Dear Home-Ec 101,
Target has a gift card promotion this week with the Dysons. I’ve been thinking about purchasing one but the only thing holding me back is the fact that my house isn’t covered in carpet except for the basement which isn’t a very large space. Can anyone recommend a vacuum cleaner that would be comparable to Dyson but cost less? I can’t see myself spending so much for such a little space.
Thanks!
Bagless in Baltimore
Heather says:
This is a fantastic question for the Home-Ec 101 Readers and an excellent opportunity for me to introduce you to my friend Dave Taylor. Dave runs AskDaveTaylor.com where he answers all kinds of tech questions. A recent question How to Research a Tech Product Before I Buy It translates beautifully to your question “Which vacuum cleaner should I purchase for a small space?”
Personally, I use a Roomba i530 on the main level of our home, which is all hard flooring, with very few rugs because I can’t make a decorating commitment of that magnitude, apparently. . . If you would like, here is my personal review of the iR0bot 530, with a lot of feedback from Home-Eccers. And, I just ordered an upgrade for my Roomba as it’s time to replace the brushes after some abuse from the other minions -the kind on two and four legs. I used Dave’s advice when I checked out the reviews of the iRobot 500 Series Upgrade (I have the white, but the black upgrade had more reviews).
Upstairs on the carpet, I use a factory reconditioned Dyson. Do you know what factory reconditioned means? Factory reconditioning is a process by which a returned product is checked, by the manufacturer, before being resold. By law a product returned to a store cannot be sold as new. Not every product is returned because of an actual defect, some people simply return an item because it doesn’t fit their needs or maybe there was a slight defect that was repaired. Factory reconditioned products are significantly cheaper than new. Occasionally factory reconditioned items have a couple cosmetic blemishes. In this case, it’s a vacuum, last I checked we didn’t spend weekends going to vacuum shows, showing off vintage models. Your vacuum is going to receive abuse, so why pay a premium? Now you have a way to purchase an actual Dyson vacuum cleaner without spending as much on a new Dyson vacuum.
Let’s do a quick comparison:
Over on Target.com we see the Dyson DC41 Animal Upright for $599. (eek!) Now, let’s head over to Amazon and put in Dyson Animal Reconditioned: (You aren’t going to get the LATEST model, but again with the, it’s a frigging vacuum). Look at that, the most expensive one is $309, which also has free shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime Member -I am simply for this and the streaming video perks- that’s down to nearly half the cost. Now, if that is still out of your intended budget (which I completely understand, we have carpeting in the upstairs bedroom and my office, and with our I-shed-all-the-time-basset-hound, I still feel justified having a the vacuum I do, but that’s a personal decision, judge away, if you must)
I have also tested a Bissell Pro-Lite Multi-Cyclonic Upright Vacuum and also found the Bissell performed well. This vacuum rings in at $119 brand spanking new. I did a quick search, but didn’t see a factory reconditioned option. You can certainly look on e-Bay and other sites to see if they are out there as an option.
Since I’m only one person and have only one house and have limited consumer product testing time and facilities, I’m opening this reader question up to the Home-Ec 101 audience. What vacuum would YOU recommend, based on your experience, for a reader with a fairly small carpeted area?
Ready? Go!
Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.





So the structure of urushiol looks a bit like this, with alkyl chain at the R in the image. An alkyl chain is simply a bunch of carbon atoms with hydrogen attached kind of like this C/C\C/C\CH3 (That’s about the best I can do in a standard text editor, just pretend you get it). That alkyl chain makes the urushiol molecule difficult to dissolve in water.

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