Uprights with bare floor brush

[fan-of-fans]

I was thinking about this from the Dyson thread. It seems back when uprights used converters to attach the hose, that it was common for them to include a bare floor brush (depending on the set purchased). Hoover Convertibles, Dial a Matics, and Concepts did, as well as Eurekas, Kirbys and Singers. Using an upright to clean a bare floor was known to leave marks, so wasn't done without an attachment.

However, with the introduction of uprights with tools onboard (Elites, Bravos, Housekeepers, etc) there was typically no floor brush included, and it was expected to use the machine in upright mode to clean bare floors.

I can think of few tool on board machines with a floor brush, mainly the Fantoms, and Eureka Excalibur. I know Kenmore/Panasonic offered a floor brush and wand with some Progressive uprights and Bissell did with the bagless Lift Off, but those are just about it.

I wonder what the reason for this was? I always felt when I was younger seeing the new Bravos and Elites that they were incomplete because of their lack a floor brush. When I had my hardcover Hoover Legacy, I would fit an old Kenmore floor brush to the wand and pretend to do the linoleum. LOL

 

[jmurray01]

I think this is due to manufacturers taking less consideration for the usefulness of a Vacuum Cleaner and trying to make things cheaper.

Think about it, it is much cheaper to make an upright with a hard floor symbol next to the High Pile setting and let users "muddle along" with that than to actually spend some money on a hard floor tool.

Plus they probably believe it makes the vacuum easier to use with less "faffing around".

 

[djkain2007]

my eureka whirlwind i had, could have one if equipped, but i did not order one

 

[durango159]

I think manufacturers are trying to skimp. Lately most attachments coming on vacuums are depressing and inadequate.

Let's start by evaluating canisters. Back in the 80's/ 90's most bagged canisters had all 4 attachments on board. Crevice tool, dusting brush, upholstery nozzle and bard floor brush. Now very few are that way. We're lucky if the canister vac comes with a bare floor brush with original purchase. If it does we're lucky if it fits on board. Some are just simply included but no storage option for bare floor brush. The upholstery nozzle and dusting brush are combined into one, and the attachments overall are extremely small. The crevice tools are much smaller.

With uprights, some actually have larger size attachments from canisters. However it is rare to have a bare floor brush included with an upright.

 

[tolivac]

another way of "cheapening" on canister hand tools-those STUPID,HATEFUL,AWKWARD,USELESS Combi tools.Hate those things!!!You end up buying tools from the vac dealers tool bin.I bought a Mighty Mite canister and a Dirt Devil one,both low cost-just wanted them for my collection-the dealer provided some more useful tools with both-they had those dumb combi tools with 'em.Both of those vacuums do well with the GOOD tools.And HATE those ridiculous combi hard floor-carpet floor tools.Tools for each use is MUCH better and easier.The "flip" tools of yesteryear were an exception-those worked well.

 

[eurekaprince]

Unless you can shut off the brush roll, using an upright with a spinning brush to clean bare floors is really dangerous to the vacuum itself. Because of the gap between the floor and the vac (there is never a tight seal on the floor), you are liable to suck up plastic bags, socks, and other things hiding from view - expecially under beds. This jams the brush roll and can cause belts to burn as well.

I could never understand how manufacturers could have a "bare floor" setting on their uprights' height adjusters (e.g. Hoover Tempo, Eureka Bravo) without also offering a way to shut off the brush roll.

I've said it once before, and I'll say it again: uprights are only for carpets, canisters are for everything else.

 

[tolivac]

The rotating brush roll can be bad for hard floors,too-esp wood-the brushroll can scratch them.I can agree here-uprights for carpets,rugs only-canisters for the other things and hard floors.

 

[jmurray01]

Hear hear Brian!

 

[sebo_fan]

Sorry but no - 


 


Uprights that have bare floor attachments were the cheap way out than allowing a manual button engineered into the vacuum motor to stop the actual brush roll from moving on hard floors. We haven't seen this kind of technology until later on and now as a result it is much more common place.


 


I wouldn't go as far to suggesting a brush roll on a hard floor is dangerous though - it depends on the machine you have and what setting your upright has been put at. With the Sebo X sensor, I have no trouble at all cleaning hard floors and as you may all know, the brush roll continues to spin, whilst the Felix upright brush roll can be manually switched off as well as having a manual height adjuster. Both have permanent toothed belts that shut the brush roll off if anything gets caught. 


 


Infact, Sebo's Felix comes with a Parquet hard floor brush as standard. It is perfect for homes that have more rooms with hard floor than carpets and gives the machine an extra cleaning versatility than just using the much heavier electric power nozzle all the time.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

But,

you can purchase on Ebay an attachment 'converter', for about $5.00. I have one, and, I can use all of those old tried and true tools with anything new. I was skeptical, but, you MUST have one.That bare floor tool is great on hardwood floors, especially parquet. Too bad the newer cheapie stuff doesn't have it.

 

[jmurray01]

Thing is though, with me I like to only use tools that are for that specific vacuum, that is the OCD side of me!

 

[vintagerepairer]

I must suggest I have never considered it to have been the cheap way out before now, but it is a theory not beyond reason of course. The first upright I can think of which had such a feature to turn the roller brush off and on was the Hitachi upright, but I could well be wrong. My mothers Electrolux 504 came with a quality floor tool as a standard part of the tool kit. I always thought it was about attitudes rather than cost, by that I mean the idea of pushing an upright cleaner over a bare floor would not be considered to the 'correct' thing to do, regardless of what the roller was doing, although I do recall Electrolux saying their cleaners can be used in that fashion. Indeed I remember seeing on here only the other week or so ago a picture of an Electrolux 160 instruction booklet with the cleaner being used this way. As I pointed out at the time, these cleaners had no front wheels, so scratching the floor was a very real possibility.

 

[jmurray01]

Yes I think it was either on the Electrolux 500 or 502 advert that it was said it could be used on carpet or hard floor.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Panasonic MC-UL596 &594

These bagless machines have a switch to stop the agitator motor and come with the floor brush too.

 

[gsheen]

When ever we sell a new dyson upright we always include a floortool but its go under low furniture and beds rather than for use on hard flooring. 


I agree with sebo fan its including the hardfloor tool on many vacuums is simply a cheaper than fitting a clutch drive or separate brush motor.


Our home is a mixture of wood flooring, carpet and tiles , I would hate to have to carry around a bare floor tool when vacuuming just to do those area's that are not carpeted. I love my dc42 because it cleans the hard floors so well. 

 

[vintagerepairer]

I think I am old fashioned. No, I know I am. Using an upright over hard floors simply feels very wrong for me. This coming from gentleman who owns a Dyson DC07 grey & yellow with no brush control, living in a studio flat with no fitted carpets anywhere. That was I must add all down to the way things turned out, such is life.

 

[jmurray01]

Talking about using an upright on hard flooring reminded me of a Midsomer Murders episode I saw a while ago (this year) where the cleaner of a house was using a blue and white Hoover Senior and turned it on while it was on some varnished wood flooring. It was on the shag height setting but all the same, it wouldn't be all too hard for the suction to pull the brush roll towards the floor (as it often did on those Seniors due to the height adjustment using the rear wheels rather than the front ones) and ruin the wood.

Luckily she came across the dead body of the house owner quickly so no damage occurred!

 

[rugsucker]

floor brush on upright

All good comments above.There was a 'deluxe'hard case version of the Bravo that had the newer narrow floor brush in a 'pocket'to store on machine.I feel that one of best classic examples of upright that can can do everything in a mostly carpeted home with some wood & tile is the Hoover Convertible(Senior)with deluxe atts.