Train track lines...

[oliveoiltinfoil]

Some of you may know what I am on about here. When using uprights or PN cylinders, or at least most of them, they leave these (in my opinion) ugly lines, very thin along the carpet where, obviously there has been no agitation. When I had my vax mach air upright a few years ago, it left quite wide train tracks, at least on my carpet. I get paranoid over this and end up constantly overlapping my strokes.

This brings me on to my questions. Why do a lot of brush bar vacuums have those vanes every couple of inches at the base plate? Some have more than others, and some don't have them at all (dc50). Is it to strengthen the base plate? I cant see how that could be considering those plates aren't under any sort of stress are they ? Or if it for health and safety to stop things or peoples limbs being chewed up?

I noticed only a couple of days ago when cleaning the brush roll on my sebo felix, that the felix brush bar (and I think all other sebo brush bars) has a continuous stream of bristles, which overlap each other on the brush head, which means you get little to no track lines. Much more satisfying and less annoying. Why can't other manufacturers do this instead of spacing out their bristles?

 

[turbomaster1984]

I think its personal preference. I love track marks, nothing shows a carpets been cleaned like those track marks y'know lol.

In fact Il be insisting carpets that have a pile capable of leaving these lines be fitted when we start decorating our home.

At the minute we just have god awful flat pile stuff thats modern but never really looks clean although its not dirty. Weird I know?

Im pretty sure its down to Elf n Safety though although not quite so much do do with adults but more children who might be tempted to play around and stick stuff in it.

Also to stop rugs being chewed into the brush roll I imagine although you do often catch the odd edge regardless.

Years ago Panasonic got slated for having exposed side brushes that rotated to clean edges. They had to do a major recall and send out caps to go over the rotation parts to stop children being hurt if they touched it.

I have an unmodified cleaner and its not too shabby at edge cleaning - much better than one with the recall parts fitted.

 

[vintagerepairer]

It is mostly for strength. Years ago base plates only had the one section covered, which was where the drive belt was. But then these cleaners had very strong plastic or metal base plates. Todays cleaners have thin, very hard plastic base plates and need to be strengthend. The base plate is the one part of the cleaner under the most amount of stress at all as it gets pushed and bashed and squashed, and so on.

 

[sebo_fan]

Actually my Felix does leave track lines but they are faint and they are due to the wheels going through the wool loop but I also have a feeling that it only does that when the standard stiff bristle brush bar is fitted. The soft delicate brush bar doesn't leave track lines.

It isn't so much the brush bar's fault but rather the design of the wheels - I found Vax Mach Air is bad for heavy track lines because of the back wheels.

 

[spiraclean]

Track lines are a must for me, and back when I cleaned houses for a living they were one of my signature touches. Clients loved it! But they can't just be any old random tracks, they have to be neat as demonstrated in this pic I found on The Google:

 

[floor-a-matic]

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">My old Electrolux 1205 w/PN1 (which I still have) & the Hoover Futura w/Quadraflex Powermatic I once had made nice tracks even on deep shag carpets</span>


<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">My TriStar CXL with 2-1000 PN (2-brush/2-plastic beater bars) also makes nice tracks; but when I put in a 4-brush bristles only roller, it doesn't make <span style="text-decoration: underline;">any</span> tracks at all like it did when it had the beater bar/brush roller.  At least its getting the deep down dirt!

</span>

[this post was last edited: 4/30/2014-23:02]

 

[dustin]

Train track lines, or Carpet lines, whatever you choose to call them, Are a sign of being freshly vacuumed, at least in my opinion. I always make sure I vacuum thouroughly, and with a vacuum that makes good carpet lines before we have company over. I don't know if anyone ever notices, but it's just something I do. My parents always did it, even when I was younger, it was just one of those things. I have never noticed any other family or friends vacuuming before having guests, although I have done it for them...

 

[gottahaveahoove]

My late cousin, Mary

(buried 2 weeks ago), had white carpet in her livingroom and diningroom. She LOVED to make fresh HOOVER Convertible lines. EVERYONE knew what she was doing. The house was always immaculate. But, those lines were a staple in her home. I have white carpeting in my room. Again, my Convertible(s) leave stunning lines. "Happy Dance".

 

[tolivac]

Spiracleans carpet picture sort of reminds me of "striping" for lawns-special attachment roller for commercial riding mowers to do the striping effect.

 

[eurekaprince]

I agree that the multiple support "beams" on the sole plates of many uprights - including Hoover's WindTunnels - leave behind too many stripes on the carpet.

In contrast, I think many Miele canister power nozzles have no cross bars whatsoever. Correct me if I am wrong.....

 

[panofan]

Ya - the Miele (at least the SEB 228) does not have the crossbars - just straight brushroll from end to end. My Kenmore had the support bars.

 

[parwaz786]

My vacuum annoys me when the wheels mess up the groom marks!

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzU6Tllbe2I

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

@spiraclean

Ahh no dude. These I really like and this is something I always do on my carpets, especially the thicker ones.

No when I meant train tracks, I meant something like this

 

[spiraclean]

Ah, now I see. In the case of wheel tracks, the only solution would be to start at the furthest corner of your room and work back towards the door, vacuuming your way out. That way as each section of carpet is vacuumed, the last thing to touch it is the brushroll, not the wheels.


 


As for track marks from the soleplate, Sebo is probably as good as it gets for preventing this. Oreck uprights do well also, because they have very thick rows of bristles that groom well, and the belt is enclosed off the side of the brushroll so it doesn't interfere with the cleaning path. There are soleplate guards, but they're made of narrow wire that doesn't leave stripes in the same way as plastic supports do.

 

[sebo_fan]

Our old Oreck XL used to leave a well groomed appearance and even my Vax VCU02 is very similar - but the side edge brushes leave trail marks.

 

[eurekaprince]

Indeed...the beauty of cleaning carpet with an upright is that you can easily work backward from the far end of the room and progress towards the entry or door without leaving footprints or extraneous wheel marks on the rug. This is very hard to do with a power nozzle canister.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I like when I am vacuuming, however, I think groom lines look terrible, when I have finished cleaning, they make the carpet look messy.

 

[turbomaster1984]

Have used so many brands of cleaner andso many models high priced and low yet the best machine I have for grooming ability is the Electrolux Intensity.

Agressive brush roll, tightly packed stiff bristles and a very short amount of ducting between the floor and bag.

Its nothing short of genius.

 

[vacuumman206]

Yes, the bars are there for support of the bottom plate. I've had a couple machines where the bars got busted out and if you pushed the front of the machine against a wall or piece of furniture too hard, the plastic would bow into the brushroll and rub. I also know they help prevent the brush from grabbing/doing less damage to things its not supposed to pick up (like cords and thin area rugs)