Uprights with bare floor attachments

[fan-of-fans]

I made a comment on this long ago, but I was thinking of this just now. I've noticed that often with the older style fan first uprights that had the rear or bottom attachment conversion, that there would be a floor brush included in the more deluxe attachment kits. This was true for Hoover Convertible, Dial A Matic, Concept One, Eureka F&G, etc. Oh and Kirby.

With the Singer/Twin Fan uprights they seemed to lack a floor brush, but had a snap on fitting that could be fitted to the bottom of the machine for use on hard floors. Maybe others did also?

In more recent times it seems like most uprights do not have a hard floor tool, other than Shark and maybe some Dysons. I remember the Eureka/Sanitaire Excalibur uprights did include one which seemed a little unnecessary, since they were two motor uprights with a brush shut off. Some of the Bravo machines did too which was more useful given there was no brush shutoff on those that I know of.

The same thing is true with some of the Panasonic made Kenmore uprights. But again most of the ones that had this were higher end models that already either had a clutch to shut off the brush, or a two motor system. My Progressive Direct Drive would have come with one but again right on the machine it says "Bare Floor Friendly" and has a brush off setting.

I remember too seeing some of the Hoover Windtunnels came with a bonus brush but again I think those had the clutch as well.

Maybe given the machines with brush control were more expensive it was coincidence they would come with a floor tool as well.

 

[cam2s]

Just my opinion but I would say most uprights now don’t include a floor brush because most consumers don’t use them. Using a floor brush with an upright is cumbersome. Personally I don’t like to sweep, I’d rather vacuum my bare floors but I’m guessing I’m in the minority and most consumers simply use a broom. It’s hard to make a comparison with a collector and a regular user, but even I rarely do the bare floors with an upright using the hose and floor brush. If I used an upright on the carpet I would use a canister for the bare floor. I would use the floor brush with my Simplicity 7 series, but it has very long extension hose and that make it fairly easy. Usually if I used an upright on the hard floors it was one that had a brush shut off, such as an Electrolux upright.

Cameron

 

[human]

I think Electrolux had the right idea with its Discovery/Genesis/Epic/etc. uprights. The twin motor design allows one to instantly go from carpet to hard floors, just by moving the switch from the II position to the I position, thus turning off the brush roll.

 

[n0oxy]

best upright for hard floors

Really the best type of vacuum for hard floors is a canister cleaner, but when it comes to uprights, I would say the best one for hard floors is the Sebo Felix. It's a two motor upright, in many ways it's a canister cleaner in an upright form factor. You can clean hard floors in two different ways. You can shut off the power head and set the height down to the lowest setting, or you can completely remove the power nozzle and attach a hard floor brush. That's why the Felix is such an awesome cleaner, it provides the flexibility of a canister for those who prefer an upright. As far as I know there has not been any other vacuum with this kind of design.
Mike

 

[fan-of-fans]

"I think Electrolux had the right idea with its Discovery/Genesis/Epic/etc. uprights. The twin motor design allows one to instantly go from carpet to hard floors, just by moving the switch from the II position to the I position, thus turning off the brush roll."

Other uprights did/do the same thing - Bissell Lift Off, Kenmore Progressive, Kenmore Crossover, the old Eureka Excalibur, and a few compact upright models.

I agree it's a great setup, with the more common clutch setup being second. Do the Electrolux uprights have a fixed brush strip on the bottom. My Electrolux Grand Marquis power nozzle has a shutoff switch and there is a brush strip on the bottom as well. I really like that as it helps provide brushing action for hard floors, which many power nozzles lack in their brush off mode.

 

[fan-of-fans]

"Using a floor brush with an upright is cumbersome. Personally I don’t like to sweep, I’d rather vacuum my bare floors but I’m guessing I’m in the minority and most consumers simply use a broom.

Cameron"

I agree it seems doing bare floors with an upright while by using a bare floor brush would be cumbersome, unless maybe you had a long extension hose.

My guess is same as yours, majority of people use a broom for hard floors, at least from my observations. Also by the popularity of Swiffers and damp mops.

Personally I think a canister with floor brush is indeed the best method. Yet I see a lot of people with all hard floors still buy a bagless upright for some reason, and then never use it other than the hose once in a while. Makes little sense to me. It's like people don't know canisters exist or they see a vacuum is only for carpets and above floor cleaning doesn't seem to come to mind for non-vacuum collectors.

I guess you could also say it could be related to canisters having little presence in big box stores. So the lean toward purchasing an upright as that's what is available.

"You can shut off the power head and set the height down to the lowest setting, or you can completely remove the power nozzle and attach a hard floor brush. That's why the Felix is such an awesome cleaner, it provides the flexibility of a canister for those who prefer an upright. As far as I know there has not been any other vacuum with this kind of design.
Mike"

That is a nice setup for that. The thing I don't like even with using an upright or canister power nozzle on hard floors is there tends to be no bristle action as the brush is off, not to mention potential scratching by the wheels. I don't like that crunchy, scratchy sound they make over tile or other floors.

