Is this a good vacuum?

[azman293]

Hi I am Brandon I am new here but I have always had a thing for vacuums. Even though I do not collect them I am still a fanatic, instead I collect fire alarms.

I have a quick question, we just hired a cleaning lady and she refuses to use our Kirby G4 (she hates them) which is our main vacuum for our house. So we made a deal that she could use hers but we had no idea what condition hers was in until we saw it. It is hardly maintained and drops alot of stuff. Well just Saturday night I remembered about my Regina HouseKeeper Ultra out in the garage I use to vacuum our cars. For six hours on Sunday I stripped it down to its motor and cleaned it out, we are hoping she will use my Regina instead of her vacuum. So my question is, is the Regina HouseKeeper series a exceptional house vacuum? Since I know they are not made anymore. The Regina has never been used in our house because our old neighbors who were moving, wanted me to have it or else they would pitch it, since then it has been in our garage until now.

 

[lux1521]

I think most people here would say that a Regina HouseKeeper is one of the worst vacuums in the history of the industry. They are no longer made for a good reason. Your Kirby G4 is 100 times better. The Regina will most likly clean ok for a while but I would not expect it to last very long without something going wrong with it.

 

[vintageroyal611]

If she is an abuser...

Just buy a cheap dirt devil for her to use and get it over with. Just my personal opinion but the regina and dirt devil (which I only suggested because you said her vac was a mess)were and are the worst vacuums on the face of the earth!!!

 

[eluxomarty]

How about a Sanitaire?

Try a Sanitaire upright. They are fairly reasonable price wise and it would only be used in your house. Most houskeepers are familiar with them as most hotels etc. use them. Then she can use her crappy vacuum in her other homes.

Thats my suggestion.

Marty

 

[hoover1060]

Um... who works for who here?

If the housekeeper hates the Kirby, instead of replacing the vacuum how about replacing the housekeeper?
Either that, or remove vacuuming from her list of things to do, and someone in the house can vacuum after she cleans the rest.
Replacing a Kirby with a Regina Housekeeper would be like replacing a Mercedes with a Dodge Neon.
Just my two cents

 

[azman293]

Thanks for the opinions everybody, and hoover good point but when we were arguing with her over this she dropped her price down a ton for us so she could use her vacuum... Also the kirby is going nowhere for a long time (we love it). We were just going to let her use the regina (for when she cleans) and then use the kirby for our needs...

 

[hoover1060]

She'd have to drop her price...

even then I would insist on inspecting her vacuum to make sure it was decent enough.
You never mentioned what kind of vacuum does she have?

 

[swingette]

in defense of the househeeper...

i have used many uprights to clean large areas AND densely furnished areas. an upright cleaner HAS to be very nimble to work well around sofas and coffee tables and chairs. a cleaner that is too tall (motor hood) or that doesnt turn easily is a hassle to use. no offense, but a g-Kirby is tall for cleaning under furniture and those rubberised rear wheels dont seem like they would allow any sideways glide, IMO.

 

[swingette]

perhaps this might be an inexpensive option? well made (for the price) and cleans just as well as the Kirby.

http://www.vcdiscounter.com/u5432.html

 

[azman293]

I belive she has a bissel I am not sure of the model but other then the bag it seems she has done no other maintance to it... On the rollers you can not see any of the brushes and when she turns it on it shoots dust everywhere... We also believe it dropped a dead scorpion in our living room. Along with other debris. Also I am not out to make her sounds bad.. She is actually a very highly respected made in our neighborhood. She has had people for over 8 years and she is one of those Cleaning Ladys that never slacks off. Every other month she gets down on her hands a knees and cleans the base boards. She also moves furniture which our previous one never did when she cleaned here.

 

[compactc9]

guess I would either let her user her idea of a "vacuum" and then just use mine over the area later, or just have her do everything but the vacuuming (it's not the vacuuming I dislike doing). Another option would be to toss out the Regina and buy a decent but inexpensive cleaner, such as the Hoover Tempo (very basic WindTunnel version), it may not be perfect, but it will clean acceptably and it would be cheap to replace if she destroys it.

