What do you use for suckin' poo? How well does it work? Does the hay get stuck?

[Slave to the Wheek]

I know that some people use handheld vacs for sucking poo. To me a "hand vac" is this:
Black & Decker Power Tools

I also know that some use shop vacs. To me a "shop vac" is this:
Sears.com Tools Wet-Dry Vacs

Yet others use regular household vacuums that are dedicated to poo's too.

I'm in the process of writing a script for an extensive video on using fleece for bedding and I'd like to hear more about people's experience with different types of vacuuming machines.

When I went to purchase a handheld for using with my fleece, I had a hard time deciding which one, since I wanted something that was a 'wet-dry' style. I live where it's humid, and dustbusters get moldy really fast here. My last one I threw away years ago, because everytime I used it if there was anything even slightly wet inside it would mold in the filter.

Wet Dry Dustbuster style vacuums are pretty expensive and so I shopped around quite a bit. Then one day in the hardware store I stumbled on this:
Sears.com

Since it was powerful enough to suck up hay and hair as well as poo and it was LESS expensive (at $30USD) than the hand helds I was looking at I went for it.[FONT=Arial Narrow]

[/FONT]I find that mine is perfect except that the smaller hose allows hay to get stuck so I have to mess with it a bit once or twice while cleaning and it's really loud. So loud, in fact, that my ears ring after using it.

[FONT=Arial Narrow]To solve that problem [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]I eventually added an extra long hose from the "car kit, (another $20) which allows me to vacuum the cage without removing the pig or busting my eardrums. I just put the vacuum outside their bedroom door and the noise problem is solved for both my ears, and my boys.[/FONT]


I think I need to know more about other people's experience with "suckin' poo" so that I can help others figure out what will work for them. You know us here at GPC, we all come up with creative solutions to solve our problems and I'm sure there are lots of you who love what you are using.

For those of you using Handheld Dustbuster Style vacs:
Do handhelds work for people long term ? For example how long do they usually last for you? I wonder about the hay problem, and how you manage it, if at all. In my mind they seem like they would get clogged easily with hay bits and it would require several emptyings while cleaning. Is that a wrong assumption?

What types have you tried? Which ones worked wonderfully and which ones failed miserably? What do you wish yours had? What's your favorite part?

For those of you using Shop Vac style vacs:
What size do you use? What is the horsepower? Does yours have that giant hose? Is it hard to get around the cage with the bigger hoses at all?

In addition, if you have an unusual vacuum like this one:

at $60 it seems like it must be something pretty amazing before making it worth it to use for suckin' poo.

Can you tell I like to say, suckin' poo?

Anyway, if you just use a regular vacuum, is it bagless? How long have you used it? Is it dedicated to poo's? ..sometimes I wonder if I picked up a $10 second hand one if it would have worked just as well.

[this_lil_piggy]

I use a Bissell Powerforce Bagless Upright Vacuum. (dedicated to poo's? yes)
Bissell PowerForce Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner, 65792 - Wal-Mart
Image attached below.
I like it just fine, and it has worked perfectly well for me.
It was a modest 50.00 at walmart.
The chamber isn't as small as a hand vac so I don't have to stop and dump before the cage is finished. (this is important with 7 pigs !) but it isn't so large like a shop vac that it holds a ton of poop and is harder to dump. The chamber just slides right off the front so I can dump quickly and easily. The filter on it, is washable, and very cheap to replace (havent had to replace it yet in almost 2 yrs). It has a seperate chamber where the filter is, so I am able to place carpet fresh crystals in there so the vacuum blows "cinnamon" rather than "pig poop" smell when I am doing my suckin' poo. (if i place the crystals in the regular chamber I have to dump them with the poo--so a waste of money)
Since it is bagless, and everything sucks straight through the hose into the chamber, and the chamber detaches to be cleaned/rinsed out with bleach...I haven't had a problem with moisture harming the vac, nor with mold.

There is no way I would use a regular bag vacuum, but this bagless one has been great.

The one draw back, is it will suck the fleece clean out of the cage if it isn't clipped down on all 4 sides. hehe But this hasn't really presented a problem for me since I have to keep pigs from burrowing under the fleece anyways.

I actually own a shop vac also, but It takes up so much space..It stays in the shed. The upright vac can be slid behind a door, or in a corner.

[JarBax]

I have used two different handvacs - and now use a dustpan and brush - because of the inadequacy of the vacs! (Grrrrr!)

You may not have these in the USA - but the first I tried was a 'dirtdevil' which was useless from the start. I now have a 'Challenge Pets 7.2V Wet and Dry' vac, which being for wet and dry, sounded ideal. Being specifically for pets, it was exactly what I was looking for! Pah! The filter clogs every 30seconds or so - clogs with hair and dust, never mind hay. Doesn't pick up poops atall. How disappointing! I have only had it a couple of months, and the filter clogged from the start. It does have several attachments - the brush one works well at grabbing the hair. That would be the only plus.

Haven't tried my 'normal' vacuum - think the fleece would be gone in a one-r!

