Vacuums that make you satisfied

[hi-loswitch98]

UNLESS Benny means the Paper Bags. They have a similar collar to the Panasonic ones shown above.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Well that's a surprise - there must be a fair bit of "excess baggage" on the Henry bag in the Panasonic as its only got a 3 litre capacity.


I may well get a red Panasonic bagged upright now, as I have plenty of Henry bags! For 69.99 its gotta be worth a try.

 

[vintagerepairer]

"UNLESS Benny means the Paper Bags. They have a similar collar to the Panasonic ones shown above".

No, he means the synthetic bags which Numatic call HepaFlo. The hole in the collar of the Numatic bag is the same diameter on both paper and synthetic bags, and as this Panasonic cleaner relies totally on the collar of the bag being pushed tightly over the dust inlet tube rather than the collar being held in place with a clip or such like, the Numatic bag is a perfect fit.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Madabouthoovers

If you want to make a further saving, here is a link to the place where the person I know bought one from.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PANASONIC...312?pt=UK_Vacuum_Cleaners&hash=item5d355cabf8

 

[madabouthoovers]

Hilo - this is what the Panasonic bags look like:

 

[vintagerepairer]

Cheap bags too

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Numatic-H...009?pt=UK_Vacuum_Cleaners&hash=item2587ee37f9

 

[madabouthoovers]

Thanks for the links- I will have to have a ponder. Its difficult now to decide which vacs I REALLY want, as I have over 50 and I have to start being a lot more choosy about any more that I buy - I have that dilemma that Roger faced, lack of space, and an insatiable appetite for buying more vacuums. Like Roger, I have to learn to say no, unless its a really special vac that I really want. Whilst it would be nice to get that Panasonic, I have to seriously consider my options. Its so easy to go online and press buy it now, but my little house cant be extended to accommodate my growing collection. I did vow a while back that I would restrict my purchases to quality German vacs, and possibly any rare vintage vacs that were too good to pass by.

 

[sebo_fan]

Im the same Steve - I got rid of most of my vacuums and I don't have any regrets - I regretted getting rid of my vintage Hoover uprights but I realised that eventually if ever the zips on the outer soft bags went, getting original parts would be hard. Soft bag replacements are harder to find for the Hoover Junior and Senior compared to Turbopower brush rolls.

The days for bagless are over for me - for the mean time - until something quiet as a SEBO or Miele appears with NLOS, one day I may well be in the market for something bagless and I'll keep the Hoover Slalom for as long as it goes - the hose clip fell off only just a couple of months ago after the purchase from Amazon UK. I couldn't be bothered to package it up again and claim a new one. I never use the extension tube anyway -the hose on the Slalom is long enough whenever I go into "bagless" mode lol.

Granted the Vax Mach Air wasn't that noisy, but once you've had SEBO or Miele, its hard to pull away from putting up with too much noise. Even my Vax VCU02 with its "Oreck" like whine is quieter than the Vax Mach Air!

 

[madabouthoovers]

I've got more and more fond of the Sebo K3, also due to its refined quietness, such that the X4 sounds noisy now in comparison. I think its a mark of quality when a vac has good soundproofing. It amazes me that Dyson, for all his technology guff he spouts, has never considered making his vacs run quietly  OK, they are not as bad as the DC07 was now, but they could still be blessed with more sound insulation.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Someone once came into my shop to buy bags for whatever cleaner it was she had (I forget). Must have been shortly before I sold up in 2003, as she happened to mention the fact she'd owned a Dyson DC07 but got rid of it after only a year or two as she could not bear the noise of it. I recall clearly her saying that buying bags she could cope with, but the noise of the DC07 she could not, stating that she'd swapped bags for noise, in her eyes. Well, noise in her ears, technically.

 

[madabouthoovers]

The DC07 was introduced in 2001 Benny, so it must have been very nearly 2003 as you say if she'd had it for a couple of years. The DC07 was the loudest machine to date that Dyson have produced, and a shrill loud noise at that. Even though it sounded like one was standing under the flightpath at Heathrow airport when one was using ones DC07, I still liked them back then, as, like other people, I was taken in by Dyson's hype and marketing. I later bought a DC15, and it was much quieter, so it proves it can be done, but I don't think any cyclonic bagless vac will ever be as quiet as a quality bagged machine with variable power.

