cheesewonton
Well-known member
I have been curious about Metrovacs for a long time but the price always put me off and used ones almost never turn up on eBay. However I recently had an opportunity to buy a new Metrovac Evolution two-speed canister and power nozzle for about half price from a freight liquidator in the Midwest so I swooped. I have only used it once but here are my initial impressions, but first the suction and airflow I measured.
Sealed suction is only 58 inches of water lift measured at the hose end. There are no audible leaks and I let the number stabilize to ensure that was all it had.
Airflow: The inside diameter of the hose opening is 1.1 inches ( same number for pretty much all the "1 1/4 inch" hose ends. Inside diameter is always less. Measured airspeed is 5800 feet per minute. That yields an airflow of about 31 cfm.
For comparison a Tristar DXL produces about 62-64 inches of water lift at the hose end and 27-28 cfm airflow also at the hose end. A Patriot has the same suction and maybe 30 cfm airflow. My VAPamore ( CRAPamore ) MR500 Vento manages 80-82 inches of water lift at the hose end but the same mediocre 31 cfm airflow. My Riccar 1700 produces a prodigious 92 inches of water lift at the hose end but a disappointing 30-31 cfm airflow. I can't get a good suction reading from our Kenmore 600 due to the weird shape of the hose end but it produces a healthy 72 cfm at the hose end.
So what's it like to use? It is surprisingly light for an all steel vacuum with a two stage 5.7 inch Ametek motor. It rolls easily on four nice big wheels, much like an old Tristar in that regard. It doesn't roll over and play dead like a lot of modern canister vacs with top mounted swivel hoses ( Miele ! ). The hose is only 6 1/2 feet long, shorter than I like but no worse than pretty much every Tristar, Electrolux or Miele. It is not as loud as I expected and most of what you hear is the woosh of air coming out the exhaust. The cord is only 25 feet so I have to use three plugs to accomplish my normal cleaning where with a Kenmore, Sebo C3.1, Tristar, Patriot or the Aerus Guardian Platinum I can use just one plug and reach everything. A ten foot long hose would solve the problem. The power nozzle connects to the hose handle with a pig tail. The female plug on the hose handle is not recessed so there is no shroud around the contact pins. The plug on the cord that comes with the power nozzle is a stretchy coiled cord that kept pulling out of the socket on the hose handle. The contact pins fit kind of loose too. I have a short pigtail I dug up and squeezed the contact pins ever so slightly oval with some pliers and used that to lengthen the cord a bit and get a better contact with the hose handle. That works better. The hose end and upper wand should really be direct connect. I may come up with something in the fullness of time since the handle looks like something Hayden used to use.
The power nozzle was a pleasant surprise. It is extremely quiet and does the job better than my Miele or Wessel-Werk power nozzles. Aside from the connection to the hose the only thing that feels like it might not last is the height adjuster. I normally use my hand to operate height adjusters but this one requires too much pressure for my hand. Even using my foot you really have to step down on the pedal and it makes an uncomfortably loud click as you move through the height selections. This is the part that feels like it will fail if you use it a lot. Fortunately it seemed to clean our rugs well on one setting so that is where I shall leave it.
The decal on the body claims six stages of HEPA filtration but I can only count four, the disposable bag, the inner cloth bag, a foam pre-motor filter that sits in front of a thick pleated HEPA filter over the motor. There is no exhaust filter of any kind unless I am missing it. The only disposable bag Metrovac offers is paper. No bueno! I trimmed the mounting card of a Vortech XR3000 synthetic dust bag and use that. The mounting card on the Vortech bag is just ever so slightly thicker than the OEM bag so the lid latches very tight. On the next bag I will try squeezing down the cardboard a bit to make it thinner so as not to put too much strain on the bag lid latches.
I haven't tried this yet, but I have an aftermarket Electrolux hose with the exact same handle on it that plugs into a traditional Electrolux upper wand. The steel spout is very slightly different though. I will test the Metrovac with my PN5 to see if it makes the connection and stays connected. If so I have a work around for the balky pigtail. Stay tuned for updates.
So there it is. Kind of a relic in a way, more like an old Royal than any modern vacuum. Modest performance by modern standards but no worse than Patriot sells for three times the price, and all steel. Given reasonable care it would probably last the life of most owners. Even the cheap Chinese power nozzle is better than I expected and a lot more civilized to use than a Eureka Rugmuncher or even a Riccar PB100. Did I say I like how easily it rolls?