So, back to the dustpan and brush for me!

[FoolOnTheHill]

I use a hand-held vac but I keep forgetting to charge it (it's cordless) so it's usually back to the old dustpan and brush!
I use the same as JarBax, but mine is the normal model and not the "Pets" version. It's this one: Shop for Challenge 7.2V Wet and Dry Handheld Cleaner. at Argos.co.uk
It is a Wet & Dry one. Once I had lots of water on the carpet so I used it; it worked quite well.

In the cage it works very well - at full charge it sucks poop and hay very efficiently. It begins to slow down after 10 minutes or so, but unless I'm doing a whole cage clean, that's plenty enough time to whizz round. The plastic front clicks off, then you can remove the filter and filter case which I wash with hot water and soap often, otherwise it stinks of poo when you use it. It comes with a thin nozzle which I use because it sucks the mess up easier, and also a little rubber brush with tiny bobbles on which scrapes the hair off really well. It holds quite a lot - if I didn't have to empty it for cleanliness it'd probably go for a few days until full. It does get poops stuck behind the tube inside the holder bit though. (Sorry, I don't know how to describe the area!!).

Once a week when I change the fleece I use the normal household hoover on the nozzle attachment to suck the hairs and hay off thoroughly. The "Big Hoover" doesn't use bags; it just has a plastic compartment. The fleece is held down with bricks in each corner so the fleece doesn't disappear too.
Perhaps the model I use would work better for you Jarbax?
I hope this helps a bit, STTW. Your project sounds interesting.

[fairysari]

I am also currently using dustpan and brush. I used a dustbuster type for a while. It was pretty good but not amazing for the hay. Now I have switched to having hay mostly contained in an aspen-filled area, so I might give it a try again.

[JarBax]

That was the one that Pamziaw recommended Fool - but Argos didn't have it when I went in - and when I saw the one recommended for pet hair - (at £24.99), I thought that would be a better one anyway. I have never got more than a tablespoons worth of dust/hair/hay before the filter's clogged - never mind fill the container! You are right, I like the fact that the filter compartment comes off with the container - so what you have collected doesn't fly everywhere - and I find the brush good for cleaning the filter - but when you have to stop and clean it every minute - it is a pain!

[Slave to the Wheek]

Oh wow! Such great posts! Thanks everyone..but please keep them coming!

I suspected that using a hand vac sounds like a good idea at first, but then may not work out long term and it's beginning to sound like that just might be the case for most folks.

By the way, my own shop vac is very tiny. At 2.5 gallons it's about the size of 2 milk gallon jugs. It also fits under my cage into one of the cube squares easily. It comes with optional filter that's for catching hair. I change the filter every 3 months, and dump the little bucket about once a week. It also has a hose that is the size of a regular vacuum instead of the normal really fat hoses that shop vacs normally have.

I do wonder how people use regular shop vacs though because the hoses on those are really huge and seem cumbersome and hard to use. I don't think I could get my hands around them, but then they seem like they would suck hay without getting stuck --and maybe a guinea pig or two though--hehe.

We have dirtdevil here too. Do you mean the one with the beater bar? I have that one and it seems like it would be a nightmare for poops, Hmm I never even tried it, although I forgot that you can add a hose to the front of it.

I would love to hear more stories! This is very interesting! I have big dreams for my project and since you all know of my tendency to talk someone to death, you can imagine my problems with editing! I plan on running it by everyone here though so you'll all get to watch it eventually. I plan on having done by this time next year. I haven't decided what to do with it when it's done though.

[aqh88]

When I had fleece I just used the upholstery attachment on my regular full size vacuum. Same one I vacuum the rest of the house with later and it uses bags. Using the upholstery brush kept the tube from sucking onto the fleece and brushed some of the hay up into it. I did have trouble using the bagless. It didn't have a large enough cannister to suck up hay without it sticking partially out and clogging everything up. Worked fine for poo, hair, and dirt but it didn't even work for vacuuming the rest of the house because any stray pieces of hay would kill it.

[kittnkarr]

Currently I am using a 2.5 gallon Shop Vac that I had purchased at Sears about 6 months back and all I can say at this point is that I love it. I have a better time trying to clean the cage of poop and hay with this then I did with my hand held. I do have to stop occassionaly to unclog the hose from the vaccum but I have found that if I just put the hose barely on I don't have as much clogging issues. Go Figure! It is powerful to use but I find that if my fleece is held in place by clips or bricks I don't have to much of a problem.

I have used the old school method of a dust pan and broom but let me say it killed my back and took to much time for me to continue using it.

I have also tried the hand vacs as well and gave up on them after about 3 months of using one. It wasn't powerful enough to get hair and hay off the fleece and the other thing was the collection cup was to small to hold the about of poop my pigs dish out. I also found that it couldn't hold a charge long enough for a 2 x 5 and a 2 x 4. When I would get to about half way through the second cage it wouldn't have enough juice/power to actually do anything.

