Filter Queen and Tristar

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kirbyduh

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Apr 4, 2008
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I have been browsing ebay and thinking of buying either a newer Tristar or FilterQueen for a daily driver. I have a few questions:
I have never used either machine, so which would you recommend?
I am looking at Filter Queens with the newest style hose and power nozzles. Is it true that Filter Queen power nozzles do not clean well? It seems like I have heard people say that before, but it is not a major deal to me as my carpeted surfaces are primarily are rugs.
Will a Filter Queen or Tristar have more airflow?
As far as Tristar goes, are there any major differences between the "MG" models and the newest "CS" model? They look so similar. I do see that the brush roll was changed to the helix style sometime in the "MG" series but that's all I have noticed.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks Dan and sebo_fan

I have seen those threads, but the first one compares the CXL to the CS and the second one doesn't have any info on the CS. Thank you for posting those links, though.
 
Definitely the tristar!

Filter queen has never been known for their power nozzles. In the door to door canister performance test I did the filter queen 75th anniversary did the worst. The tristar mg2's (with an exl motor) did the 2nd best. Losing only to the Patriot and had I had room I think the silver king would have performed better too. If you do go with with a newer tristar I'd go with an exl or cs. The mg2's motor produces little airflow. If you were to buy an mg2 an exl motor seal will allow you to put a dual stage motor in an mg2
 
Brushless motor

Much like the Rainbow motor, its a digital motor, they are usually quieter (though the Rainbow is debatable in my book) and don't have brushes to wear out, or exhaust carbon dust from the brushes wearing.
 
Stay tuned-think "Digital" or Switched Reluctance motors are taking over applications held by DC and "universal" motors.Also see the SR-Digital motors frequently in newer cordless power tools.Both Greenworks and Oregon have cordless chainsaws equipped with lithium battery packs and digital motors outperforming gas chainsaws!And of course the cordless electric ones are quieter and cleaner than gas saws.Expect to see more vacuums being equipped with SR/Digital motors.
 
I have the Rainbow with the brushless motor, as well as a Dyson DC22 Motorhead with their take on the SR motor. I guess what I mean is I'd like pics, I want to see how its set up and such, as this is the first time i've heard of them using one of these motors. I tried finding details about it on their site, but they don't really say much about the motor other than how powerful it is.

I would agree that these are the future of suction motors in vacuum cleaners. I don't know about PN or brush roll drive motors though, SR motors have far less torque than a universal (brushed motor) of the same size will, so unless they take advantage of gear reduction and a higher speed SR motor, I don't see them completely replacing brushed motors. The reason they don't have the torque is because there are no magnets on the rotor, I don't know that this would work, but I wonder if putting permanent magnets on the rotor of an SR motor would solve this issue, but there's probably some technical reason why not.
 
Tri-Stars DO lose suction, just like other bagged machines.

I vaguely remember a conversation with Tom G about Tri-Stars losing suction as the pores in the bag clog up with dust. I'm sure this all depends on the type of dirt/dust picked up. When I tried selling the machines in 1985, we did our in home demonstrations with playground sand and it was probably so the machine wouldn't lose suction.

I still think they're incredible machines, though. Very well built.
 
John

Yes, you're right, the TriStar DOES lose suction, & rather badly I might add. My personal situation is I find I pick up mostly fine dust & dirt, & hardly any carpet fibers & no pet or people hair, so my bags clog quickly. I have found the Envirocare micro-filtration bags are a little bit better & help to some degree, but not much. I am trying to figure out a good way to make a HEPA bag for my TriStar to improve performance, & I hope that Aerus catches up with the times & replaces the paper bag with HEPA bags. As to any notion of TriStar's claims the machine is supposedly "cyclonic", as well as their competitors, that is totally FALSE. When you look at where the dirt lands in the bag, & you look at where the opening for the hose ends in the bag door, no wonder why it lands in the front - there's NOTHING cyclonic about it!
 
I have heard from the local Lux guy that due to bag rupture issues in their new model (the bags clog up but the machine has so much power that it just rips them open!) that they are in the process of introducing HEPA type bags for all their machines, AND they are coming out with a HEPA filter that fits in the back of the C bag chambers, so all Lux canisters from the 1205 to today that use the C bag will be able to accept a pre-motor HEPA filter.

I don't have too many problems with the Tri-Star bags clogging, I've always been able to pretty much fill the bag, yes I notice a slight drop in power when the bag gets to be about ⅔ the way to being even with the top, to me thats full. I'm sure there is a steady but slight drop in airflow from when the bag is new to the point where I change it, however I don't feel its enough to harm pickup of dirt. The Filter Queen seems to see the same thing in my experience. I haven't used an FQ at home enough lately to tell, but the one we have here at work seems to get a lot of dust past the cones, and we only use the genuine cones in it, no generic stuff. I'd heard before that they weren't made of cellulose anymore, as they wanted the customers to need the charcoal cone behind it, no idea how true that is though.
 
I posted the new Aerus

Bags on my thread "my extensive collection" my Aerus I own is the newest first Guardian Ultra out and my bags have never broken or busted in my machine . Some people had leak problem I have not had any issues since Aerus sent me the new improved paper bags now I have the HEPA bags and they are awesome .

If you use micro filtration off brand bags in Tri Star they clog quicker than the Genuine paper bags I prefer to use only genuine bags in all my vacuums .

The Filter Queen cones I have which are the newest and old ones seem like the exact material (cellulose) that they have always used . Again in my uses I rarely see dust in the after filter under the cone I do change it even though it always looks clean .

Maybe the NJ sand has something to do with no dust leaks but we get tons of Pune tree pollen in the spring where every thing is coated with a heavy yellow dust .

Dan
 
Airflow loss

Filter queens lose airflow much more rapidly than the tristars.

while i had filter queens they would start off at about a 3.5 on the baird meter, and after cleaning the living room it either read in between .5-1 or no longer register at all.

I just used my tristar MG2 (exl motor)in that same living room. it started off at 4.5 and ended above 4 but not quite at 4.5 let's say about 4.25
 
Filter Queen Tour

When the VCCC toured Filter Queen the question was brought up about returning the headlight and cord winder to newer Filter Queen models. Filter Queen told us that they had no plans to do that because it wasn’t cost effective or necessary. I didn't agree. It would be nice to have a headlight.
 

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