If you’ve read my blog for awhile you know I’m a self-confessed germo-phobe. I jokingly call myself that and am not at all ashamed that I’m on the warpath against germs in my day to day life. When I find products that help me in this battle, I’m eager to learn more about them. The great people at Oreck sent me the Oreck Halo vacuum to check out (it was like sending me a million dollars, I was so excited!)
Why this excitement over a vacuum? Well, it’s because this is no ordinary vacuum cleaner. The Oreck Halo uses UV Technology to actually kill many of the disgusting things lurking not only in your carpet, but on your hard surface floors as well. Here is some “Did You Know” information from the Oreck Halo site (that admittedly made my stomach turn):
- Carpet can be the most germ-ridden surface in your home. It can contain approximately 200,000 microbes of bacteria per square inch, and as many as 100,000 dust mites per square yard.
- A typical square inch of kitchen tile floor can contain over 2,500 bacteria.
- Bacteria samples from a typical home show that the bathroom floor contains 18,025 bacteria per square inch, while the toilet seat has only 49 bacteria per square inch!
If you have small children who spend a ton of time on the floor laying, crawling, and then playing, this is some disturbing info. Now, I know what some people may be thinking (because my friends say it to me all the time, heh) “Ok Tenille, it’s there but we can’t go overboard thinking about it, there’s germs everywhere!” True enough, but the thing is it doesn’t have to be that way.
The Oreck Halo uses UV-C light to actually kill bacteria, viruses, dust mite eggs (ew.), flea eggs, lice and mold. Before I tried out the vacuum, I wondered if using the Oreck Halo might increase my cleaning time – would I have to let the light sit on an area of carpet for a minute or two to ensure the UV-C light did it’s job? The answer is no. Take a look at this chart to see how many seconds it takes to kill 99.99% of bacteria:
Having a son with asthma, reducing as much dust (dust mites…shudder) as I can is important but everything else this germ terminator can annihilate is important to me too! Thinking about the stuff in my carpet and flooring before I started using the Oreck Halo is really unsettling.
Now, it’s a fabulous germ killing vacuum but how easy is it to use? It’s excellent! I really liked having most of the controls in the handle – I could easily turn the vacuum, UV-C light, and brush roll on and off by pushing buttons right on the handle. I sheepishly admit to vacuuming my lino in the kitchen and bathrooms with my other vacuum’s brush roll on sometimes because I’m too busy to take a moment and turn the brush roll/bar off (I have to adjust it on the actual base of the vacuum in my other model). Having the button literally right at hand makes it easy.
The Oreck Halo has a 13ft hose for cleaning stairs, furniture, and hard to reach areas. Of course, those areas won’t benefit from the UV-C light though. The cord is super-long (29ft in total!) so I can plug in the vacuum in my kitchen and vacuum the bedrooms upstairs which is really nice (anything that saves me time helps). The one feature that I was a little leery about was that the Oreck Halo uses filter bags. It has been years since I’ve used a bag vacuum and I’m happy to see that vacuum companies like Oreck have vastly improved this style of vacuum. The bags capture 99.95% of particles and changing them (which admittedly I’ve only done once) was easy and clean.
When investing in a vacuum cleaner (and investing is the word considering the price) of course you want to ensure your money is going to something that is going to perform. The Oreck Halo has a 5 year warranty AND it comes with 3 annual tune ups (use this Store Locator on the site to find a store that services Oreck near you).
1 reader is going to win their own Oreck Halo UV-C Germ Killing Vacuum! To enter, simply take a look at the Oreck Halo site and leave me a comment here telling me something you learned!
For additional entries:
~ Follow me (join this site with Google Friend Connect)
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~ Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link
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★Oreck Halo Giveaway★ @FeistyFrugal http://tinyurl.com/yg9udol (Canada/US entries)
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Please ensure your profile is public or leave me your email address in your comment. This giveaway will end on January 15th at 9:00pm CT. I will use Random.org to choose the winners, email the winners, and post the win here. Giveaway is open to Canadian and US addresses.
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