Ok last one. I have also used a regular upright vac when cleaning my pigs cages. I used the same one that I would for the rest of the house. I didn't have any troubles using it for both tasks but the one thing that I did have troubles with was it getting clogged from the hay. That was the big down side to it, but otherwise it worked great. The best thing that I like when I would use that was I would spread out the fleece out onto the floor and place the bricks around the edges to hold it down. I would then run the vac over the entire thing to get as much of it as possible before throwing it into the wash.

Hope this helps!!

[webjetter]

If you're interested in an alternative to suckin' poo ... I scoop poo. It's quick, clean, cheap, and quiet. A plastic soup ladel works great! It glides across the fleece, collecting every poopie in its way. For the cage corners, I use a regular plastic teaspoon. I place a small butter container in the cage to keep dumping the poos into, then I dump them into a small trash bag which gets taken to the outside trash can.

(I found a good sturdy large plastic ladel at a thrift store for under $1.)

This works perfectly on non-hay areas, which is the entire downstairs of the cage. For the hayloft I use a different method (I don't poopie scoop that because 3 days after cage cleaning day I replace the fleece up there since it gets covered in hay).

[BubuCandyBlue]

Didn't have any luck with vacuuming. I have a hand vac, but it makes a lot of noise, looses battery very fast, ain't worth it. It is like 3 years old, but not used. Wanted to invest in a new one, but I see nothing that will satisfy the need of my piggies yet.
As for the normal vacuum cleaner, it is not a good option for a cage with an upper deck, too hard to handle. Fleece doesn't stay in its place. It doesn't use a vacuum bag, Hoover S3765-040 WindTunnel Bagless Canister Vacuum Product Reviews and Price Comparison - Epinions.com. I don't find it half satisfying like the one I had back home in Europe. Most of the things for the USA are made in China (cheap work). We have those in Europe too, but if you are looking for quality, you are looking for things made in Germany, Poland, so and so.
So for now I am down to my whisk broom for the hay/hair, and the poos I just gather in one corner of the cage by moving the fleece, then I take them away with the hand. No noise, no waste of time. The washing machine does a great job with the hair, and the dryer too, it has a filter that you clean easily before every load (Whirlpool).

[shamrockmommy]

I have a 5gal shop vac "quiet" vac. The hay clogs it frequently and it's aggravating but it sure cleans up the beans nicely!

[pigsmakemesmile]

For Christmas, my oldest daughter gave me a dirt devil kone hand held vaccum and I really like using it. Prior to this I was using a wisk broom and dust pan. My pigs scatter when the vaccum is turned on as it is quite loud. But it's new to them. When they see me take out the wisk broom they get excited and popcorn. This is because they know after mommy tidy's up their pen they get food and treats.

[gooberific]

I use my household vacuum. It's an upright, with a canister (no bag) and it is not dedicated to poos. It's an older Eureka (about 2 years). I have to clean the filter a lot to avoid making my whole house smell like poo. One of the problems I'm finding is that it gets a bit warm, which in turn makes the stuff in the canister warm up and smell... But it can suck up a ton of hay and hair and poo and be just fine, otherwise!

I'd like to see what you find to be the best, because I can't handle sweeping it daily. Or rather, because of how badly it hurts to stoop and sweep poop, I'd be at it all day in small bursts and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the poo machines.

[pigsmakemesmile]

You know....wouldn't it be great if someone developed a " poo magnet" that you simply glide over the bedding and it gently lifts the poo's off and away, or better yet, what about a piggy diaper. they can where it during floor time or whenever -catching the poo's and urine. I'd love it, I'd leave them out of their pen all day.

[Reiland]

I've used two different vacuums.

The first is an Oreck XL Deluxe Compact Canister Vacuum. It's quite powerful, and sucks up poos, hay, chips, whatever...even fleece if I'm not careful! The hose is fairly small, and very easy to manage. I wish it were a little longer, though, so I could leave the vac sitting on the floor while I use the hose on the 2nd level (have to use the shoulder strap for the vac at that point). It's gotten clogged several times - mainly with hay. The vacuum requires bags, which don't hold much. I was going through about a bag a week, and I only have one pig. The frustrating thing to me was that I couldn't tell when the bag was getting full until it was overfull, and the end of the hose would start getting clogged. I don't believe it's a wet/dry vac. It's a nice size, and easily stores out of the way - and even if it's in the open, it has a nice appearance.

The second is a Ridgid 6-gallon, 2.5HP wet/dry shop vac. I started using this one in piglet's cage when we began remodelling the house, as I had it out all the time anyway. It's extremely powerful, even to the point where I can sort of scrub hair out of fleece with it! It does like to suck up the fleece while I'm vacuuming near edges, and I have to hold it down. The large hose is not diffcult for me to use. It's only gotten clogged once, where the hose connects to the base - hay clog. The whole thing is cumbersome to stash away...it just sits in the open since we're remodelling anyway. I've washed out the filter before, and it's easy to do.

I will likely go back to the Oreck once I don't need the shop vac out for other things. It just doesn't look great sitting in the living room