Lift-Off vacuums marketing &should be replaced with canister vacuums!

[vacuumdevil]

Lift-Off vacuums are a marketing Ploy and should just be replaced with standard canister vacuums. Change my mind!

It appears the pushback from consumers in the u.s. is so hard towards canisters that company started making canisters that look like uprights and calling them" lift aways"
SEBO and Bissell some of the first to do this in the 1990s

 

[vacuumdevil]

[No message]

 

[ultralux88]

I tend to agree, I don’t see much of a point, I’m sure someone does tho. Personally I would rather use a canister than a lift off tragedy that one must carry as it has no wheels. I’d much rather combine the best of both worlds though, use a vacuum that like an upright has no machine following behind you, but like a canister is used via the end of a hose. As everyone should know, I LOVE vacuums, but when it comes time to open the kimono and get down to business, nothing beats a good set of flaps... Sweepin flaps that is!

 

[kirby519]

I agree.

I for one prefer an upright. But if I am using some thing that is a canister vacuum it either has to have wheels on it for mobility or be a back pac vacuum. I too could not see any "real" value in the lift off design.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Yeah, I have one of the first Bissell Lift Offs, it's a neat vacuum but I don't really get the purpose of the lift off.

For above floor cleaning, I really don't like using most of the tool on board uprights. To me there's no way they could be as good as a canister for that purpose, unless they have a very long hose and you can just leave them in one place while you clean. Which most you see of the big-box ones do not. But they do have stretchy hoses that make them topple as soon as you touch the attachment to the surface to clean. I've had them topple ON ME more than once and it hurt!

I still don't see why people love tools on board uprights so much and say they're better than canisters for above floor cleaning. I don't see how that could be true, unless again, you're using it like a central vac. And you could do that with a canister just as well.

So the only thing I see about these lift off machines is that they figure since everyone these days wants an upright, evidenced by their near total domination in the big box stores, then making one that's a bit more convenient for above floor cleaning, without being a canister, might be a good sell.

Now I think there are some lift off machines that convert to canisters with wheels, if I remember correctly. I might be wrong, but I thought Shark had one.

 

[n0oxy]

sebo Felix?

I'm not sure if that would be considered a lift off model, I think you can remove the handle and it does have a hose. You can also actually remove the power head and attach a floor brush so this machine does walk the fine line between an upright and a canister. I will stick with my canister cleaners, whether it's one that follows you around, a backpack or a central vacuum, you can clean things so much more easily than with an upright. For the most powerful cleaner, connect a central vacuum hose to a central vacuum unit without pipes, the power is awesome.
Mike

 

[mike811]

Lift Off feature may sound like good idea for some people.
However there is a major problems with it. First of all the stretch hose. Absolutely nightmare when the vacuum falls over soon as you try to use the hose in the lift off mode. I had Shark NV340 which came with the canister caddy.
Stretch hose totally ruined that idea. Unusable when the hose constantly fights back and vacuum hits your feets all the time.
I was so frustrated, that I replaced the hose with normal hose. Now it works fine with the canister caddy.
My Shark NV340 went to my Mom and she didn't want to use it in the upright mode. So I customised the Shark to work in the canister mode. She really likes it now.
Note that this Shark has the Sebo motor from my Sebo K1 airbelt canister.
Why? Because it was 700w EU motor and I replaced it with the 1200w motor. So I had no other use for the 700w motor.

 

[n0oxy]

stretch hoses

I'm also not a fan of the stretch hoses, when you put the nozzle on a surface and airflow is restricted the hose tries to force itself back to the machine. One of these came with one of my backpack vacuums, and I tossed it, I have several regular backpack hoses I can use instead. I'm not sure what the appeal is of these stretch hoses but I would never use one.
Mike

 

[rolls_rapide]

Stretchable hose on uprights

Some uprights are better designed than other machines.

It helps if the hose connects at the bottom (like the Miele, some older Electrolux, and some Panasonic bagless models). Or is capable of being restrained for certain tasks, such as seen on some Hoover cleaners.

 

[mike811]

When I want to use upright with the hose (In this case Sebo Felix) I connect my extra long normal hose to it. That way I can do above the floor vacuuming + hardfloors. Not much need to move the vacuum and I can vacuum all hard to get places where the upright doesn't fit.

 

[vacuumdevil]

Thanks everyone for your response!

 

[fan-of-fans]

A friend of mine did have Kenmore bagless upright (by Panasonic) and it had a hose that was actually usable. It was pretty long and didn't fight you as badly as some models. The hose was near the bottom which helped, as mentioned in post above and there was also a clip that you could put it into which helped keep it from falling over if you didn't need as much hose. Plus that vacuum came with extra wands and a floor tool so it was a little more equipped than most newer uprights are. You could also slow the motor down on that one, which might help too with the hose reeling from the high suction. It might have even had a suction release valve on the hose end, but I can't remember.