Too funny, but I was going to recommend my Miele Cat and Dog vacuum. Before we got this, we had a great Hoover, but it finally died for good. Talking to the repair guys, they say that just like the washing machines, many of the good vacuum companies have been bought up and now make cheap cr@p that doesn't work or last. Sorry, I'm not much help.

We have a Kenmore Progressive upright that is fabulous with the cat hair. It uses the HEPA filtration fabric bag, but I think there is a bagless option. The attachments on the hose go pretty long.

It's only drawback is that is pretty heavy and not too maneuverable, but we don't have stairs.

I'm not impressed with my Dyson pet vacuum. I wouldn't buy another.

I have a Shark Navigator Professional, which gets cat hair out of the carpet during regular cleaning. It has really great suction- just read reviews! You can detach the hose and stick a brush or crevice tool on the end as you go, switching it to a hand-held vac for cleaning upholstery and drapes. The hose is pretty short and doesn't stretch, so it takes some getting used to, but it is 1000000% more convenient than having to drag out a small portable. You can also detach the whole canister thing somehow (I've never done this) to make it even easier to move around.
It comes with a pet hair brush attachment, which I used for the first time on some new polyester porch cushions, which grabbed on to cat hair and wouldn't let it go. It worked very well on the horrid sticky fabric, and again I usually don't need it.
You have to cut long human hair out of the rollers. Sorry. Buy at bed bath and beyond with a 20% off coupon and it is ridiculously cheap.

I have a central vac system but I do have a suggestion. Our carpeted stairs seem to be a magnet for pet hair. Our stair attachment was always getting bound up with hair. Now we first vacuum the steps with the hardwood floor attachment (nothing spining). This gets up the majority of the hair and then we go back over with the stair attachment with the spinning brush. I admit it was DH's idea.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Tue, Jul 9, 13 at 20:00

When our last vacuum bit the dust, I started using the shop vac until I got somewhere to get another. 4 years later, and I still use the shop vac for almost everything. It's the only vacuum I've found that sucks out all of the dust and dirt from the crevices in the wood floors and it never clogs. It also keeps the girls cleaning up, because they know if it's small enough to go in the vacuum, they are never getting it back :) My other is a Shark Navigator. It's super lightweight and does a pretty good job on the area rug in the laundry room, not as impressed on the hardwoods and tile.

OMG, I may have found it thanks to Sonicmom and Mrsmortarmixer!!! Honestly, I didn't have much hope that there was a vacuum out there that would work very well for me, but this Shark Navigator Pro just may be it and a whole lot more . . . it's not a hated canister vac! I love everything I've just read and have bookmarked it on Amazon to show DH this evening. I probably have a BB&B coupon and will buy it through them, as you suggested, Sonicmom.
Debrak, thank you for that great suggestion about using the brushless floor attachment first. GREAT idea that I will definitely use!
I've got to tell Natal about this as we're both in need of a vacuum now. We've been emailing back and forth about it today.
I hope this is it. Many thanks to everyone for their helpful suggestions!
I'll let you know if I end up getting it.
Lynn

lynne- yesterday I watched the Shark Navigator infomercial on TV. It was a 30 minute commercial and the MC was yelling about the wondrous attributes of the vacuum - however it did seem quite handy.

I'm heading to BBB tomorrow to check it out. I know they have a display model that they'll let me try. I've used a Kenmore Progressive canister for so long that many uprights seem heavy and hard to maneuver.

This post was edited by maire_cate on Wed, Jul 10, 13 at 7:29

This is a subject dear to my heart as well .. I do have a Kenmore progressive canister (probably about 5-8 years old?) and it works very very very well. The only downpoint is that it is a canister and is cumbersome. But , it does not shut off or get the roller bound up. So I would suggest Kenmore progressive. I did read the consumer reports and they highly rated the shark ROTATOR ..

I'm another with a Kenmore Progressive canister, and I'm pleased with it. I've had it about three years. I have long hair, and we have FOUR dogs (Aussie/Border/Cattle Dog) and a cat. We have two large area rugs and three other very small rugs-- the rest is either tile, pavers or cork. I've never had the brush get tangled. Not even once. Now, I don't use the power head on the hard surfaces. In fact, I usually sweep those first with a broom and dustpan to get up the usual big pouff of hair. If I didn't, I'd have to change the vacuum bag once a week. Mine also has a small power head for upholstery and curtains, and it does a great job getting up the fine, soft cat hair.

I have a Miele which the cleaning lady uses, but I also received a Roomba for Christmas and I cannot believe how great it is on dog hair. The only downside is the small receptacle that has to be emptied often, but it is super easy. I absolutely love it!

