Keep your carpet in mind when choosing a vacuum cleaner

When it comes to carpets, you get what you pay for. While carpets are available to match most budgets, a good quality and long lasting carpet will cost you more money than a poorer quality one that isn’t likely to last as long. With this in mind, it’s important that you find ways to preserve it so that you don’t have to fork out for either repairs, professional cleaning or even worse – replacing the carpet entirely before you’ve had plenty of use out of it.

While enforcing a ‘no shoes’ policy and having welcome mats and rugs are all good ways to prevent your carpet becoming dirty, you will still need to give it a regular clean - and that’s where a vacuum cleaner becomes your best friend. Invented in 1901 by David T. Kennedy, vacuum cleaners are one of the key home cleaning appliances in any home and are continually changing with new and exciting features.

Choosing a vacuum cleaner
When it comes to choosing a vacuum cleaner you usually have two key options – upright vacuums or cylinder vacuums. Upright vacuum cleaners are operated by pushing them in front of you; they have a wide brush bar that scrapes through the fibres of your carpet lifting up any dirt and debris which it sucks straight up into a bag or canister (which need to be regularly changed). A cylinder vacuum is a small cleaner which has the hose and cylinder as two separate parts joined by a pipe; it drags behind you as you move along. A cylinder vacuum operates in a similar way to the upright vacuum but is more mobile and generally smaller – they also tend to be slightly more affordable than an upright vacuum cleaner.

In terms of what is best for your carpet it does depend to some extent on the scenario and there are certain features in vacuums that you should look out for depending on your circumstances. For example if you have carpet in a room that has lots of furniture then you should opt for a cleaner which has a swivelling head, as this will help you get around chair legs and tables. Or if you have pets then you might want to look for a vacuum that has a powerful suction with rotating brushes which will help drag up pet hair that is very light, or deeply lodged. However, if your carpet is particularly delicate then you should avoid a powerful suction as you may be at risk of pulling at the threads. If this happens then you can neatly cut the thread with scissors. However, you can only do this so many times before the carpet becomes damaged.

Key takeaways:

1 – Regular cleaning can extend the life of your carpet

2 – Brush bars are effective in dislodging dirt from your carpet

3 – Pet hair can be dislodged with high suction

4 – Be wary of using high suction on delicate carpets and rugs

For more tips on cleaning your floors, please read our guide on how to maintain and clean your floors and carpets.