I have a suggestion if I may.....
Fred,
All of our stores carry a canister just as you described for our budget conscious consumers. It's a Royal model, the RY-3050. Ours retails for $349.95 or w/ trade in $319.95 give or take a few dollars.
Here are the pro's an cons IMHO, and the reasons why we like and/or dislike the machine is:
Pro's-
1. IT's quite powerful suction wise. And has a motor rheostat to allow different power levels. This gives the consumer several "high end" features, that they would like to have, but usually have to give up in order to afford something in the mass class area.
2. It "has" HEPA standard, yet nothing like Miele's sealed system, but does do a very reasonable job of filtering under it's own merits. The bags are paper, and fill up as fast as any other paper bag, but the replacement is easy enough to understand, for even the most simple of consumer...
3. The powerbrush is a quadra-brush design similar to the Eureka Vibra Groomer III, yet has no where near the agressiveness of that roller. It cleans just fine tho for the majority of people who need a machine to at least make the carpets "look" clean. The Powerbrush is self adjusting, and ahas a toe-touch on-off switch. Again giving the end-user a high end feature.
4. It uses steel plated wands. None of that plastic crud, that usually warps, or shorts out constantly. "Think Eureka built and all their multi-badged units", with those cheap junky wands they use.
5. IT has quite respectable build quality for a mass produced machine. In the three years we've been selling the 3050, I've only had to change out one suction motor. We've replaced switches, and a few hoses. BUT no more than any other make in this range.
6. IT's fairly quiet as well. Nowhere NEAR the silent hum of Miele, but considering some of the screamers, some which come from TTI, home of the Dirt Devils, suprised all of us that this machine was cut from similar cloth of some of their less quiet bretheren.
7. It has a near ZERO return rate. This is an important consideration that we take very close when we decide on what machines we carry, and what our product line will offer as years go by. If it has a high failure rate, or a high dissatisfacton rate...the machine gets the axe within 90 days. This machine has made the cut and then some.
Cons-
1. The Powercord setup to the powerbrush, is the old pigtail style cord. Considering that almost all canisters have went to the integrated power supply system, this (IS) a throwback to days gone by. Each wand tho has two cord clips that give quite good cord management; however, compared to it's contemporaries that have electrical issues in their "integrated" wands (again think Eureka and Kenmore are two we see with high failure rates in this area), and it's really (the old system) not a bad setup. Some customers complain, most never do.
2. The bags are only available in paper, and no HEPA cloth style bag options are available. Well IMHO you win some, you loose some. MOst people in this price range are happy with this type of bag, but when the competition has these options, and you don't...it does make one wistful that the company would just put one out, and be done with it.
3. The attachments, are quite cheap, and no worse than what's offered in similarly priced products. The bare floor tool is the nicest of the standard tools, the crevice tool is okay....but the dusting brush and the upholstery tool leave something to be desired. Again win some-loose some.
4. The warranty is two years, but as with any TTI product, you constantly (when need be) having to harass the factory for warranty support. Thankfully that has not been a hugeissue with this machine, but when it does become an issue...look out honey...cause TTI sucks in all directions of the compass when you need them to do ANY meaningful work on any warranty claims.
Okay that's it. Sorry, I know I'm long winded. I just wanted to give a fair pro's and con's of what we offer, and why this could be an answer for your question.
Chad
Ann Arbor Michigan
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