Anyone have any experience with consumer-grade backpack vacuum cleaners? I'm thinking about getting one, but am having a hard time finding any reviews of them.

Hmm- backpack-style vacuums. News to me, but why not?
http://www.vcdiscounter.com/backpack.html
But wait, there's more!
Is this for indoor or outdoor use?
Of course you've googled it. I just searched 'backpack vacuum review' and got this:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/lawn_and_garden/leaf_blower_vacs/

I'm not really the vacuum expert- just a typical, slovenly bachelor with a Roomba.

Indoor. Basically, the wife is having some strength issues that make pushing around a full-weight vacuum difficult. But she feels that a backpack vacuum would be easier to use, and I tend to agree, but few people tend to make them. I might have to investigate a canister instead, but a backpack would be wonderful, I think, if I could get one that I felt was going to be reputable.

Profi-site:
http://www.vacdepot.com/article/101

I'm not really reading this stuff, just scanning the headlines and posting.
Weight would be a prime consideration, as would wand length and of course amperage (seems to be the default value to equate 'sucking power'). Sorry, no personal experience with the backpacks.
(GET HER A ROOMBA!)

"the wife is having some strength issues that make pushing around a full-weight vacuum difficult".


Um... would a solution not be for you to do it?

Dang, I misunderstood the title to this post two ways; my brain must really be struggling today. At first I thought this thread would be about how to create a vacuum in a backpack (because isn't that something we all need to carry around with us?), and the second was a vacuum cleaner for a backpack (because of course you'd need a special device to clean out a backpack). Man I need a vacation!

That's OK. Yesterday I was approaching the highway toll and read the sign that said: "Exact Change Cars Only $0.75" to mean that it was a deal at $0.75 instead of being more expensive if you didn't have exact change. Duhhhhhh!

-Zeke

It would if she wasn't somehow obsessed with me not doing it. I do it as often as I can, but she wants it done more. I wouldn't be surprised if she vacuumed once a day.

How about a central vac...?

I don't think I want to spend that kind of money. Would be excellent otherwise.

ROOMBA!
ROOMBA!!

How can a techie not want one? You won't even be an early adopter!

"Honey, you don't have to spend so much time vacuuming anymore!"
...and it's true! The little devil really picks up the dirt and dust!

The stairs are carpeted and need vacuuming as often as the rest of the house. Not to mention that two floors means either two Roombas or carting it around.

Backpack? I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. The only thing I can think of is what we call canister style vacuums up here (or at least in my family).

Sadly, I don't know of any. We have one that has to be 20 years old now, and it still [mostly] does its job.

I know it won't be a winner, but my parents recently got one of these.
Advantages:
-small, extremely light-weight, cordless
-detachable "dust buster"

Disadvantages:
-not the strongest suction, but has brushes on the upright part
-its use here is to clean up loose dirt on wood and stone floors, very little on carpet, so I don't know what it would be like in a whole house

How about a Dyson Cylinder? I only hear good things about them and great for stairs.

http://www.dyson.co.uk/range/range.asp?base=CYLINDER

Yeah, the Dyson is my backup plan.

I love my Dyson, but oddly the one thing I don't think it is good at is stairs. I find it tends to fall off of my stairs, my old cleaner was better than the Dyson in this regard.

Perhaps I just have narrow treads on my stairs though...

Unless you have a ladder, Julf's stairs' treads are narrower than yours.

Lab Safety

Those of you who have Dyson Cylinders (which oddly aren't listed on the US site even though I'm sure I've seen them in stores), does the business end have a beater bar on it or is it just suction? I'm finding that a lot of the backpack vacs are suction only.

The business end has a brush that's powered by the suction. We're talking about the only Dyson cannister to be marketed in the US, the DC11. Sadly they've discontinued it for the US market. Apparently uprights are more popular in the US. No idea when they'll re-introduce another cylinder (which they said they'd likely do at a later date - morons).

I think they'd do well with a small portable vacuum that would be much better than a dust buster as well as a central vac (though in this category a lot of models get installed by builders and there's no way they'd install anything decent by default).

Should still be able to get them new at retail or eBay I imagine though. I (still) quite like mine. So much so that I recently bought a few accessories from the UK as well as their 'Doing a Dyson' book (really great and creative composition/construction).

Bruno

I have had 3 houses with central Vac, and they all sucked. Err... didn't. Anyway, I always ended up using a commercial vacuum cleaner as they're always lighter and more powerful than home models.

One of the best things we've "done" to our house here was to install a central vac that really sucks -- I did the whole install from scratch: pipes, inlets, electrical, etc.. Works.. err.. sucks, really well.

Cheers

Does it have an agitator?

Mine never did, and I think that was the main problem.