The Pros and Cons of Buying a Cheap Vacuum Cleaner

In a world where we could shop without looking at a price tag, shopping would be a bliss and having the best vacuum cleaner for your home no matter the price would be on everyone’s list. However, in today’s fast-changing society, budget-wise and economic living is becoming more of a necessity. Although some of the best vacuums out there can surge upward in cost, it is still possible to get a decent – or even great – vacuum cleaning machine for a budget price. But budget living isn’t the only reason to look at the pros and cons of a cheap vacuum cleaner. Even if you are someone who could easily afford the highest priced vac on the market, you can still hold on to your extra dollars if a cheaper vac can get the same job done for a better price. Let’s take a look at the reasons why you should or maybe shouldn’t buy a cheap vacuum cleaner.

PRO: You save money in the now.

This is an obvious benefit of buying a cheaper vacuum. Whether you want a traditional vacuum, an easy stick vac, or a nifty modern Shark vacuum, there are a lot of options in the lower price range of these home appliances. You can get ones that do an excellent job of cleaning your floor for significantly less than a more expensive brand vacuum. This is beneficial especially when you don’t use your vacuum frequently or your vacuum needs aren’t overly demanding.

CON: You save money in the now, but could end up paying for it in the near future.

While you do save money on the initial purchase of a cheaper vacuum cleaner, you may have to pay for it later in the form of repairs and replacements. One of the reasons why cheaper vacuums are cheaper is because they are made with materials that aren’t as high quality as the more expensive vacuums, which also explains the cost difference. Now, this isn’t always the case, as sometimes even expensive vacuums are susceptible wear and tear due to poor design and faulty materials, but most often, budget vacs tend to break down a lot sooner than their more expensive counterparts.

PRO: The portable, lightweight vacuums are often the cheaper ones.

If you’re looking for a budget vac under $200 or even $100 dollars, chances are, you’re going to find some pretty nifty lightweight stuff like stick vacuums and hand vacuums. You can get any type of vacuum cleaner for a great budget price, but they tend to be less design-rich, with no indicators for when your bin or bag is full or a fancy HEPA filter, for example. How much you’re willing to spend could make all the difference. These vacs are ideal for their portability and the ease with which you can pull them out to clean up a quick mess. Most of them are bagless vacuum cleaners for cost-effective maintenance, and the ones that do require replacement bags usually make great budget vacs for allergy sufferers.

CON: The portable, lightweight vacuums aren’t always the best for total home or deep cleaning.

Lightweight tools often deliver lightweight results, and this applies to vacuum cleaners undoubtedly. If you’re looking for a powerful tool that can cover your whole home cleaning needs, there is a great chance that you aren’t going to find the right tool for under $200, much less $100. Although there are some great uprights and even canisters for a budget price, they often lack a powerful motor or the additional attachments and accessories required to make them total house cleaning tools.

PRO: Both expensive vacuums and cheap vacuums break. A cheap one costs less money to replace.

It’s true that no matter the price, all consumer goods have a shelf-life and a maximum capacity for use before it goes downhill. If you’re likely to end up with a damaged vacuum sooner than later, which can only be determined by your lifestyle and uses for a vacuum, you might want a cheap vacuum that can easily be replaced without breaking the bank.

CON: Both expensive and cheap vacuums break. But cheap vacuums break sooner.

While both vacuums are susceptible to damage and expiry, cheap vacuums tend to break sooner. This isn’t always the case because there are some vacuums that can last a good portion of a lifetime if it’s well cared for. However, most budget vacs have a one to two-year warranty for a reason – the vacuum is made with cheaper parts to be more affordable, but cheaper parts don’t last as long as quality parts for a higher price.

PRO: Cheap vacuums are often tools streamlined for a specific job.

Due to their often minimal designs, attachments, accessories and additional features, most budget vacuums work very well for a specific type of job. For example, a decent upright might be built excellently for cleaning a carpet. A cheap canister might be a master at cleaning bare floors. Hand vacuums are ideal for spot cleaning messes or cleaning upholstery and car interiors, and stick vacuums are perfect for people who have back problems and need minimal cleaning for maintenance that can be done in the span of a short battery life.

CON: Cheap vacuums are best for specific jobs, not total house cleaning needs.

Most people only ever invest in owning one vacuum at a time, which means that they require a versatile vacuum that can do more than one specific type of job. But most budget vacs are limited in their uses. For example, an excellent carpet cleaner might not have the feature of switching the brush roll on and off, meaning that the vac will be ineffective at cleaning bare floors. A vacuum for bare floors might lack the necessary brush roll for carpet. A hand vac is completely useless for cleaning an entire house floor and any stick vacuum has a short battery life and minimal dirt cup capacity for total home cleaning. Other useful features like HEPA filtration will also commonly be lacking in almost all budget vacuum cleaners on the market.

PRO: Because they’re so cheap, you can own more than one.

The upside to the low cost of budget vacuums is that you can own a few of them for the price of one really expensive one. This can be a great option for many, given that you have enough storage space to keep them all. This means that even though many budget vacs have limited uses, you can buy a few different types of vacuums to cover the range of your total cleaning needs, and you might still save money doing that rather than buying a more expensive vacuum. For example, you could have stick vacuum for your carpet, a canister vacuum cleaner for your hard floor and Dirt Devil handheld cordless vacuum for picking up pet hair.

CON: When you own more than one, it costs more to maintain them.

While this is necessarily a big con of vacuum cleaners, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that more appliances to own now mean more things to fix or replace later. So, while it might be great to have so many vacuums, you must remember that vacuums can only last a long time if you maintain them well. For example, bagless vacuums should be emptied as often as you use them to avoid build up, and the dirt cup needs to be cleaned often enough to be free from fine dust and dirt particles that stick to the interior. If you intend to keep that many budget vacs, you better be able to set aside time to care for them and keep them working in optimal condition.

The Best Budget Vacuum Cleaner to Buy in 2018

While there are many vacuum cleaners for cheap that are extremely limited in their uses, features, design extras and more, there is one brand of vacuum cleaners that have swept the market and made it possible to have high end cleaning for a low-end cost. So, what’s the best vacuum brand for high-tech, affordable vacuum cleaners? That brand is Shark.

The Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional is a great series of vacuums for under $200. It features Shark’s lift-away technology, turning the upright vacuum in a portable hand vac for versatile cleaning needs. If you take a look at their product line up, you’ll see they have a few different types of vacuum cleaners available, however, Shark doesn’t do bagged vacuum cleaners. Shark does well to defy the norms of limited budget vacs to bring consumers a great competitor for pricier vacuums, like Dysons, but at a cheaper price. With the Navigator Lift-Away, you will get all the attachments and accessories you need to clean your whole home and then some. The downside? Shark isn’t the best for customer service, unlike Dyson, who is one of the best in that area. We compare Shark to Dyson in our comparison chart.