My Arrival; Is The Bagged Power Nozzle Canister Market Dying?

[carolinaguy1996]

Hi guys, the reason why I started a new account is because I have no access to my old accounts. Ignoring that, I wanted to ask you guys a question. Something that I needed to have a talk about.

If you are a canister vac person, is the market really dying? I'm talking about the bagged canisters with electric nozzles. I know uprights tend to be better for storage. And we're talking about the department store kinds.

 

[kirbyvertibles]

I don't know. Yeats ago late 90sish I remember vacuum shops saying back then that power nozzle canister were dying with all these uprights having the capabilities of being both.

 

[carolinaguy1996]

The thing is though, there are people who prefer the space-saving capabilities of an upright. Hoover, Eureka, and Kenmore once had the best canisters. Now, those days have mainly ended. At least you have the used market.

 

[n0oxy]

canisters

When I created my account, I used my ham radio call sign for the name, but I think canisterlover may have been a better name. I'm just not a fan of uprights, I much prefer canisters of all kinds, whether central vacuum, portable canister, tub vac, or backpack. When it comes to department stores, yes, bagged canisters are pretty much gone, the only place I know of where these might still be found is Sears. Fortunately, good power teams are still made by Tacony, Miele, Sebo, Aerus, and for water filtration, Sirena and Rainbow. And you can always get a central vacuum unit and attach a hose directly to it and use a power nozzle with it, that's probably the most powerful canister cleaner you can get. Even though many uprights now use the clean air design as canisters do and have hoses for above the floor cleaning, a canister vacuum is still more flexible, easier to pull around and easier to switch attachments. And, even if you have a straight suction canister, you can use the Volt nozzle to turn it in to a power team.
Mike

 

[human]

Sadly, that does seem to be the case. Everything I see in stores these days are plasticrap vacs made of 100% pure chinesium. Fortunately, I've got enough good, metal machines on hand that I'll never have to stoop to using one of those.

The idea of modern uprights offering the best of traditional canister and upright features is a bit ironic to me in that I had exactly the same thought the first time I used a canister with a power nozzle a little over 20 years ago. Having only ever used straight suction canisters up until that point, the addition of a power nozzle to the equation seemed to add the best part of an upright to the canister configuration I preferred.

The general public's preference of uprights to canisters is also borne out in the thrift shops around here as canisters are generally priced less than uprights. Plastic craptastic uprights go for $15-20 while canisters--even high end models like Electrolux and Filter Queen--go for as little as $5-$10.

 

[carolinaguy1996]

I always felt the best canisters came from Aerus Electrolux and Kenmore, with Tacony and Miele. Hoover canisters, the old Windtunnel-style canisters were amazing (the Duros was a Sanyo, and the Windtunnel Anniversary Edition canister didn't feel like a real Hoover product-crap from Techtronic Industries). Eureka no longer has a share in them anymore. Dirt Devil, no way. Bissell, the Digipro was a failure. Check out fantomlightning's video on the Digipro, he gave the machine just desserts (it's from 2015). Oreck even had the Dutchtech, but nobody even remembers that machine (not even its replacements).

human, I seem to agree with you that vacuums now are not like what our parents and grandparents had growing up. Hoover has some new bagged powerhead canisters out-think durango159 can have a reaction?

 

[n0oxy]

canisters with power nozzles

I would say a ccanister with a power nozzle will clean just as good as, if not better than an upright, and a power nozzle can get under things better. What's even more fun is to pair up a canister with a different power nozzle than what it came with, most electric hoses have a two prong mini female plug so it usually works well. The power nozzles designed for central vacuums are fairly universal, last night I paired my new rainbow up with my centec CT10 power nozzle which is mainly designed for hard floors. Or how about pairing up an Electrolux 1205 with a Sebo ET2, or how about pairing the Ricccar Prima up with the Lindhaus PB14, the possibilities are endless. I realize most consumers will not be doing this, but I think part of the fun of collecting vacuums and attachments is trying all of the different combinations that you can create.
Mike

 

[vacerator]

Ok, but,

regardless of the length of the hose on any upright, stairs are an issue. It's easier to set a canister on a step than an upright.
There always those who said canisters were cumbersome. I grew up in a small house, but my mom liked her canister. She had one upright and hated it.
My friends mom who lived in the same size house a few streets away hated a canister. To each their own. My mom vacuumed drapes and dusted cob webs with the vacuum. Some prefer using feather dusters and such for above the floor cleaning.

 

[fan-of-fans]

You don't really see many canisters at all these days in department or big box stores. The only store I know of other than vacuum shops that sells full sized, bagged, power nozzle canisters still is Sears with their Kenmores.

You rarely see them at other stores, and those that you do, tend to be the bagless, straight suction variety.

I think most people these days just get a cheap bagless upright even if all they have is hard floors and figure that's all they need. A lot of people don't use a vacuum to do much other than clean the floor so the idea of using the attachments isn't an important issue.

