commercial vs domestic

[gsheen]

A couple of years ago a good friend of mine came to see me. Colin owns a dry carpet cleaning company in Cape Town and he had a major problem on his hands. His fleet of vacuums were made up of sebo 360/370 460 Ivacs 350 and sebo xl,2&3's which had served him well over the past couple of years. However a customer of his called him back to show him something, after Colin had vacuum'd the house to pick up all the powered the customer had vacuum'd there house again with there new bagless cheap Electrolux and picked up huge amounts of powder.

He came to see me the next day and asked if i was familiar with the Electrolux 4700 series ( eureka ). At the time I was working with Electrolux Cape Town to come up with a solution to the filter clogging almost as fast as you could vacuum.

We ran some tests on different makes and soon found that just about every upright vacuum available on the domestic market would clean better than any of the sebo vacuums. sure there filters would clog and they would burn out but they got more powder out of the floor than a sebo or ivac. That's when I realised that thses machines had been surpassed by domestic vacuums in cleaning ability sure they wouldn't last long but they were out performing the commercial machines by a healthy margin.Shortly after that sebo upped the power of the xl and that solved the problem but led to another one they were no longer as reliable as they were before

Eventually Colin bought some dc07 NON clutch models from me that he has been running for 4 years now without any hassle. I was reminded of it today when he came in to get a new brush roll for the one dyson.
Has any one had similar experiences PS I am not knocking sebo or ivac like them both very much

 

[sebo_fan]

The problem with what you think you're picking up, i.e the carpet powder alone, is actually more than the powder itself with high powered bagless vacuums. I encountered a similar issue when I bought my new Vax Mach Air (for my mum), and my living room carpet had been done with Sebo's DUO P carpet powder. The Vax picked up noticeable powder, but also since my carpet is beige, the Vax's bin also filled up with beige fibres- naturally - even if the suction power and filters get clogged - the danger of having strong and forceful suction means that you're more liable to damage the carpet and pick up more fibres/shag pile than necessary. This is one reason alone to why we've preferred the older, traditional vacuum cleaner with a lower wattage or suction and the Sebo design means the brush roll itself is built to protect your carpet from wear and tear.

Domestic vacuums also have different roller brush bars and some brands have had to change their brush rolls over the years because original ones were deemed too rough. Some have really tough bristles (the best bristles I like are the ones on Oreck's XL) and some don't have enough bristles, allowing the full suction power to do more of the pick up. Y

You're also forgetting that the X series models have an auto sensor - so the floors are not always level wherever they are required to clean. That counts for a lack of proper contact to the floor and I'm sorry that sounds like a feeble excuse, but there it is.

Before I discovered SEBO, we owned a few alternatives such as Oreck and Hoover traditional classic uprights (with the exception of my higher powered Turbopower 2 & 3 models. ) In all cases, the bagged vacuums as these were, tended to protect the carpet from wear rather than removing every single top pile fibre - that so far, I've found bagless vacuums have a tendency to rip.

SEBO vacuums and affiliated commercial vacuums are designed to run for long hours and be as efficient as possible. Whether you can counter act their cleaning performance is simply a matter of opinion. However, when it comes to carpet protection, I prefer lower wattage vacuums in general to avoid destroying the carpet involved. Luckily the Vax Mach Air has a 1200/1300 watt motor same as the Sebo Felix. But whereas my Vax Mach Air sticks to hard floors and is impossible to move unless the brush bar is turned ON, the Felix is a lot easier by comparison both on and off function on hard floors and picks up everything.

I'm happy in the knowledge that my carpets are being protected rather than ripped to shreds.

 

[twocvbloke]

In the case of Eureka and Sanitaire F&G uprights, it was a case of them taking a top notch domestic machine and turning it into a commercial one, hence why you can still buy new Sanitaires with F&G or ST bag setups today, other manufacturers have tried the same and they've not performed as well as they expected, but still sell them as such...

As for Sebo X series automatics, I once tried to get one of those with a burnt out height adjuster assembly (a common problem from what I've been told), with the intention of making it manual, so it didn't keep lifting and lowering as it went over a slight bump, but I got outbid on it so the idea never came to fruition, wouldn't mind a C-series cannister though, I knew someone who had one and it gave the Tristar a good run for it's money...

 

[sebo_fan]

I always wanted an XP2 - the X1 Automatic sans the automatic sensor, but a manual dial. SEBO UK didn't sell many and replaced it with the smaller bagged Sebo Felix based Dart, a machine I had for a few years before selling it, ironically to a large company based in the town who required a proper upright that could go the distance.

The C cylinder is okay, but the newer D series is much better.

 

[gsheen]

We get a lot of g1's in the commercial version with the manual dial. main problem is the motor burning out but otherwise a much better performer than the x series

 

[sebo_fan]

Its like other commercial machines...

Like other commercial machines such as blenders, food processors etc - the domestic market (certainly in the UK at least) have higher wattage powered motors built around cheaper components not designed to last an eternity. A perfect example of this is the old commercial kitchen Waring blender we have had for years (and bought from a trader company) compared to the awful Cookworks blender that was given to me as a gift. The Chinese made CW /supermarket branded cheap blender didn't last very long, although the only saving grace I liked about it was the fact that the plastic jug was easier to lift and pour against the thick, heavy glass of the Waring. The Waring can handle ANYTHING and is very quiet, even on top speed.