The debate as to whether to go bagless or not has a lot to do with what you can afford to spend and what your personal needs are.

Looking at Bagless First…

The two most quoted advantages of going bagless with your vacuum cleaner is that they have lower operating costs in that you won’t have to buy bags and they have a better performance level.  As with all cleaners, they have to work on a filtration system, trapping the dirt and expelling clean air back into the room as you vacuum.  So what kind of filtration systems are best?

No matter what system you choose, there will at some point be a need for replacements of your filtration system.  In a bagless HEPA filter, or in a pre-filter system or even in a disposable bag system, you will at some point need to replace your filtration system in order to keep it operating optimally.

In a bagless sytem, you will need to do a fair amount of maintenance in order to keep it working at peak levels.  You will of course have to clean out the dirt container when it is full, but you will also have to deal with the filter system.  Depending on the type of system you have, will determine how much maintenance it will require.  Most people have the HEPA pleated filter system which will work extremely well in the beginning, but in the event that you have pets in your home or have a tendency to carry soil into your home, they will require cleaning on a far regular basis and may not over time give you the same performance as a bagged vacuum cleaner would.

In a situation like this, you may need to clean your filters more regularly or replace them faster than you would otherwise have expected and this can actually result in more running costs for your vacuum cleaner than a regular bagged option.

Cleaning Abilities of Bagged and Baggless…

When it comes to the cleaning capabilities of those these models, they do actually over time perform almost equally.  In fact in a home with pets, most people will agree that the bagged system out-performs the bagless system.

A bagged system will perform extremely well with the introduction of a new bag, but performance will then drop gradually as the bag begins to fill.  The speed at which it drops is in direct relation to the quality of the bag construction, but on average you can expect your bag to loose around 10% of it’s capabilities per week of usage, depending on the amount of work it is required to perform.

Changing the bags more regularly will ensure that they perform better.

With the Bagless systems, various filters that will last six, twelve or even 18 months can be purchased.  They will require regular cleaning in a highly soiled home.  Pet hair that ticks to fabric will in the same manner stick tot he filter system and will require cleaning in order to perfrom properly.  This cleaning process can be unpleasant and for that reason, many people with pets opt for a bagged model where the bags can discarded without much fuss.

The Bagged Option…

The greatest disadvantage of the bag system is having to deal with the bags themselves.  They can be dusty and dirty and very unpleasant, but some manufacturers have made this single problem a thing of the past.  There are some brands that have engineered the bag disposal system as a single dust free experience.  The filt bags in these systems have a built in closure device when you remove them from the machines.

While this is a new technology that is worth the investment, the move towards bagless is gaining momentum and there are many new developments for those wishing to go backless but who have pets and don’t want to deal with the issues discussed above.  Cyclonic filter systems are the way forward and there new models being developed annually that could make bagged vacuum cleaners  a thing of the past within years.