I thought I was supposed to hate Orecks?

[vintagekitchen]

I cant beleive it. Found an Oreck XL at a yard sale Saturday, in very nice condition, still with all the paperwork for only 3 dollars, so figured what the heck.

I had always thought Oreck was a fairly poor performer, especially going by what was said on the site, not to mention overpriced. I still think they are overpriced, but wow, this is not a bad vacuum!

I put in a new bag, changed the belt, (still had the extra belt on the bottom, and an extra bag in the pocket on the back), and gave the house a good going over. I dont know how, but my carpets look really really good, and feel very nice and soft. It somehow got them softer and fluffier than the Compact or the Kenmore twin fan usually do.

Granted, my carpet is VERY low pile, but I was still impressed at the cleaning job it did, you could hear when it was dragging in unseen grit from in the pile and under the carpet. The noise is a bight high pitched and loud for my tastes, but for ease of use and performance, I would rate it fairly high.

Why on earth do Orecks get such a bad rap, when this one has suprised the heck out of me?

 

[dustin]

Nice job for $3! That isn't that old either. Probably by my guess 2005 or 2006? We got the same vacuum, only in black, at the church I used to go to and I thought it worked very well. It was replacing an older oreck (commercial version) that screamed like a banshee and had no bristles left on the brushroll. Those carpets didn't know what hit them when the new one came along.

 

[s31463221]

Kevin

I've had very few dealings with Orecks, with the only one I ever used was a small canister vac we had to clean up in our pill pre-packaging machine in the pharmacy I used to work for. That poor little thing was pitiful, granted it came as a freebie with the Oreck upright vac and was given to our department by a former employee, but it seriously struggled picking up a pill larger than your average aspirin! The company store actually sold brand new Orecks (upright and canister combo) for I believe $299, but after attempting to use that poor machine, I said then I would never waste my money on one....now if I ran across one in decent shape for $3 I might consider it, but otherwise I would be afraid to plunk too much into one. I am however glad you had good luck with the one you found! Perhaps I'm just coming from a skewed view of them with the pathetic one we had!

 

[kirbysthebest]

Orecks are very good machines

If your expectations are for what it is. A small light weight vacuum. If you are expecting full size Kirby, Electrolux, or central vac performance you will be disappointed.

Orecks serve their purpose, and do a very good job in their arena with lower pile carpeting. They are excellent carpet groomers because of their rapidly turning brush roll.

Screamers--agreed, but not all of them. Some models are very quiet.

Overpriced. I will agree with you. I am willing, however, to double your money right now and take it off your hands. I do like the handle design, they are very comfortable to use.

 

[jmurray01]

That is exactly how I felt about Dyson Kevin, not that I am comparing fried eggs with a full fry up, Oreck is always the better "bad" one! Plus, although my opinion is slightly higher of Dyson, it is still way down there with the rest of 'em bagless pieces of dust. But, I can understand.

Talking of fluffy piles, I actually noticed that yesterday after giving the house a thorough vacuuming as I do every Sunday with my 1977 Hoover Senior Ranger the carpets were really plush in between the toes, something I rarely notice about those carpets.

 

[sebo_fan]

Kevin, the Oreck's get a "poor" reputation because of their lightweight build, occasional clogging and the joy of having to remove the entire spine at the back to remove the clogs. Also they're of the more traditional "upright only" without tools and here in the UK they are way too expensive for what you get. Also even if newer machines have slip out slip in dust bags, the machine is noisy, it can't be tilted and wheeled back to its destination after cleaning, the edge cleaning brushes have to be bought and replaced every so often.

I just wish Orecks were far cheaper in the UK and a lot quieter. I'm sure they could do a "heavy" model with extra sound insulation and I live in hope!

 

[vinvac]

Kevin,

My Oreck XL21 is my daily driver. The design is a little different than the machine you have, but I think it cleans very well and does groom the carpet nicely.

