With the spring comes tough times for anyone who suffers from allergies. Vacuuming is one of the best ways to clear the air in your home, right up there with banning smoking indoors, minimizing use of candles and wood fires, and using exhaust fans in kitchen, bath, and laundry areas. But if your vacuum is spewing out much of the dust and debris it collects, you could be doing more harm than good by stirring up the dust that has settled on surfaces. Here are several vacuums from Consumer Reports' vacuum Ratings, both bagged and bagless, that minimize emissions while cleaning up—and at reasonable prices: Eureka Boss Smart Vac 4870 Moderately priced at $160, this bagged upright is a smart pick if you have carpets and pets, though other models had better airflow for attachments. In addition to top-notch carpet and bare-floor cleaning, pluses include manual carpet pile-height adjustment, which is more precise than automatic systems at matching the brush to the surface, and a brush on/off switch to safeguard bare floors and prevent scattered dust and debris.

One feature you don’t get: suction control to help protect drapes when using tools. Impressive cleaning and superb pet-hair pickup helped put this $130 bagless upright on our winner's list. The Hoover delivered lots of suction for tools and includes manual carpet pile-height adjustment and a retractable cord. vacuum cleaner price kolkataAnother plus: This relatively light machine weighs just 18 pounds. best way to clean camper awningTwo things this value-priced model doesn't include are suction control and a brush on/off switch.best solution for cleaning venetian blinds Consider this $230 bagged canister if you want capable cleaning and airflow for tools at a moderate price—and don't have a dog or cat.

Strengths include impressive carpet and bare-floor cleaning, along with strong suction for tools. And even though this machine is heavy at 23 pounds, we found handling to be relatively easy. You get manual carpet pile-height adjustment, suction control, a brush on/off switch, and the retractable cord found on many canisters. But pet-hair pickup was only so-so. Impressive cleaning, lots of airflow for tools, and fairly quiet running helped make this bagless canister a top pick. The $350 Kenmore, priced in the ballpark of most bagless canisters, is also a great choice for picking up after cats or dogs. Key features include manual carpet pile-height adjustment, suction control, a brush on/off switch, and a retractable cord. But handling this vacuum's 23 pounds takes some muscle. Shark Pet Perfect II SV780 We don’t test hand and stick vacuums as comprehensively as full-size vacuums, since they’re primarily for spills and other quick tasks. But impressive surface cleaning on carpets, with even better performance with bare floors and edges, are chief strengths of this 18-volt hand vacuum from Shark.

The $60 battery-powered model is also adept at picking up pet hair. In fact, it’s the only recommended hand vacuum that keeps its emissions low. Helpful features include a replaceable battery, a fairly spacious dust bin, and an electric rotating brush that adapts for vertical surfaces. The vacuum can also stand on its wall-mountable charging base for easy placement on a counter. Our vacuum cleaner Ratings of upright, canister, hand, and stick vacuums currently has more than 140 models, and we’re prepping results of new robotic vacs as well. (Alongside our performance Ratings are survey-based brand-reliability Ratings.) Be sure to see our buying guide for vacuums before you narrow down your choices. —Ed Perratore (@EdPerratore on Twitter)THE QUESTION of which type of vacuum is best—canister or upright, bagged or bagless, corded or cordless—remains a polarizing one. Just watch couples in the appliance section of Best Buy. Or read the comments on the community-driven website Reddit, where an online chat with Brian Driscoll—a vacuum repairman who manages a shop in Fort Worth, Tex.—was more popular than similar Reddit Q&As with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Murray.

Whatever your style of choice, with allergy season here, it’s worth remembering that a... Super Bowl Ad: Audi Spicer SEAL Raid Story 'B.S.', Former Obama Official Says Knife-Wielding Man Shot Near Louvre, Paris Conservative Speaker Sparks NYU Protests Could This Pair of Eyeglasses Mean the End of Bifocals? Free 2 year warranty, including parts and labor It’ll allow us to help you faster if you ever need support. Free 5 or 2 year warranty Up to 5 year warranty – parts and labor. Speak direct with our US based Customer Service Team. Find your nearest Dyson retailer. What is the Best Vacuum for Allergies?For more than two years, Theresa Lansberry has fought a daily battle against household dust. Ever since doctors diagnosed her husband and, later, her oldest daughter, with allergic asthma triggered by dust mites, she has waged war against the millions of microscopic, spider-like creatures that inhabit the cozy corners of most homes.

She ripped out carpets and replaced them with wood. She banned certain stuffed animals and relegated others to a weekly hot-water wash with mite-killing soap. She spent time, energy and money on dozens of other interventions aimed at keeping life-threatening asthma attacks at bay. “I’ve bought the steam cleaners and the mattress covers and I don’t use curtains in our bedroom,” says Lansberry, 33, a mother of six from Peoria, Ill. Until now, Lansberry thought she was winning. But a new review of studies released this week suggests that she and others affected by asthma might as well give up the fight. In 54 trials involving more than 3,000 patients, the most widely recommended treatments to reduce dust mites had no effect on the symptoms of asthma sufferers, researchers in Denmark found. Dust mites are tiny organisms that thrive in the company of humans, feasting on dead skin cells and nesting in soft, dust-collecting places such as bedding, carpets and cloth-covered furniture.

“Chemical and physical methods aimed at reducing exposure to house dust mite allergens cannot be recommended,” wrote Dr. Peter Gotzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen. That means patients tempted to try cures ranging from powders and sprays to air ionizers and expensive HEPA-filter vacuum cleaners shouldn’t bother, said the researchers, who have studied the issue in periodic reports for more than a decade. "It is patients who pay for useless interventions, not doctors," Gotzsche said. In addition, national and international allergy agencies should stop advocating treatments that don’t work, he said. “Reviews and guidelines should reflect the facts,” the report concluded. Dust mites aren't the only culprit That recommendation drew the ire of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, whose members routinely advise the criticized techniques. The Denmark study is “myopic,” said Mike Tringale, the asthma advocacy agency’s director of external affairs. 

It focused only on studies of dust mites, instead of the range of possible household allergens. “There’s not one cause of the problem and there’s not one solution,” said Tringale. He added that the review was incomplete and omitted studies that showed limiting dust mites improves asthma symptoms, a charge that Gotzsche denied. Reducing dust mites has to be part of an overall plan that may include medication and other interventions, such as removing pets from the home or eliminating smoking, Tringale said. The studies reviewed by the Denmark team ranged from trials of two weeks to two years. They included several techniques aimed at reducing dust mites. Researchers used chemicals to poison the critters and physical interventions to get rid of them. They tried sheathing mattresses and pillows in mite-proof covers, washing bed linens frequently in very hot water and removing dust-harboring furniture, toys, plants and other items from homes. Some of the studies did manage to reduce the amount of mites by 50 percent or more.

But that still had no effect on the asthma patients’ symptoms, probably because it’s not possible to reduce the mites enough, Gotzsche indicated. "The levels are so high that the reduction that can be obtained has no effect on the asthma," Gotzsche said. In some people, even small amounts of the allergen can trigger attacks. It’s not the mites themselves that cause problems. Their waste and decaying bodies contain a protein that mixes with household dust and becomes airborne, triggering wheezing, sneezing, watery eyes and runny noses in mite-sensitive people. Of the 20 million people in the United States with asthma, between 12 million and 14 million suffer from allergic asthma. About half of those people are sensitive to dust mites, said Dr. Gailen D. Marshall, director of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Marshall said he doesn’t doubt the dust mite findings from the Cochrane Collaboration, which is widely respected for its evidence-based reviews.