Help! Shopping for New Vacuum and Overwhelmed

[durango159]

Yes I did NYCWriter

My most recent client has had 3 of those blue Kenmore Intuition canisters. I only use it at that house because the hose is standard size and its easier to use than the terrible Dyson DC41 and awful Sebo Airbelt D4 that she says. CAN'T STAND THE SEBO I'd have so much pleasure using it for target practice or putting it in the dumpster. But then I wouldn't able to use as a blockade, the next time I wash steps. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions, LOL!!! However I can only use 2 of her Kenmore Intuition vacuums on the hardfloors and upholstery. The connection to reconnect back into power nozzle has broken on 2 of her units. That entire power nozzle package with combo bare floor brush in MY OPINION IS HORRENDOUS!! Power nozzle is awkward to manuever and doesn't compare in cleaning to one of the other CenTec power nozzles. The bare floor brush is awful. Two diagonal measly strips of bristles is a joke and don't clean good.

I have no problem storing my canister. Powerheads can store on their ends standing up and most canisters have a park/ storage clip to slide on. Disconnect hose from wands while storing and I find my canisters are just as easy if not more so than uprights. The power nozzle wand is very thin and leaning up against a wall, a power nozzle vacuum wand won't be in your way at all. An upright with bulky bag compartment and taller floor nozzle is much more difficult.

I've put my Hoover PowerMax canister vacuums up against several other uprights and personally in my experience it outgrooms and outcleans them. In 1996, Consumer Reports rated my vacuum as cleaning "Very Good" and it rated another canister and some others as "Excellent." Through my business I have tried some of the units that CR rated better and I went out to my car to get my Hoover PowerMax canister to further deep clean all those homes and get the job done for real!! The other vacs weren't cutting the mustard!!! I change bag, clean filters, check belts and service all of my clients vacuums but still MUCH happier with performance of the Hoover. I've been hard pressed to find a vacuum that beats it!!! I think a vacuum that cleans as good would be the Simplicity Verve, Royal Lexon SR30020 and Riccar Tandem Air upright.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Here are three more recommendations for you:
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged self propelled upright.
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged non-self propelled upright.
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged PN canister.
All three are rated very well by Consumer Reports.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Consumer Reports Ratings:
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged self propelled upright:
Excellent in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Excellent in suction/Excellent in filtration/Fair in noise.
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged non-self propelled upright:
Excellent in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Excellent in suction/Excellent in filtration/Fair in noise.
Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition bagged PN canister:
Very Good in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Very Good in suction/Excellent in filtration/Good in noise.

 

[eurekaprince]

Rob - the Hoover canister you mentioned is indeed rated as a good performer by Consumer Reports, but they also gave it a "fair" in the "handling" category because, as it says: "Uncommon to canisters, the power head does not swivel, and the only handle control is for the rotating brush." I have also read on Vacuumland that the wheels are not great and that it bogs down on thick carpeting.

Though the famous Self-Propelled WindTunnel is a great upright and top-rated, Consumer Reports clearly states that it is relatively noisy and heavy. Matt will also hate using this Hoover upright for above the floor cleaning - there is no suction control, the hose is too short and the upholstery nozzle can damage fabrics.

If money is no option, he is better off with a Miele upright with a nice long 40 foot cord. The white "Cat and Dog" upright is his best bet, because it actually performs better on bare floors ("Excellent") for some reason than the other Miele uprights (only "Very Good"). It seems that it achieves this because it does not have a lot of electronic controls adjusting and monitoring the motor and the filters, and it does not use the Miele Hepa filter. It looks like the Miele Hepa filter can actually reduce air flow, so if you buy a Miele upright with the cheaper filters (the Active Air Clean Filter), you get the same level of excellent filtration but increased airflow for bare floor cleaning and above the floor cleaning.

Other than that, he can get a great Miele Callisto canister too. But he's going to need an extension cord because the cord is really short (21 feet).

 

[kirbyultimateg]

I wish the Hoover Concept One uprights and the Hoover Dimension 1000 PN canisters were still being made today. I would recommend them in a heartbeat. Those models were also rated very well by Consumer Reports.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Consumer Reports Ratings:
Kirby Diamond Edition/Sentria/Sentria II:
Excellent in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Excellent in suction/Excellent in filtration/Fair in noise.
Oreck XL21/Platinum/Forever Series Gold:
Very Good in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Fair in suction/Excellent in filtration/Good in noise.
Oreck Graphite:
Good in deep cleaning medium pile nylon plush carpeting/Excellent in cleaning hard floors/Poor in suction/Excellent in filtration/Fair in noise.

