, along with the dust and hair and grossness that lives in your carpets and rugs, into your nozzle attachment and then into the hose that connects it to the wall. Once in the wall tubes pull it through your walls towards the motor assembly and the filter, which strains out the grossness into your debris chamber. Then the air is shot out and away into your yard through a little grated opening (to keep critters out).
If you have asthma this is a double bonus. Particle pollution is worse in our homes than anywhere else, as skin cells and dry air clog our lungs over time. Vacuuming with a standalone unit doesn’t necessarily help with this problem as It vents its intake air right back into your atmosphere—and the tiny particles are too small to get pulled into the canister 100% of the time. Irritating asthma particles thus just get aerated so that your every breath is agony. Central vacuums clean out your carpet. While not everyone can have one (renting is kinda the thing right now, whether you like it or not) there are some who really do need it—and should def. look into it.