sebo_fan
Well-known member
So I bought the Vax VCU-02 for £39-99 brand new. Sealed in a box and took me all of a minute to put together without reading the user manual. Unlike Oreck, you get 32mm pipes with this vacuum that act as the first and secondary spine separated by a grab handle at the rear before the handle is already attached. Thus the suction channels are wider as well as the main dust bag channel before the bag inside the soft outer cover. Following on before with my previous posts, here's a quick report:
<ol>
<li>Performance on carpet and hard floors - great, no beater bars are involved and the brush roll is similar to Oreck in the sense that the bristles are bushy and soft, though you get a plastic roller bar as opposed to wooden with Oreck.</li>
<li>Easy to handle - no stooping and even though it has a conventional handle, it is comfortable to hold onto with a rocker switch located at the front for on/off. Main weight is approximately 5.8kg but my bathroom scales state just over 4kg = beautifully light to lift up due to handy fixed rear handle and easy to use generally. No hanging hook or hole though.</li>
<li>Maintenance for drive belt replacement - two screws on the underside need to be removed, sadly there is no slide out door like Oreck at the side for belt accessibility.</li>
<li>Quality - surprisingly good even though some parts are a bit flimsy - the bottom of the outer soft bag clips onto the bottom of the suction tube and the screw fasteners on the back of the pipes to the rear handle don't feel that well made.</li>
<li>Economical costs and running - 450 watt power on hand here and the bags measure 7.5 litre capacity - they are massive, very similar to Oreck but feature a size hole similar to Hoover's dust bags for the Turbopower 2, 3.</li>
<li>2-ply paper Bags are relatively easy to put on, take out and fit on "suction friction fit," with sadly no dust pull seals on the bag itself. No cardboard tongue has been provided either but the fitting is very tight and doesn't feel like it will fall off. </li>
<li>Noise - very similar to our old Oreck XL but lacks a high whine factor. Vax claim it is 70dbl but I feel it is actually quieter.</li>
<li>Has proper rear wheels and two small rollers on the underside - means it can be locked up in the upright position and wheeled away.</li>
<li>Cleans flat to the floor until the rear handle brushes the carpet - however at least the floor head at the front remains flat on carpets unlike our old XL that used to hover above the pile when made to clean flat (and it didn't have a rear grab handle).</li>
<li>Has those daft side fixed brushes but they're a bit longer than Oreck supply and removable via 2 screws either side. </li>
<li>A LONG 12.5 metre cable - hurray! Cord supplied is an H05VVF extension cord with pigtail type 3 pin push connection.</li>
<li>The model came with one spare drive belt and 5 dust bags.</li>
</ol>
Downsides - After running around the house with it, I checked the bag briefly to find that it picks up a lot of dust but sometimes the dust ends up escaping out of the bag onto the black plastic bonding wall that holds the dust channel in. Vax claim that the outer bag is a HEPA type but it feels like a plastic bonding has been added inside the outer bag. In normal use, there isn't that much air that comes out of the bag when it inflates though, which is always good.
Lastly - is it better than a reconditioned Hoover Junior? For all round performance, I'd say yes, but you lose the style that the Junior exudes as well as cheaper running costs and spares.
Having read a few reviews on this product already, my only fear is that the Vax will either break down in a short time or something may go wrong with the handle as it doesn't seem to have a good reliability record taking the UK reviews into account.
Still for £39-99, I 'aint complainin'!
<ol>
<li>Performance on carpet and hard floors - great, no beater bars are involved and the brush roll is similar to Oreck in the sense that the bristles are bushy and soft, though you get a plastic roller bar as opposed to wooden with Oreck.</li>
<li>Easy to handle - no stooping and even though it has a conventional handle, it is comfortable to hold onto with a rocker switch located at the front for on/off. Main weight is approximately 5.8kg but my bathroom scales state just over 4kg = beautifully light to lift up due to handy fixed rear handle and easy to use generally. No hanging hook or hole though.</li>
<li>Maintenance for drive belt replacement - two screws on the underside need to be removed, sadly there is no slide out door like Oreck at the side for belt accessibility.</li>
<li>Quality - surprisingly good even though some parts are a bit flimsy - the bottom of the outer soft bag clips onto the bottom of the suction tube and the screw fasteners on the back of the pipes to the rear handle don't feel that well made.</li>
<li>Economical costs and running - 450 watt power on hand here and the bags measure 7.5 litre capacity - they are massive, very similar to Oreck but feature a size hole similar to Hoover's dust bags for the Turbopower 2, 3.</li>
<li>2-ply paper Bags are relatively easy to put on, take out and fit on "suction friction fit," with sadly no dust pull seals on the bag itself. No cardboard tongue has been provided either but the fitting is very tight and doesn't feel like it will fall off. </li>
<li>Noise - very similar to our old Oreck XL but lacks a high whine factor. Vax claim it is 70dbl but I feel it is actually quieter.</li>
<li>Has proper rear wheels and two small rollers on the underside - means it can be locked up in the upright position and wheeled away.</li>
<li>Cleans flat to the floor until the rear handle brushes the carpet - however at least the floor head at the front remains flat on carpets unlike our old XL that used to hover above the pile when made to clean flat (and it didn't have a rear grab handle).</li>
<li>Has those daft side fixed brushes but they're a bit longer than Oreck supply and removable via 2 screws either side. </li>
<li>A LONG 12.5 metre cable - hurray! Cord supplied is an H05VVF extension cord with pigtail type 3 pin push connection.</li>
<li>The model came with one spare drive belt and 5 dust bags.</li>
</ol>
Downsides - After running around the house with it, I checked the bag briefly to find that it picks up a lot of dust but sometimes the dust ends up escaping out of the bag onto the black plastic bonding wall that holds the dust channel in. Vax claim that the outer bag is a HEPA type but it feels like a plastic bonding has been added inside the outer bag. In normal use, there isn't that much air that comes out of the bag when it inflates though, which is always good.
Lastly - is it better than a reconditioned Hoover Junior? For all round performance, I'd say yes, but you lose the style that the Junior exudes as well as cheaper running costs and spares.
Having read a few reviews on this product already, my only fear is that the Vax will either break down in a short time or something may go wrong with the handle as it doesn't seem to have a good reliability record taking the UK reviews into account.
Still for £39-99, I 'aint complainin'!
