Features and Benefits of Buying an Upright Vacuum

Upright vacuums are the most popular style in the industry, and for good reason. They offer numerous features and benefits that make them a better choice than other styles like canister vacuums, hand-helds, or stick models.

Deep Cleaning: The first benefit that makes an upright a downright good choice is their ability to go deep, hitting a home run with cleaning that goes all the way to the carpet backing. Powerful motors that produce excellent suction are featured in most uprights. Defined by amps, air watts, or rpm in various models, good suction gets dirt and dust out of carpeting and off of bare floors. To assist in this process on carpeting, most uprights enlist a motorized roller brush to agitate the carpet, loosen embedded dirt, and lift it into the suction stream. The brush can be turned off in many models to prevent damage to hardwood or vinyl flooring.
Comprehensive Cleaning: Most upright units come with an assortment of tools that attach to the vacuum hose, and provide the benefit of being able to clean the entire room with one machine. Typically, models will offer a stair or upholstery brush that delivers good suction. Other gear includes long-reach wands, dusting brushes, or crevice tools. Look for units with long hoses that still deliver good suction.

Clean Cleaning: That sounds redundant, but it isn’t. Here’s what we mean. Air is sucked into a vacuum, and then must be returned to the room. Some vacuums release smaller particulates back into the environment, which sully the air before settling back onto the floor. Most upright vacuums reduce the re-entry of those particulates by up to 99.9 %! This is achieved with high-quality filtration systems. HEPA filters are very popular, but other systems work equally well. Dust and other allergens are trapped with tremendous efficiency. Other models do not feature the high-efficiency filtration systems which come standard on most upright units.

Upright vacuums also typically have larger dirt capacity than other styles, a benefit you will appreciate if you have a lot of ground to cover. When you want top to bottom cleaning performance, it’s hard to pass up an upright!

Upright Vacuums Can Handle Versatile Styles of Flooring!

Upright vacuums clean with the use of powerful motors creating strong suction through the nozzle. The process is aided by a motorized roller that digs dirt out of the carpeting so the suction stream can capture it. In some units, this motorized roller can be switched off, making the unit a suitable cleaner for bare floors, too.

Starting with carpeting, most uprights will do a good job on all styles of carpet. Plushes, berbers, and indoor/outdoor carpeting all have different characteristics, and varying pile heights. Good uprights will have adjustable height controls. More expensive units may adjust automatically. Some manual models will have the height control on the handle, for maximum convenience. Others will have the height adjustment on the head, near the floor. If you have varying depths of carpet, you might prefer an auto-adjuster, or at least one that has a handle control. Constantly leaning over to make the adjustment can get tiresome. If you purchase a manual adjusting unit, it will take a few vacuuming sessions to figure out the right height setting for each level of carpet you have. A nozzle too high off the carpet will not allow the brush to fully engage the nap, and will also be sucking a lot of plain air, rather than air that is drawn through the carpet nap, which produces optimal cleaning. A nozzle too low will push surface debris around without getting it into the suction stream. Simple trial and error will help you determine the right settings in short order.

Higher quality uprights will give you the option of turning off the motor-driven roller brush. These units give you the flexibility to roll your vacuum out onto hard floors, and clean them with the same powerful suction and dust filtration that is far superior to broom and dust pan. The roller brush won’t turn, so softer bare floors are not damaged. Good bare floor units also come with softer wheels that won’t damage or mark hard floors. Even if you currently only have carpeting, but you buy a unit you plan to keep long-term, it would be better to choose one with the bare floor option, to give you the flexibility should you choose to install hard flooring or move to a home that does have hard floors. There will be very little extra cost, if any, in quality vacuums that give you the enhanced flexibility.