Our housekeeper is having trouble with a shoulder and I did not want her lifting the heavy, water tank-filled rainbow down the five steps to the library, so we just got the Miele Dog and Cat vacuum. So far, I am not impressed. It's pretty heavy itself, unwieldy, and the suction is nothing to write home about. For almost $900 (tax and shipping from Williams Sonoma) I expected better. Can't recommend it :-)

texanjana, don't you have to clean out the brushes after every use? I find that job to be such a pain that I don't use my Roomba except under the bed.

I have a Roomba and a hairy black lab. The Roomba does a good job on my kitchen ceramic floor and rugs. The downside is that it's loud, the bin is small, and it takes much longer than if I just run the Hoover. I turn it on and then leave to do errands and clean the brushes once a week. Hair and threads do get wrapped around the brush and it takes a while tor remove them.

My biggest complaint about the Roomba is that it leaves a 2 to 3 inch layer of dirt and dog hair on the ceramic around my area rugs. They are fairly thick and when one wheel is on the rug and the other on the floor the brushes can't pick up the hair and the suction isn't strong enough to suck it up either.

Please report back and let us know if you like it.

maire_cate: Is the Shark Navigator infomercial the one that shows the vacuum sucking up all the balls from a pool table? I saw that a while ago but cannot remember which vacuum it was for.

I love my Shark Navigator Pro, but it looks like the Rotator has some improvements, namely a light and a longer hose. I'd check out the Rotator.
Just for comparison, shortly after I bought the Navigator Pro Woot had a sale on the smaller, purple version and I bought one for the upstairs. It's more apartment sized- smaller head, smaller canister, shorter cord. But it still works very well and is quite powerful.

The key to pet hair not clinging to the roller is that the roller needs to be metal, not plastic.

We have a Border Collie (not to mention a terrier, cat and horses) and I have the best vacuum yet. I love my Riccar! It has the metal roller, is very simple to change the bag and belt and is made in the USA. Except for the central vac we had in previous houses which I loved, I've bought and worn out Hoover, Bissell, Shark, Kenmore, Eureka ..... none of them lasting more than a year. With almost 5000 sq ft of carpet, this baby has lasted 4 years and the salesman said it's made to go 10. I believe it!

The best thing for pet hair - especially woven in - is not a vacuum at all but the "pet hair eraser". It's like a squeegee and it pulls tons of fur out of upholstery and carpet. Use this and vacuum afterwards... you will pull out deep woven in pet hair!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pet Hair Magnet

I've been using a squeegee on the carpet - daughter taped it to a broom handle so we don't have to bend over. It clears maybe 95% of the hair and then we vacuum. I plan to get long-handled squeegee with a wider blade, You really don't want to be on your hands and knees raking a six inch swath.

As for the vacuum cleaners - this is a thread I'll follow with interest. We have a German Shedder-Shredder dog and one girl with hair to her hips - sometimes three of us with hair that long.

I don't have carpeted floors, so I just use the pet hair squeegee thing on furniture. Having one on a broom stick is a great idea for carpets - though I think having carpets with pets is just not something I want to deal with at all!

lynninnewmexico -- Vacuums are pretty personal (no kidding). I own two Simplicity uprights and have had them for 15 years. My brother owns two Vacuums stores and sells everything under the sun (Rainbows, Miele, Eureka, Simplicity, Bissell, Dyson, etc.).

It all comes down to the 'motor' and the quality of the parts. Rollers on ANY vacuum will get clogged and tangled. However, if the suction is good ... less will get entangled in a roller. I swear by Simplicity ... but having said that ... I use hoses to pick up dog hair, my long hair, sewing threads and even garage debris! A roller is just a brush -- it is meant to sweep and capture.

I agree with some of the posters above who recommended a non-mechanical solution first (squeegee, pet hair eraser).

Personally, I find a brisk sweeping with a regular straw broom works well. Go easy on your vacuum and do this first, so it doesn't choke, and can actually get to the ground in stuff on which it works better.

Sometimes there's no "magic machine"

I second the Shark Navigator!

Hi lynninnewmexico.

I've been using my Dyson DC39 animal vacuum cleaner to pick up animal hair both on rugs and non-carpeted floors for a couple of months now. It's been picking up hair easily and only a little amount of hair stays in the vacuum cleaner head and tube which I clean with a brush or duster.

You can read my review of the DC39 Animal below.

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dyson DC39 Animal Review

I guess I'm in the minority here. But As a wedding gift my grandparents gave us an oreck upright and it came with the oreck ultimate handheld. The combination of the two is perfect! The handheld is easier to navigate with than a canister and does all the odd jobs of walls, shelves, fans, pesky corners where dog hair gets trapped. I prefer that it's bagged with a hep filter. Then the upright bagged vac is perfect for sweeping everything else. But I prefer the less fashionable oreck (ours is 5 years old so maybe things have changed)

We ordered the Shark Navigator from the infomercial on a Sunday and it was at our door on Wednesday! It is absolutely marvelous! Picks up black lab hair in a breeze. Love it!

