Which do you prefer cylinder or upright vacuum?

adandem

cylinder for me.

Kim_kim

Upright because it beats the carpet as it goes.

macman

Depends what you need to vacuum. Uprights have a powered brushbar and are designed for carpets, cylinders are mostly fitted with a vacuum head only so are more suitable for homes mainly with hard flooring. Neither is 'better'.

adandem

I have an attachment with a beater bar for my Hetty. Best of both worlds.
I personally find that cylinders can cope with carpets better than uprights cope with hard floors.

robatwork

Cylinders - better in every way bar one.

Upright - you can pretend to be Freddie

Evil_Olive

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm small and always found uprights to be unwieldy. I just don't feel they're flexible enough to move around and get into tight corners as quickly/easily as a cylinder is where I'm just having to deal with the nozzle end. Ditto for carrying it upstairs to vacuum stairs - it's easier to lug a cylinder up the stairs and get it to fit safely onto one step while you're vacuuming 2-3 steps above and below it.

manda1205 wrote: »

I've used uprights at homes I clean in and I just can't get on with them, they're not as manoeuvrable, you can't use the long wand to reach the cobwebs like you can on a cylinder either, as it's usually a flexi tube and as above said, they're a nightmare on stairs.

Apjs87 wrote: »

cylinders are much more mobile. uprights are a lump and a bit crap on stairs imo

Ectophile wrote: »

Cylinder, because you're not pushing and pulling the entire vacuum cleaner back and forth all the time - just the hose.

adandem wrote: »

I have an attachment with a beater bar for my Hetty. Best of both worlds.
I personally find that cylinders can cope with carpets better than uprights cope with hard floors.

I've had many different brands and designs of both upright and cylinder over the years and I've come to the conclusion that it's got to be a cylinder for me because of all of the above plus the following:

In general, uprights seem to have a larger number of separate parts/joints/seals between the motor and the business end - more places for tiny leakages as the machine moves and flexes which tends to reduce suction, especially when the machine is no longer brand new (and an upright flexes more as you are pushing the whole weight of the machine around which wears the seals quicker) Also, more bits to go wrong/break and more bits to clean to get the suction back and more fiddly inaccessable bits to poke when you get a blockage which is more often with an upright as the pipes are more wiggly with tighter bends.

With an upright, having to push the whole machine, including the heavy motor, for every stroke puts a lot of strain on every part of it (not to mention on me!) and I find that bits tend to crack, get loose, start creaking, and the whole machine wears out quicker - especially as modern manufacturers use weedy plastic rather than metal for most of the bits these days.

In a large room where the carpet has had to be fitted with a join, the beater bar on an upright tends to pull bits of the pile out along the seam and you end up with a prematurely threadbare bit.
In a small room, like a box bedroom or bathroom, there's often not enough space to stand behind the machine to push it in all the necessary directions. With a cylinder, I can leave the actual machine outside the door and just take the nozzle/head in.
It's also harder to be careful around furniture and not bash the edges/legs with an upright because the 'head' is so big, heavy and unwieldy.

With a cylinder, you can vacuum the whole floor properly without having to move any furniture. With an upright, I'm constantly having to uncoil the hose and use attachments for bits of floor between sides of furniture/fittings and walls because the upright head is too large to fit in it whereas you can twist a cylinder's head sideways and get into quite small gaps or just pull off the head and use the tube for very small bits.
Even the uprights that lie completely flat are no match for the manouverability of a cylinder's hose/head under low pieces of furniture and between chair and table legs.
My sofa has legs which raise it 3 inches off the floor and, with a cylinder, I can vacuum all the way under it properly without moving the sofa or changing the standard head. Ditto with my bed.

I've never had an upright which works right up to the skirting boards the way a cylinder's head can, so end up having to use the edge tools far more often with all the associated faff of uncoiling the hose.
There are more steps needed to swap to using the hose/tools with an upright when you need to, and you have to be constantly aware of the position of the machine while you are using the hose so that you don't pull the whole thing over.

The wheels on an upright always break or fall off eventually - presumably because they are carrying a heavier weight, they get bashed against the wall while you're using it and they are being used on every stroke rather than once to move to each area.

The size and weight of an upright makes it more difficult to lug from room to room and get in an out of a cupboard (if you have a cupboard it fits in that is).

It's harder to store an upright as you need a specially tall cupboard. Mine ends up living in the hall and getting in the way whereas the cylinder I had previously could fit comfortably into several existing cupboards. I did have an upright that folded down for storage once but that just made the whole machine weaker - it creaked alarmingly and the hinged area wiggled annoyingly in use once it was no longer brand new.

With an upright, you have to keep changing the setting switch for different thicknesses of carpet pile and, on a hard floor, an upright tends to just shoot the bits out of the back rather than suck them up no matter what setting you use.
Conversely, I've never noticed that a cylinder is any worse than an upright at 'picking up' on a carpet, but maybe that's just me.

This is partly a 'bagless' whinge rather than a purely 'upright' whinge really but uprights are nearly always bagless which sounds great until you have to empty the bu@@er. You end up having to take the whole thing to bits to pull all the hair out of the various parts and filters every time of emptying.
No matter what fancy emptying mechanism my uprights have had, they were nearly always more of a faff at emptying time than the cylinders I've had - with the notable exception of a 1950's Hoover upright that had a washable zip up cloth bag hanging on it. That was the only upright I ever got on with - it's light, with a smallish head, and quite manouverable for an upright and has better suction than most modern machines. I guess progress isn't always 'progress'
I still have it in the loft but the tools and detachable hose are missing (got it from a boot sale) which is the only reason I replaced it as I do need those really

RE: Henry
I have an upright at the moment, I hate it and really wish I still had my previous cylinder. I'm saving up for a Henry in the hope that it will be the last vacuum cleaner I ever have to buy.
The cleaning staff at a Shopping Centre I worked for used them - they bashed them about mercilessly and they just kept on going.
The car repair place my husband worked at also used them, often without bothering with bags, and he says you wouldn't believe the stuff they sucked up with them and the motors just never wore out.
My sister's had hers for over 25 years and wouldn't be without it. She uses a washable/reusable bag that she bought some years ago rather than disposables. The on/off switch wore out about 5 years ago, she paid £15 to have it replaced and hopefully it'll last for another 20-odd years

LONG reply! - I have too much time on my hands!

justintime999

Cylinder are so much more versatile.

Mankysteve

Ozzuk wrote: »

I've always been a Dyson guy but kept reading that Henry's were better. I was thinking about getting one then had to use one yesterday at some holiday accommodation. It really made my back ache (I'm 6foot4) and the Dyson never did, which is a shame as it was really powerful.

Sounds like you need an extention.
Advantage of Henry hovers is you can spare for reasonable money.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Numatic-Cleaner-Stainless-Extension-601008/dp/B00D06R43C

jennifernil

I think you need different types depending on what floors you have.

Most of our rooms have carpet, we have an upright Sebo. It also adjusts automatically for hard floors.

We have a large hallway with wood flooring, plus hard floors in kitchen, utility, bathrooms etc, so for that we have cylinders, a 28 year old Miele, and a newer Miele Cat and Dog with the rotating carpet head. It's not bad on the carpets, but not as good as the Sebo.

We recently got a Dyson dc44 Animal, really for our caravan, but use it at home when we are home. It's so handy, we use it a lot.

robatwork

Olive there ^^^^ did her final year dissertation on the merits of different vacuum cleaner form factors. And it's a 2(i) Hons from me.