Replacing a Dyson

[jade_angel]

So, my mother is asking me for advice on an upright vacuum, after frying the third Dyson in seven years. Only trouble is, as a die-hard canister fan, I don't know uprights that well.

She's got a a medium-large house (~2600 sq ft, IIRC), with a mix of deep-pile carpet, hardwood and stone floors, which seems like the perfect case for a PN canister to me - but she wants an upright for the carpets and large area rugs, or at least she thinks she does. There's two shed-monster dogs who frequently lay on the couch and fuzz it up, too.

So far I've come up with the following suggestions:

Royal RY8200 (attachments are clunky)
Sanitaire S645 (attachments are nonexistent)
Panasonic MC-UG471
Riccar Vibrance Deluxe (or its Simplicity equivalent)

Can anyone think of any other good suggestions here? I'm a little reluctant to recommend the Sanitaire or Royal, despite their great performance on carpets, because of their lack of attachments.

 

[eurekaprince]

Go for the red Hoover Windtunnel Max Bagged upright: it's a Best Buy according to Consumer Reports.

Here's what they say about it:

"The Hoover WindTunnel Max has impressive carpet cleaning and superb pet-hair pickup at a moderate price. It's also strong when it comes to cleaning bare floors and has the airflow needed for cleaning with tools. Light weight (just 17 pounds), manual carpet pile-height adjustment to better match the brush to the surface, and a brush on/off switch to safeguard bare floors and prevent scattered debris are added perks. A downside: No suction control, which helps protect drapes when using tools. Among upright brands, Hoover has been a solid performer in our tests over the past several years, though a notch below Miele and LG overall."

If you can afford something more expensive, CR has highly rated the Miele S7260 Cat and Dog and the Red Kenmore Intuition with Beltless Direct Drive brushroll (made by Panasonic).

 

[blackheart]

Okay...

So would she be willing to have a secondary canister for attachment use in addition to a royal or sanitaire?

There is also the simplicity/riccar lightweights which are pretty good performers.

 

[jade_angel]

She might well be willing to have a secondary canister, since it wouldn't get used all that often, and mostly by the maid. I'll ask about that. That would make the Royal or Sanitaire an easier sell.

Also, I've never used the Panasonic though I've read quite a few good things about it (and the price is right). Any opinions on how its deep cleaning stacks up to the two direct-air options, or to Tacony's offerings?

 

[gusherb]

Panasonic MC-UG583 (can be found on eBay for around 200)

There is the Windtunnel Supreme on the Hoover site (old style Windtunnel), on sale this week.

Panasonic is great if you get something from the Performance Plus line. The Riccar Vibrance is very similar as they pretty much copied Panasonic on the design.

The Windtunnel Max might be a good machine too, I've been looking at it myself.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380722679564

 

[gusherb]

Also I second the canister idea for the hard floors. Having a second suction only canister seems perfect if someone is insistent on having an upright for the rugs/carpets (that's how we have it here, and I've done that for some other people too)

 

[jade_angel]

Hmm, looking at pricing, and stuff on eBay, she could probably get a new Panasonic or Sanitaire upright plus a second-hand Tristar CXL for less than the Riccar or Royal would cost. As a bonus the Tristar has a PN, in case she doesn't want to futz with two vacuums or if the upright breaks for some reason. Considering the Tristar floor tool is pretty much universally regarded as good-to-great, maybe I'll recommend that. Plus, Wessel Werk's hand power nozzle works well with the Tristar - I'd think that'd be really good for de-fluffing couches, if it works as well as WW's full-size nozzles.

Also, there's a Kirby Sentria in a thrift shop near me - how would that stack up?

 

[ralph123]

8 lb upright + a decent canister

I would highly recommend an 8 lb upright like the Simplicity Freedom and a decent canister vacuum with bare floor tools. I bought one for my mother, and she absolutely loves it.

 

[blackheart]

.

"Also, there's a Kirby Sentria in a thrift shop near me - how would that stack up? "

I did some performance testing recently with A Riccar Radiance, Simplicity 7 series, Sanitaire S658, Kirby 6 and A Filtropur. The kirby came out on top with the sanitaire taking 2nd.

I'd talk to your mother before purchasing the Kirby, they are just not for everyone. Either way both the Kirby and the Sanitaire are excellent machines.

The CXL would be an excellent compliment to any upright.

 

[tase]

I have to agree with blackheart, ask your mom before getting the Sentria and try to make her understand that it's a 30 pound vacuum. I love my Sentria but, it is heavy and someone like my sister would struggle to have one if she had more than one floors.

But, what you are thinking (A Panisonic or Sanitare with a TriStar CXL) sounds like a very good idea.

 

[vacuumfreak95]

Sebo

Not sure how much she is willing to spend, but I happen to Love the Sebo Automatic X4. Great for carpet/bare floor and has the best hose design I've ever seen.

 

[eurekaprince]

If you want to get a great upright+canister team, get the Hoover Platinum Lightweight Bagged upright (without the mini-canister which is quite useless), and pair it with a simple suction only Miele Olympus S2121. This high-performing, easy-to-use pair should together cost under $600.

 

[jade_angel]

Well, after discussing it with her and searching around, we located a Royal 996 upright (second-hand with attachments) and, much to my surprise, a Riccar 1700 canister. That's a much higher-end machine than I expected to find, but one of her friends was throwing it away due to a damaged cord. $35 in parts later, and a new bag, and it's fully working, including a power nozzle that looks almost unused. Can't argue with that.

The Royal's a bit bojacked - it has a bag marked Electro-Hygiene, and the dusting brush is from a Filter Queen, but it works, and works well. Heck, both machines managed to get all the surface dog fuzz in one pass, which is more than the now-mostly-dead DC25 did.

Thanks for the suggestions - if we hadn't been on the lookout for a canister, I'd never have found that Riccar, and someone would have junked a perfectly good high-end vacuum!

(As for the Sentria, someone else bought it before I could get back there. Not surprising, not too often you find one in a thrift shop with the hose, for a reasonable price.)

 

[blackheart]

Wonderful

Those royals are pretty good machines too. now if they just made some synthetic bags for them.

The riccar 1700 is a wonderful canister, it's one of the most powerful canisters i own. I would probably look into a new floor brush for it though the onboard one is so little.

 

[rootcyclone]

If you want something that works like a Dyson, it has to be...a Dyson.

 

[blackheart]

well yes

If you want that same performance level you would replace it with the same brand.

 

[jade_angel]

Aye, if she'd wanted something that worked like a Dyson, I'd have cheerfully suggested another. But, after three Dysons, and before that two Fantoms, she was about fed up with plastic cyclonic setups - hence looking for something bagged and durable.

Royal's pretty hard to beat in that regard. I mean, how many people here have working 1940s/50s/60s Royals?