 

[sebo_fan]

Well the X is an old upright, the K is a bit more modern and if you remove the SEBO nameplate and switch the machine on without the filter inside, you'll find the real noise of the motor, which is still pretty quiet. I was amazed the first time I removed that nameplate on my K series as I was shocked to the amount of noise that came out and wondered how a simple thin piece of plastic could shut out that - but that was back in the early days when I didn't know how SEBO designed the K series.

Dont forget though you've got 2100 watts of motor power there, so its a high one. Same with Miele - when you remove the filters, the motors do seem to be noisy. You'd think then other brands would sit up and notice that!

 

[madabouthoovers]

With the K series - by using the air belt and body of the cleaner to diffuse the exhaust air - its like putting the exhaust of a car engine through a muffler or silencer box, which deadens the sound by cancelling out the shock waves from the motor. With the cheaper brands, the exhaust from the motor simply goes through a cheap quality filter then straight out into the room. Also, don't forget that the Miele and Sebo cylinders are all power adjustable, so often we don't use them on full power, when they do actually make considerably more noise. Power control is a very good feature and very often I only use lower settings - on the K3, it comes with the same triangular dusting brush that the X series does. On the X series, the power of the motor and high airflow just sucks in the bristles of this brush into the suction hole and then no dirt can get through. With the K3, I can turn the power right down for using this brush and the bristles don't block the hole, and that's when the vacs are really quiet.

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

There is a youtube channel called "Made in Germany" or something like that and they report on german manufacturing and there was one report on there of a classic german toy manufacture who have been making all widen toys for decades. The owner decided to shift around two thirds of his production to china, which he admitted was a mistake but at the detriment of lower costs. He found that the quality of the goods he was getting were terrible, because they didn't season or dry the wood properly, and the shipping over from china to Germany made the wood warp. A similar story for a British guy making flags and cushion covers who made an order from china worth a quarter of a million quid which was all faulty. Even though they agreed on a quality spec, the cut corners without telling him, but that is the Chinese nature. Money made. Made in Taiwan is a lot better. Look at the build quality on a HTC, they are mostly made in Taiwan. Even made in Vietnam or Indonesia is better. Europe and any country in the west is probably the best, a although the Koreans and Japs make good quality stuff. I think German products these days are not as consistent as they were. Not all German product are equally good. I rate sebo build quality over miele, and Volkswagen over Mercedes for example.

 

[sebo_fan]

Talking of Germany, Actually, when Mercedes decided to build in the U.S, the first wave of models lacked the perceived quality when they produced the first models (SUVs). Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda who produced in the U.S didn't have any quality problems, which is food for thought based on the company who are not making quality goods, compared to country of manufacture.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Lets just hope that Miele and Sebo don't get the made in China bug and start manufacturing there instead of Germany. If they do, that will be the end of good quality vacuums. I just cant understand why people are standing for this poor quality crap we get from China, I know I am sick and tired of it. China is becoming a monopoly on white goods very rapidly, and its bad news.

 

[sebo_fan]

Actually, the K series brush comes from the C series cylinder vacs - SEBO made a larger dust brush for the X series where the bristles don't get sucked in and can be bought optionally. I don't know why SEBO put the smaller brush on the X series as it is pointless.

I've since bought SEBO's D tools and put them on my Felix. i suspect future tools for the SEBO series may be fashioned from the ones on the D series.

 

[madabouthoovers]

The one thing I don't really like about the K series is that you have to use the crevice nozzle to be able to use the upholstery tool. Its a good thing I got a Sebo mini turbo tool off ebay, as I use this instead. You can get away with using the floor turbo brush to do the sofa and stairs if need be, but I prefer the mini turbo brush for the stairs and getting the white cat fur off my computer chair, which seems to be a magnet for it being a black fabric (and yes, it was made in China! (the chair, not the turbo brush lol))

 

[sebo_fan]

Do you need me to explain why SEBO made the K series that way?

 

[madabouthoovers]

Its obvious that it had a squared off socket to be able to fit onto the top of the cleaner, but I'm unaware if there was a different reason for it?