Anybody here use a Bissell Sweeper on rugs, carpets et cetera? Or any other hand-powered vacuum cleaner substitutes that you'd recommend? Our electric one is just about junked, besides which it's too noisy, smells funny, works but sporadically, scares the dog, unnerves the cats, wastes energy, takes up valuable brew equipment storage space and isn't such a much about cleaning anyway. It was a wedding gift, and has put in some hard years, but it's time for a change! Thanks for your thoughts, Sean & Chrisoula

-- Sean (rougan@rcn.com), April 12, 2002

Answers

My uncle is a bachelor.....a very neat and particular one. He uses his carpet sweeper several times a day. He's 75 and has been using it as far back as I have memories....and I'm 46! ;-)

Back before I had electricity, I used one of these. It's overwhelmed by a dog and two cats, plus the dust from two woodstoves. Now that we have electricity, I love my vacuum ;-)

-- Peace and Carrots Farm, Vermont (wsm311@aol.com), April 12, 2002.

I have a little Fuller brush sweeper that I bought 20 years ago, just love it. But I only use it to pick up the odd thing that's spilled on the carpet, or for a quick run over the carpet downstairs near the wood stove where bits of bark from the firewood have fallen from carrying wood from the box to the stove. Grabs all the larger pieces so the vacuum bag doesn't fill so quickly. Keep in mind that sweeper brushes only collect what's on the surface of the carpet and don't get the dust and dirt that's fallen down between the fibres.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), April 12, 2002.

Long human hair/string can also clog a regular vacuum (especially the rotating brush), so even though it is a bit more work, it is worth it to go over with a sweeper first, then with the vacuum to get the deep stuff.

It is a lot easier to manually clean the sweeper, and you don't have to worry about remembering to unplug it first. They do work best on commercial-type carpet rather than more plushy home carpet.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), April 12, 2002.

If you have carpet and animals you need the suction to remove animal dander from the carpets. You might want to try a shop vac, they are cheap and powerful and you can buy a filter separately that works well. They can even be used to make a central vacuum system quite inexpensively.

-- kim in CO (kimk61252@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.