Steve,

I also have the Buster B small canister vacuum with my Oreck XL21 and it is a great performer...as long as the bag is not full. Much better air flow than a Hoover Porta Power. I added the wheel kit for mine.

Like many here, I used to think Oreck was not all it was cracked up to be, but I do love mine now. Overpriced..but I have to give credit where credit is due...

Morgan

 

[sebo_fan]

Overpriced in the U.S? I thought Orecks would be dirt cheap?

 

[vintagekitchen]

Overpriced in USA

Oh yeah, the bottom of the line upright, without the caniister vac, is a base price of 199 dollars. Middle of the line 499 dollars , and top of the line 599 dollars.

If you want the "powerteam", which means you get the upright and the canister, the bottom of the line set is 299 dollars, middle of the line 599 dollars, and top of the line 699 dollars.

Keep in mind there are very few differences between the bottom of the line and top of the line, such as a headlight, etc.

 

[sebo_fan]

The base price for the Oreck in the U.S is equivalent to £127 in pounds - our base Oreck costs £219 which equates to 341.33 dollars.


 


The Graphite model in the U.S costs 349 dollars (£223) but the same UK model costs £249 which is a little bit more. However, the U.S has a far bigger range - the UK site only has 3 models on offer with the XL10 at £359-00 equates to 559.47 dollars. You guys have 5 models as opposed to our out dated 3 models.


 


The only high street franchise who used to sell Oreck was John Lewis who carry Sebo and Miele - but the Orecks have not been selling at all. I know this because I've only asked a few who work there as to how sales are doing in general and the Oreck has not been popular, sadly.


 


But then, I think the UK are a nation who prefer to have vacuums with everything on board. Gone are the days where you could buy an upright vacuum with no other tools on board. The Hometek Light n Easy was probably one of the last for that kind of design and if buyers want an upright only without tools, they usually end up going down the commercial route. 

 

[vintagekitchen]

On board tools

I was never really a fan of them. I grew up using either Kirby's and Eureka F&G uprights, with no on board tools, or canisters like Rainbow and Filterqueen. I find onboard tools to generally be make the vac clunky, heavier, and the damn hose is always in the way. Not to mention they are generally of flimsy design and poor suction, compared to what one expects for a decent canister.

I tend to prefer the 2 vacuum theory, simply because it seems to work best. An upright for floors, and a canister for above floor use. I picked up an Oreck buster B compact canister today that the boss refused to put on the floor for some cosmetic reasons (stain here, scratch there, etc etc. I'm going to see how I like the Oreck team.)

 

[vintagekitchen]

Performance and Carpet Style

So far I can still say the machine does what it is supposed to, and does it well, without any extras, bells, or whistles.

The performance seems right on par with that of the vintage Hoover Convertibles and Eureka F&G uprights, which makes sense. Those vintage machines used a 3.5 amp motor generally, and Oreck uses a 4 amp. Of course no beater bars like the old machines, but I really think they are only needed for deep pile shag or very tight weaves.

Thats something alot of people still seem to fail at. I see it every day with customers at the store. People never seem to consider their carpet type when choosing a vacuum. They just pick something pretty, and expect it to work. For general low pile carpet this machine seems to do very well, but I'm sure one couldnt expect stellar performance using it on deep shag stye carpets. I wonder how many of those who dont like them considered their carpet type?

 

[sebo_fan]

Its like the issue of separate tumbler dryers and washing machines. My parents preferred combo units but then realised that the heater elements were prone to burning out more because of the stress washer dryers had to take when used at once. Separate dryers and separate washers offer a better compromise, even though those are prone to breakages too, but with longer term use than washer dryers.


 


I will agree though that at one time uprights with tools made the whole affair time consuming and bulky, but not now - uprights are far more efficient with good tools on board. Cue example my Sebo Felix. It doesn't have a long hose, but it fits the need of what I need it to do, plus if I want to I can fish out the extension tube whenever I want and use that.