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Hey everyone! So, I just vacuumed my house and may have screwed up my vacuum from all the hair that got caught in it... I cleaned it out and that was the biggest clump of my own hair that I've ever seen.
Do any of you use or know of a special kind of vacuum that can deal with hair better than the average vacuum?
That's normal.
I do two things: I rake the hairs from the carpet prior to vacuuming, and then I disassemble and clean the vacuum after every 1-2 uses.
If I didn't do this, I would need to buy a new vacuum cleaner every few months.
Ed
Good idea, Ed. I've done that a few times in the past. I've got brown carpeting and with that, you don't realize until you rake it, how much hair's in there. Wish I had hardwood floors...
--Rick
es, Peg, yes, I hereby heartily endorse THE CRAFTSMAN! Since there're so many longhairs is my family, plus two dawgiez, we thought that we'd blow the extra cash. It looks like an industrial strength mini-oil can, highly durable acrylic ot plastic in make-up, with an accordionated fire hose lookin' vacuum hose.
Jus' last month I hadda hire plumbers for the upstairs bathroom sink. They showed me what they snaked out; it was a black clump of Karen's (my ex's but stiil pals) hair, the size and thickness of a rat. Yeesh.
So I TOTALLY totally know what you're talkin' about, nearly blowing yourself ta smithereens w/ your own blocked vacuum.
THE CRAFTSMAN, holds 8 gal.
Get it.
Q.
Peg, I was thinking about asking this myself. Hair is part of what is killing the vacuum at my house and I am tired of having to give the roller brush haircuts to get it cleaned up.
The only thing that I have found to help is the advance cleaning as others do. For me the trouble spot is where I brush my hair every morning. By accident I learned dragging my sneaker across the carpet makes the hair ball up into something that is easy to pick up. Of course these little things that look like spiders have very long legs and keep crawling back out of the trash can unless I really make them balled up tighter with my hands until it resembles a dreadlock.
Quenyan, you are a prince. Thank you so much for having an answer on this one. Sears is gonna owe you a commission.
Shuddering at what hair fished out of the drains would look like at my home,
Elizabeth
HAAAH hah hah hah! Ms. Regina, it's always good to have you over! Better than Sears and Roebuck (oops, izzint THAT dating myself!), by quite a lot, muchly, I found this online distro:
http://PriceGrabber.com
Just put "Craftsman vacuum" in the search bar at the top of their opening page and, ta-daaa! Ya get ta see what all their Craftsman vacuums of various capacities look like.
And, hey Elizabeth, your sneakers technique is EXACTLY the same one that I use on the stairs; great minds think alike, don't they? I've never gotten the emergent evolving species, though, sprouting legs and leaving the dust bin ta roost in the corners again like at your place! LOL!
I have, however, watched in rapt awe as a long as-you-described "dreadlock" of swept-up hair sheddings near one of my trouble spots began to stir, finally moving precisely like a humongous inchworm, across the living room floor, up the wall, across the piano, and out the window into the back yarden.
Never DID locate it out there, though. Maybe it's part of a bird's nest now?
Best in VERY longhair'd camaraderie,
Q.
I'll second the raking. I use a One Sweep (link below), to get the hair and big stuff up, the vacuum can get the finer stuff. It's also good as a broom or squeegee on hard floors. If you live in a snow-prone area it's gentle on car finish for easily sweeping snow off, and since it's wider than most scrapers, you get more off in each pass. Also, the longer handle means you don't have to rub your front on the salt- and crud-encrusted car to reach.
Also, I've taken to brushing my hair outside to limit the amount shed indoors.
I am now blessed with hardwood floors; but if you can't control that, or are in a situation like I was where other factors made the place desireable but replacing the floor wasn't practical, then you could do what I did:
Before vacuuming, I'd brush the carpet, with a scrub-brush not a hair brush. This was tolerable in a 500 square foot place. If your place is larger, you might want to try a brush with a long handle so you dont' have to do it on your knees like I did.
I still got some hair in the vacuum's brush, but it didn't destroy the machine. Also, make sure you have a heavier duty vacuum. Those little "stick vacs" are not much good, even when you don't have hair.
Shop Vac! It works wonders.
I've been using a good quality Kenmore canister vac for years. The key is to clean the beater bar with every use. I usually have to use a razor to cut the long hairs wrapped around the bar.
Hi Peg,
I hope all is well with you mate. I certain experience the same thing and sometime it's a bit like the old tumbleweed across the desert lol. I find to have to empty mine a couple of times. I've got a Dyson and okay a bit pricey but does the job. As Elizabeth has said I've got a brush to loosen the hair from the carpet first.
I'm sure it's nice to have wooden floors but personally I like the warmth of a carpet and of course wooden floors do look great.
Cheers,
John.B
You could hire a cleaning lady or cleaning person as some are men
now a days.
Seriously you just have to turn it over and clean the beater bar
with blade or small sewing scissors to get all the wound up hair.
I have a Dyson as John B and they're easier to clean out. Turn
three big plastic screws and the bottom thingy pops off and the
beater bar is easy to get at. Compared to my Hoover which was a
pain.
Kevin
I don't have any advice other than what's already been given, but I do want to emphasize the importance of the pre-vacuum brush or rake. It's made all the difference for me. I have less after-maintenance to do by far, and the vacuum doesn't have to work nearly as hard.
Best of luck!
Franny
My shed hair are so friendly that they tend to gather in certain angles of the house; this way, they can be easily seen and removed before the vacuum starts to work.
I just use an ancient Eureka tank-type vacuum cleaner that I have had for ages. I use the carpet-brush attachment on the end of the
wand as a rake head--just to pick up my hair strands from the
carpet, but not actually to allow them to be sucked up into the
vacuum cleaner bag. I manually pick the hair strangs off the
brush bristles, and put them into a little waste basket as I move
around the room. At the end of the cleaning session, I have quite
a lot of hair in the waste basket, and haven't overburdened the
vacuum cleaner or "choked" its disposable paper dust bag.
I'm fortunate in that I have a sand colored carpet and black hair!
if you have the money for one, the dyson animal kicks some major as in vacuum cleaner world. even with my butt length hair, two cats and a rabbit mine has never clogged up or needed to be cleaned. it's awesome.