Broom vs. Vacuum | Advantages & Disadvantages Explained!

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Generally, people have mixed feeling towards choosing between broom vs vacuum. For instance, some people quickly reach for a broom the moment a mess hits the floor. Others opt for the best robot vacuum for hardwood floors. However, there is no doubt that both broom and vacuum are handy for cleaning the home. I have two cats so I always use a quality robot vacuum for pet hair.

it’s important to know the difference between the two, and whether you should dust or vacuum first

However, it’s important to know the difference between the two, and whether you should dust or grab your reliable carpet cleaner first. It’s a two-way street; sometimes you’ll need to vacuum, other times, you’ll probably just require a dustpan and broom.

Your choice largely depends on the nature of the mess and what type of surface you find it.

Broom Sweeping

Both vacuuming and sweeping are essential items on your house cleaning checklist. Sweeping is one of the common ways of cleaning the floor. Basically, sweeping entails moving dirt around until you can dispose of it. It’s done with a broom; the person with the broom pulls or pushes the dirt or mess across the floor and into a pile. Once the dirt is in a heap, all that is left is to sweep the dirt into a dustpan, and you can now throw it into the garbage. If you want to clean the crevices between or under pieces of furniture or small corners, it’s best you broom the floor.

a person using a broom for cleaning

When You Should Sweep

You can sweep on hardwood, ceramic, or stone tile floors. Although vacuums have beater bars that are excellent for removing deep bits from carpet fibers, they can scratch or cause damage to ceramic and hardwood tile floors. So, a broom is a good option if you want to take out debris or dirt that’s stuck in ceramic or stone tiles and cracks between pieces of hardwood, or in the grout around ceramic or stone tiles.

Vacuuming

using vacuums eliminates the need to manually pile up dirt with a dustpan, as you do when you sweep with brooms

Rather than pushing or pulling dirt and debris, vacuuming removes dirt by sucking it up. Indeed, vacuums are powered by electricity, and they suck up trash from the floor and into a reservoir. The reservoir may be a disposable bag or a non-disposable container.

Using vacuums eliminates the need to manually pile up dirt with a dustpan, as you do when you sweep with brooms.

However, when the reservoir is full, you have to empty into the garbage. You’ll also need to wash the containers regularly.

When You Should Vacuum

Generally, vacuums are commonly used on carpets and places where sweeping is hardly useful due to the fibers.

Also, vacuums that can withstand liquids are used on wet spills or where brooms are ineffective. That’s not all; you can make use of vacuums with the “bare floor” setting on vinyl or laminate floors. These floors can handle the beater bar. Some expensive vacuums can turn off the beater bar, so you can then use them on tiled floors or floors with hardwood.

Hardwood Floor Broom

Essentially, hardwood flooring is slowly becoming the most popular residential flooring option. The reason for its popularity is its durability; it can also be cleaned quickly and easily. It is also pretty, and it adds beauty to the home.

experts posit that using a vacuum is also a good option

However, if the hardwood flooring is not well taken care of, there’s a likelihood you’ll have it refinished or replaced at a dear cost. So, it’s imperative that you keep your hardwood floor clean, especially when you have expensive ones like maple, mahogany, and cherry.

Although there are quite a good number of cleaning products and options for hardwood, a good quality broom especially made for sweeping hardwood floors is excellent. Unfortunately, brooms don’t deep clean wood, but they’re quite gentle on the finish and will sweep almost all dirt or dust away.

The following are some of the best brooms for hardwood floors:

  1. Evriholder FURemover broom: This broom is made of 100% rubber bristles, and it traps fine dirt and dust. It is excellent for hardwood floors.
  2. Nine Forty Ultimate Cotton Dust Mop: It’s a soft cotton broom, and it has a large 24” wide head that’s removable and washable. It has telescopic handles, and it cleans out most debris.
  3. Bissell Hardwood Floor Broom: It has adjustable handles, and it’s relatively cheap. It has horsehair bristles.
  4. LandHope Rubber Bristle Broom: This broom has scratch-free rubber bristles, and 12.6” cleaning width.
  5. Micro Wholesale Microfiber Broom: It has a wide 18” mop head with a Microfiber pad. The broom is removable and washable, and it has a stainless steel handle.

