apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Yes. You are alone. I empty mine outside and wrap a fancy scarf around my mouth and nose.

I finally went back to the bag. I figure I save energy by not having to vacuum a second time when I empty the bag.

We love our Roomba. Except. It has recently started making a kind of thumping noise when it runs, as though some part is not entirely in place, and then it stops and tells us to clean the brushes, even if we just did that.

Any suggestions? It's only a couple of months old.

I use a bagless with a hepa filter. I haven't really had too much dist fly up when emptying. I usually place it deep inside the garbage can before hitting the button to eject the nastiness. I'm not sure about other brands, but dyson designed it pretty good for easy and clean emptying. Plus I LOVE not having to use a bag, which I found also spewed dust everywhere when emptying. Plus I wasn't able to tell how full the bag was so I typically over filled it on accident causing a HUGE mess.

I use my bagless vacuum for everything. Mine has a "pet hair remover" attachment and so far, it's brought me the most success when it comes to getting cat hair out of the couch. As for emptying, I haven't had much trouble with flying dust. If, like Maffei said, you put the dust cup deep in the bin (this works especially well with my simplehuman step can) it's a fairly neat process.

I completely agree! In fact I feel worse about the state of my apartment (and health) when I actually have to see how much dust is being sucked out of my carpet. My next vacuum with have a bag for sure!

Kate-

Sadly that's what I've had 2 roombas do- it appears to precede death. I'm done, $250 vacuum robots should last longer than a year. Just got a Dyson, at least it comes with a 5 year warranty...

Bagless all the way

The Husband and I just got THE GREATEST VACUUM EVER.

It's the Eureka Boss Smart Vac 4870.

It sucks up pet hair like no other vacuum I've seen (except the $5,000 Rainbow, which I can't afford). It gets all the black cat and dog hair out of the carpet. It gets all the black pet hair off our tan, slightly sueded sofa. It has clear hoses so I can see all the hair and dirt being sucked into the bag.

Fun story about our vacuum purchase: I had clipped out an item about the Smart Vac from one of those sample issues of Consumer Reports (you know, the ones they send to try to get you to subscribe); it said the Smart Vac was the best value for the money, and way better at sucking up pet hair than the much-touted Dyson. I held onto it for more than a year, and took it with me to BBNB. The guy at BBNB, who had never heard of Consumer Reports, read it and told me it was wrong and I should buy a Dyson. I didn't want to argue, so I waited until he left to help another customer, took the Smart Vac and my coupon to the register, and got the vacuum for $120.

We're very happy with our pet Dyson.

I imagine you'd have to empty out a vacuum bag quite often if they picked up near the amount this baby does. We have a 2700SQF house and I usually only have to empty it after the whole job, unless I'm picking up a big mess like a pound of sugar or rice. I have a 2 1/2 yo!

I just empty it out in the garbage can in the garage and don't have to worry about dust flying around.

Personally I use a bagless. When it is full i take a trip out to the garbage can, dump the trash in, then run like the wind away from the cloud of dust and dirt! I do also have a roomba which I use for more routine vacuum maintenance, dumping its waste bin into the inside trash bin doesn't create too much of a mess because it is so small. :-)

I can totally understand hating bagless. I've always had bags before, but my vac was dying and my boyfriend found a deal on a Eureka bagless. It works so much better than my old dirt devil that I almost don't mind the emptying it (I empty it into one of the million empty plastic bags I have lying around). EXCEPT for the fact that due to a flawed canister design, you have to stick your hand into the yucky canister to get all the cat hair out. So gross.

Still it's nice to start with a clean canister every time and to not have to buy and store bags.

My Roomba was doing the same thumping thing you mention above - I can't recall right now what the cause was, but I think it has to do with auto-reverse. Go to the irobot website and search tech support, you should get the answer.

It's good to fix before it goes on too long because the plastic brush bearings can wear out the square plastic hole they fit into if they keep thumping around like that. I ended up taking the whole thing apart and cleaning it really well, including the gear box that runs the brushes. It helped.

My big vacuum is bagless too, but I don't have major allergies so it's no big deal.

Love our Dyson. As for emptying: secure a trash bag on the bottom of the canister with a rubber band, release the bottom lid, and voila! -- everything's in the bag, all nice and tidy.

Bags??? What a waste of time and money and resources!!!

I have a bagless that empties from the bottom, so I don't have to touch anything. I love it!

Empty out your bagless into a compost bin and that will assuage all environmental/breathing concerns.

I got a bagged vacuum when I was living on the 12th floor and had no where to try and clean the hepa filter, still have it now. 6 years later, just a sears model!

We love our Dyson. It was so darn expensive, it's kind of heavy...and you couldn't tear it out of my cold dead hands! :) The emptying function is great- just push the button and the end farthest from you opens up. My brother has one and he loves that feature too. Oooh- I never thought of emptying it into the compost! Good idea Det. Ventriloquist.

A friend with some serious allergies told me years ago that she just empties her bagless vacuum by first putting it into trashbag while holding the top of the bag closed. I heed that advice.

I think some compost geeks would refuse to to put vacuum bag contents into their compost pile.

I tried a bagless vacuum, but it was too messy. Back to one with bags; HEPA filter bags specifically.

Bags are expensive and I can NEVER remember what type I need, and always ended up emptying and reusing old bags or jerry rigging something with a bag that didn't fit.
Sticking with the bag less.

I don't get why more bagless vacuums don't use water like rainbows do. My parents had one that they had bought in the 80's and that thing was great. They must have some airtight copyrights on it or something.

It was so funny to read these:candice..MY story, icky, ugh cat hair all clogging up in there..ugh..and I have MANY plastic bags just lieing around for such things..recycle, recycle...we use them everyone..see!..but the reason I have it??????? I could also NEVER, EVER remember WHAT kind of bag!!!! Standing in front of the displays everywhere I went..forever, glazed look,..whispering to myself...over WHAT KIND OF BAGGGGGGG..A? C? hahhah

Sorry, I like the bag. I have serious dust allergies, use a HEPA bag. I still have to vacuum the dust that filters through the HEPA bag off the vacuum.
And I vacuum up the giant house spiders. I definately do not want to see them ever again!

Its true that the Rainbow is the best, but very expensive. Dyson comes in second . There is an inherent flaw in bags, they essentially clog and have to overcome this with brute force. If you've ever seen what a bagged vac leaves behind you'd barf, not to mention the mold, skin, mites and other things stewing in that bag. Thats what you smell when you turn it on, yeesh!