 

[durango159]

Show me the thread link PLEASE!!!

EurekaPrince, can you show me the thread link where the Hoover PowerMax power nozzle canister "bogged" down on thick carpet. A PowerMax head along with most all other vacuums on the market will not do well on the new Frieze style carpets with the long yarn like 3" long strands. The only vacuum that seems to be able to handle this, yet still do a bad job on it is the Dyson DC41.

Otherwise I have used Hoover PowerMax heads on EXTREMELY dense thick plush carpeting and they do great. Some old style shag rugs, they can be hard to push, but if you reduce the suction with suction regulator, they're fine again.

I've been using them for 15 years, since September 1997!! Yes Hoover PowerMax canisters are now discontinued, wish they weren't. There is no swivel on the power nozzle connector but in some ways that makes it easier to use, because many power nozzles that do have swivels on wands and or at power nozzle neck have a high tendency to swivel NEARLY ALL THE TIME, when you don't want them to, examples would be on several Panasonic and Kenmore wand systems along with Eureka wand systems.

Some models had variable speed control and on/off for entire system: PowerMax Ultra models: S3611, S3620, Windtunnel Ultra S3655, S3661, TurboPower 7500 S3649. Some models only on/off switch for suction unit and agitator S3609. Some units only on/off on handle for agitator: PowerMax S3603, S3603-040, S3610, S3614, S3613, Windunnels: S3630, S3639, S3641, S3646, S3646-090. These are only models from 1997 to about 2005, there are several earlier models in early 1990's as well.

 

[eurekaprince]

Hey Rob!

It's not the WindTunnel power nozzle that has trouble with thick carpets. It's the small wheels on the canister itself that seem to be problematic - someone on Vacuumland who owns one indeed brought this up - it seems to not be easily movable on some kinds of carpets, or in the transition up from bare floor to carpet. Maybe the wheels are too small, or maybe they are set to deep into the canister body. Not sure.

EP Brian

 

[eurekaprince]

In the above post I was referring to Rob G's mention of the highly rated Hoover Anniversary WT canister with the German Dirt Devil body and the WT power nozzle....not the PowerMax canister of yore....

 

[funeraldirector]

A Word About Consumer Reports

NYCWRITER,

If I were in your shoes contemplating a new vacuum purchase, the last thing I would look to or worry about is what Consumer Reports thinks. The individuals here are experts and the nice thing is each of us has experience with lots of different equipment. CR testing yields inconsistent and flawed results to those of us who have worked around many of the machines they recently tested. The main problem with CR is they are not experts in this field. I have forgotten more about vacuums than most of the engineers at Consumer Reports will ever know.

For example, the Sebo Felix ranked near the top of the upright ratings where the Sebo canisters rated at the bottom of their respective categories. The problem here is the nozzles for the canisters and the Felix are the same ET-1 and ET-2. Guess what? The performance is the same on all three vacuums, save for the fact the D4 and K3 have more power and airflow. The same with the Lux Legacy and Guardian Ultra. Here the vacuums, aside from cosmetics are EXACTLY the same. Same components, Johnson Electric brushless vacuum motor, Johnson power nozzle motor, same base and double helix brush roller and they get two different ratings. The Simplicity Moxie/S36 has significantly more water life than the top rated canister (my last one had about 115 inches vs about 100 on my last Miele Vortex or Sears) so you can see what I mean.

For years CR has had a hair across their backside for Rainbow and Filter Queen. Significantly better vacuums than most of their top pics. Several of their picks are maint. and durability nightmares and a search of the internet will further reinforce this. Their orange Electrolux Eureka Oxygen top pick a few years back is so miserable to work on most shops here charge well over $100.00 just to look at it. When all is said and done, it is cheaper to replace it with a new Miele than repair it when it breaks.

The biggest issue with their testing is recommendations of vacuums they say filter well that actually don't when measured with a laser particle counter. This becomes a serious issue for the severe asthmatic that buys a poorly sealed unit they say filters well for $500.00 that actually makes them even sicker than they already are. In lots of cases those individuals needed a Lux, Miele, Sebo or better yet a Filter Queen due to the fact it filters three times finer than HEPA and any other vacuum on the market.