Hardwood Floor Vacuum

Most times, we tend to pick up a mop when it’s time to clean hard-surface floors.

However, experts posit that using a vacuum is also a good option.

Indeed, using a vacuum to clean hardwood floors can give you better results; it’s efficient, and it also improves indoor air quality.

If the process of vacuuming is done well, it’ll remove more dirt from the floor than a dust mop or broom will do. The thing is no matter how much you sweep with your broom, some dirt will escape. Significantly, vacuuming entails the removal of dirt, rather than pushing the dirt around. The first pass of the vacuum will remove almost all dust from the hard surface.

Brooms vs Vacuums, which is better?

cleaning equipment

It’s no secret that brooms and dust mops do their duty by moving dust and debris around on the surface of your floor and into a dustpan. It’s as easy as that, but sweeping is not the most effective way to completely remove dirt and dust from your floors.

When you sweep the floor, some of the dust becomes airborne, while other specks of dirt fall into crevices and corners. Furthermore, when you mop after sweeping, the moisture of the mop can combine with the remaining dirt to form mud. While cleaning floors with a wet mop, you must have noticed that the water looks muddy after a few swipes; this is why it happens.

The vacuum pulls dust out of the crevices and sucks it into a self-contained canister. This procedure creates less airborne dust, and it also leaves less dust on the floor. However, you must note that you can’t use just any vacuum and you’ll have to learn how to clean a vacuum hose periodically.

Safe Vacuums for Hardwood

Generally, you won’t use a wet mop and a bucket of water to clean floors made with hardwood. This idea is no different for vacuum cleaners, but you can’t use just any sort of vacuum cleaner to wipe your hardwood floor.

Most people tend to use vacuum cleaners that have a beater bar. But do well to note that the beater is made for pounding the carpets and stirring dust and debris.

So, if you use a vacuum with a beater bar on your hardwood floor, you may be removing its luster and destroying the finish.

Indeed, you can turn off the beater bar or completely remove the brush.

However, it’s best you opt for a stick vac that’s designed for use on bare floors. You can also go for a canister vacuum, since they don’t have a beater bar. When it comes to hardwood floors, stick vacuums do a better job than brooms or mops; this is why they’re slowly becoming trendy.

Do well to ensure that your vacuum has the right amount of suction. Many vacuums that are made for wood flooring have good suction. Though the possession of suction may be marketed for use on carpets and bare floors, have it at the back of your mind that the fantastic suction isn’t as effective on carpets without some sort of agitation.

How Often Should You Vacuum Hardwood?

it’s good to vacuum your hardwood floors often

It’s good to vacuum your hardwood floors often. You can use the vacuum as often as you’d use a broom.

This translates to every two days, or more if you own pets. You can also vacuum once every week, or more if your floor needs it.

After you vacuum, do well to follow up with a damp mop; this will help you take out stains that your vacuum couldn’t suck up.

If you follow this routine regularly, you’ll surely have your floor looking spick and span, and this will aid its longevity.

Tile Vacuum

Having a busy home with pets makes it pretty challenging to keep floors clean. Indeed, most homes have surfaces like tiles, carpet, linoleum, and hardwood. So, most vacuum cleaners are specially created with attachments and settings that deal with different covers.

This is why some vacuum cleaners have rotating bristle brushes that will beat the carpet to lift and remove dirt from deep within the carpet. These brushes or powerheads are not right on flat surfaces, so it’s best you get vacuums that are designed for a flat surface.

In essence, tiled floors can be a challenge for common vacuum cleaners. So before you get a vacuum cleaner for your tiled floor, make sure it’s the best type of vacuum cleaner for tiles.

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