Sealed suction is only 58 inches of water lift measured at the hose end. There are no audible leaks and I let the number stabilize to ensure that was all it had.
Airflow: The inside diameter of the hose opening is 1.1 inches ( same number for pretty much all the "1 1/4 inch" hose ends. Inside diameter is always less. Measured airspeed is 5800 feet per minute. That yields an airflow of about 31 cfm.
For comparison a Tristar DXL produces about 62-64 inches of water lift at the hose end and 27-28 cfm airflow also at the hose end. A Patriot has the same suction and maybe 30 cfm airflow. My VAPamore ( CRAPamore ) MR500 Vento manages 80-82 inches of water lift at the hose end but the same mediocre 31 cfm airflow. My Riccar 1700 produces a prodigious 92 inches of water lift at the hose end but a disappointing 30-31 cfm airflow. I can't get a good suction reading from our Kenmore 600 due to the weird shape of the hose end but it produces a healthy 72 cfm at the hose end.
So what's it like to use? It is surprisingly light for an all steel vacuum with a two stage 5.7 inch Ametek motor. It rolls easily on four nice big wheels, much like an old Tristar in that regard. It doesn't roll over and play dead like a lot of modern canister vacs with top mounted swivel hoses ( Miele ! ). The hose is only 6 1/2 feet long, shorter than I like but no worse than pretty much every Tristar, Electrolux or Miele. It is not as loud as I expected and most of what you hear is the woosh of air coming out the exhaust. The cord is only 25 feet so I have to use three plugs to accomplish my normal cleaning where with a Kenmore, Sebo C3.1, Tristar, Patriot or the Aerus Guardian Platinum I can use just one plug and reach everything. A ten foot long hose would solve the problem. The power nozzle connects to the hose handle with a pig tail. The female plug on the hose handle is not recessed so there is no shroud around the contact pins. The plug on the cord that comes with the power nozzle is a stretchy coiled cord that kept pulling out of the socket on the hose handle. The contact pins fit kind of loose too. I have a short pigtail I dug up and squeezed the contact pins ever so slightly oval with some pliers and used that to lengthen the cord a bit and get a better contact with the hose handle. That works better. The hose end and upper wand should really be direct connect. I may come up with something in the fullness of time since the handle looks like something Hayden used to use.
The power nozzle was a pleasant surprise. It is extremely quiet and does the job better than my Miele or Wessel-Werk power nozzles. Aside from the connection to the hose the only thing that feels like it might not last is the height adjuster. I normally use my hand to operate height adjusters but this one requires too much pressure for my hand. Even using my foot you really have to step down on the pedal and it makes an uncomfortably loud click as you move through the height selections. This is the part that feels like it will fail if you use it a lot. Fortunately it seemed to clean our rugs well on one setting so that is where I shall leave it.
The decal on the body claims six stages of HEPA filtration but I can only count four, the disposable bag, the inner cloth bag, a foam pre-motor filter that sits in front of a thick pleated HEPA filter over the motor. There is no exhaust filter of any kind unless I am missing it. The only disposable bag Metrovac offers is paper. No bueno! I trimmed the mounting card of a Vortech XR3000 synthetic dust bag and use that. The mounting card on the Vortech bag is just ever so slightly thicker than the OEM bag so the lid latches very tight. On the next bag I will try squeezing down the cardboard a bit to make it thinner so as not to put too much strain on the bag lid latches.
I haven't tried this yet, but I have an aftermarket Electrolux hose with the exact same handle on it that plugs into a traditional Electrolux upper wand. The steel spout is very slightly different though. I will test the Metrovac with my PN5 to see if it makes the connection and stays connected. If so I have a work around for the balky pigtail. Stay tuned for updates.
So there it is. Kind of a relic in a way, more like an old Royal than any modern vacuum. Modest performance by modern standards but no worse than Patriot sells for three times the price, and all steel. Given reasonable care it would probably last the life of most owners. Even the cheap Chinese power nozzle is better than I expected and a lot more civilized to use than a Eureka Rugmuncher or even a Riccar PB100. Did I say I like how easily it rolls?
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