Dad’s short answer: Less than people think. Monthly: pull hair off the brush roll and check for clogs. Every couple of months: wash or replace filters. Annually: the HEPA filter. Call it five minutes a month, and it's the difference between a vacuum lasting eight years and three.

The routine

Empty the bin or change the bag before it's full, not after. Performance drops well before it looks full.

Monthly, pop the brush roll out and clear the hair. On most machines it lifts straight out, and plenty ship with a small comb for the job. Check the axle ends, where hair packs in hard.

Every couple of months, deal with the filters. Rinse the reusable foam ones, let them dry completely — I put mine in the sun — and never reinstall one damp. Replace the HEPA about once a year.

Check the hose and wand for clogs whenever suction seems off. A quarter-turn release on most uprights gets you in.

On a cordless, don't store it on the charger in a hot garage. Heat ages a battery pack faster than anything else.

On a handheld, clear the brush head and rinse the filter — the small ones clog faster than you'd expect, especially on the many models with no HEPA.

Why this matters more than the specs

The most common reason people tell me a vacuum has gotten worse is a filter nobody has touched since it left the box. Airflow does the cleaning, and a loaded filter chokes it. No suction rating survives a blocked filter.

It's also why I score maintenance complexity as part of every review. A machine that's a pain to service is a machine that doesn't get serviced, and that's a machine that disappoints in year two.

Dad’s Take: Five minutes a month. That's the whole difference between a vacuum that lasts and one you replace early.