I looked a good vacuum for hardwood floors, and after much research decided on the Hoover WindTunnel bagged vacuum cleaner. Having gone through a lot of vacuums over the years, we were really looking for a vacuum that was good on hardwood floors, and that didn't lose suction. I must say, the Hoover WindTunnel has an extreme amount of suction. We've had ours about a year or so, and the suction is still incredible. I actually have to be careful while using it, in order to make sure that there are no loose items lying around the floor that may be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. For instance, the vacuum shredded a sneaker lace when I vacuumed too close to a pair of sneakers. I also have to be careful with any floor-length drapery to be sure it does not get sucked up into the vacuum while vacuuming near it. It really works great on our old hardwood floors. We have space in between the planks of our flooring, and this vacuum actually sucks up various kinds of dirt and stuff that gets stuck in the spaces in between the floorboards. My only complaint about this particular model of vacuum cleaner is that it is too powerful for certain cleaning activities, such as vacuuming small area rugs with a sewn edge. It's great on large carpets, but we have shredded the edges of a couple of small area rugs with this vacuum, because the suction is so intense. Luckily the area rugs were inexpensive and easily replaced. It's possible this occurred because I had the cleaning level set on "low", and it may not shred area rug edges if I had it on the "high" or "deep carpet" setting. Hard to say. The vacuum is fairly light as far as upright, bagged vacuums go, and can be carried up and down stairs with relative ease if you are a person of average strength. On the websites where I researched this vacuum cleaner, one thing some people reported about it is that the vacuum sort of moves by itself ever so slightly, and they found this slightly disorienting at first. I actually kind of like this aspect to the vacuum, because it makes vacuuming easier for me. It also has a "dirt finder" feature that supposedly turns on a green light when the floor is clean, and a few people complained about this feature on the websites I researched, saying that they vacuumed the floor a million times and the green light still didn't go on. I usually just ignore the "dirt finder" feature; I can pretty much tell when the floor is clean enough to my liking based on how it feels and looks.

The right vacuum with the right attachments can do the job. I would suggest investing in one especially if you have more hardwood in your home and its not just your kitchen. Good models from different price ranges that are designed with the right attachments to clean on hardwood are : BISSELL Zing Bagless / Eureka Mighty Mite / Dyson DC39 Multi Floor / Electrolux Sanitaire / Miele S2121 Capri / Miele S8990 UniQ. These models cost from 100$-1500$ so it is up to you and how much you want to invest in a new vacuum for your hardwood floor. Use the right attachments as well. Of course you can also just do what others suggested and simply not use a vacuum.

Oooh! I've been trying to find a good hard floor vacuum for years and I've finally found one! I use the healthy home by bisell and you can turn off the rolling brush for hard floors so it doesn't scratch or kick around bigger pieces of dirt or small objects! It has nice big rubber wheels on it that won't scratch (especially pergo/laminate) floors. I had a home in Cali with dark walnut colored pergo flooring and my old vacuum ganged up with a little rock one day and made a long scratch right by the doorway. Not even furniture pens or polish was absorbed to hide it. Really sad when that happened. So I was determined never to vacuum a hardwood floor again after that. Until now. I love this vacuum and it has all the attachments with a hand held rotating brush handle (great for pet hair on furniture and the car-golden retrievers grow 10 new hairs for every 1 they shed). I'm also obsessed with having a clean vacuum so I can literally take apart the canister and wash it! After every use, I go out to the garage and vacuum my vacuum with the shopvac! It's a bit on the pricey side and it comes with some chemicals for dust mites and germs but I would never use or recommend using chemicals in the home or out. I do however, clean my carpets about every other month with an organic cleaner that kills germs and has a light scent. Carpet cleaners are full of very harmful chemicals and I have two asthmatics at home and a lovely dog(remember the hairy beast I mentioned?) So this works great. I love having a clean house. It's one of my favorite pastimes! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! JoAnn

I've been using a Kenmore canister for about five years now on our all hard surface (plus two area rugs) house. I remember thinking $200 was crazy to spend on a vacuum. Ha! I think our house would be a great place to test drive vacuums. We have two Newfoundland dogs (so that's about 270 pounds of dog ... most of it fur) and live 500 feet from the beach so there is always sand around. Frankly I'm impressed the Kenmore still even runs. But it's definitely slowing down. I can vacuum the rugs and still "scrape" off hair with the bottom of my shoe. Because I know a lot of people with Newfoundlands, vacuums are a big topic. I know several people with Dyson who have an unnatural love for them for the first year or so, but as they age (the vacuums, not the people) I'm hearing more complaints. I've definitely heard more complaints about the Dyson canisters than the uprights, but plenty of those too. The Rainbows are pretty much held to be the gold standard and most people I know bought them used. For me, I think a Miele is probably going to be my next vacuum.