Most unpleasant-sounding vacuum ever?

[niclonnic]

I've seen a thread in the archives about what members' quietest and loudest vacuums are. But I was inspired by a post over on AW.org to make this thread. I wasn't sure which forum to put this in, so I picked Contemporary.

What is the one vacuum cleaner that irritates you the most in terms of noise? This is a particularly good question for apartment dwellers. I have a personal list of all the machines I've used and/or owned which have the most unpleasant noise, in no particular order:

- Dirt Devil Dynamite: I used one in high school, and its noise was SO ANNOYING. The whiny, high-pitched, 7 amp motor sounded like a constant ringing in my ears the whole time I was using it. It didn't help that once the pleated filter got dirty, the noise became more obnoxious.

- Dyson DC07 Animal: The man, the myth, the legend, its noise was rather unpleasant during operation. The motor emitted a high-pitched whine, and the upwards-mounted inner cyclones created a lot of turbulence; they sounded like a strong wind howling. And whenever the brushroll got jammed...DON'T even get me started on the ratcheting noise. Although it doesn't hurt the machine, the sudden loudness scared the bejesus out of me on the rare occasions it did occur. The general noise was exacerbated at my mom's place, thanks to her one-bedroom apartment. The smaller space only made the vacuum louder.

- Black & Decker "The Collector" Hand Vac: This '90s direct-air bagged (either with a shake-out or optional paper bag) handheld vacuum was no stranger to be on this list; it was LOUD, and therefore scared me as a kid. When I went to use it myself many years later, the vacuum was just as loud as I remembered, and the whole thing vibrated in my hand. Although I didn't know it at the time, I eventually figured out that the fan must've been plugged up with fine dirt, making it unbalanced and contributing to the extra loudness.

- Dirt Devil Swivel Glide Vision: This early 2000s machine was where I started to hate the noise of a vacuum (I covered my ears before it was turned on). Ours was light gray, and had a high-pitched motor noise; not as bad as the Dynamite, but worse than most of the other SGVs I've seen on YouTube. Despite all the noise, suction loss wasn't very noticeable, even with the giant pleated "Perma Filter."

- Oreck XL Commercial: I can see why people refer to these vacuums as "screamers." The direct-air motor has no insulation whatsoever, which makes the 8-pound wonder so LOUD. Then why are they so popular in hotels?

So that's my personal list. Which vacuum, in terms of noise, do you dislike the most? This can apply to either vintage or modern machines.

 

[kirbyman65]

i would say

my dirt devil dynamite and my eureka superlite and superboom. I would have to disagree with you about orecks. Mine isn't too bad. Also is AW.org another vacuum cleaner collector website? I tried to look it up but I couldn't find anything.

 

[niclonnic]

kirbyman65

AW.org is shorthand for automaticwasher.org. It is the sister site to Vacuumland, where people discuss washing machines, dryers and dishwashers. You can get to AW via a link on the home page. I'm also a member on there.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

My 2 cents

I'm not a fan (no pun intended) of how modern low-end Bissells sound. It's like they're trying to sound high-tech when they're obviously anything but.

The sound of G-Series Kirbys in tool mode is also very grading after a while of use.

The EBK-360 is also pretty annoying from what I've heard. You could have a really quiet canister or central vacuum, and have that quietness thrown out the window from a loud power nozzle.

 

[kirbyg6]

I don’t like that high pitched screaming sound that a Dyson makes

 

[eurekaprince]

Eureka’s 12 amp World Vac and Powerline uprights from the 1990’s were real screamers. You could hear them clear across all the other sales departments at Sears whenever they were being test driven!!!

 

[eurekaprince]

In terms of what’s on sale now, I find that bagless vacuums make more noise than bagged vacuums. All that plastic tends to transmit and echo motor noise, whereas a bag inside a compartment tends to dampen any motor noise.

 

[rainbowd4c]

Ones that come to mind.

Oreck.
Shark corded sticks. Really any corded stick. It sounds like a jet coming in on landing.
Kirby. When the hose is hooked up.

 

[kirbyman65]

Kirbyg6

I hadn't thought about Dyson, but that's so true. I was so excited when a family member gave me his V10, but after awhile its so annoying!

 

[powerstarenergy]

Dirt Devil Scorpion

Photo credit to RoyalFan103. I acquired this machine from my grandparents’ house when we went through it and claimed things after they passed away. I genuinely cannot tell if it just sounds like it does or it has a bad motor. I saw a video on it, and it sounds like it does in the video. However, I am still scared to run it for more than ten seconds.

 

[panasonicvac]

The ones that come to mind are the early Bissell Little Greens like the 1653 or the 1720 and the Dirt Devil Ultra hand vac. I don't like using either machines as the result.

 

[kirbylux77]

Regina Electrikbroom

I never was a fan of how these sounded, and the powerbrush version was even worse!

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

I will add my two pennies here: the 1995-2018 Royal metal uprights, when they switched to the drop-in motor units. These had a much more pronounced sound than the 1994 and older counterparts with the non-drop-in-type motors that you serviced piece-by-piece.