 

[azman293]

Why is the regina considered one of the worst vacuums ever made?

 

[turbomaster1984]

I would not let her use her own vac

on Hygiene Concerns, you just dont know whats its had up it. Say one of her other clients had grotty carpets with alsorts of biological stains or bacteria lurking in them. Fancy that bacteria from blood, vomit, animal mess etc spread on your carpet or other peoples dust mites? One of the reasons with I cleaned my most recent vac restoration with a strong solution of Dettol before I used it on my carpet. I would say she uses your Kirby or no job. Like you have a right also to specify which chemicals you want using in your home, you have the right to specify the level of cleanliness you want your carpets to have and if that means a vacuum that suits you thats that! Quash any of her concerns about the Kirbys safety too by having it serviced and service receipts/certificates to hand for inspection. Rob

 

[hoover1060]

I agree with Turbo

Simply for cleanliness reasons, I would not let her vacuum in my house no matter what...
Dead scorpion??? GEEZE!!!

 

[azman293]

Thats what pushed us over the edge... Anyways why is the regina considered one of the worst vacuums ever is it because of suction, duribility what?

 

[normvac]

cleaning homes!

Cleaning someone elses home is a hard working business, especially if you have gained a good reputation. I always
(when I had my busines) prefered to use my own vacuums for
all the other reasons. Customers vacuums were without paper
bags, clogged, no attachments to use, no belts, wrong belts.
Now granted if I had the chance to us a nice Kirby that would be great personally. Then on the other hand I had a good client that liked my work. Always had electrolux and in
good shape. It was a killer on a 3,000 sq ft. house and thick carpet pulling it around. Which I did until my back
started giving my problems and was trying to do two houses a
day! I asked if I could bring an upright to leave in her basement and she agreed. After she asked"I thought you liked my electrolux with Power nozzle?" I did but my back!
I agree in general that it is the home owners choice on chemcials and vacuum. As long as they supply them and maintain them to be used effieciently. I was in business turn my time into money!
Norm

 

[hoover1060]

Regina

Sadly the Housekeeper was/is one of the greatest vacuum disasters in history, not because it was a bad idea, more because it was not as thought out as it should have been. The Regina Housekeeper did change vacuum cleaners forever though.
1. It was the first upright vacuum to feature on board tools.
2. It was a clean air upright when there were literally NONE around, save for Panasonic which was not all that widely available at the time(1986)
If there had never been a Regina Housekeeper, we may never have had on board tools on any upright.
The Housekeeper was a good idea on paper, but in the flesh(plastique) it was horrific! People bought Housekeepers in droves(throwing away Hoover Convertibles and Dial-a-Matics and Eureka Uprights and Canisters and Kenmore powermates) and they soon found out that the Housekeeper would not stand up.
The return rate was 90%!!!
Things went south pretty fast for Regina, For a while Electrolux(Aerus) owned them, and the Housekeeper was redesigned. It was better and quality improved some, but it was too late for Regina.
I will get made fun of for saying this, but in my opinion the Regina Housekeeper is VERY collectible today. Yeah it was lousy, but it also holds an important place in floor care history, and hopefully someone somewhere will preserve a few.
Someday in the future collectors will talk about the Housekeeper(and the Royal Powercast and Hoover Z) like they do the Airway Dirtmaster today!

 

[tolivac]

You could really say that the Regina "Housekeeper" was the first INEXPENSIVE upright clean air vacuum made.Yes they were pretty bad-and finding one in nice usable condition is rare.I suppose they were bad machines so folks ABUSED them-and then the poor Regina vac spent its dieing last breath in the dumpster.As far as the maid-If she or he doesn't want to use MY equipment-then out THEY go!I don't want them to use their machine becuase of--dead Scorpions!What happened if it was a LIVE one her machine left behind-picked up from someone elses home!In the state of NC they have a law on the books that anyone that used a vacuum to clean other homes-a maid-janitor or cleaning service-had to replace the bag in between cleanings.Learned this as a vac demo person and from the Kirby folks here.