Hi.

I would really like to hear people's views on what kind of vacuum
cleaner is best for a house of cats!  The reason I'm asking is as
follows.

For about ten years we have had an industrial vacuum cleaner in our
house - the sort used by cleaners in office buildings, etc.  It's a very
powerful upright cylinder on wheels and you vacuum the carpet by way of
the long "snake" attachment.  The suction is extraordinary and you rub
the carpet with the snake thing, with either the brush retracted or
extended.  (We've always used it with the brushes extended in order to
try and rake up as much cat-hair as possible.)  

For ten years, short of buying a Dyson, we have thought we couldn't do
better than this machine.  However, the previous owners of this house
left an old upright Electrolux in the loft of our garage and, finally,
after three years of ignoring it, yesterday we got it down and gave it a
go on our regularly cleaned carpets.  It's like an old Hoover.  You push
the whole thing round the carpet as if it were a brush.  Anyway, before
we tested it we turned it over, switched on the power, and put our hands
around the front to gauge the amount of suction.  LOUSY!   Compared to
our industrial cleaner it was a joke!

Anyway, we made sure the bag inside was empty to start with and then we
gave the Electrolux a spin over the carpets of our living-room and
dining-room.  If it didn't perform it was destined for the recycling
centre down the road!  We took out the bag to see what "the lousy
sucker" had managed to pick up and . . . WE WERE AMAZED!   The bag was
no longer empty but practically FULL !   Furthermore, the stuff inside
was ALL cat hair!   There was no dust, no dirt, no bits - because our
carpets are regularly cleaned by the "expert sucker"!

Clearly, our expert sucker is useless at picking up hair that clings to
carpet, or hair which gets trapped in carpet.  But why?

We examined the Electrolux in action again and paid more attention to
the RAPIDLY revolving cylinder of brushes immediately below its suction
point.  These really give the carpet a good brushing - in addition to
the suction.

Maybe we should use both machines?

But the Electrolux is old.  Maybe there's a new model out there that
combines excellent suction with rapid circular brushing?

I've had a look at the Dyson website today and from what I've seen the
Dyson only sucks.  Our discovery with the old Electrolux suggests that
excellent suction is simply not enough where cat hair is involved!

What's best?  What do you think?  What do people recommend?

Eddy.