Karcher cv30/1 vacuum

[gsheen]

This vacuum got mentioned in a thread recently about been a bit of a sebo clone.


I managed to get my hands on one and my initial impressions were not very good.


It came in as a 3 month old trade in fromone of the hotels I deal with. They had sent it back to the agents after a loud noise had started making its self known and were told it was a motor and long story short it had been abused so it could not be covered under guarantee.


 


I got it and discovered that it was not the motor but the gear pully meachanism wich used two rubbers to hold it in place and one was missing.


Any how I fixed it and tried it out and it vacuums really well. its super quiet and a pleasure to use.


 


My problem comes in in the build quality. the built in hose and wand are of really poor quality plastic, you can bend the wand with your fingers. and the whole belt reduction gear system is very badly designed. Its a pity because its a really nice vacuum o use and grooms the carpet really well. here are some pics more to follow shortly 

 

[gsheen]

rear view 


 

 

[gsheen]

this is a picture of the plastic wand and how you can squash it between in your hand with ease. I have always thought Karcher built really good vacuums. some parts on this machine are very solid and well built and others are of such poor quality you have to wonder why they bothered. Its almost asif they started to design the machine and it was shelved only to be rushed into production a few years later by a different design team just to get it out there. 


Pity as it works very well but will never stand the test of time 

 

[sebo_fan]

gsheen - Karcher also sell a very cheap "Shop vac" style canister in the UK - it is by far one of the worst machines I've tried with similar notes as your findings to the hose and why oh why fit plastic tubes for a DIY specialist vac? I don't know if you have it in S.A

"WD 2.200" I also found this cleaner to clog up too much on dust, the paper bags were difficult to get and the hose was too short, often liable to pull the machine over. Having been the owner of a reliable Karcher pressure washer for many years (and still have the original model), I couldn't believe the difference of poor plastic quality.

 

[gsheen]

Sebo fan 


Yes i had a few of those , withthe metal drums , clips broke hose was awful and its tiny filter was a joke , its redeming quality was it was the only small drum vacI could find that filled from the top I modified the filter to take a aquavac sized one and fitted better hoses to it and it worked ok after that.


There commercial vacuums always seemed to be of good quality not so much the domestic ones


 


I had a karcher K3 pressure washer for many years and it worked great so when I needed one for heavy duty cleaning I bought the new K8 which has been nothing but a disaster. its just on a year old now and I have had enough, I going this weel to buy a kranzle.

 

[sebo_fan]

I have a K2.99 (see below) and the first week I used it, the handle cracked - I now have sealing tape over it and it has actually just made it stronger. Other than that it performs admirably. It came with a "Free" T50 tracer head which I find absolutely useless and I eventually bought a wash head with long bristles - that was useless as well and seemed to move dirt around rather than taking it off, especially when used to clean the car or windows.

 

[gmerkt]

Here in the US, the Karcher (sorry, I can't do the umlaut with my keyboard) brand is known mainly for their pressure washers. On one occasion, I did see one of the uprights similar to the one in the original post. But only one. They do not currently offer anything close in their very limited vacuum cleaner line in the US.

 

[gsheen]

I see that model is not available as a karcher in the usa but is sold as a tornado  however I discovered something interesting, Karcher USA owns windsor so it sells sebo vacuums , If you go to the link you will see that they sell the sebo felix/dart as a karcher in the usa 



http://www.karchercommercial.com

 

[sebo_fan]

Yeah, I know. Karcher USA are a supply company for Sebo vacuums. Karcher used to sell an X1 Automatic based upright. One of their better models is the "Bee" canister vacuum that is very similar to Henry - but again it comes with plastic tubes and it used to come with the original Sebo K suction only floor head (Hoover in Germany used to supply the same kind of floor head with their Arrianne/Telios models.)