What are all these Vacuum Cleaner Tools For? A guide to 5 popular Vacuum Cleaner Tools

“What am I supposed to do with these tools?”

I get asked about vacuum cleaner attachments a great deal of the time in my store. People are always asking me: “Why are there so many tools for this vacuum cleaner?” “All these vacuum cleaner attachments are confusing, what are they all for?” “Do I really need to keep all these vacuum wand tools? I’m just trying to vacuum my floor.” Well, I decided it might be a good idea to go ahead and explain why vacuum cleaner attachments are so important, and why you should be using your vacuum wand tools to get a cleaner home. I hope some of this helps you the next time you’re frustrated with your vacuum cleaner and all the tools that came with it.

The Crevice Tool

The crevice tool is one of the most misunderstood tools on a vacuum.  Most people think it’s just to get down to the cracks and crevices around their house. This is not the only case you should be using the crevice tool on your vacuum cleaner. If you’re cleaning the baseboards or along the side of the wall, the crevice tool should always be used on the end of the vacuum wand. People don’t realize that when they drag the wand across a hard surface they wear down the tip of it. When you wear down the tip of the wand, you can actually wear out the ability to hold the tools on. So, you should always have some sort of an attachment on your wand. Additionally, manufacturers do make extension crevice tools up to 36 inches in length to get up under refrigerators and such.

The Upholstery Tool

It’s all in the name, right? Logic would say you use this tool to clean upholstery. Depending on the kind of upholstery you have, that is. The most common types of upholstery my customers own are cloth material, leather, or vinyl. Different materials require different methods for cleaning when using the upholstery tool on a vacuum. For a cloth type of material, if you have animals, the tool will normally have some sort of brush on it. The brush should be used to loosen the hair to get it up off the upholstery. At that point, you would take the brush off and then use plain suction to suck the dirt and dander out of the fabric. If you have leather or vinyl upholstery, then you use the brush tool to actually loosen up the dirt and dander that can collect on the surface area of your furniture. The loosening effect this tool has can also give you the ability to pull the deep embedded stubborn dirt and stuff out your carpet and floor surface area.

The Dust Brush

The dust brush vacuum tools are most commonly used on silk plants, baseboards, blinds, and other delicate or oddly shaped surfaces. Some people want a stiff dust brush, some want a soft one. The stiffness of your dust brush is very important, so you should always consider what surfaces you are cleaning to determine what stiffness will be required. Some are made out of synthetic materials and can be a little more on the stiff side, and still others are made out of natural fibers or natural hair and they can be very, very soft. If you don’t like the dust brush you have, always check with a vacuum expert on what you should be using. There’s many many different types, sizes, and shapes of dust brushes that will fit different vacuum machines. And remember: Every manufacturer does not make the same quality tool!

The Bare Floor Brush

The bare floor brush can come in a wide variety of sizes. Many people don’t take into account how much furniture they have, their specific type of flooring, and whether or not they have animals when using their bare floor brush. This is definitely not a one size fits all situations kind of tool, they go down to as small as 8-inches and go up to as big as a 16-inch brush. The way the hair and stuff get into them will determine which size and type of tool will work best.   Some sizes work better for people that have a lot of animal hair on their floors, and others will clean bare floors with only a little bit of hair far better. Animal hair is a problem because it gets stuck in the brushes. The more brushes you have the better for hardwood floors. But, again the more problems occur whenever you have animal hair get into those bristles. Consulting a vacuum cleaner expert is always helpful to determine which type of bare floor brush will work best for you.

The Carpet Tool

A carpet tool would be for someone who has a small amount of carpet, high end rugs, or a very short nap carpet. Most carpet tool attachments like that will have some sort of a drag brush in the back to help loosen any fibers that get on it. There is no agitation, no pulsing action from the roller, so you’re doing it all manually. It’s a backward and forward movement that gives you the ability to clean.

The Ceiling Fan Cleaning Tool

A lot of times my customers ask for a vacuum attachment to clean ceiling fans. Unfortunately, there’s really not a good ceiling fan brush attachment on the market. The problem is the ceiling fan wants to run away from you when you place the brush against the blade. So, I normally recommend products put out by The Wool Shop. These products are actual lamb’s wool that can be used to clean ceiling fans. These tools don’t let your brush or your fan blade run away. It catches both sides of it and holds on to it so you clean it. They get dirty and when they get dirty, you can actually take the bristles and the rollers off. They are natural lamb’s wool so they can be washed, and they will come back to 98 to 99% of where they would be if bought brand new. Remember with specialty vacuum tools or specialty cleaning items, many times with your vacuum cleaner, there’s things that you wish it would do that the particular machine can’t accomplish.

If you contact a vacuum cleaner expert, like a representative at Mars Discount Vacuum, you’ll have someone that deals with this sort of issue all the time. Most times, when customer contact us with this sort of problem, we can easily fabricate your vacuum cleaner tools to work on your machine and get the job that you’ve wanted to do done. I’ve had many people get very angry because a tool didn’t do a certain thing.  They come in to tell me and I say “I can fix that” and they go like “well, why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?” So, now I’m telling you.

Photo Permissions C36 Latching modified from the original by Daniel Oines