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Vacuum cleaners and pet hair

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Pet Hair

If you are a pet owner and looking to purchase a new carpet cleaner then you need to be very careful in the choice you make. Not all carpet cleaners can remove pet hairs from your carpet. They might look good but are unable to cope with fine hairs. Make the wrong choice and you will have wasted your money on a purchase that will not work for you. Make the right choice, however, and you and your pets will have a nice clean hair free house to live in.

Not only can most carpet cleaners not cope with pet hair, pet hair can also be dangerous to even the best vacuum cleaner. It can clog filters, burn out motors and severely reduce suction and power. That’s why choosing a reliable pet hair vacuum is important.

While it’s a necessary part of pet ownership, and it’s only natural that you want to keep your house clean and pet hair free, it takes an incredible toll on your vacuum cleaner. Especially if you don’t have a vacuum cleaner that’s made for pets.

Below are five important facts that you need to know about pet hair and your vacuum cleaner. It’s better to know the facts first before getting a new cleaner.

Top 5 facts

Normal suction doesn’t work!

The normal suction on a cheap vacuum cleaner isn’t effective with pet hair. Your carpet is under pressure with a cheap vacuum cleaner anyway, regardless of having pets or not. While you will get some of your pat hair up, the rest will stay on your carpet or couch. Ideally, you need a vacuum cleaner with cyclone or wind tunnel technology. These create enough suction to pull up pet hair. The other option would be to get a vacuum cleaner that is specially designed for pet hair removal.

Not all pet hair stays in the bag

Pet hair travels. Vacuum cleaner bags, canisters or rubbish containers must be closed firmly so that this hair doesn’t get into the cleaners' filters and motors. While it is visible, pet hair is a very fine substance. This can cause a lot of problems for your vacuum cleaner in terms of efficiency and given enough time, pet hair can cause damage to the vacuum's motor.

Normal vacuum cleaner brushes can’t handle pet hair

Vacuuming pet hair is a really good way of damaging a good quality brush for your vacuum cleaner. Because pet hair is so fine, it gets tangled around the bristles and stops the brush from rolling effectively over carpets and hard floors. Specially designed brushes on specific vacuums mean that the pet hair doesn't get tangled up.

Pet hair clogs vacuum cleaner hoses

This may surprise many of you reading this. Cleaning pet bedding is a good example of this. After a period of time post cleaning the bedding, you may have noticed that the suction goes and the vacuum cleaner starts making funny noises and can even overheat. Quite often if this happens, if you look in the hose you will find massive clumps of pet hair.

If a vacuum cleaner doesn’t have the right suction for pet hair or hasn’t been designed for pets then this is what usually happens. This is fine if you fancy wasting your time during vacuuming constantly cleaning out the hose but it isn’t the most pleasant job and is unnecessary.

It can be difficult to clean pet hair out of vacuum filters

Whilst a good vacuum filter will stop the majority of pet hair from going into a vacuum cleaner motor, it will undoubtedly affect the efficiency of the motor. When it comes to cleaning the filter, unless it is a washable filter, it is almost impossible to get all of the pet hair out and is a really dirty job to do. You could spend an age trying to clean your filter and there would still be traces of hair stuck to the filter. This left-behind pet hair not only affects the operation of the system but can also produce a lovely pet smell when you vacuum.

As you can see, when it comes to vacuum cleaners, pet hair can cause problems. If you have a pet living in your home, our advice would be to buy a vacuum cleaner that has been specifically designed for pets and follow the manufacturer's guidelines to maintain the machine regularly and keep it operating at maximum capacity.

Tips on Choosing A Reliable Pet Vacuum Cleaner

Pet hair is a unique substance and is a tricky material for most vacuum cleaners. If your vacuum cleaner isn’t specifically designed to suck up pet hair, it will stick in the head, the brushes, the wand and the filter. These are all the vital parts that make a vacuum cleaner work.

Purchase a turbo vacuum cleaner

Unsurprisingly, when choosing what vacuum to purchase if you have pets, suction plays a vital role. Even if you buy a quality brand vacuum cleaner and are lucky enough for the vacuum cleaner not to clog, chances are you won’t be able to effectively clean pet hair off your carpets or furniture if it lacks the power to pull up these hairs from your carpets and upholstery.

Many pet vacuum cleaner models now come with what is known as a turbo brush. This specially designed brush head provides extra power to suck all of the hair up. The turbo brush head also helps to suck the hair straight to the vacuum bag, canister or rubbish container without sticking in the hose along the way.

Purchase a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter

A HEPA filter is a high-quality filter that blocks the majority of particles that a vacuum sucks up, including hair. They are generally found in high-quality vacuum cleaners or vacuum cleaners that have been specifically designed for pets. A HEPA filter also helps to minimize the pet smell that can be produced by vacuum cleaners over time.

Even if you are not an allergy sufferer, HEPA filters provide better protection from cat and dog hair leaving a machine. If you don’t have one then your vacuum cleaner and vacuuming will suffer.

The bagless technology

While there are a few bagged pet vacuum cleaners on the market, the majority incorporate bagless technology. There are a few major reasons for this.

  1. A bagless vacuum cleaner helps to keep the vacuum cleaner's suction more powerful
  2. A bagless vacuum cleaner will enable you to quickly get rid of the pet hair with minimum fuss and mess

Whilst specifically designed vacuum cleaners for pets are not the cheapest on the market, they are the only type of vacuum cleaners that work for pet hair in the long term. It is much better to spend the extra money upfront and go for a model that will keep your house clean rather than one which you will have to replace after three months.

If you're looking for a professional company to clean the carpets in your home or business premises, contact Xtraclean today for a friendly and informal chat.