Current canister vacuums

[danemodsandy]

Jon:

My own strategy for those quick pick-ups is a good old-fashioned carpet sweeper from the Fuller Brush Company. Excellent pickup, and fast as can be.

Note that this sweeper is the No. 101 sweeper with twin brush rolls, not the No. 100 commercial model with vinyl rotor blades. The commercial unit is intended for quick pickup of wet messes in restaurants, and doesn't perform all that well on home carpet.

And, I freely admit, both are uprights. ;-)

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

I could NOT agree with you MORE about gas-pump handles. They are bulky, clunky and very possibly the work of a Satanic cult wanting to give us all a preview of Hell while we're still here on Earth. In other words, I hate 'em.

The current TOL Kenmore canisters are "featurism" run amok, I feel. You know what I mean, some designer out of any real ideas says, "Let's add a FEATURE!" This is what causes idiotic crap like hose-mounted controls. However, it's the same mentality that causes, say, Kirby to push paint sprayers and Handi-Butlers when it's very clear that very few people find any real need for those features. Stuff like this is intended to dazzle on the sales floor, and to heck with how necessary it is once the customer has forked over his cash.

I still confess I don't understand the objection to the weight of a canister hose. I'm never even aware of it. Never.

 

[eurekaprince]

Sandy...truth be told, the electrified silver-coloured hoses on the power nozzle canisters made by Sweden's Electrolux (also found on post-1985 Eurekas) and by Miele seem to be quite lightweight. The electrified hose on the Dyson Motorhead also is pretty light.

The heavy hoses on the Kenmores and Panasonics are the ones that I find a chore to use. They may be very durable, but I found using a Kenmore hose to clean a short stretch of curtains to be really tiring on the arms.

Just to let you know, I am soooo happy with the upright/canister duo I have now. My 16 pound Hoover Tempo Widepath Upright cost me only CAD$120 with tax, and my little Electrolux UltraSilencer Green cost me only CAD$400 with tax. I live in a very small bachelor/studio apartment and the 2 vacs take up very little room in my closet. I plan to get one of those hanging tool storage bags sold with central vacs to get the Electrolux tools off the floor.

Anyhow.....as I said before...it's all about personal preference. I have a friend who thinks I am nuts to dust a bookcase with a vacuum cleaner - "I don't know why you just don't use a rag....." (He does not understand the joy I get from vacuuming! :-D

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

Tell your friend the point of vacuuming is to get the dirt out of the house. All rags and dusters do is to move it around. Polishes and sprays can help, but still, there's no joy like taking a full dust bag OUT to the trash, knowing that bit of dirt is gone from your life, forever.

If Kenmore makes a more durable hose than it used to, that's great. I had an '80s TOL Whispertone that had to be tossed due to a disintegrating hose, which was epidemic on those models, which were made by Panasonic. To make matters worse, Sears got into some kind of megillah with Panasonic, who stopped supplying hoses to Sears. You simply could not get a hose for a long while there.

Aerus's replacement vinyl hoses for vintage Electroluxes are far lighter, more flexible and longer than the stiffer, heavier, shorter braided hoses they replace. TriStar's vinyl hoses are really nice, too.

You mentioned something I've never had trouble with, but I know others have - faulty or burnt PN connections at hose ends. That seems to be caused by ignoring an instruction usually found in the vac's manual - you should turn a cleaner OFF before plugging or unplugging the PN. If you try to do it "on the fly," you will cause sparking at the connections, contributing to burnt contacts and failure. Failure to plug the connector in firmly also does this. Also I am amazed at how many appliance plugs I see with half the prongs hanging out of the outlet - a lot of folks are evidently too lazy to plug things in firmly. We won't even get into how many people yank on the cord to unplug stuff. Crazy.

 

[rainbowd4c]

It's just a matter of preferance for everyone. Everyone has a different idea and like when it comes to this. I myself always thought that uprights were old lady vacuums. Growing up (I'm 34 now) if I ever saw a upright it was at some old lady house and I always saw young adults with canisters.

