Hi, my son recently had a bout of cough, and my father, who was recently diagnosed with asthma and has been staying with us for several weeks, said that his throat has been irritated since he came to our house and he suspects it's the carpet. We can't afford to change carpet in our house to hardwood floors (or any other type of hard floors) but maybe we can vacuum better. I know that for families with members who have asthma, vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters are recommended. I tried to look up information on which specific models are the best, but did not find any good information.
Could those of you with more knowledge or experience with this, could you tell me which vacuums you recommend? More affordable models are appreciated. Thank you!
I don't think anything compares to the Dyson. It runs about $500 though.
Also, when you vacuumed the room, you should vacuume it 4xs. Once from each direction. A carpet guy told me that is how his store keeps his 10+ year old cream colored carpet looking brand new despite heavy traffic.
With my kid I had to tear out all the carpet (he stayed for the week elsewhere during that process. To let everything settle, then my washing down the walls/ ceilings/ furniture (aka where stuff had settled to). I then painted the subfloor until I could afford real flooring.
It doesn't sound like you need to go that extreme.
BEFORE I tore everything out, the BEST I found wasn't actually a vacuum cleaner... But a steam cleaner. As it didn't blow up dust, and the water trapped everything. And I mean evening. Way better than the best of paper or carbon or whatever kind of dry filter. Booya!
I had to do that daily, however, and the machines only last about 6 months of daily use. The carpets really stood up, though, and that surprised me. I was always told more than a couple times a year would destroy them. Nope. They did great.
ANYHOW... That would be my recommendation: a steam cleaner once a week instead of a vacuum if you're worried about dust. Bissle worked best for us (again, rough 180 use lifespan). At once a week, that would be about 3 years.
The current edition of Consumer Reports rates vacuums if you can get a copy of that. I didn't see them listed by HEPA filters though, but I looked at it pretty quickly. When I was researching this issue 15 years ago Miele was one of the best, but not cheap. I see there is a Miele upright available for about $400, much less than when I was looking into a Miele canister. We ended up installing a central vac, also not cheap but good for allergies, etc.
Try to eliminate as many triggers as possible, wash sheets weekly in hot water and we found it useful to keep our allergic/asthmatic son's bedroom door closed.
You might want to check out the Shark Vacuum Pro. I love it and if you get it at Bed Bath and Beyond, it's pretty much guaranteed for life. I had mine for a year, no reciept, just the box and they replaced it with a brand new one. I have 3 pets and a daughter with Asthmas and the vacuum seems to work pretty well.
M.
Moms Helping Moms Work at Home
www.homeisgreat.com
We have had the Dyson, which was great, but expensive and we now have the Shark. The Shark is fine and a couple hundred dollars less. They both pick up the fine dirt from the carpet. The difference I see with the Shark is the vacuum panel is a couple of inches smaller.
I have a Eureka with a HEPA. Pretty sure it was around $100 but we've had it for some time. My DD has asthma and although dust/dirt isn't her worst trigger, I do find that having an air cleaner with a heavy duty HEPA filter running in her room most of the time helps a lot. You'd be amazed at what collects on the filter of that thing. Ours is a Honeywell which I got for around $100 on Amazon, but I'm sure you can get them anywhere. Keeping triggers to a minimum really does help.
It is not just the vacuum, that will eradicate dust/asthma. Even if it is a HEPA one.
ALSO know that, WHILE vacuuming, dust you cannot even see gets kicked up into the air. Thus, while and after vacuuming, keep the Asthmatic person out of the room, for about 1 hour, before reentering the room. Or, he/she can wear a medical face mask. To lessen inhalation of "dust" in the atmosphere that you cannot even see.
This is per my Mom's Doctor. My Mom has Asthma.
So do I.
But each of us have it to varying degrees. Her's is worse. Mine is not.
Each Asthmatic, has different triggers and degree of severity. It is not all the same for every person.
And there are different types of Asthma and its triggers.
ALSO, get an air purifier for the home, or especially for your son's room.
It is a must.
You can even see if your local Costco, has some.
Again, don't just rely on only a vacuum, to get the home dust free.
This is a link for a site that my Mom's specialist recommended to her:
http://www.natlallergy.com/?eid=GOOGLE&tid=g_allergy_...
