Treated myself to a Satellite

[turbo500]

Hi everyone,

So someone finally twisted my arm and persuaded me to treat myself to a Maytag Satellite. On a clearance site at £59 with free delivery, I can't complain.

On a positive, I was very surprised at just how powerful it actually is. I'd say the suction just about beats both my Miele and Numatic Henry. However, I've not found it a very nice machine to use.

In operation, it is very loud. Not the end of the world, but to say it's relatively small and has an all-metal outer construction, I was a bit shocked at the noise level. The turbobrush is useless - the bristles are too soft, and as the brushroll moves up and down inside the head, it just skims the carpet and doesn't do very much. Air driven turboheads have never been fantastic, but this is certainly one of the worst. The stretch hose is nice, but heavy and once you get the turbobrush on it, it becomes very rigid and difficult to use, which means that the cleaner spends most of it's time bashing against your ankles. I would have preferred to have a combination floor tool with the optional turbobrush, instead of the turbobrush/hard floor brush combination. The optional on-board or on-wand tools is a very nice feature. Not too impressed with the upholstery brush. It has large, stiff bristles which, unlike the velour strips, everything sticks to it and doesn't go up the vacuum.

So, in terms of suction power, I can't fault this. It's just slightly let down by the naff turbobrush and heavy hose. I didn't buy this to use anyway. It's a very nice vacuum to own, and will be kept in it's box and used very rarely.

 

[kirbyloverdan]

Very Nice

In the good ole USA that is a Hoover Constellation a remake of the original one . I had to get one and your right the turbo brush is not that good unless you have flat carpet . I wish that hoover would bring back a limited edition Convertible .

 

[kirbymodel2c]

Hi Chris..

Hope your ok.
I bought one of these about 3 years ago.
I ended up selling it on. I didn't find the machine its self loud but the turbo brush was. And once the vac was switched on the hose pulled tight and followed you around very closely as you said. Also on hard floors it blow the dust/fluff/hair away.
So I was a little disapointed with it. But there are worse vacs out there as we all know lol.

James)

 

[ohio_tuec]

"I wish that hoover would bring back a limited edition C

It wouldn't take much either. I'm sure they could do it with a commercial model. But with TTI at the helm, I don't foresee any more retro models anytime soon. I'd love to see a retro Dial-A-Matic....

 

[eurekaprince]

I actually like the turbo nozzle that Hoover sold with this unit (in the UK, you can also find a red version being sold with one of the Henry canisters.)

I am not a big expert on air-driven, turbo carpet nozzles, but I find the one that was/is sold with the new Constellation/Satellite works quite well on picking up surface litter from even thick carpet. I never expect canisters to deep-clean carpets - that's what uprights are for. So at best, I may expect a canister vac without an electrically-powered carpet nozzle to remove surface litter from a rug - but that's it.

If you use a standard carpet nozzle connected to a canister vac, you basically have to "rub" the carpet with its bristles to disconnect dirt from the fibres - the suction alone can't succeed in disconnecting the clinging dirt. So.... I find the turbo nozzle very helpful in eliminating the need for me to do the physical work on the carpet - by slowly gliding it over the surface of the rug, it does the "disconnecting" for me! I think this particular turbo carpet nozzle glides very nicely without bogging down, and the air vents help it from creating any suction "lock" that might stop the brush from spinning.

I also find that if you let the Constellation/Satellite ride up onto the cord/flex, that's stops it from floating and banging into your feet all the time!