 

[n0oxy]

uprights on hard floors

Using the Felix with the hard floor brush is heavier than using a hose on a canister or central vacuum, no question about that. For some reason canisters are not very popular in the United States, but in many ways they are more flexible than uprights. With a power nozzle canister, you can clean carpets as good as you would with an upright, attach the hard floor brush for hard floors, and clean above the floors as well. I know some suggest using an upright for carpets and a canister for everything else, but a canister with an electric power nozzle or central vacuum will clean everything just by changing attachments.
Mike

 

[ocscott3085]

I haven't had the best experience using uprights with bare floor tools. The ones I've (or my parents) owned that came with bare floor tools were -

*Simplicity 5200 Upright with 12ft attachment hose. That was probably the best experience with using an upright on bare floors since the long hose made it like a canister.

*Eureka Wold Vac - came with a floor brush on board. However, the vacuum wasn't made to trail behind you as you pulled on the hose so it wasn't very convenient. Suction through the hose wasn't remarkable either.

*Dyson DC17 Absolute- the attachment hose constantly pulling back during use made the floor tool a PITA. I did like using that same tool on my central vac hose though.

 

[vacuumdevil]

@n0oxy
I was thinking of the sebo Felix too when I read the statement.

 

[n0oxy]

separate floor attachment

With most uprights, you can only shut off the brush roll, as far as I know, the Felix is the only upright that allows you to remove the entire power head and attach a separate floor brush. You then have a cleaning set up very similar to a canister. This is why I think the Felix is the best upright on the market, hands down.
Mike

 

[jo]

Shark stick vac adapts two ways

My Shark rocket stick vac has both a power nozzle that can be set to a low speed for hard floor sweeping action and a high speed for carpets. It is controlled on the main unit power switch. The suction motor is always on full power as this is not adjustable but the speed switch controls the power brush motor. The low speed is a very, very slow speed so dirt and crumbs don’t get flung out the back but rather swept up into the suction airflow and works well for hard floors. Also it came with a second nozzle specifically for hard floors which is called a hard floor hero. It is a swiveling more traditional hard floor nozzle and works quite well to get in and around tight spaces that using the power head would be more cumbersome for. So I think this is pretty nice that I have both of these options and the hard floor hero tool has traditional slotted bristles in the front and a more dense soft bristle strip near the back. I have photos of all so you can see both nozzles as well as both sides of the hard floor hero attachment.

I know a lot of people don’t like the Shark products but this is coming from a die hard Electrolux canister fan that I have found this Shark rocket stick vacs adaptability and maneuverability to be really nice for both carpets and hard floors. I bought it to have something to use for quick clean ups when I don’t want to pull out the Electrolux canister and it is very nice and very versatile. It replaced a Eureka stick vac when it’s handle broke. I like to have something along the lines of an electric broom to use between big cleanings to pick up crumbs in the kitchen quickly as I hate using a broom as brooms just propel the nearly Invisible dust back in the air. Use a broom in a sun beam and you’ll see this is true...literally it churns up clouds of dust while sweeping the crumbs into a pile.

The Shark Rocket stick vac may not last as long as the Electrolux canister but that’s ok, it didn’t cost as much and so far, I’ve had it for about 2 years and really like it and it is lasting just fine, but I’m also very careful with things. I like it’s versatility and ease of use too. I can use it for quick clean ups in the car and to get into small tight spaces easily too. I purchased a flex hose for it and also the mini power brush to make it even more versatile and it came with a combination crevice tool and dusting brush that slides up and down the crevice tool. It also came with an upholstery tool with those lint removing red strips. The tools can fit either right on the main unit or at the end of the wand so it really is quite useful and the suction power is quite impressive for such a small unit. I even added a shoulder strap by hooking a 5 foot dog leash through the main handle and clipping the hook of the dog leash to the wrist strap part. Then when I’m using the flex stretch nose with an attachment I can wear the main unit over my shoulder if I wish! I took this cue from the little Oreck canisters that came with the shoulder strap. My sister was saying she once had a little Oreck canister with one and liked that option so I thought I could do the same here and it works quite well. My Sister has the Shark rocket at 2 of her properties and loves the versatility and the shoulder strap option I told her to try with flex hose for when she does a lot of detail dusting and cleaning. She was going to get a little oreck again but once I told her about getting the flex hose and Using the dog leash, she was pleased she didn’t have to go get another vacuum especially since the vacation cottage she uses this setup at Frequently is very small and limited on storage space as there are no closets at all. There is no Sheetrock at the cottage so it’s all open studs and annual cleaning between them of bugs and spider webs, etc. is where she needs a lot of versatility.

Anyway, I’m pretty impressed with my rocket stick vac as it is so versatile in a such a small package. Here’s some photos of the attachments