How good are you at reccomending a vacuum?

[crazykirbydude]

I'm going to write out seven scenarios of people who need a vacuum. Some base rules are: No Kirbys. The vacuum you choose must be brand new and available brand new today. If the customer wants bagless, choose a bagless, not a bagged.

Scenario #1

Myrtle, 76 and her husband Edmund, 77 need a new upright vacuum. Their condo is 1/2 carpet and 1/2 hard floor. They are willing to spend up to $1700 on a quality cleaner. They need something light, simple to use tools with and needs an electric hand tool to pick up cat hair. It must be bagged as well.

Scenario #2

Janice is a married mom with two kids. Her house is mainly carpet. She needs the vacuum to have on board tools, upright and be bagless. It also needs to have a turbo hand tool for picking up stubborn dog hair. She is looking to spend $250 or under.

Scenario #3

Mary is a single woman who lives in a house built in 1887, so her floors are all hardwood, with the exception of an area run in the living room and bedroom. She is looking to spend about $700 on the right one. She would prefer a bagged canister.

Scenario #4

Eddie owns a restaurant with lots of low pile Berber carpet. He needs to have two units and is looking to spend about $1600 for both machines. He would prefer a bagged backpack with a large bag and long cord. The floor can get quite greasy at times.

Scenario #5

Katy is a college student who just moved into a dorm. She needs a compact vacuum that is bagless. Her dorm is all Berber carpet. She wants to spend $90 or less.

Scenario #6

Maria owns a small cleaning company. She has four maids who have five clients each.
She needs four vacuums for $1600, $400 apiece. She wants a long lasting upright that will clean carpets very well. She would prefer a shakeout bag or dust cup option, but paper bags will also do.

Scenario #7

Tara is 87, but she wants to vacuum her own house. She needs an upright that weighs less than nine pounds and has a paper bag. She has 3/4 carpets and 1/4 flooring. She looks to spend around $300 or less

 

[crazykirbydude]

Bonus round!

Tyler is looking for a cordless hand vac to clean his car. It needs to have an easy clean filter and long battery life, as well as attachments. He is willing to spend up to $70

 

[blackheart]

Well.

#1 Aerus legacy or a Simplicity wonder with the HEB accessory.
#2 Hoover T series or whole house ~130
#3 Miele C1 homecare $599 I would have suggested the Capri with the compact seb217 but it's been discontinued, Or a Simplicity Wonder cpn or fsn those floor it tools are awesome. If they wanted an upright A miele U1 series or even a quickstep with a powernozzle.
#4 Proteam supercoach pro 10 w/ restaraunt kit ~900
#5 I'm stumped on this one....I can't think of a cheap bagless machine that I don't think is crap for under 90.
#6 Carpet pro CPU-T2 4 units for about 1000 a few of the area colleges use them.
#7 Simplicity S10S/Riccar R10S about 300 in store. Among the best lightweight machines out there with a convenient two speed switch in the handle rather than a single speed on the base with an entry model.

 

[n0oxy]

my vacuum suggestions

For scenario number 1, the only uprights I know of that have an electric hand tool are made by Aerus, so I would suggest that. If they are willing to live with a turbo nozzle instead, I would suggest the Sebo Felix or one of the Riccar or Simplicity uprights. Since they have carpet and hard floors, an upright that allows you to switch off the brush roll is a must.
For Scenario number 2, I cannot think of anything to recommend. The only good bagless machines in my opinion are the water filtration machines and those are canisters. In this price range there are bagless machines available such as a shark and the Walmart garbage, but I would not recommend any of those because of poor quality and the issues with clogged filters and dust going all over the place when emptying them.
For Scenario number 3 we have several options. Since there is an area rug, we still need a spinning brush, and electric nozzles will always be better than turbo nozzles. I would suggest the Miele C2 electric which I think includes the SEB217. Another great choice would be the Riccar Prima or Simplicity Wonder, these canisters offer three different power nozzles, in this case, the cheapest power nozzle would suffice. Another option would be the Aerus classic, and if she is willing to go slightly over $700, the Sebo k3 can be had for $789. If for some reason the area rug cannot be cleaned with the spinning brush because of the material it is made of, there are a few other straight suction canisters I would suggest. The Miele C2 straight suction, the Sebo airbelt D1 or a numatic Henry.
For Scenario number 4, I would suggest a 10 quart backpack. I would suggest the Mosquito construction 10 quart backpack which has an industrial two stage motor, also the Sanitaire 535a 10 quart backpack is a good choice, it's very quiet. The proteam super coach 10 quart backpack is also very good. The last backpack I would suggest looking at is the Windsor 10 quart backpack.
For Scenario number 5 I cannot think of anything in this price range that I would be comfortable recommending, and anything bagless will have the bagless issues I talked about in Scenario number 2.
For Scenario number 6, I don't know much about uprights, I much prefer all types of canisters but I would suggest avoiding anything bagless. I would suggest one of the light models from Tacony, the Simplicity freedom perhaps.
For Scenario number 7, if Kenmore still makes any uprights, that might be worth considering here. Since I'm not in to uprights, that's the only decent vacuum I can think of in this price range, unless Tacony or Miele offer any uprights in this range.
Mike

 

[n0oxy]

one more suggestion

I have one more suggestion for Scenario number 3, I had to go and check the price on it, the Electrolux Ultra One Deluxe would be another suggestion for this scenario.
Mike

 

[myles_v]

Scenario #1

Aerus upright

Scenario #2

Shark with a turbo tool

Scenario #3

Miele C2 with a turbo head or a electro brush if she can fit it in her price range

Scenario #4

Proteam backpacks

Scenario #5

One of the newer Dirt Devil bagless machines

Scenario #6

Proteam upright

Scenario #7

Oreck or Simplicity, plus a small canister for above floor cleaning.

