Eco-Friendly Vacuum Cleaners

We know we're supposed to be "going green" at home: getting rain barrels to help with water conservation; unplugging appliances when not in use reduce unnecessary energy usage; and replacing old windows with energy efficient ones reduces your home's carbon footprint. But did you ever consider your vacuum cleaner as something you could improve?

When it comes to going green with your vacuum cleaner, you should consider what will make your vacuum cleaner live longer, what will make your vacuum use less energy, and what will make your vacuum cleaner create less waste. Here are some tips for an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner.

Make Your Vacuum Cleaner Live Longer

Have you ever considered what happens to that old vacuum cleaner you toss in the dump once you get the fancy new one? That vacuum cleaner will probably find its way into a landfill, and its parts, which will take an extremely long time to degrade, will gradually leak pollutants into the environment. Therefore, the first way to make sure your efforts to go green and reduce your carbon footprint include your vacuum cleaner is to ensure your vacuum has a long life.

Fix it instead of replacing it: Many people will buy a brand new vacuum cleaner when the old one stops working. Not only is this costly, it's also often unnecessary. Rather than buying a brand new vacuum and pitching the old one, take your vacuum cleaner to an appliance repair shop. This will save you money and give your vacuum a few more years of life.

Replace the belt: The part on a vacuum most likely to break is the belt. Some experts even recommend changing the vacuum cleaner belt once every few months to keep it in good working order. Replacing the belt on a regular basis keeps the vacuum alive for a long time.

Clean the brush roll: The brush roll gets tangled up with carpet fibers and hairs. This makes the vacuum engine work a lot harder, and over time will cause the engine to die. Simply cutting away hair and fibers on a regular basis keeps the brush roll working properly.

Make Your Vacuum Cleaner Use Less Energy

Has this ever happened to you? You are vacuuming the carpet and you spot a little bit of fuzz. Triumphantly, you run your vacuum across it, hoping for the satisfaction of seeing the fuzz disappear before your eyes. Instead, you run your vacuum across it once... twice... three times, and the fuzz is still there. Maybe on the fourth or fifth time, the vacuum finally picks up that little bit of lint. Your vacuum cleaner is getting inefficient, and that means you are using it for a longer period of time - and therefore sucking more electricity from the grid.

Empty your vacuum regularly: The most common reason that a vacuum is not picking up that little bit of fuzz is that it's full. Emptying your vacuum on a regular basis is the easiest way to keep it energy efficient.

Remember the belt: As previously mentioned, vacuum cleaner belts need to be replaced fairly often. When the belt is worn or damaged, it doesn't pick up dirt as efficiently as it should.

Change the filter: In addition to emptying the vacuum bag or canister, changing the vacuum filter on a regular basis ensures that air flow is not obstructed and the vacuum continues to perform efficiently.

Make Your Vacuum Cleaner Create Less Waste

Changing out vacuum cleaner bags, throwing out old belts, and changing the filter regularly can still lead to lots of things going into the landfill. The third way to keep your vacuum cleaner eco-friendly is to prevent some of this waste.

Get a vacuum cleaner that doesn't use bags: Many vacuum cleaners on the market today don't use the old-fashioned vacuum cleaner bags. Instead, bags have been replaced with plastic canisters where the dirt collects. These plastic canisters have several advantages over vacuum cleaner bags: they cost less money because you don't have to constantly buy new bags; they create less landfill waste because you don't throw away paper products along with your dirt; and because you're not worrying about using too many bags, you can empty the canister after every vacuum, which also helps to keep your vacuum energy efficient (see above).

Get a reusable filter: As with bags versus canisters, some filters can be used again and again, as long as they are regularly cleaned out. A reusable filter means less waste in the landfill.

None of the tips mentioned above are hard to do. It only takes a few seconds, for example, to walk over to the garbage and empty the canister, or turn the vacuum cleaner over and cut away the hairs on the brush roll. By following these simple steps, you can feel good that you and your vacuum cleaner are doing your part to improve our environment.