I like canisters. I have always found them easier to use and that I can get more done with them. If I were to get a upright it would be something from the 80's time period like the Hoover Decade 80. You can attach the attachments on at the bottom of the cleaner and just pull it around like a canister, I also like the old Panasonic uprights where the hoseplugged into the back and the Aerus Gardian uprights. But if I'm goingto shop for vacuum I automatically look at the canisters first. Thats alwasy my first choice.

 

[sebo_fan]

It is a matter of preference - there isn't a clear answer that differentiates which one is best - because all cleaning needs are different. Whereas those with carpets in a big house may prefer the compact-ability of a small canister being pulled behind them, I prefer an upright - and not necessarily KIRBY dimensions - to get the greatest amount of dirt out of a carpet - I know what I like and I choose what feels comfortable to me.

How many of you, for example take your upright vac out to the car? I can do that with both my Sebo uprights, because of their top release hoses - the tools are located right to hand, back and at the top. On my Miele/SEBO canisters, you have to return to the main body to get at the main smaller cleaning tools but then you also have the advantage of placing the entire canister in the foot well of a car, thus bringing the machine with you at all times.

How can the weight of a hose affect cleaning ability? Well you have to pull more of a heavy weight behind you and then cope with the bulkier hose because it isn't as flexible as a non-cord-embedded hose. That doesn't affect suction ability, but cleaning ability doesn't just encompass the actual action of cleaning something - it also takes into consideration the amount of effort needed - as well as the amount of strain or in some cases less strain to the user involved.

Whilst some have noted that some PN heads allow flat to the floor, the air driven turbo heads and suction only floor tools do not - you can do this easily if you fit a standard floor head to a canister and then find the floor head juts upwards because of the storage park slot often located at the back of the floor head. MIELE are also bad for this - often requiring the user to go at angles to allow the suction head to remain flat on the floor at all times.

The only exception to the rule where suction only floor heads are concerned, that don't do this seem to be from SEBO's deluxe Kombi floor head. It remains flat to the floor and you can bend at any angle with it, even straight down because the park position has been located at the top of the floor head on the neck.
Let me give you an example since you fail to see the difference.

 

[sebo_fan]

Ignore the example I was going to give - video link doesnt work : ) the age of technology...

 

[danemodsandy]

RS:

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly - are you saying that canisters' suction-only attachments don't lie flat to the floor?

On better American vacuums, the suction-only rug and floor nozzles have a swiveling neck, which allows them to go flat and reach underneath furniture that is only two or three inches above the floor. To operate the swivel neck feature, one turns the wand to one side or the other; the tool then obligingly assumes a position in a straight line with the wand, with its bristles flat to the floor. Many people do not understand this feature; I've shocked a lot of Lux and TriStar owners by showing them how to use it.

 

[sebo_fan]

Flat to the floor suction tools...

You heard me right. The European brands - Miele, Bosch, Hoover, Electrolux - all have storage park hooks on the back of the swivel. So when you lower the handle like an upright vacuum and expect the floor head to remain flat to the floor - it won't - unless there is a 360 degree swivel and a pivotal movement that allows the floor head to go flat at the same angle as the handle and pipes.

The Sebo Deluxe Kombi floor tool and their Deluxe Parquet tool can do this because of the double joint mechanism - try with the Miele etc and the floor head will jut up because of the park position snagging on the carpet - the way around that is to swing the handle and tubes to the left or right which allows the suction floor head to remain flat to the carpet.

 

[eurekaprince]

I still say it is far safer and easier and more productive to clean carpets far under a bed with a suction only canister using a regular carpet nozzle or upholstery nozzle. And yes, for many of the European (mostly German-made) carpet nozzles, you have to turn the wand and hose handle to the left or right to get the nozzle to stay flat on the carpet. Most canister's carpet nozzles allow you to do that.

