Clean smelling bagged vacuum?

[ocscott3085]

Hi All,
I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience with bagged upright vacuums that never get that awful dusty smell to them? My Miele canister is usually pretty great so long as the filter is less than a year old and the bag has been changed regularly. However, my daily driver upright, the Hoover Platinum lightweight smells terrible! It's really unfortunate because it is so nice to run quickly through the house. I just wish it would hold in some of my beagle's lovely scent! I thought there were some brands that had bags with carbon liners but maybe I'm mistaken? Thanks for any insight!

 

[kirbyloverdan]

Yes there are two

the best is the Oreck new charcoal activated cloth 3M Filtrete style bags. Second is the Sanitaire S677 with style ST Bag by Arm and Hammer a 3M filtrete style bag . I have a Jack Russell Terror lol and she never smells at all . She swims in the pool all summer and during the winter she is bathed a couple of times. My kirby Sentria which I use often and My Aerus Lux Guardians upright and canister and also My Miele S7 swing upright all smell horrible like dog. When I use my Oreck or Sanitaire they both get used every few weeks never smell like dog and I dont change the bags in those two brands often because of seldom usage. I do prefer my Rainbow the most as I just got the New Rainbow E2 Series Onyx . The new Oreck bags in my Pilot are the best by far for a bag vacuum.

 

[brandon_w_t]

I have not been having too much luck with smells in the arm and hammer bags in my s677d. I will stick a dryer sheet inside the bag to help sometimes. Other times I sprinkle either rainbow sense in the bag or peppermint extract. Works wonders.

 

[twocvbloke]

Personally when my bags start to get a bit smelly, I put a drop of Kirby OdorificII (Original scent) into the bag and that improves the smell dramatically, I've tried a few other scents, but the Odorific lasts the longest, heck, it even works in my miele S316i that I use for vacuuming up really smelly stuff...

Usually though I put a dryer sheet in between the inner and outer bags, though they tend to wear off after a couple of weeks, hence the use of Odorific...

 

[joshdonnell]

clean smelling bagged vacuum

well i have not that problem with my miele
my rainbow always had a nasty smell for when i turn it on. i the only pets i have is rabbits and they live out side . if i had a dog it would stay out side i belive that animials belong out side

 

[williamr1248]

CLEAN SMELLING BAGGED CLEANERS

Now here is something that crossed my mind when thinking of all the vacs I have had with horrible smell to the disposable bags. Back in the old days my grandmother would COMPLETELY clean out her old Hoover 28 bag EACH week when she used the machine. Many times she would turn it inside out and hang it on the line to air.
Yes it still had a dusty odor and yes it did leak dust back into the room. It was like you were picking it up from the floor and throwing back all over the room BUT they did not store the dirt and filth in a paper bag in a dark closet week after week for the germs to breed.
It seems like as we have advanced into the hepa filtering bags and filters the bags have gone up in price. No longer will most people pitch the bag every 2 weeks and put in a clean one. When I was growing up the Air-Way bags were cheap and it was just part of cleaning house that the Air-Way got a new bag every other week. Juat this last year I was at a vac store looking at a very high end machine and WHILE I WAS IN THE STORE,it smelled when the guy went to demo the machine.
We were not eliminating the problem,just covering it up with an expensive filter.
I remember years ago when I was in college and selling Electrolux,they were trying to push some packages of scent you had the customer pick up in the machine to cover the nasty bag smell.
It just never made any sense to me. When your clothes are dirty ,you wash them,when your dishes are dirty ,you wash them. When you finish cleaning why not remove the filth,dirt and germs from your house. I realize this is a very profitable income for the manufacturer but not a very good "green" result for the consumer and the cost continues from the day you buy the machine.

 

[joshdonnell]

clean smelling bagged vacuum

buy a aqau air central vacuum better then anyother even a rainbow . no noise no dusty smell

 

[twocvbloke]

I don't think central vacs are the answer, they need a lot of power to compensate for the long distance pipework, so electrically speaking they're not very efficient, and a lot of cases they still bags, which would you believe it will smell when you have to remove them, it's like electric cars, you're just transferring the problem elsewhere... :S

And as for modern bagless vacs, they're just inverting the bag and making it into a filter cartridge, so you still have the smells sticking, and of course people only empty them out rather than emptying and cleaning the filter, so you can't design anything to be perfect, you can't out-engineer stupidity...

Personally, I prefer bags, no mess, no spills, no mushroom clouds of dirt, no clogged filters to clean or change, plus I get to see the engineering of the machines I use in action, rather than having it hidden from view like it was something to be ashamed of...

 

[gmerkt]

Fermented dog hair odor is one of the worst to try to eradicate from a vacuum cleaner. For being the worst, it's also the most common. One approach is to use an enzymatic cleaner. These are made up of naturally occurring proteins which dissolve the offending agents rather than covering them up. Still, it's difficult to clean 100% of the inside of a vacuum cleaner, even when completely disassembled. Pull-through motors can never be completely filtered, and "stuff" gets into every part, the wiring, the works, and good luck giving all that a thorough clean.

