This is the Paisley unit still!!
Funny I was just on Filter Queen website a few weeks ago and nothing had changed. This was a pleasant surprise. I like the new web interface much better. It is more informative with more and better photos of the products and greater info of the company in general. I hope that this is a sign for more improvements to come!!
As far as the product.....
This same model Filter Queen Paisley design came out in 2011!!! It has been a long market runner for Filter Queen! I used to sell these!! In 2013, my Filter Queen distributor boss thought that at the annual meeting the company would be announcing a new product even if it was a color change. That was three years ago and still nothing!!!!
They have changed packaging of how the unit ships and is boxed. With that model numbers changed from M11NA to M11NA-NA during the time I worked there. The Defender is D11NA-NA!!
It is a single stage motor. The brush roll is wooden with very soft bristles.
The front metal plate on the power nozzle adds essentially no weight at all to the nozzle. If you remove that metal plate on the power nozzle base, it could slice through cheese!!! It has extremely sharp edges!!!
I have continued to check into the site on occasion curious of a product change. I have viewed the youtube video of Dan Duggans announcement of new ownership of the company back in January 2016. My guess is that a new product is in development but with the company ownership changeover, other things took priority!
Overall this is a good unit. It is actually built well!! The parts are very durable!! The wheels are similar material to what bowling balls are made of, and bowling balls don't mark floors! The wheel base can be completely folded in half and then rebound itself back into shape again!!! The dirt bin can be compressed in by pushing sides towards each other and then the unit will spring back to life without any cracks, marks or anything!!! I've done it on every demo I ever did!!!
The weakness I had with the Queen was that despite the cyclonic advertising, the cone still gets caked with fine dust and grit that does kill the airflow to the machine!! The power nozzle could be much stronger!!! I disassembled the power nozzle once for curiosity and was surprised at the "cheapness" of it, motors on those power heads are loud too and inconsistent in sound at the time I sold them!!! There were some I didn't mind and others I couldn't wait to sell because I found them obnoxious.
I hope that Filter Queen comes out with another unit soon!! They could do better with a different handle, bristles in the actual upholstery tool itself and not on the sliding block which loses too much airflow!! The power nozzle needs a headlight, quieter and more powerful motor, serpentine belt, better edge cleaning and either a height adjuster or more weight for more lean into the carpet!! Their tool change over system could be a little easier as the pulling to separate wands is a little difficult for some. The suction unit has good airflow and suction. It could be quieter and they need to work on the cyclonic technology so that it actually is cyclonic and dust doesn't kill the airflow!!
