Dirt Devil vs Tzumi: Which handheld vacuum is better at pet hair removal?
FurBeGone Brush is a dog owner's best friend
Spoiler alert: No matter what copywriters say, 100% pet hair removal vacuums are a myth. In all fairness, some handheld vacuums are better than others, but I’ve yet to run into one vacuum brand that instantly removes dog hair.
I don’t hold it against the name brands. For the same reason I can’t take one paper towel swipe across my bathroom tiles after washing my hair, I don’t expect a quick swipe over couch cushions to get rid of dog hair — short hair, long hair, extra thick dog hair or any combination of the three. Hair sticks to tiles, couches and floors for a number of reasons such as moisture or material thickness.
Recommended Read: “Helping pet owners maintain a clean couch ~ Sweeper Sundays, rainy days and other home improvement tips for pets”
But there are three tasks that a dog owner can follow to make the process way less tedious:
Get into the habit of creating a consistent cleaning day once a week instead of trying to chase the dog hair away each day.
Stop whatever you’re doing and buy two types of brushes: a pet hair removal brush for furniture and clothes (KollerCraft’s FurBeGone Brush is highly recommended) and a pet hair brush (combo brush is dependent on the dog hair type). (Although I’m using FurBeGone, the website no longer works. You can find similar brushes here, here or here.)
Test out a few handheld vacuums that work for your couch material.
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For the third step, my handheld vacuum test for pet removal was between the Dirt Devil Express Lithium Cordless Hand Vacuum and the Tzumi Ion Vac Wireless Handheld Rechargeable Vacuum. One of these two was great before I got a dog and an absolute waste of money afterward; the other turned out to be a pleasant surprise when I expected more of the same.
Recommended Read: “Unclogging standing water in sinks: Do sink plungers work? ~ Review: Which is better between the PlumbCraft Mini Home Sink Plunger or LDR Mini Bellows Sink and Drain Plunger for Bathrooms?”
The Dirt Devil handheld vacuum was an excellent, lightweight vacuum to clean the car I owned for 15 years. This vacuum, however, didn’t make it past two years for household needs. I wasted money on buying backup filters that I have no idea what to do with. What I do know is the vacuum does a good job of cleaning up salt and snow pellets on car floor mats, along with everyday car debris, but it couldn’t pick up pet hair on my car seats even if I scooped up a clump and jammed it into the nose.
That was the first lesson I learned about handheld vacuums; some are good for one type of cleaning but not another.