Rob aka @kirbylux77: I agree, especially the later 1970s and early 1980s units. I liked the original mid 1970s Electrikbrush/Powerteams.

~Ben[this post was last edited: 2/15/2025-03:03]

 

[tolivac]

I have a bagless Meilie canister that is very quiet.Unusual vacuum.Has two main chambers to catch dirt-dust.First chamber for large dirt-dust second for finer dust and has a filter.Bought this for my collecton.The dealer had it for a while and sold it to me at a good price.It is a suction only vacuum.Mst of my floors are now laminate.No more WW carpet as in my former house.

 

[tolivac]

Oh yes when I used the bagless Meile vacuum slirped out the chambers with a bagged Sebo canister.

 

[n0oxy]

unpleasant sounding vacuums

Since I'm a blind person, I tend to notice the sound of things a lot more. I really don't like any of the high pitch screaming motors which unfortunately is very common these days. Usually one stage motors that spin much faster than the two stage motors. In particular, Dyson and Shark use these motors but it's common with other brands as well. The Sebo and Miele canisters also use single stage motors I think but the sound is not as noticable. I really like the sound of the two stage motors that were common in the 60's and 70's. Also, in many cases, shop vacs sound kind of annoying, for some reason they are louder than many other vacuum types, not sure why.

 

[fan-of-fans]

To be honest I found most 1990s era direct air vacs like Hoover and Eureka to be unpleasantly loud! Even though they are nice vacuums.

And yes those Eureka Superlites, while they are cute, are very noisy!

Modern Bissells, to my ears aren’t actually too bad, especially considering how cheap they are.

 

[human]

My parents had a Singer upright that replaced our trusty old Hoover Convertible. It was just ridiculously loud, and for all that noise, didn't clean quite as well as the Hoover. I seem to recall that it did not stay in use very long.

I had a cat that hated the sound of my Eureka Princess power team. As soon as she saw the thing, she'd run and hide. I didn't even have to turn it on. She would wait as long as two hours after I'd shut it off and put it away before coming back out.

 

[lesinutah]

The

Bissell made in early to mid 2010s. It's a 12 amp motor that's super small. The vacuum just sounds overworked. I like the wessell werk ebk360.
The royal powercast (i believe is the name of the 12 amp rpyal)
Just very loud.

 

[powerstarenergy]

Speaking of Dirt Devils

I have come back to say that any 2010s Dirt Devil Stick Vac, most notably the Dirt Devil Power Stick, is unnecessarily loud.

 

[niclonnic]

On the subject of stick vacs...

I had a couple more vacuums that I forgot to put in my OP:

- Eureka Flash NES510: A corded unit by Midea, it had a rather loud, high-pitched motor. Plus, despite the "no loss of suction" claim, it wasn't cyclonic, so the filter got soiled VERY fast. Whenever the filter got packed with dust from normal usage, the vacuum would make a popping noise during the wind-down. That was a cue for me to wash the filter.

- Hoover ONEPWR Blade MAX BH53352V: A cordless, dual cyclonic machine by TTI, its "High Performance Digital Motor" had a very high-pitched whine during operation. Running it on low was a little more pleasant. But turning on the "boost" mode would make the vacuum louder and devastate the battery life.

But there is one more honorable mention:

- Black & Decker BDH2000SL 20V MAX Cordless Lithium-Ion Platinum Hand Vacuum - An incredibly powerful DustBuster that sounded incredibly LOUD and high-pitched during operation. Despite this, it was our go-to hand vacuum for several years.

There you have it: three vacuums that sound like a jet engine.

 

[evolutionclean1]

Not necessarily unpleasant

But I had a 70s Sanitaire that came standard with the 3.5 amp motor, that wasn't doing it for me so I swapped it for a 7.5 amp with the metal base and a shake out bag, holy hell. Using a free sound meter app on my phone, it was pushing 91dB. I think I put a VG1 in there too so yeahhh it was a carpet rocker

I did end up selling it as I've done so many purges over the last year ish, but it was probably the single loudest in the collection at the time. Now I've moved on to machines that are much much quieter, not sure where my new sound sensitivity came from...
I'll have to do some digging as I know I've come across plenty of very unpleasant sounding machines through the years, stay tuned?

 

[royalfan103]

@powerstarenergy

I still have the hand vac you mentioned and even after a disassembly and cleaning of the motor inside it, it still sounds like it’ll blow up. It had sounded like that since I first got it.

 

[Eureka1458A]

A Singer replacing a Hoover Convertible…That stinks! I remember the Singer vacuums back in the late 80’s-early 90’s and I was never a fan of them not to mention I didn’t think they cleaned all that great either.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

I've seen a thread in the archives about what members' quietest and loudest vacuums are. But I was inspired by a post over on AW.org to make this thread. I wasn't sure which forum to put this in, so I picked Contemporary.

