No one likes dirty and messy surroundings, be it indoors or outdoors. For the former, there are many ways to get the surroundings cleaned from every corner. Of all those ways, a vacuum cleaner is the best cleaning tool. But which one? Let’s discuss the two popular options: bagged vs. bagless vacuum today.
Today, almost every household owns a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of its size. It may seem that purchasing a vacuum is a simple task. However, when you start exploring the various options available to you, it doesn’t.
What factors do you consider before buying a vacuum cleaner? Do you consider the price of vacuum cleaners? Or does their size matter the most to you? When you start to search for vacuum cleaners with effective dust particles removal capabilities, you will find various options.
Among all, the two key vacuums are bagged and bagless. This article will take you through both these cleaners, including their pros and cons. This will help you choose the best cleaning device for your home. So, let’s start.
Bagged Vacuums
As the name suggests, a bagged vacuum like the Eureka Mighty Mite 3670G Canister Vacuum is one with a huge bag at the rear that contains all the dust, debris, and other particles. There are different sizes of bagged vacuums available in the market with different sizes and materials.
While the bagged vacuums are a good option for big homes, it’s equally difficult to maintain such a cleaner. Furthermore, a bagged vacuum is very expensive. Continue reading to know the various pros & cons of a bagged vacuum.
Advantages of Bagged Vacuums
Since bagged vacuums are still the highest selling devices in the market, you might feel like getting one for yourself too. There are different categories of bagged vacuums. The following are the main advantages of such devices that can make you buy one.
Hygienic Option
The most important benefit of a bagged vacuum is its hygiene. It is not because such cleaners store the collected particles like dust and debris inside the bag. It’s because of other reasons as well.
The bag of a bagged vacuum is made out of special material. It ensures that the allergic particles inside the bag don’t come out even if the vacuum is not in use. This allows safe and hygienic disposal of the contents of the bag. Last but not least, you need not replace the bag of a bagged vacuum cleaner as they have a long life.
Less Mess
Another advantage associated with a bagged vacuum cleaner is less mess. It is a common observation that cleaning a vacuum cleaner results in some mess. This is highly common with the normal cleaning habits of cleaning the vacuum cleaner. However, this is not the case with a bagged cleaner.
That is, it is really easy to clean a bagged vacuum cleaner by cleaning its bag with very little or no mess around. Hence, there are no or very few chances of the likely allergens escaping back into the air and possibly affecting your health.
In a nutshell, if you are looking for a vacuum cleaner that would cause less or no mess while cleaning and disposing of, you should go for a bagged vacuum cleaner.
HEPA Filter
The HEPA filter is a high-efficiency particulate absorbing filter. Such a filter is capable of absorbing 99.97% of the harmful particles present in the air. A HEPA filter is made from twisted glass fibers placed in a way to create a maze.
Due to this, all modern vacuum cleaners come with HEPA filters for maximum cleaning. Also, such filters are a standard for all the bagged vacuum cleaners. Hence, it is another reason why you should use a bagged vacuum to get your home cleaned in a true sense.
Less Maintenance
Do you know why people often ignore a vacuum cleaner for their home? If it is not the size of their home that leads to this, it is the high cost of vacuum cleaners. On top of this, you need to add the maintenance costs.
However, this is not the case with a bagged vacuum cleaner. A bagged vacuum cleaner is designed in such a way that it doesn’t ask for much maintenance. There are several reasons behind this.
First, the bag of a standard bagged vacuum cleaner can hold up to two to three pounds of debris. Hence, you need not replace the bags often. Secondly, all bagged vacuums have an in-built filter. Thus, you also don’t need to clean the filter.
These two reasons prove how low maintenance a bagged vacuum cleaner needs. Moreover, all modern bagged vacuum cleaners come with LED indicators to let you know when the bag is full and ready to be emptied.
Recommended for Allergy Sufferers
Last but not least, a bagged vacuum cleaner is the best option for individuals suffering from allergies. Since the bags can hold up to two to three pounds of debris easily, you don’t need to worry about it flowing out of the bag and escaping into the air.
Furthermore, the in-built HEPA filter ensures that the air around you is free from any kind of dirt and debris by absorbing 99.97% of the same. Hence, if you have allergy-sufferers at home, you should only consider a bagged vacuum cleaner.
So, these are the major advantages of a bagged vacuum cleaner. Let’s now discuss their main disadvantages below.
Disadvantages of Bagged Vacuums
If you are planning to buy a vacuum cleaner to enjoy its above benefits and features, you should consider their possible cons too. So, here are the possible drawbacks of a bagged vacuum cleaner.
You need to buy more bags
This is true that even the standard size of the bag included in a bagged vacuum can hold up to two to three pounds of dirt in one go. However, this is also true that these bags are mostly non-reusable. That is, you may have to replace the bag every time it becomes full of dust and allergens. Hence, the more you will use the vacuum cleaner, the more you will have to replace its bags.
This will lead to higher maintenance costs which will also depend upon the model you have. If the high replacement costs are not enough, you may also face the situation when your desired bag model is unavailable or has been discontinued by the makers.