So far I like our recently purchased Miele Marin. We had a Kenmore Progressive canister vac. Still have it, but it's now DH's "shop vac" of sorts--he kept using it to vacuum up Sheetrock dust and sawdust while working on house projects anyway.

The Kenmore is heavy, the canister as well as the hose and power head. DH is supposed to do the vacuuming, but I ended up doing it more often than not, and I always ended up with an aching back.

The Miele is soooo much lighter and easier to maneuver, too. It came with a hardwood floor brush, and you can choose one of three power heads (at different price options). We chose the one that is recommended for low pile carpet. It has a button to turn the roller brush on/off. The other two power heads would have been more aggressive on the carpeting (and more $). Only two rooms in our house are carpeted, with Berber carpeting, so we chose based on that.

We considered a model with a suction-only, multi-surface head, but it seemed to require much more "elbow grease" on the part of the user (me!) in order to move it across the carpet (in-store try-out, and another brand's loaner vacuum on our carpet at home). Also, multiple passes over the carpet still left behind what needed vacuuming up, including grains of cat litter tracked into the room.

maybe your shop vac is working out for you but in case it's not, I have the Dyson Animal DC39 (the purple canister) for over a year now and really like it for getting the pet hair.

However, no one here has long hair so I can't speak to that. I have tile and wood floors with lots of area rugs where our Cattle Dog, Lucy, deposits lots of hair. The spinning brush gets the Lucy-fur off of the rugs, hard floors, and dog beds. I do use the smaller spinning brush on the dog beds, more manageable. The canister is much easier on my back than my old upright and I like how the Dyson can reach under my furniture. I bought the dusting attachment and love to get all the cleaning done at once.

We live near Taos now but I sure wish I had had this vac when we lived in our ABQ exposed-adobe interior walls! Ugh, washing those grooves out after the spring winds was never fun.

hth

Iheart, I have the same Oreck combo as you. We have a black lab that sheds like crazy, plus my dd and I have very thick hair that we could make wigs with all the strands that fall out daily. I absolutely love the handheld - well, I use the shoulder strap which makes it very easy to use. It is so light and perfect for cleaning my wood floors and stairs, as well as using the attachments for cobwebs, etc. The upright I use upstairs on our w2w carpet and downstairs in our carpeted basement. I love how light my Oreck is and how easy it maneuvers around on the carpet. We have a monstrous vacuum at the beach that is SOOOOOO heavy, I can't imagine how anyone would buy it (note: it was not purchased by me!).

Forgot who posted the link for the pet magnet, but that looks like a good option for my cat. Ever since we got our new dog, who doesn't understand that she is old and doesn't want to play with him, she sheds like crazy. Never had an issue with so much shedding with our old dog and the cat when he was alive. All this shedding is driving me insane!

Lynn, I've had my Shark Navigator since I saw the very first infomercial, and that must be over 2 years ago~I've never been sorry! I have wool area rugs, all have black backgrounds. With 2 cats, one a long hair white, and a dog, hairs are an every day occurance, but I only vacumn every other day. It's also good on the wood flooring getting up mulch the dog tracks in from the back 'yard', as well as the animal hair. There's a newer version out and I'm considering getting it so I'll have one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs.

I have an inexpensive Eureka Boss and it works great at picking up dog hair. I have three right now - all hairy like Collies and while I really need to vacuum twice a day (not happening) when I do it is very easy to get all the dog hair.

Any comments on the Hoover Windtunnel? I just saw it at Costco for 99.00.
I was already set to buy a Dyson canister pet+ vacuum DC39, currently 399.00 at Costco.
For those of you who have it, is that pet hair attachment worth the additional money?

I read this thread a few days ago and thought I'd give the squeegee idea a try. Wow, it works like a charm!

I have an extendable window cleaning tool with a squeegee on one side that I used. Not only did it get the hair/fur, but also plenty of dirt too.

I didn't expect it to work so well.

After reading about the squeegees in use, I got out a tool I bought at a fair several years ago. It has a squeegee on one side and the other side is brush like, adjustable telescoping handle. I just tried it on the stairs using the brush side. WOW. The pet hair came off in balls and stuck together. I then did my hardwood kitchen floor. Works so much better than a swiffer.

debrak2008-do you mind sharing your tool's name?

Btw, I squeegee the dog directly (gently of course) every few days outside to knock of the most recent hair accumulation.

But, that telescoping handle brush like thing I could use in many ways.

OP, I have a Miele SilverMoon-not so good on dog hair (JRT) pick up. :(