Ok, this is weird, but I gotta know:  Am I the only one who kills my vaccum cleaniers because of my hair?

I try to cut the hair off the brush, but it never fails, my hair causes the demise of a vaccum at least once a year.  This is getting expensive.  It's been this way since living with my mom!  

What does everyone else do? (I know, hardwood floors would be great but I don't have them.... :'(  )

Thanks.

My cleaning lady has killed at least one vaccuum because of my hair!  When I finish vaccuuming,  I always "clean" the brushes (i.e. cut any hair that has wrapped around them).  This has kept my vaccuum functioning for years.  

Hee hee, yeah you're not alone.
I have 4 women in my house and my dad is always having to rescue our vaccum.
Meg

Guilty here too!  You have to clean the brush once in while - use pointy nose scissors to make it go faster.  

Since I've moved to a place with hardwood floors I haven't had vaccuum problems.  I sweep large dirt first, then use a Swiffer (those electronicly charged paper things) to pick up the fine dirt.  I don't think I'll ever get carpet again if I can help it!

So.. last weekend HM decides to buy us a new vacuum cleaner for our throw rugs.  It's a Eureka Maximas - raaaar sounds pretty beefy, no?  We started it up, vacuumed a small part of the rug, it started to make a funny noise.  The smell of burnt rubber filled the air.  When we popped open the vacuum, we found the belt had broke!  (Not 5 minutes had passed since he had gotten home, mind you.)  He went back to Sears to get a new belt while I used an exacto knife to cut off my hair from the brush.  Well, Sears, Kmart, and LinensNThings did not carry that belt, though they carried the vacuum.  He finally found one at a home improvement store.  

He gets home, puts the vacuum together, vacuums for another minute, then ka-chunk!  Another belt broken!  Luckily he bought several.  After we cleaned the brush and started it up again, we finally were able to vacuum the rest of the rugs with no problems.  

Then we cleaned the brush yet again.  ;)

HM said "it's a wonder you still have hair on your head" hahah

Progress!!  I finally found a way to get my hair off the floor before vacuuming.  One of these - Swiffer CarpetFlick

http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/en_CA/swiffer/caenglish/products/flick.shtml

I'm a big fan of the regular Swiffer because of my hardwood floors.  So I decided to try this thing for my rugs.  It has a sticky cartridge that you slide in.  The bottom of the unit has a fine brush (like the ones seen on lint removers) that "flick" dirt into a hole, and the dirt sticks to the inside part of the cartridge.  The other side of the cartridge is sticky too, and that picks up dirt that didn't make it into the hole and... HAIR!  It becomes a convenient, gross, ball that you can pick off and throw away.  

So I "flick" every couple days, and vacuum on the weekends.  I suppose the same thing can be done with tape, but this is pretty convenient.

Interesting new tool.  I guess it works better than wrapping duct tape (sticky side out) around your feet and walking all over the carpet.  ;D

I use a good bagless vacuum and it seems to hold up pretty well.  Between me and the dog, we shed a lot!  My husband says it's an even guess which one sheds the most....

LOL Kathy!  :)  

What is the make and model of your vacuum?  In case I need to buy another one in the future.  Does it have a rolling brush?  That seems to be where my problem lies.  Mine is bagless too, but my hair gets caught in the bristles before it even reaches the dirt compartment.

It is a Phantom, Fury model.  It does have brushes on the bottom, and I do have to cut hair off occasionally.   But most of the hair ends up inside, along with the dog's. ;D

My vaccum too gets all buggered up and the fans I had running in the house this summer too! ::)

LOL!!! Mine is currently broken because of this,it's the second time it's happend to me!:'(

I guess I need to start cutting the hair from the brush with scissors again, I used to do that after my last sweeper broke but I didn't keep it up.