What is the one vacuum cleaner that irritates you the most in terms of noise? This is a particularly good question for apartment dwellers. I have a personal list of all the machines I've used and/or owned which have the most unpleasant noise, in no particular order:

- Dirt Devil Dynamite: I used one in high school, and its noise was SO ANNOYING. The whiny, high-pitched, 7 amp motor sounded like a constant ringing in my ears the whole time I was using it. It didn't help that once the pleated filter got dirty, the noise became more obnoxious.

- Dyson DC07 Animal: The man, the myth, the legend, its noise was rather unpleasant during operation. The motor emitted a high-pitched whine, and the upwards-mounted inner cyclones created a lot of turbulence; they sounded like a strong wind howling. And whenever the brushroll got jammed...DON'T even get me started on the ratcheting noise. Although it doesn't hurt the machine, the sudden loudness scared the bejesus out of me on the rare occasions it did occur. The general noise was exacerbated at my mom's place, thanks to her one-bedroom apartment. The smaller space only made the vacuum louder.

- Black & Decker "The Collector" Hand Vac: This '90s direct-air bagged (either with a shake-out or optional paper bag) handheld vacuum was no stranger to be on this list; it was LOUD, and therefore scared me as a kid. When I went to use it myself many years later, the vacuum was just as loud as I remembered, and the whole thing vibrated in my hand. Although I didn't know it at the time, I eventually figured out that the fan must've been plugged up with fine dirt, making it unbalanced and contributing to the extra loudness.

- Dirt Devil Swivel Glide Vision: This early 2000s machine was where I started to hate the noise of a vacuum (I covered my ears before it was turned on). Ours was light gray, and had a high-pitched motor noise; not as bad as the Dynamite, but worse than most of the other SGVs I've seen on YouTube. Despite all the noise, suction loss wasn't very noticeable, even with the giant pleated "Perma Filter."

- Oreck XL Commercial: I can see why people refer to these vacuums as "screamers." The direct-air motor has no insulation whatsoever, which makes the 8-pound wonder so LOUD. Then why are they so popular in hotels?

So that's my personal list. Which vacuum, in terms of noise, do you dislike the most? This can apply to either vintage or modern machines.

Speaking of the Black & Decker Collector, do you remember the original 9375 Collector and the 9376 Shop Collector from the early to mid 1980s?


~Ben

 

[cheesewonton]

A G series Kirby using the hose is pretty unpleasant sounding. My old Hoover Caddy Vac basically converts electricity into noise. Hoover Quadraflex and Eureka Express / Rugmaster power nozzles both sound like wood chippers O_O.

The quietest vacuum I have experienced is my Japan market Lux 1R D820 with the Ze3 power brush. Both are quieter than even a Miele.

 

[niclonnic]

Speaking of the Black & Decker Collector, do you remember the original 9375 Collector and the 9475 Shop Collector from the early to mid 1980s?


~Ben

I wasn't born yet when this vacuum was out. That example was indeed very large; it might as well be a small canister like the Mighty Mite.

As for my old Collector, I only found one video of an extremely similar model in action: the AC8260. This one has an orange logo, but otherwise looks identical to the AC8000. It sounds a lot quieter than mine, likely because of a cleaner fan. I'm surprised at how loud these vacuums are, despite drawing only 2 amps.

 

[xaxa17]

Je n'aime pas ce bruit aigu et strident qu'émet un Dyson

effectivement le sifflement permanent de l'air dans les cyclone est assez agacants, mais les fans de dyson acceptent bien un de leurs rares défauts.

Le bruit les plus agréables proviennent des aspirateurs à air direct, on peut entendre l'air passer sans efforts à travers les larges conduits généralement donné à ces aspirateurs.

 

[huskyvacs]

Hoover Z700 makes my tinnitus aggravated, and the constant clackclackclackclackclackclack of the filter-flicker drives me up the wall.

Any of the basement level $40 MSRP Dirt Devil and Eurekas from 1998-2005 should not be used without aircraft-grade ear protection.

 

[niclonnic]

My Dyson DC17 is a worthy contender for this list. Its brushroll tends to clack and sound uneven, almost like a saw grinding at my carpet. That drives me up the wall and makes me want to put on my Bose noise-canceling headphones while vacuuming (they work very well).

Fortunately, I have found the underlying cause. A year and a half ago, I did a clever little DIY hack where I put two thin pieces of adhesive rubber near one of the brushroll end caps to eliminate the rattling; that managed to quiet down the machine. Despite that, the brushroll gradually started to rattle again, and that's where I found a design flaw with the DC17.

For some reason, the brushroll motor cavity is not very well sealed, so small bits of hair will get wrapped around the geared motor shaft (similar to a turbo brush's turbine). That contributes to a rattling brushroll despite my aformentioned hack. So I had to take a pair of needlenose pliers and yank all the hairs off of the shaft. Once it was clean, the brushroll sounded significantly quieter. But I know that hair will eventually get tangled around the brushroll motor shaft and make the vacuum loud again. It's a vicious, never-ending cycle.