Thus, frequent replacement of the bags is the biggest problem with the bagged vacuum cleaners. However, this is not the case with the bagless options where you don’t need any bag!
Performance Decreases as the Bag Fill
Another common issue with bagged vacuums is that their cleaning power decreases as the bag nears full. That is, even if the bag is not full, you may not get the same performance as before. In other words, you will have to replace the bag before it becomes full to get better performance out of it. As a result, you will incur more costs.
If you want to save your money instead of spending on the replacement of the bags, you must consider bagless options.
Expensive
Bagged vacuum cleaners are expensive to use and maintain. Since bagged vacuums are huge, they require frequent maintenance from both inside and outside for long life.
Furthermore, to properly use your cleaner, you will need to buy more and more bags. This is because the cleaning power and performance of a bagged vacuum cleaner decreases as the bag becomes full. Hence, bagged vacuum cleaners are expensive, and you must consider all the above costs before buying.
Bagless Vacuums
As the name suggests, a bagless vacuum like the Shark Apex AZ1002 is a modern solution to the issues common with the above-bagged cleaners. For example, the best feature of a bagless vacuum cleaner is that there is no bag to clean or replace after cleaning.
Another thing to note here is that unlike the non-reusable filters in the bagged options, all bagless vacuum cleaners come with reusable filters. Besides, the following are the other advantages of a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Advantages of Bagless Vacuum
If you are looking for a vacuum cleaner that is easy to use, maintain, and less costly, you must go for a bagless cleaner. The following are its other benefits.
Less Costly
As said above, a bagless vacuum cleaner is a less costly option in front of a bagged one. The main reasons behind such fewer costs are less maintenance and the absence of bags.
Since there is no bag involved in a bagless vacuum cleaner, you don’t need to buy extra bags every time. Furthermore, the chamber or dirt cup that collects the dirt & debris can last for a lifetime. Hence, these are the two best advantages of a bagless vacuum cleaner against its bagged option.
Easy to Know When to Empty
It’s worth noting that nearly all bagless vacuum cleaners have a transparent or clear chamber. This lets you know when to empty the chamber. Additionally, you can see whether any dirt or dust is surrounding the chamber. Last but not least, when the chamber becomes full, it doesn’t affect its performance, unlike in the bagged vacuum cleaners.
Eco-Friendly Option
Are you wondering how a bagless vacuum cleaner is eco-friendly? If so, let me tell you. You must know that a bagless vacuum cleaner has a better cleaning efficiency than the bagged option. Hence, a bagless vacuum cleaner ensures a clean surrounding with clean air. Furthermore, you don’t need to use and empty hundreds of bags outdoors.
Popular Option
Another best advantage of a bagless vacuum cleaner is that it is a popular option among customers. There are several reasons behind this. For example, a bagless vacuum cleaner doesn’t need any bag, maintenance, etc.
Also, if the cleaner accidentally vacuums something valuable, you can open the chamber to get it back without any mess. In the case of bagged vacuum cleaners, you would need to cut the bag to get the item back.
Environmental impact
Since you don’t have to clean any kind of bag and dispose of it in the environment, bagless vacuum cleaners have a positive environmental impact, unlike the bagged ones. So, these are the popular advantages of a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Disadvantages of Bagless Vacuum
The following are the possible disadvantages of a bagless vacuum cleaner you must be familiar with.
Increased Exposure to Allergens
A bagless vacuum cleaner is not suitable for allergy sufferers. This is because the dust and allergens can easily escape out of the dirt chamber when opened. This increases the exposure to allergens and leads to health problems. Hence, experts don’t recommend a bagless cleaner for those who are allergy sufferers.
Requires More Maintenance
Since bagless vacuum cleaners are tech-savvy and include several technologies for cleaning, it requires more maintenance. That is, the more you will use the bagless vacuum cleaner, the more will be the maintenance costs.
Time-Consuming
Last but not least, a bagless vacuum cleaner is time-consuming. This is because the dirt cup of a bagless vacuum cleaner is not as huge as the bag of a bagged vacuum cleaner. Hence, you would need to empty the chamber often. Also, as the dirt cup of the bagless vacuum cleaner will be near its full capacity, its performance will start to decrease.
So, these are the main advantages and disadvantages you can consider when deciding between bagged vs. bagless vacuum.
Final Thoughts
Vacuum cleaners are common in every household. They provide a better cleaning experience and pure air free from allergens. However, buying a vacuum cleaner is not as easy as it sounds here. When you talk about bagged vs. bagless vacuums, you must consider their pros and cons—for example, their size, price, maintenance costs, cleaning capacity, and much more.
While the bagged vacuum cleaners are suitable for bigger homes and better cleaning, they have high maintenance costs and negative environmental impacts. On the other hand, the bagless models are eco-friendly but have poor cleaning capacity.
Furthermore, if you want to know more about a vacuum cleaner and its features to buy a suitable model, make sure to read our vacuum buying guide.
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