Headlights -- Why most modern vacuums don't have them?

[countryguy]

I had a Miele Capricorn which had the fluorescent bulb in the power nozzle. After a few months, the bulb started working intermittently or would sometimes take a lot longer to turn on. When I finally got rid of the vac, the light would not work at all and I only had the vac a couple of years.

 

[blknblu]

For a retrofit, this bulb is amazing.


It is very small, and it fits in the bayonet base.


The LED's & circuitry are encased in clear silicone.


Very bright. Ordered it direct from China.


 


 

 

[n0oxy]

ballast and light remaining on

With the Wessel Werk ebk340, the ballast and bulb are in the power nozzle itself since it's a universal power nozzle designed to work with central vacuums or any electric hose with the mini two prong connector. Interesting about the vacuums where you turn the switch off on the hose and the light remains on, I'm assuming that the switch does not cut all power to the nozzle then? With the Metro canister, if you flip the switch on the hose, it turns off the motor and the light, all power is cut which is how it should be I think. If you leave the hose switch on and press the button on the nozzle itself, it turns off the motor but leaves the light on.

 

[eurekaprince]

I think Kenmore and Beam Central Vacs have another "illuminating" idea: they put the LED light at the end of the wand so it can be used with other tools!

 

[niclonnic]

Come to think of it...

The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away vacuums have an LED light built into the handle. This allows for illumination in dimly lit spots while using the tools!

 

[kenkart]

Ill tell you why new vacs dont have lights!

The same reason new stoves and washers and dryers don't have lights on them anymore..CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! Thankfully some vacs still do, but about everything built now is cheap flimsy plastic.

 

[cocobird]

Headlights

My new Panasonic canister has a headlight, but only if i am vacuuming carpet. i guess it is harder to see dirt in carpet.

 

[human]

I like the headlights on my three G-series Kirby machines. They're nice and bright and do make it easier to see what the machine has—and more importantly has not—picked up. I wish I could say the same for the one on my Filter Queen's power nozzle. It's a joke. The light is dim and doesn't project onto the carpet in any meaningful way. I can see why they deleted that feature in the years after mine was produced.

 

[n0oxy]

power nozzle on filter queen

I read in another thread that the power nozzles on filter queens were not that good, but that it was possible to use a different power nozzle with these vacuums. If the hose uses a standard two prong mini female connector and you wanted a power nozzle with a light, you could consider the wessel werk ebk340 or the Riccar universal power nozzle, the Wessel Werk nozzle has automatic height adjustment and the Riccar has manual adjustment, both are great power nozzles.

 

[human]

I agree. The Filter Queen's power nozzle doesn't perform nearly as well as either of my Electrolux (PN-1 and PN-2) nozzles, headlight or not. It's harder to push and doesn't pick up nearly as well.

 

[sptyks]

I have several different Kirby's and a Royal. All of them have headlights that are more than adequate in lighting a 4 to 5 foot path in front of the machine. I also have a bagless Hoover windtunnel Air that does not have a headlight and I sure do miss the headlights on my other machines whenever I use it.

 

[sebo_fan]

The Lift off Vax Cordless Air has an LED strip which is unusual for a cordless upright sold in the UK. Shame the normal Cordless Air doesn't feature it, though.

 

[niclonnic]

On the other hand...

The U.S. equivalent of the normal Vax Air Cordless, the Hoover Air Cordless, does feature an LED headlight. I don't own this machine, so I did a quick search and found this image on Google.

 

[delaneymeegan]

 


 


These LED alternatives look really interesting.  They're compact yet powerful.

 

[fan-of-fans]

If anything, I think more vacuums in the United States have headlights now. Typically the low end upright range from various makes does not have them, and never did. But the Sharks and many others are starting to have them, especially the LED lights. Power nozzle canisters used to not have them on BOL models, but these days most all canisters offer them, even the BOL do.

 

[human]

LED's make good sense on a vacuum cleaner as they're very bright, highly configurable, and consume minimal power.

 

[jay]

Vacuum headlights

I have a battery powered Shark.
I would like to switch off the headlights so that the battery power is saved for the motor. If I want light I will switch on a ceiling light which is brighter anyway.

 

[jo]

My Shark rocket has two headlights

Yes…My Shark rocket actually has two headlights…one on the main motor base unit which actually seems to have a mini projector lens and this allows it to cas the light from the base unit up at hand height down to the floor.

Also, the power nozzle unit has Two sets of LED lights across the front and it fits under the furniture just fine. It’s the UV330 model.

Both lights are very convenient as I have dark hardwoods and some areas of the house are dark and this way I don’t have to put the lights on to see in those dark corners, under the stove, under the couch, etc. The lights do it all and work well,

Since I use this thing mostly when I want to do quick clean ups, having the lights saves time because I don’t have to turn on the lights in the dark areas to see, the vac lights those areas and allows me to speed along with my quick cleanup task.

So…I really like the headlights and wish all vacs would have both of these lights. It just helps and is cheap enough.

Jon

 

[alwaysluvdvacs]

The headlight saved my butt..

I had always owned cheap vacuums from Dirt Devil to Shark. Then I bought my first vacuum made by Tacony. A brand new Riccar R30D.6.
The headlight saved my butt that day when I had to explain the price to my partner. He was just as impressed as I to see the the illuminated dirt 'jumping' out of the carpet before being vacuumed up.
That was about 1 year ago. Today we own:
Riccar R30D.6
Titan T500 Cordless
Maytag m1200, m700 and m600 Cordless
Hoover ONEPWR Cordless Bagged Upright
Shark Liftaway Navigator
What has happened to me?

 

[tseg]

I'm all about the headlight... I have an SEB236 PN for my Miele C3 and I have a Miele Jazz U1 with headlight... both LED. I recently gave away my Sebo Felix without a headlight. My house is 80 years old with lots of nooks and crannies that are dimly lit. My only disappointment is the SEB236 light goes off when I turn off the roller. Luckily for my C3 I also have a non-powered hose with parquet attachment and an LED on the Alize handle that will turn on for 10 second increments for my hardwood floors, so I can confirm a job well done in a dimly lit corner.