Hoover Bagged Upright – Hoover Type Y HEPA Filter Bag, Set of 6 bags

The hubby and I live in an old dusty house. The house originally had a coal-fired hot-water boiler and I swear some of that old black dust is still lingering in dark and hidden places. Plus, the house has radiator heat and no central air, so the dust never gets captured by a filter, as it would with a forced-air system.

That’s why I spend the extra money for the Filtrete Hepa bags. I just ordered two more and paid $6 for the bag and $7 for shipping (ouch), but the good news is, the manufacturer promises that these bags really do capture the wee tiny particulate matter.

Filtrete is a 3M trademark and according to Hoover’s website, these Filtrete bags have three layers of filtering media and an electrostatically charged liner in the bag. It filters down to .3 microns. By comparison, a high-falutin’ top-of-the-line electrostatic whole-house air filter will capture particulate matter down to .3 microns.

Plus, these cloth bags are easier to install than those troublesome paper bags and my initial observation is that the Filtrete holds a little more than its paper cousin.

Back in the day, I owned an old Hoover upright and when you turned that puppy on, a cloud of egg mites, dead skin, dander and bacteria (otherwise known and described as dust) would be launched into the air. Standing in a sunbeam, you could actually *see* the dust cloud poof out of the vacuum bag. That vacuum did little more than reposition the dirt.

Conversely, my new Hoover with a Filtrete bag installed actually captures the dust and enables one to keep their home a LOT cleaner. Despite its higher cost, I think these Hepa Filtrete bags are a very wise investment for those of us in dusty old houses.