Oh my days, never heard such rubbish

[jmurray01]

Rubbish!? I will not bother to explain why I disagree, as others have done so, but I will say that if you research into HOW vacuum cleaners work and actually tried some vintage machines, you'd realise that wattages NEED to be restricted.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Vintage machines Jamie - like a Hoover Ranger maybe?

 

[alexhoovers94]

I have a 1300 watt Hoover Purepower and a 2100 watt Purepower and the hose suction is bearly different, they are about the same.
Now my Turbopower 3 has a 1000 watt motor and so does my Turbopower 1000 (naturally) and I feel the Turbopower 3 has stronger hose suction because of the improved airflow design, don't get me wrong though, the Turbopower 1000 is very powerful and probably was the most powerful upright in 1992!! [this post was last edited: 11/4/2013-15:40]

 

[jmurray01]

You know me too well Steve!!

In honesty though, I was talking about the Electrolux Contours and Turbopowers which managed to have tremendous hose suction with less than 1000W.

 

[madabouthoovers]

The Henry Autosave aint bad either on half power (about 600W). It produces enough suction to drive the Airobrush head without the need for full power.
The Purepower I have rated at 2100W is ridiculously powerful, and the motor gets very hot as a consequence, so much of the increased power only goes to heat the room in which the vac is being used.

My Kirby uses less than 1000W and it stays nice and cool. As a dirty fan it picks up from carpets excellently, but hose suction is not brilliant, however it will drive a Vax turbo tool quite effectively.

Look after the power hungry 1500W+ vacs of today - they will be tomorrow's dinosaurs. Look at how all the big engine cars have died out, and how everyone drives around in small engine cars of less than 1.5Litres now.
Who wants big 2.5litre Mondeos now?

Bigger WAS better, but as the Americans are now finding out, gas guzzlers are a dying breed as the price of fuel goes through the roof. As electricity keeps getting ever more expensive, like we use energy saving light bulbs, we should use energy saving vacuums as well - just like the Hoover Ranger was. It used just 450W.

 

[jmurray01]

Indeed Steve, things will make a full circle.

Back only 30 years ago you would be hard pushed to find a car in America with an engine smaller than 5000CI, but now the only vehicles with engines that size are busses! Thing is though, at least large rumbling V8 motors had their advantages, what does a high pitched screaming power sucking electric motor have in its favour? Nothing, in my opinion.

 

[jmurray01]

"like we use energy saving light bulbs"

Ha, you might - but it is incandescent for me!

 

[madabouthoovers]

I seem to remember that the loudest and most powerful screamer motors were introduced on the Dyson DC07, developing 280Airwatts.
The most powerful vac I have is the Siemens Z6 which has a massive 2500W consumption at full power. Its crazy aint it that some vacs now are rated higher than an electric Kettle, a combination Microwave, or a convector heater?

Its always worth it though to collect vacs with power inputs across the whole range, right from 250W with the Junior, up to the huge 2.5KW of the Siemens Z6. That's 10 Times the power rating of the humble Hoover Junior. That's a current draw of 10 Amps on the 250V mains.

 

[sebo_fan]

Wattages need to be restricted Jamie? Are you sure that's your opinion?

Rewind back to an earlier post you created on here. Your Dream Vacuum Cleaner - and I quote...:

"For me:

2000 Watt Clean Fan Motor with Variable Speed
10 Litre Bag
Four Stage Filtration
Brush & Beater bar with a clutch to stop spinning when the cleaner is upright
Head Lamp
Stretchable hose capable of cleaning 20 stairs
A sliding switch to change the motor speed from 1400W-1800W, completely variable
"TURBO" Button to increase wattage to full 2000W
LCD Screen displaying; current motor speed, bag fill level (a sensor would be fitted to detect the exact bag level), height adjustment level, belt condition (a sensor on the brush roll would detect any belt slippage), and an hour meter displaying the total hours the cleaner has been used for.

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?15458

 

[jmurray01]

Well remembered Ryan, but please also note that that was over 1 and a half years ago and in my defense I was far less experienced then.

 

[floor-a-matic]

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">Take a look at the 1960s Amercan Electrolux model G; powerful suction & it only runs at 535 Watts (Not sure how many amps it uses)  I bet the old Model G will OUTCLEAN ANYTHING made today!</span>

[this post was last edited: 11/4/2013-23:01]

 

[super-sweeper]

1940s General-Electric,

Keeps chugging on @ 300 Watts.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Hang on! - What about appliances such as Hairdryers? Are they within this law too? The highest powered one I've seen is 2600w & they're the ones used in my local hairdressers.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Also, just to add to previous post. Most Hairdryers average these days from 2000w - 2200w which is about the same as most Vacuums.

 

[constellation86]

Here in the United States we are limited to 1440 watts, and I think even that is too much. My Tristar uses 1080 watts and will almost suck the paint off the walls. My old Electroluxes do a good job with 535 watts. 2000 watts is a ridiculous amount of waste!
Nicholas

 

[sebo_fan]

So, if you have more experience now to form an opinion that vacuum wattage should be lowered, why have you got a Vax Performance C91PF1BT? Doesn't that have 2000 watts??

 

[turbo500]

What about appliances such as Hairdryers?

Don't even get me started on kettles. One of the most high powered appliances in the home and one that wastes the most electricity.

 

[tolivac]

Vacuum cleaner motors-since most of these are the universal AC-DC brush type motors-keep in mind the wattage marked on the motor is not what it draws during "normal" vacuum cleaner use-the ACTUAL draw of the motor will be considerably less.The nameplate rating is a LABORATORY rating for the motor loaded to its max rating(the nameplate rating is that where the motor can run contiously before burn out) before it burns up.And for comparing hair dryers to vacuums-the hair dryer has a HEATING element in it that will draw MORE power than the vacuums motor-the hair dryer fan motor is usually under 100W.The largest vacuum motor in my collection is the 15A 120V motor in my Tornado wet-dry vac-and this motor is drawing less than 15A during normal vacuum use.The motor could be "loaded" to a max of 15A or 1800W.Another wet-dry Shop Vac I have uses a "12A" motor.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Who has a Vax Performance sebo_fan?

 

[matt8808]

I personally welcome this change too. Its about time manufacturers were made to stop compensating poor design with an overpowered motor. My Henry autosave is more than powerful enough on the eco 600w setting. The 1200w high setting is only really needed for deep cleans.