Hi, RA diagnosed last July and have been struggling with my vacuum as my hands/wrists are v painful…does anyone have a recommendation of a lightweight bag less (also have a dog - so needs to be good with pets/hair) vacuum cleaner? Many thanks
Ps. bag less too as can't empty/change a bag
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Outdoors07
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Hello and welcome. I was struggling like you a few months ago and posted on here. I could not lift my vacuum cleaner to take it up and down stairs. You will see my original post and all the answers I received if you look to the right at the Related Posts section and mine is the third one down.I bought a GTech AirRam pet in the end. I find it brilliant for my hard floors throughout the downstairs and for doing the stairs as it's so light. But it's good on rugs and carpets too. My old SEBO Felix pet is excellent, especially for carpets and I now keep that upstairs. I have a long-haired cat but no dogs.
The trouble with G.Tech is they keep bringing out new models...I now have three...one up, one down & a spare....but I’m moving to live on one level...so what excuse do I have to buy the next new model?
I have a G Tech k9, it's great, light weight and moved easily from wooden floor to carpet. We have a hairy little dog and it comes well with the pet hair. I bought mine on special offer and got the tools free and the hand held version which is great for cleaning the stairs.
Whilst it couldn't completely replace a normal vacuum, I recently treated the house to a robotic cleaner. It is fab. It pops out everyday on a timer and makes its way around the house. It means I now hardly ever have to get the main cleaner out!
Have you thought about or looked at any of the Robotic Vacuum options? There are so many available now from all price ranges. I actually bought 2 recently, one in Nov during Thanksgiving sale & one last month because we loved the first one so much. We keep one on each floor. At least it takes away the job of vacuuming the floors and does pretty good on both carpeted and hard floors. I have noticed much less dust / hair around the home and on furniture since we started using those. There are some specifically designed for homes with pets. Hope you feel better soon. Take care!
HiI have a shark vacuum and I’m very pleased with it. Much lighter than my old dyson, more powerful and I find the ‘lift away’ function very useful and so much easier when I can hoover the stairs.
I would prefer to try one out in a shop because if it's too heavy on my wrists, elbows, shoulders etc. then I can't use it. Price is secondary to weight for me.
Believe me I am an 8 stone weakling.... and I can carry one easily plus...when you buy from QVC you can have it for 60 days and if you decide you don’t like it you return it and get 100% refund of the purchase price ....it just costs you the postage ....but I seem to remember they deliver straight from the Gtech company & no P&P.....it’s a no brainer..... you don’t even have to leave your house to get one!
No...honestly.....I am not! I keep telling everybody I don’t work for QVC (or GTech) it’s just that channel 16 on my television keeps on coming on ....and there’s always something on the screen I desperately can’t live without!
My latest acquisition is a couple of lanterns for my new house I am hoping to move to soon...... Absolutely vital you know to have a couple of lanterns!
I have a Hoover, after going into curry’s and testing all the stick ones, I found the hoover freedom lightest. As I don’t have dogs any more(unfortunately) it is ideal. Vax are advertising one on tv which is supposed to be light but until I can get out to try one it will have to wait. Stay safe
I have recently purchased a Dyson and it’s brilliant, I don’t know why I didn’t buy one before. I have struggled with my cylinder vacuum cleaner since being diagnosed with RA two years ago, I almost enjoy doing the housework now 🙄. The one thing I would point out with theDyson is that it is very easy to change the tools.
I definitely recommend the Gtech K9 upright. We took a punt as they were only available from Gtech themselves at the time, I prefer to try before I buy but there wasn’t the option. I've recommended it here many times over the 6 years I've had them. We have two dogs who moult & it tackles our carpets, rugs & tiles with ease.
There's no problem with weight because it's not a stick so the weight is on the floor, you're not relying on upper arm strength. It's even easy to carry upstairs because it's lightweight but also the handle pushes down to around half length, there's another handle lower than the top handle too meaning it's well balanced when carrying. I posted about it when I had my first one, the original Mk1 but have had the Mk2 for a long while too now.
There are no bags to faff about with, it's easy to empty & the filter is easy to get out to tap out dust or wash when you need to. I have a spare filter so I can use the AirRam whilst the other is drying meaning I can use it at any time. Only one thing, I do need my h's help if I need to take the brush bar out as the release button is stiff, I have poor strength in my hands.
The battery charges up in a couple of hours from flat. If I have one slight gripe it's that battery life indicator doesn’t always tell the truth. It can jump from 2 to 1 very quickly (there are 4 stages) & being intermittent you can be caught out. My h can use it too (he has chronic chest pain) so that attests to it being easy to manoeuvre with little weight.
I would recommend you buy from the manufacturer as they are so helpful if you need them for anything & always next day delivery. Look out for their offers. They recently had 20% off throughout the cleaning range, not sure if they do at the mo though.
I also have the hand held. That's equally good if you're needing that type of cleaner too. One slight issue with that is whilst there's a battery life indicator on the machine there isn't on the battery itself so you don't know if it's fully charged until you've put it back on the machine, or if you've made a mental note when you put it on charge. Mine is one of the earlier produced ones so updates may have indicators on now.
I hope whichever vacuum you decide to buy you find it less of a struggle.
Shark definitely! I have a big corded one and a lightweight cordless, before my RA was diagnosed I could not vacuum and my mum who is in her 70s had to come over to my house to do it for me!!! Now I can use both of them but find the cordless quicker and lighter to use, plus it kinda moves on its own if you get what I mean rather than you pushing it, with a 3 year old and 8 year old in the house I use it on a daily basis!!!
I have the original GTech air ram, had it since it was brought out and it is brilliant and still going strong, very lightweight cordless and picks up far more than any other , look it up on internet xx
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