This question appears quite often and causes a lot of uncertainty. Because vacuuming the mattresses is recommended again and again - especially by vacuum cleaner manufacturers who want to sell expensive vacuum cleaners for allergy sufferers. Here it is promised that a long and intensive vacuuming effectively frees the mattress from mites and their excrements. Provided you have a suitable allergy vacuum cleaner with the right suction power.
The manufacturers of vacuum cleaners have also noticed that allergy sufferers like to spend more money to alleviate their allergy symptoms. They often sell allergy sufferers systems that are very expensive and recommend regular vacuuming of the mattress as the most effective solution against mites in bed. It is true that the bed, especially the mattress, is the main habitat of mites. About 2 million of the small arachnids stay in bed and their excrement causes a lot of trouble for allergy sufferers. It is also true that the allergy sufferer should reduce contact with the allergen. But is vacuuming the mattresses a suitable measure for long-term allergy treatment? The medical guidelines recommend so-called Dust mite covers for the elimination of allergens. These cover the mattress, duvet and pillow as a mite-allergen-proof cover and safely enclose allergens. Apart from the medical recommendation, a simple cost-benefit comparison between a high-quality branded cover and a branded vacuum cleaner provides astonishing findings.
Even a high-quality brand encasing is much cheaper to buy than a special allergy vacuum cleaner, which is recommended for complete allergen elimination. However, allergy bed linen does not only have low acquisition costs, it is also worthwhile, especially with regard to its useful life. Because: once purchased and put on, the anti mite covers offer safe protection for many years and do not cause any follow-up costs such as electricity or garbage bags and are therefore also much more environmentally friendly.
Apart from the purchase costs, you will hardly be able to get rid of the mites even with a high-performance allergy vacuum cleaner. Mites are light fugitives, the tiny arachnids hide deep in the tissue and can literally claw themselves with their feet. "No vacuum cleaner has enough suction power to suck these tiny animals and their particles out of all layers, says Dr. Franz Kniest. (1) If you vacuum one square meter of the mattress for one minute, you would not even remove 10 percent of the mites living in the mattress. Up to 30 suction procedures would be necessary to reduce the population by 80 percent. However, the remaining number of mites is sufficient to reproduce again in a short time so that the population is back to its initial level. (2) This means that you would spend a lot of your time vacuuming and yet you do not achieve a reliable result.
Allergy bed linen is not only cheaper, but also safer, because the mite cover completely envelops the mattress, so that allergens cannot penetrate. In new beds mites cannot even settle in the first place due to protective covers. In older beds they ensure that the allergy sufferer does not come into contact with the allergens. The time factor also plays an important role, because allergy covers only have to be washed 2 to 3 times a year, the mattresses would have to be vacuumed weekly and still have no effect.
You can use special vacuum cleaners for allergy sufferers for vacuuming in your home. These should be equipped with a Hepa filter, which prevents the allergy particles from being blown out of the vacuumed dust back into the air. Good and affordable models are available on the market.
Sources
1) Stern: Allergieprodukte im Check