Miscellaneous

We have a meticulously researched, reviewed, and relatively young vacuum.  It's broken.  That's how I ended up at Target a couple of weeks back, looking at vacuums.

I am not the Consumer Reports maven in our family (that would be Matthew).  All I really knew about vacuums was that I wanted a decent upright until the fancy canister was repaired.  I'd narrowed it down to Bissells, somehow or other (maybe because I've never been all that fond of Hoover, which made our steam cleaner, and someone had told me Dysons were overrated).  We had a Eureka years ago, but it was just OK.  Did I mention I didn't want to spend much money?   In fairness, we'd looked online and found a Bissell model that fit the bill.

But that model wasn't there, despite what the Target website said.  And in looking at the Bissells, I was immediately drawn to the one that says "Pet Hair Eraser," because I have the world's hairiest short-haired dog (and he's not even a whole dog, what with the missing leg!).  While the couch and carpet were carefully selected to avoid showing dog hair, my wardrobe was not.  So - the Pet Hair Eraser, or PHE.  It had a border collie on the box, which pretty much sold me.  (This is why I am not the Consumer Reports maven in our family, in case you were wondering.)  I called Matthew; he reminded me about the model we'd found online.  I hung up, then called sales "associates" over to assist.  At 9 PM on a Wednesday night at Target, they were, as you might imagine, not helpful - and told me that the model I'd come for wasn't there.  I was tired, the baby was tired, and I needed to get this done.  Five minutes later, I was the proud owner of the PHE. 

At home, Matthew started assembling the vacuum (I worked on the jumperoo, also purchased at Target that night).  He finished before I did, and vacuumed a small section of our living room.  The vacuum is bagless, but has HEPA filters (a must with us) -- and that small section of living room filled up the dirt container with dog hair.  We were seriously impressed.  (And being a germophobe, I was also grossed out at how filthy my floors apparently were.)   

Essentially: one room = one filled dirt container.  (I would guesstimate that one filled dirt container was equal to about half of the bag of the fancy canister, which was probably replaced once a month.)   The carpets look great. And emptying the filled container every room meant no dog hair smell while vacuuming - not an option for the canister, because it would become prohibitively expensive.

As for handling, well - it's big.  It's bulky.  It sounds like a jet engine.  The attachments are nowhere near as convenient as the canister's. It doesn't handle the wood floors all that well.  It does self-propel and it has a nice headlight.  Most importantly, though, it does a damn good job on the carpet (which accounts for 75% of the house), and I feel a lot better about the Peach learning to crawl.