One final note. I am not sure what type of carpet quality you have. If you have VERY expensive carpeting, my choice for a machine would be a little softer roller such as the Kirby, Lux, Filter Queen or Rainbow. The reason being test results done with an electron microscope on carpet fibers cleaned with a stiff roller like some of CR's Hoovers and a Lux Omniflo over a period of several years. The wear caused to the ends of the fibers by the stiff bristles is dramatic and is very evident looking at the carpeting, especially the traffic areas. Sebo offers a softer roller and the Miele 236 and 228 are good too. Again if you follow my advice above and vacuum regularly with one of the machines I suggested earlier, each will deep clean your carpets well. Generally a stiffer roller cleans better but there is an opportunity cost associated with it. There is no sense in buying carpet by the yard and throwing it away by the pound.

Also weightlifters and former truck drivers in the Teamsters don't need a 32 pound vacuum to have really clean carpeting. Twenty Two years driving heavy trucks for H.P. Hood Inc. and Alliant Foodservice in Boston taught me to work smarter not harder and Dunkin' Donuts come 12 to a box.

Brian

 

[ctsooner]

First post and brand new here

Hi. I"m a member of many other forums that I join to learn more about products before purchasing. I've become a woodworking building many nice projects and now have a full workshop. I have always cooked and now own three hand made Japanese knives and sharpening stones for them. I have been an audiophile since I was 13 and now I'm also a videophile (feel free to contact if you need info). I am 53 and came down with MS 6.5 years ago and am disabled. I am a retired Naval officer and was a headhunter for 11 years before getting sick.My wife wants the Oreck I've hated for years now, for her office. That means I get to buy a new one for the house. We have a 2500sf home with mostly wood and tile floors, but we have an area rug in the bedroom that the bed sits on and we have a three large rooms upstairs that are normal carpet. I have an Oreck floor cleaner also that is a B to work and I hate it. I've only used it twice and am going to sell it. I will need to get a smaller or easier cleaner as I have three Yorkies who all like to 'soil' the carpet when I am not looking.

I've read this thread and this is what I take out of it. I need a canister as it will be better and easier for the hard floors and with a good powerhead I can do the carpets. I also will need a power tool for the carpeted stairs. I wish I had enough money to get some of the higher end units, but I'm willing to buy reconditioned in order to get more for my money.

There is much confusion because you all are looking for individual things (it's the same thing with knives, wood and audio too).

Nothing against those of you who like CR, but I've had many problems with them in the past. For me, I get more info from experts who work on things rather than a magazine that tries things for 5 minutes each and make recommendations. I know it's more than that, but I'd rather hear what you guys would recommend I do. I will go to two local stores tomorrow to get their thoughts as well as to see what they have used too. It Royal worth it? Should I just get a Hoover? What is the price range for a very good canister? Do I need to go to 600 or so?

Help please. So much to learn Thanks for listening.

 

[strongenough78]

I myself love my Kirby G4. And after using my Grandma's Kenmore Progressive Canister, I wouldn't mind having one of those either. It's pretty quiet compared to my Kirby even, it cleans great and grooms wonderfully. But then my Kirby does too but the Kenmore costs much much less lol. I want to try the Shark Navigators, you should look into those as well! Low cost and I've seen many good reviews on them.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

The Royal Model SR30020 - Lexon S20 is another good choice too. It is $700.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

The Panasonic MCCG902 bagged PN canister is a fine choice. It is $320.

 

[nycwriter]

FYI I have room-sized thick plush wool area rugs.

 

[ctsooner]

Should I be looking for used on the ones you all have talked about? I've seen some of the Shark's in Target and Kohl's. Are those the ones you are talking about or do they have an upper line that is better built?

My ex bought a Royal last year with the carpet cleaner as part of it etc...She paid 1100 from someone who came to her home. Are these Royals similar? Do they have different units that are better from their door to door folks or can I get the same unit for less at the local vacuum store?

320 for a Panny is in a great price range. What would I be missing out on compared to the Simplicity or Riccar (which is better)?

 

[ctsooner]

I just saw the Panny at Amazon for only 177 delivered. can you get a small powerhead for the stairs for that model?

 

[ctsooner]

I also have asked govacuum.com about the Royal that is reburbed for only 474 as that seems like a great value and in my price range if it's in like new condition. Thoughts?

 

[kirbyultimateg]

ctsooner,
I would get the Panasonic if I were you. A mini electric PN is optional for this machine.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

nycwriter,
As a general rule of thumb, Bagged dirty air uprights offer the best deep carpet cleaning performance. These outclean bagged clean air uprights and bagged PN canisters.
As a general rule of thumb, Bagged clean air uprights and bagged PN canisters offer the best above floor attachment cleaning performance. These outclean bagged dirty air uprights.