There are a few vacuum cleaner mistakes that we must not avoid. Your vacuum cleaner has been your trusted companion while you clean your home. Cleaning would be incomplete without it. So, what If I tell you that there are a few of these mistakes you might be doing while you use your trusted cleaning companion. And these mistakes could be the reason why you might have frequent issues with the gadget. This is why here are a few mistakes that you just need to avoid doing with your vacuum cleaner.
Related: Best Vacuum Cleaner in UAE
1. Pre-cleaning your floors
This step is one that you shouldn’t skip. But is often done away with the belief that the vacuum cleaner will do the needed cleaning. If you skip this step and leave it to the vacuum, then you might just end up damaging your device. It is necessary for you to go ahead and if possible sweep or pick up small objects from your floor. So then the vacuum can clean easily without blocking or damaging any internal parts.
2. Not emptying your vacuum
Note that your vacuum cleaner has a bag or is bagless. In either of these cases, you have to empty or replace the bag of the vacuum. Doing this ensures that you have an effective cleaning session. If not cleaned out you can just be left with a device that doesn’t have good suction and or will not have a good and/ or might affect the motor of the device. This is one of the vacuum cleaner mistakes to never avoid under any circumstance.
3. Vacuuming over or next to wires
While you have a quick vacuuming session you tend to not give too much attention to all the facts. One such fact is that you can’t be vacuuming over or near any wire cords. Simply because if you do it, once it might seem fine, but as you keep vacuuming over it might cause you to damage the exterior coating of the cord. Leaving them open and exposed with time. This can be dangerous to you and your near and dear ones. Therefore always put in that little extra effort to lift the cord or wire.
4. Not maintaining your device
Now while you use your vacuum cleaner you might tend to just forget your vacuum too needs to be cleaned out and maintained well in order to ensure its smooth working. You need to empty or change the vacuum bag or bin accordingly. If you don’t your device might just stop sucking in more dirt. Although besides emptying the bin or bag you need to clean the house or the other areas which can possibly be blocked.
Furthermore, make sure you clean the brush or the head of the suction as sometimes hair or even fibers can prevent the device from functioning properly. Ensuring all this is done will keep your device in good shape always.
5. Overusing and overheating the device
Sometimes you can tend to overuse the device in the spur of cleaning. At such times the device shuts off automatically several times in an effort to cool off device. Moreover, if you do not maintain and clean your device well as well the device tends to heat up and stop working. This is why the need to clean and maintain the device cannot be stress too much. And along with this, you can let your device cool down as well.
6. Vacuuming everything in eyesight
Even if you are a germaphobe or not and you simply find it easy to clean with a vacuum cleaner. It is tempting to simply vacuum clean anything off the floor. But we are sorry to pop your bubble there are a few things that are better off be cleaned manually and not with the vacuum cleaner. Here is a list of some of the things you can’t clean:
7. Water/ liquids
Your vacuum cleaner is designed to pick up anything but it’s definitely not made for water and other liquids. Remember basic science class? Water and electronics do not go hand in hand at any point in time. This means if you do this you are risking yourself to be electrocuted. And that’s not it, you are even putting your device at risk as you can damage the motor and other parts of the device.
Moreover, if you do get lucky and none of the above happens you will have a tough time cleaning up the device. As the liquid will cause dust and dirt to stick to the walls of the suction tube as well as in the bag/ bin of the vacuum cleaner.
8. Wet/ Moist food
Similar to liquids wet or moist food items cannot be cleaned with the help of your vacuum cleaner. You can clean some of the kitchen messes, just not the ones which include even a drop of water. Any baked beans, salads, fresh produces, coffee grounds or tea leaves can be a pain to clean yet you can’t get them cleaned with the vacuum. You will have to do it the old-fashioned way, with a mop, a rag, and other cleaning tools.
This is because you can not only damage the motor but also clog the pipe and if not cleaned out immediately you can have ingrowths in your device. And this will be an even bigger mess to clean.
9. Gardening debris
Firstly, gardening debris cleaning by a vacuum cleaner is a big no-no. If you have dead flowers or leaves fallen can choke the device. Therefore, you need to pick them up and dispose of them or sweep them off. Secondly, for any fallen soil or soil dragged into your house, make sure you do avoid vacuuming this as well. As you would only be worsening the problem.
If you have any soil on a carpet the vacuum along with the suction speed tends to embed these particles all the more into the fiber. Thus staining your floor. Besides that, the larger particles or stones if present would damage the motor of the cleaner. Hence, what you can do for your device is sweep off the soil; if it is wet you can use a wet mop or let it dry and then sweep it out.
10. Extremely fine particles
Fine particles like that of construction dust, ash, or others of these sorts too can’t be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. Mostly because these particles are so fine they end up getting blown back into the air. Thus leaving you with an even messier area than you started off with. Furthermore, you might be even damaging the motor in the long run with these fine particles. This is why you need to sweep out any construction dust before you vacuum the area. As for ash, if it’s too much you can drizzle a little water, or better if you have coffee grounds sprinkle them onto the ash and then clean it up. This is to prevent you from inhaling any harmful ash or dust particles.
11. Make-up
The occasional accidents do happen where you might drop some make-up. For this, your go-to clean-up method would be to use a vacuum. Wrong! You shouldn’t clean any make-up with your vacuum since these can melt in the machine causing additional issues and even decreasing the lifespan of your device. Besides that, the fine particles of your eyeshadow, bronzer, foundation, blush, or any other powder can stain your floor be it carpet or hardwood. Since the device might grind it into these surfaces leaving behind evidence of your accident. Therefore, try to remove it out with your hand as much as possible and further you can try blotting it out with a wet towel.
12. Glass
Just as much as your mother would be yelling because of the broken glass your vacuum cleaner too would be yelling if it could if you use it to clean the glass away. We understand that cleaning broken glass pieces can be dangerous for you. But it is just as much as dangerous for the vacuum cleaner as it is for you. Since with the broken glass you can damage the device from the inside. Tearing up the bag if any and damaging the wires with the sharp edges of the glass. This could render your vacuum cleaner useless altogether.
Therefore what you can do instead is wear thick gloves and pick up the glass pieces as much as you can and sweep away the rest. But if you still fear the tiny pieces you can use a brush and a dustpan as well. Moreover, some people advise you can rid your floor of fine shards of glass with a piece of bread. By simply placing the bread on the floor getting the pieces out. So, you can give that a try as well.
13. Hair/Shredded paper
Now if you have pets or you find your hair all-around your home then vacuuming this hair can clog up and might get it stuck therefore damaging the device. And if it does get clogged there is no way then to get it out manually with your hands. Instead to save you this extra effort and trouble it is advised for you to sweep or pick out any hair or pet fur around.
Lastly, for the vacuum cleaner mistakes to avoid. In the case of shredded paper, you might think to vacuum it out but this is as good as vacuuming out hair from your floors. This is why shredded paper must be treated just like hair and needs to be cleaned in the same way.
Don’t Break a Sweat Anymore
Keeping all these 13 vacuum cleaner common mistakes in mind you can now go ahead avoid them and do no wrong. That is in terms of using a vacuum cleaner. By following them not only will you be able to keep your device in top condition and running for a long time. But also you will be able to keep your home clean effectively. If you want other suggestions and/or get a new vacuum cleaner you might consider getting the best vacuum cleaner in UAE.