Recommend to me a HARDCORE vacuum!
 

Here's the situation. Me and my housemate were moving into our new apartment when we noticed some animal hair still on the carpet. We brought this up with the front desk when we were moving in and they said the carpet still needed to be cleaned. Well even after the carpets were cleaned there is still some animal hair in the carpet.

We needed to buy a vacuum, but now with this animal hair still in the carpet I want to buy a POWERFUL vacuum that will get this stuff out. I am willing to spend up to $200. So I need all of your recommendations. Thanks !

My vacuum is the Eureka Whirlwind Litespeed, and it's da bomb yo! The hepa filtration works great, it comes with a cool duster attachment, and it sucks like crazy. Most important, the price is right.

the dyson series or the miele series are usually considered the best out there. They really suck (that's my token corny joke of the day ;) Of course they're also expensive as hell.

The wife of one of my previous co-workers runs a cleaning service and she swears up and down by the Kirby vacuum. Plus I've heard a lot of good things about the Oreck vacuums. Having two cats and a Dirt Devil upright, I just learn to vacuum the room twice and hope for the best. :)

Oddly enough, I'm suprised nobody has yet made an off color comment offering their ex-girlfriend as the most powerful sucker in the universe...

At any rate, Oreck are good, I have no clue about Kirby. I prefer Dirt Devil myself... with the "cyclonic" system. It seems to pull just about everything out of the carpet.

Kirby vacuums are really the best I've ever seen (sadly, I was employed as a salesperson for a month one desperate summer in my youth). However, the price tag on them is over $1,500... well worth the money, but who's got the money for that? Sheesh.

A word of caution...if the "Fantom" brand is peddled your way, just say "nay". We have one, and it's the worst thing in the world. Reminds me of the SNL skit with Akroyd and Martin (Two Wild and Crazy Guys!) where they attempt to clean up before two hot women come over, and they have to pour the popcorn ~into~ the vacuum because it won't pick it up!

I hereby must remove myself from this topic, as I shamefully know way too much about vacuum cleaners. :(

I prefer the "Rainbow"
:)

I have a Fantom, a Fury I think, and it was great for the first month, then it just -- I want to say sucked - but it really didn't suck -- it was just a really bad vacuum.

If there's embedded pet hair, your best bet might be to have a professional carpet cleaner come in - or get the building to replace the carpets if its that bad... (tell then you have allergies, living with someone else's dog hair is not acceptable to me)

I have a Kirby that I would sell well under $1,500.00! Very good cleaner, but more than I need now. Hell, I'll even ship it to ya!

We bought a kirby like 8 years ago, got a good deal on it at the time. Still sucks like the first day, plus it can turn into a carpet shampooer. Bags are a pain in the ass to get a hold of though. If you can get a kirby, id recommend it, but they are very priicey.

And heavy. Ours like like 30 pounds or so. But its got a cool push assist - when you go to move it, an electric motor takes over and does 80% or so of the pushing for you. Easiest to move vacuum i've ever used, unless you hafta carry it up a flight of stairs.

Bought the Eureka Whirlwind that COACHALN got a few months back. It picks up the dog and cat hair just fine. Bought it at costco for about $140.00..And the Coach is right the duster is great.

KIRBY all the way. I have severe cat allergies. But that didn't stop my sister from getting a cat. Well, I never had problems with the hair because of the wonderful Kirby. I loved the Kirby so much that I bought one when I moved out. They also let me do a monthly payment plan with 0% interest so you may want to see if they offer that where you are at.

we've got a kirby, too, and they are very powerful. the downside......the things are so damn heavy you never want to pull them out. they are beasts.

Kirbys are the shit. But you pay for what you get. They also have lifetime warranties.

I have the same problem with cat hair and cannot afford a Kirby.

Damn. Never even heard of Kirby. But it appears that I am in the minority ;)

I was gonna say give a shop vac a go--there are some pretty powerful ones out there. Never tried it with pet hair though...

Wow I never heard of Kirby before. It looks like a good vacuum. I found a good review of it on:
http://www.epinions.com/content_62335389316

According to this author, you are a sucker if you paid more than $900 for a G6.

When I was doing research on vacuum a year ago, I came across some bad reviews of Dyson vacuum, including the review on Consumer Reports. I ended up choosing a Hoover upright for $200-300, based on its recommendation. I'm still happy with it.

Couple of recomendations:
Get one with disposable vacuum bags. I thought those bagless vacuums were great, but it's disgusting to clean them out, and those filter replacements are quite expensive.

Rotating brush will loosen the hair on the carpet easily. If you have hard floor or delicate carpet, get a vacuum where you can turn the brush off.

Get a vacuum with motorized wheel.

These 3 are pretty common features, but somehow I had hard time locating one with all these 3 features in one machine. I really really hate bagless vacuums. I threw 2 out before settling on the one I have now.