I think most motorized power nozzles available with canisters have difficulty staying flat with the carpet as soon as the wand gets close to the ground. Perhaps the early Eureka Roto-Matic power-nozzles allowed you to swivel the wand to one side to get it really flat with the ground. But some set-ups don't allow you to do that movement. For instance, if you use Kenmore's Powermates with a telescopic wand, you can't rotate the handle to make it lie flat to the ground.

I also don't think it's wise to use a canister's power nozzle too far under a bed anyhow - even with a headlight, there is a large possibility that the revolving brush will get jammed on an unseen plastic bag or lost sock or child's toy or magazine or other large item.

Again - just my opinion: far easier to clean carpets under a bed with a suction only carpet nozzle or right-angled upholstery nozzle if you don't want to move the bed.

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

I can see how many, many people would have trouble eventually if they tried using a power nozzle under the bed.

For myself, I found the answer to this problem a long time ago: I don't permit anything under the bed. I don't store anything there, and I use my bed strictly for sleeping, instead of as a combination living room, TV room, dinette and library.

Keeps the bedroom much neater, and no nasties under the bed to cause vacuuming trouble. I get under the bed once a week with the PN, and therefore enjoy a nice, dust-free bedroom.

My late partner used to store as much stuff under the bed (and everywhere else in the room) as he could get his hands on, and always griped about how dusty his room was, and how much trouble it was to clean in there. Only after he came down with heart disease and became bedridden was I able to clear the room of unnecessary stuff and get it cleanable - which was essential to his health by that time.

The older I get, the less I find I need stuff. What I find myself needing is peace, and space, and time.

 

[rainbowd4c]

With my Rainbow power nozzle I can clean under my bed, tables and other furniture that has some kind of height very easily with out any problems. I have always thought that Uprights were more difficult to do that type of chore with. My moms Dysln old Bissell and Kirby with the exception of the hose with the bare floor brush were more difficult to do this type of cleaning task with.

 

[sebo_fan]

The danger of a power nozzle under a bed...

Since the UK don't have that many canister/cylinder vacuums with power heads bar recently introduced Wertheim models and then established Miele/SEBO set, am I to understand that not all power nozzles are the same - i.e if something gets caught in my Sebo ET-1 floor head, the motor shuts down automatically, often dragging whatever it has caught with it!

Or do some power nozzles just keep on turning and then eventually breaking??

 

[eurekaprince]

"Or do some power nozzles just keep on turning and then eventually breaking??"

RS - in truth, most power nozzles seem to have some shut-off mechanism that is activated when the brush gets jammed with something. I know that the Sears Kenmore Powermate nozzles all have some "restart" button that will reactivate a jammed motor. But sometimes these are activated too late to prevent damage to the item picked up by the nozzle, and sometimes it is too late to prevent a broken belt. The shut-off mechanisms are not always reliable.

In truth, one really does not need to agitate the dusty carpet lying under a bed. Since it is not stepped on constantly, it is really only surface dust and litter that needs to be removed most frequently. And so I think a regular carpet nozzle with lint grabbers or a right-angled upholstery nozzle with bristles (like the one TTI includes now with a lot of the Hoover canisters and Sears Kenmore Central Vac Systems), would suffice to clean under a bed - in my opinion. When it comes time for that monthly or seasonal "tear apart the room" cleaning, one can move the bed and clean the carpet with an upright.

 

[sebo_fan]

mmm. Provided the said upright can fit under a bed - another pro I suppose for a canister with PN head. Most bagless upright models cannot because the bins are too big.

 

[eurekaprince]

RS.....

When I do a thorough cleaning of my bedroom, I actually move the bed and lean it up against the wall so that I can deep clean the entire territory of carpet lying underneath it with my Hoover upright. In this way, I can really make sure no spots are missed, including the challenging points where the wheels/castors of the bedframe rest on the carpet.

So I don't need an upright that can fit all the way under the bed for those thorough cleaning projects.

EP Brian

 

[sebo_fan]

Thats all very well but I doubt most people will move their double and king size beds to get under it.

See this video of a guy using the Sebo X1.1 to get under a coffee table - same kind of procedure and look at the lack of effort he doesn't have to do, to clean under there!