Smart Buy: The 6 Best Vacuum Cleaners for a NYC Apartment
No matter how big or small, fancy or unfussy your apartment is, there will be dust—the sooty, filmy kind, especially, if you live on main streets and avenues. That's why a good vacuum is essential. And by good, we mean one that's powerful enough to take on not only dust but the grit and grime we walk in with from our streets; light enough so you don't crack your back on chore days (especially if you live in a duplex or townhouse and have to ferry it up steps); and maneuverable enough that it can navigate the most "eccentric" of NYC layouts. Extra bonus points if it's flexible enough to use to clean more than floors (shades, drapes), and has a quiet motor that won't incur the wrath of neighbors if it needs to be deployed in an emergency (or after a particularly messy, late-night party).
For guidance, we grilled salespeople at four key stores—Gracious Home, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, and Lowe's—that stock vacuums and store-tested as many as we could. We also scoured the NYC-centric parenting website, Youbemom.com, whose vocal posters often weigh in on products, and interviewed vacuum repair expert Mark Linde of Crown Machine Services, which has been repairing vacuums (and other household items) for city dwellers for 55 years, to get the scoop on vacuum must-haves for every kind of New York apartment and budget.
AFFORDABLE
Either the Shark Navigator Bagless Upright
It's a Best Buy top pick at their brick-and-mortar stores, which has a placard proclaiming it as such, and a salesperson told us it's well-reviewed and is "probably the most affordable for what you get." And what do you get? Though it's not the lightest option at 15 pounds, the 25-foot cord makes cleanup easy in outlet-challenged apartments—you can vacuum one room even if it's plugged in another—and an attachment hose lets you reach up the corners of high prewar ceilings and clean drapes and shades. And the 10-amp motor is plenty powerful for most apartments.
MID-RANGE
There's a reason the Miele Swing H1 Quickstep Broom
The Shark Rocket TruePet UltraLight Upright
HIGH-END
It's hard to argue with a vacuum equipped with a "silence motor" that makes all-hours cleanup possible, especially one that's sealed, keeping allergenic particles out, and uses a HEPA filter—important if you're allergy-prone—and has a small, lightweight footprint. Enter the Miele compact C2
Linde's a big fan of Miele, which he says "filters [dust and dirt] the best." (He also prefers bagged vacuums to bagless models; he says bagged ones are better for trapping allergens.) Linde also recommends canister vacuums for households with mostly hardwood floors—even those with a 50-50 split. (Besides, not everyone follows the 80-20 carpet rule, which isn't really a law). "Canisters are designed for suction," he explains, while "uprights are designed for the revolving brush, the spinning brush, to do all the work [which is better for carpet and heavy rugs]." (He says uprights still have to have great suction, but the brush is designed for cleaning rugs.) Canisters, he says, "give you the best of both worlds," able to clean hard surfaces such as wood floors, ceilings, windowsills, and crevices, but also often come with attachments like a power nozzle or brush that's motorized and "duplicates what an upright does." That said, some rugs, like high-end Persian rugs, aren't meant to be cleaned with a vacuum that uses a revolving brush and has too-strong suction because "it's going to pull up the fibers of the rug." (A turbo-brush attachment is okay, though.)
Bar none, the Dyson V6 Animal Cordless Bagless Stick Vacuum
Vacuum experts also gave props to the less expensive Dyson Ball Multi Floor 2 Upright Vacuum
AND A WORD ABOUT HANDHELDS:
Given the aforementioned dust situation endemic to urban living, we're doubtful that a hand vac will do the cleaning trick for your home. That said, if you live in a small studio and prefer Swiffer-ing and mopping to vacuuming, you can probably get by with just owning a hand vac. Consider these two brands:
Black and Decker's Cordless Pivot Vac
Linde highly recommends Filter Stream's DirtTamer
Related:
Secret weapons: what you should use to clean your apartment, according to the pros
Ruggable: washable, removable floor covering that just may be worth the money