I like...
Genuine Electrolux 4 ply bags...some were 3 or 2 ply and the new Aerus home solutions 2 ply bags in blue are supposed to be better Aerus says as the paper is supposed to be a better filtration media but some here have debated about that and I have some that I recently acquired at a thrift store last year but haven’t tried them yet. The “Multi filter” brand and “air plus” brand generics are 4 ply and are pretty good too but the top cardboard panel tends to be a little thinner sometimes causing them to warp inward if in the vacuum for a long period of time or run packing them heavily with dirt. The generics have come a long way and the 4 ply generics sold these days should do a fine job.
I bought 54 3 packs of generics years ago from the dollar store, thought it was a good buy at 33cents per bag basically....the plastic bag says they are 4 ply but some were not the multi filter brand 4 ply ones and turned out to have no printing on them at all and are 2 ply so I was not too happy about getting something different than what the packages says on the outside. They were sold by Home Care products and have the big “vac bags” labeling on the outside. I really should call Home Care products and make them send me replacements since they put something different in the package than what was advertised. There’s some wording about a satisfaction guarantee on the back of the package. But I think I have to send them the bags at my cost for replacement and kinda not worth it. It was odd, about half the packages have the nice 4 ply multi filter bags and about half have the cheaper thinner bags. I suddenly noticed when I went to open a new package and thought ..gee this package seems not as thick as the other and opened the thicker package as well to reveal different bags. Maybe this is why the lot was sold off to the dollar tree, perhaps Home Care Products discovered their vendor for the bags was not putting the right bags in all the packages. Even so, regardless of where I buy them, they should still honor the satisfaction guarantee. I chose to buy so many because I was running my remodeling business at the time and using the Electrolux a lot and going through lots of bags so I figured I’d stock up since they were less pricey at the dollar store. A three pack for a buck! Not bad I thought. I bought those over 10 years ago and have used about half of them...I think I bought too many!
On the 4 ply bags there is 3 inner layers of a soft tissue like fabric and this helps to filter the dirt and dust and avoid the pores of the outer paper from clogging too quickly and therefore allowing the bag to hold more dirt before it cuts off suction. I believe this was patented by Electrolux long ago and then when the patent ran out, the generic companies began copying the feature as this used to be a big point Electrolux made as to why their bags were “the best bag for your Electrolux cleaner.”
Trapping as much dirt as you can helps keep the motor from getting dirt in it as well as fine bits getting sent back out in the air.
Personally for the units I use in my house I use the Genuine Electrolux 4 ply bags...for the one I use for the “shop vac” type jobs to clean the car, garage and remodeling dirty jobs, I use the generics.
I’m not sure if the older genuine yellow bags From the 60s and 70s are 3, ply but I discovered some of the mid 80s bags in gray are only 3 ply and then they changed to 4 ply sometime in that color era. Probably the 3 ply patent ran out so they upped the quality to 4 ply and got a new patent to still have the edge over generic copied bags. The tan genuine Electrolux bags with Tan cardboard colored tops were all 4 ply. I have a bunch of genuine bags from most of these eras mentioned and I should probably cut one of each open to determine how many plies they are. I know some of the genuine packaging says how many plies they are in that package. A genuine package of the yellow “lightning bolt bags” doesn’t specify but does show a graphic of a difference and the graphic depicts 3 total plies.
Really old generic bags from the 50s and early 60s were just single ply or 2 ply and some didn’t have the rubber seal either, I definitely do not recommend using those at all.
Some have found fabric cloth type disposable bags with micro filtration by a generic manufacturer..I’ve never tried them and am sure they are not cheap.
Bags should never be emptied and reused..the paper takes a beating especially when trying to get the dirt out and then could split or rip when reusing it allowing dirt to get into the motor. I’ve had genuine bags split at the corner edge seams because they were older...fortunately the inner layers didn’t rip and held the dirt in but old paper bags can split just from age as the paper begins to break down just from sitting around for many years so I don’t recommend buying “vintage” genuine bags. I’ve had this issue with some of the older yellow genuine bags I picked up at an estate sale or bought off eBay. Those yellow bags are from 1982 on back. That’s almost 40 years or more!
Jon