I buy a lot of used machines but I avoid any that reek of fermented dog hair. I've thrown away a few that I made the mistake of buying in the first place.

There is a quick and dirty way of getting rid of most of the smell. It involves spray air freshener. You get down to the air intake of the motor, fire it up, and spray air freshener into it while running. The offending odors come from residues that are left on the inside of the machine. The air freshener gets onto the surface of these residues and covers them up to some extent. You may have to do two or three applications. Don't use the pressurized can spray; use the kind that is in a plastic bottle with a pump. I've just heard about this; I would never do it myself, of course.

 

[suckolux]

I can smell a little from my Miele Titan, because the bags last so long I am sure. Only a cat, just one and clean daily, hell, more than daily, but Miele only a few times a month,even with the hepa exhaust filter I can smell some stale. Dyson dc 18 does get emptied every use, NO smell. Have washed out the bin twice in 3 or 4 years? I keep a very clean house, but still.All the other bagged units, even with a dryer sheet, Bounce Linen, there is odor if they are in too long. I think in the past, cheap bags, tossed often, true. My 3 cents, I went on too long.

 

[vacman117]

When I have a vacuum that smells, I usually throw a dryer sheet in the dust cup or if it is bagged, between the bag and outer bag. Whenever I get a vacuum that has a nasty outer bag that smells or looks dirty, I'll throw it in the washing machine, and then use the air dry feature on the dryer to dry it, along with dryer sheets in the washer. That does the trick for me every time.

I don't think I have ever gotten an Oreck that has smelled. They are always 'neutral' when I get them. I use my Dyson DC14 one to two times a day, and it gets emptied once about every week to a week and a half. I have never had a smell issue with it believe it or not. I think it all depends on what type of vacuum, what you have sucked up, or what type of bag you use.

Chase

 

[magic-clean]

Ditto

on the Kirby "Odorific". The Miele HYclean bags last a long time. Still with all the filtration, the exhaust can become stale. A few drops of Odorific on a cotton ball placed into the bag and all is well. The clean scent really lasts.

L.P.

 

[tolivac]

For my Meile,Kirby,Sebo,and other filtrete type bags if they are not full and start to smell-just pick up some "Vac Yum" or "Featherlyte"scents-deodorizers.That kills what smell was in the bag and leaves the scent.This may not work with dog owners,though.for them they will have to replace bags and filters more often.

 

[tazcatsdad]

I use a nice pump-spray product ...

<span style="font-family: tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">... called Odoban that works wonders at eliminating smells.  Sometimes I'll spray it directly onto the outer bag jacket of an upright; other times I'll spray it directly onto the paper bag, or spray some onto a paper towel and deposit that into the bag.  In the case of a bagless cleaner like my two Electrolux TwinCleans (US and UK models) I'll saturate a few cotton balls with Odoban and then suck them up into the dirt chamber.  I've found Odoban on eBay, but I'm sure that vac shop suppliers like Hesco, Essco, and Steel City would likely have something like it available as well.</span>


 


<span style="font-family: tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">There's also something else that works pretty well, now that I think of it: a couple of liquid disinfectants that are widely available.  One is Zoflora, which is from the UK: the other is Mistolin, which is available here in the USA.  I usually use these on cotton balls in much the same way that I use the Odoban.</span>


 


<span style="font-family: tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I've included a link to the Mistolin Caribe website (makers of the Mistolin I use ... I think that there's another version out there which is made by Clorox) just in case anyone's interested in learning more about it.
</span>



http://www.mistolincaribe.com/

 

[twocvbloke]

Odoban? How could you ban Odo??

 

[thermokid]

Odoban

that stuff is fantastic. I moved into a house once where a lady of a friend of mine was staying. She had three German Shepard dogs and she never let them outside. so you know the carpets were ruined and the stink soaked right into the wood floors underneath. Well my roomate(at the time) and I before we moved into that house scrubbed the floor good with bleach. Let the floors dry and then we scrubbed it again just one time with the Odoban and the smell was gone and never returned in the six years I lived there.. So yeah it is good stuff. I had completly forgotten about that amazing stuff so now I will have to get me some more....

 

[deliriousdan]

Odo-Ban is available here at our local Sam's Club. If there's a Sam's in your area, you might try looking there.

 

[thermokid]

I will look

for odoban the next time I go to Sam's club in Casper(135 miles) away from where I live now in Wyoming. I might even make a special trip just to get some... Thanks for letting us know that sam's has odoban.... Dan

 

[kirbylover]

I just bought a used Kirby G5 and it was from a heavy smoker. When I'd turn it on it would reek like nicotine. Anyways I found some videos on youtube about putting the bag in the washing machine, which I did and it smells much better now.