Posts tagged "pet hair removal"

Dyson, the maker of upscale vacuums -- and commercials featuring the posh voice of its British founder -- has had a series of powerful animal-and-pet-hair-focused vacuums for years. But now the company is trying to keep that hair from hitting the floor in the first place.

For Medium- and Long-Haired Dogs
The $69 attachment (that works with many but not all Dyson vacuums) is a grooming brush for medium- and long-haired adult dogs. You can see how it works in the video below, but basically it is a brush/suck combo. The brush gathers the hair and then you press a button for the vacuum suction to take it away.

I tried it out on my very thick-coated pug and I have to say, I love it.

Normally a pug wouldn't be a good candidate for the groom tool because of its short hair, but my dog Milo has, what one vet described as, "the face of a pug, the coat of an Akita." And, no matter what I do, he leaves tumbleweeds of dog hair throughout my home. Every day. So I was eager to give this a go. He's also completely deaf, so the noise of the vacuum doesn't faze him.

My cats love a good place to curl up and nap (the more expensive or delicate the surface, the better), but there is a continuous battle between me -- the neat-freak owner -- and the hair that inevitably builds up on their favorite perches. I've had to retire many a standard cat bed after hair became too thickly mashed and entwined in the bed's fibers, despite my brushing and rubbing with sticky wipes.

Enter the Dog Gone Smart Bed, which, while technically was designed for dogs, is a great option for fur-fighting cat owners too. The patented NanoSphere material boasts anti-odor and anti-stain properties (great for dog owners), but the real innovation is how easy it is to remove hair from it. A month's worth of my two cats' hair was easily removed with a few swipes of damp paper towel, which makes me wish everything in my apartment (and my closet!) was upholstered in the fabric.

As advertised on the company's Web site, both ketchup and honey easily slid off with a quick run under the faucet, and of course, water beads right off without absorbing into the fabric. They company also claims it's easy to cancel out smells and stains from bed-wetting, but I thankfully haven't needed to test the veracity of that claim.

A little background: A few years ago, I bought a microfiber couch because a friend told me it was the easiest fabric for cleaning up pet hair. True to her claim, the microfiber seemed to repel the pet hair – even the cushion that my cat used as her own personal mattress was easily un-fuzzed with the schwipe of a paper towel.

(Side note: I have another pet-owning pal who swears microfiber is a pet-hair magnet, so be sure to test a swatch before you make a major purchase.)

Anyway, due to a debacle involving a move to Brooklyn and an undersized doorframe, I ended up having to give my microfiber couch away. I was devastated because the couch was barely two years old and I didn't have the means to buy a new, correctly proportioned microfiber sofa. I ended up with an inexpensive sofa from Ikea, and while it is perfectly comfy, it is like an ionized nucleus of pet hair. The fur collects and clumps and refuses to budge, Anti-Fluff Glove be damned. So when I heard about the new Sure Fit Pet Cover, I couldn't wait to give it a shot.

Sure Fit's Quilted Soft Suede Pet Cover comes in a variety of sizes for couches, loveseats and chairs (and at $29.99 - $49.99, it is way cheaper than buying a new sofa).
The good news: much like my microfiber couch, the suede does its job and repels pet hair – even the fur that stuck to the suede was easy to manually remove.
The bad news: it's still a couch cover. The quilted design and color selections (taupe or chocolate) leave much to be desired, and I daresay it's as unattractive as gobs of pet hair.

I give Sure Fit Quilted Soft Suede Pet Cover 9/10 for functionality, and 5/10 for looks. As soon as they release a non-quilted version in a wider assortment of colors, I will wholeheartedly recommend it!

Source