I think this is also why so many vacuums now have tiny attachments, or even combo tools that combine the dusting, upholstery and crevice tools into one tiny part. People just don't use them often enough to where full size tools are needed anymore.

Bagged canisters with power nozzles were probably still pretty popular into the early 2000s, they were still in the JCPenney catalog then and maybe not in Walmart, but a lot of places still sold them.

Somewhere around the mid 2000s is when they started getting smaller and vacuums in general started having smaller and fewer attachments.

If you look at Eureka's canisters, around that time is when they started making just the tiny ones with little attachments also, and that's all they offer now.

Hoover kind of went the same way after TTI took over.

And as I mentioned most big box and department stores don't sell them. Bed Bath and Beyond - none, Walmart - maybe one Eureka, Kmart - a few bagless and bagged, and maybe Home Depot or Lowes might sell one model.

But yeah, Sears is pretty much it these days.

 

[carolinaguy1996]

That's the thing. My house now has zero carpeting-all hardwood. I don't use a vacuum anymore (minus that Eureka hand vac for car clean-ups). Also fan-of-fans, Sears and K-Mart is slowly dying because of the whole online craze. The last time I walked into K-Mart (when I first moved down here to North Carolina from New Jersey-this was near the Comfort Suites near Asheville Outlets), their vacuum aisle was in complete disarray. That only means one thing-online is destroying K-Mart.

I remember seeing fantomlightning's video on the DigiPro. For a Miele knock-off, it was a failure. It was so bad, it made his grandmother's Oreck perform better, as the T-Series he took back because it didn't impress him one bit. But at least it's not a Chinese Bissell-made in Korea because Samsung (the company whose phones blow up in pockets) had a relationship with the company on some products.

A central vac isn't for everyone-my house is not big enough for one.

 

[fan-of-fans]

This may sound a little odd, but I think in a way canisters are a generational thing. Younger people seem to go for the bagless uprights or they just use a Swiffer to clean, especially since hardwood floors are in style.

However, a lot of young people have seen my canister vacs and think they're awesome, so who knows.

My mother pretty much always used a canister over the years but did have a few uprights along with them. She prefers a canister because she can do all the dusting with it - which meant the dust got thrown away instead of wiped around.

One of my grandmothers had a Singer canister which may have been her first vacuum but when she moved to a new house with carpeting she got a Hoover Concept One upright to supplement it and later had another Elite along with it.

My other grandmother just used a broom until she got a GE Swiveltop in the 60s, then got a Rainbow D4 in the 80s and most recently got a Bissell bagless upright. I'm not sure she has the Rainbow anymore. Oddly she did use the Rainbow attachments for her hard floors and furniture, and the Power Nozzle on the carpets, but after she got all wood floors she got the Bissell upright and stopped using the Rainbow.

I think too it's possible when people get older they don't do meticulous cleaning as often as they did with a canister, so they just get an upright to do a quicker cleaning. That seems to be the case in my family.

 

[tolivac]

Bagged canister-don't forget Sebo-they make a quality machine.And if you are an upright fan--Sebo has you covered there,too!I think there is plenty of life left in bagged vacuums in general-esp if the demo includes how much easier it is to care for the machine-no mess,and motors in the bagged machines last so much longer.

 

[dysonman1]

The canister vacuum market is about to get a shot in the arm from the simplicity wonder/Riccar Prima tandem air canister vacuum. The tandem air premium power nozzle with the three row aluminum extruded brush roll, that also creates suction as it turns, combined with both suction motors gives the most outstanding cleaning of any power nozzle canister yet.

 

[vacerator]

Tacony new canisters sound

like good products then. My house is all hard floors, but I do have dense area rugs
There are so many gimmicks on the market for hard flooring, like the Shark floor tool with a duster pad at the front. I've been known to use a dust mop with pledge on it, but in a day or two, I still vacuum.

 

[n0oxy]

bed bath and beyond

I actually bought my Miele C1 olympus from there, at the time they sold the Olympus which is a straight suction canister and one power team model, can't remember which one, wonder if those are no longer sold there. I know Miele has discontinued most of the C1 and C2 series. I hope the new Tacony tandom air nozzle is also made in a universal version, the Volt kind of fills that roll at this point, but a 120 volt universal tandom air nozzle would be awesome. The only bagless vacuums that don't have the two common issues that most bagless vacuums have are the water filtration machines. The two issues I'm referring to are a dust cloud that goes all over the place when you empty it, and the filters that quickly clog. The water filtration machines do require a bit more work to maintain than bagged vacuums, but not as much as other bagless machines such as Dyson, Shark, etc.
Mike

 

[carolinaguy1996]

Favorite canister power nozzles anyone?

 

[rvarley]

@dysonman1 - is the tandem air Prima just a new power nozzle for the Prima? Can existing Prima's use this nozzle? When will it be available?

 

[human]

The combo I'm enjoying right now is Electrolux Diamond Jubilee with my PN4A, which has a brand new brush roll.

 

[floor-a-matic]

my ridgid wd1640 paired with a craftsman battery powered pn or turbo brush (i use mine around the house)