The design of the new Orecks are decent but the diminishing factor TTI has brought to them is the quality has suffered a lot. Orecks now are made with cheaper, flimsier plastics and cheap wiring causing them to frequently have shorts, and on models like the elevate command, the handles have a common tendency to break off of the machine. I work at a vacuum store and we see the elevate series in for electrical problems a lot where the machine won’t start or it’ll run and then shut off and we have to repair things in the circuitry. Another thing is the fact TTI has worked on closing all of the Oreck stores. The manager who was a wonderful lady who ran the Oreck store near me only got a 2 week notice before the store shut down. She now works a different Oreck store on the other side of the state and when I visited her she told me Oreck is not what it used to be and told me about the handles breaking and such and that they actually put the conquer handle on the commands when they replace them because they are stronger. The appeal of Oreck for me and many was the lightweight vacuum that has a long warranty, a specific and specialized chain of dealers for it, and often has a service plan. So it was just an easy to use vacuum that had great support from an American based company. That’s another thing about TTI is they are Chinese based in Hong Kong and have switched to making a lot of Oreck products over there on China, removing jobs for Americans such as the ones who ran the over 400 Oreck stores there once were. TTI has also made the Oreck company less personal. There is no “face” to the company and like they used to say “if you don’t love it, you don’t keep it” now it just says “30 day trial”.