 

[tolivac]

For Eddie and his eatery-Suggest NO vacuum at all-vacuums of ANY sort just don't do well with grease.Use a non powered Bissel type sweeper and have a truck mount carpet cleaner clean the carpets monthly.Its worth it!Or take up the carpet-again use a broom or sweeper.Carpets and grease just don't mix.A truckmount can also be equipped to clean hard floors.Or Eddie can mop them.
Maria--She should have BOTH a canister and an upright.That way she is ready for whatever kind of floor her clients have.Sanitaire for the upright-or commercial metal Royal.For canister any high quality Proteam or other backpack.Will need to think on others.

 

[myles_v]

Tolivac,

Maria's cleaning business would do quite well with a Proteam upright. They clean hard floors and carpets both very well and they have a quick draw hose. They're much more efficient than having to bring two different machines in and out of customer's homes.

 

[blackheart]

HA!

I need to read things a little more carefully, when i saw electric hand tool immediately i thought canister, but seeing some other replies i looked back to discover that upright was specified. whoops! That question really only had one answer though. An aerus upright, I cannot think of any other uprights with powered tools, at least in the US.

 

[wyaple]

Adin, what I find so interesting about your

descriptions is that:

1) I didn't really find anything about deep cleaning ability and
2) cost of regular maintenance

Business owners will definitely demand budgetary numbers for any machine they purchase. After all, who wants to spend $500 on a machine that has annual maintenance/running costs that might be over $100?

I understand that the vast majority of people only consider price and features and that is very disheartening because that very attitude has gotten us to where we are now. El-Cheapo, big-box, bag-less, sub-$100 throw away cleaners. And to top it off, most clean very poorly, even if you spend over $500 in a boutique store.


Bill

 

[n0oxy]

the real issue

The real issue is people don't want to pay for quality anymore, they want it cheap, and if that means replacing it every couple years, they are fine with that. It never occurs to most people that it would actually be cheaper to spend the money up front and buy a machine that will last from 10 to 20 years. As has been stated, that's why good quality vacuums are getting harder to find.
Mike

 

[crazykirbydude]

I get...

That the quality of "mainstream" vacuums have gone downhill, but the plastic vacs still have their place. Katy works at a Mickey D's, so a Kirby is quite far outside of what she can afford. To Katy, a non collector, she needs something to clean The floor decently. She does not need an Aerus or Kirby for her small dorm. To her, a car, or a new computer for class takes priority over a vacuum cleaner. Janice is a teacher with kids. She needs the $1395 she would spend on a Kirby for her rent. She also needs to feed herself, her husband and her two kids. Again, feeding a family takes priority over a vacuum. I have included people looking to purchase high end cleaners as well, so the expensive ones go there. It is very difficult to work on a budget. I specifically designed this test to push you out of your comfort zone with bagless vacuums. Some people just don't like bagged vacuums as well. The high end brands such as Kirby and Aerus are supreme in their cleaning ability when compared to low end cleaners, and as a Kirby fan myself, I can say the Kirby is one of the best options out there.

 

[n0oxy]

more than just a comfort zone

For me at least, it's not just about the comfort zone, although the only vacuums I will use are bagged vacuums or water filtration bagless machines. The fact is, the other bagless machines have issues that will probably cause problems, when emptying them, dust goes all over the place, and the filters on these machines clog very quickly. Also, the quality on these vacuums is usually very poor. I could not in good conscience recommend any of those to someone. It's a shame Panasonic left the vacuum market, those would have been perfect for some of those scenarios, they were decent vacuums at a good price. If someone asks me to recommend an upright, I can provide good brands, but don't know much about the models since I'm a complete canister person.
Mike

 

[vacuumsalesman]

Scenario 5: if it's a dorm it shouldn't be that big at all. I'd get something like a certified refurbished Shark Rocket with a cord, or anything similar like those offered by Bissell or Dirt Devil, despite this vacuum being more like a stick-vac.
Bonus round: a good cordless handvac could be offered by dewalt, but I don't know how easy the filter is to clean. However, they have large capacity dirt containers and they are wet and dry. If that doesn't float the boat I'd get a lithium powered Black and Decker Flex.
I'm trying to think of things that are bagless, to fit the unanswered scenarios, so I still have to find something for #2

 

[vacuumsalesman]

Maybe for scenario 2, they could get a Dyson DC33 multi floor and buy attachments off the internet for the dog hair. That would only be $200, and a little more for the pet hair attachments. Dyson isn't my favorite upright, but they are generally better when compared to standard walmart vacuums.

 

[vacuumsalesman]

I'd like to do scenarios again, but with more flexibility in the upright/canister column. I'm fine with trying to find something bagless or bagged, but canisters are much more versatile and more recommended

 

[sebo4me]

I'm rubbish! All the vacuum cleaners I recommend suck!