What is the WROST vacuum?

[twocvbloke]

For me it has to be a Hoover PurePower 1800w...

I salvaged one from the rubbish a few years ago, and after fixing it up, it had to be the most useless POS I had ever used, I salvaged a Hitachi Advantedge (donated to a local church) and an Electrolux Vitesse (covered £18 of my former G5 at the local vac shop), and both of those were better than that thing!!!

The belt had slipped off the motor and was rubbing on the release pedal, melting it and jamming it up, the brushroll was softer than melted butter, the squealing and whining from the motor was just horrible, the filtration was dismal, the bags were smaller than a miele's, the dust tubing was narrow enough that it clogged up with ease, it creaked more than an old barn in a hurricane, it was just so vile!!!

It never got sold, it ended up in bits and dumped in the recycling bin. And now, they have 2100 Watt bagless versions!!! Euro-Hoover are just insane!!! :S

 

[electroluxtank]

Freebie 1970's JC Whitney Auto vac

Once my dad in the 1970' got a free automobile 12v vac with a J C Whitney order. (mail order USA car parts outfit with great, average and junk too).

The vac just had this flapper deal to prevent dirt from leaving the collection chamber. It had a toy motor and maybe tiny 24 to 26 awg wire and a cig plug. Its cost was probably less than 1 dollar back then. It sort of worked for light objects. These objects often held the flapper open and crud then would drop back to ones car's carpet.

This vac was so cheap it was "free" with only a 20 or 25 dollar mail order

There was no bag, The dirt chamber's entrance had a flapper valve. This chamber was bayoneted to the toy motors end and the fit so poor that to remove it one often had to force it and dirt went everywhere.

The DC motor in it was just like a bigger slot car or toy motor, it was about 1 inch diameter and about 1.5" long.

The on off slided switch failed after a few uses; I jumperd it out and one just used the plug. The fuse in the plug was only about 1 or 2 amps.



http://www.jcwhitney.com/

 

[djkain2007]

dirt devil quicklite thingy.... i posted it (this vacuum sucks, no pun intended) in contemporary. they constantly brake. the one we use at work, even after getting cleaned out still won't pick up anything and clogs like nuts.

 

[vac_whisperer]

Probably

a eureka "the boss". Its an alright vacuum but its not a great deep cleaner. But its a freakin' screamer! Nearly deafens me!

 

[mieles7]

I would say the new Dirt Devil Broom Vac. 50 dollars is too much for a noisy broom. The battery eventually died.

 

[whirlcool]

The worst we ever owned was a Fantom Fury.
This damn thing was as heavy as a truck. It was a real work out schlepping this thing around the house. It was difficult to clean properly and the seal between the vac and the collection cylinder always leaked dust.
We traded it in on a Miele and never looked back!

 

[tolivac]

another possibility-the Hoover Z I know some folks like them-I had the oppertunity to buy one-but turned it down-tried one when they were out-at Best Buy-the machine pushed and manuervered like a wheelbarrow full of bricks.conversion was awkward-and that infernal bagless system.Couldn't they offer one with a bag?Honestly the machine was heavier than ANY Kirby or Royal Powercast-the Hoover Z needed forklift pockets so you could carry it up the stairs!!The one I had the oppertunity to buy was one (newly bought-but not liked)tradeded in towards a Meile canister.A church ended buying the Hoover Z.

 

[vac_whisperer]

@ Allen

I have to disagree... My mom used to have a fantom fury and she (and i) loved it. Im still kicking myself for letting her give it to my aunt, who later, replaced it with a dyson. Ill probably never see that fantom again.

VW

 

[gmerkt]

I can think of a lot of vacs that I'm not fond of for one reason or another, so I'll pick one that really stands out in my mind as a disappointment.

Sorry I can't come up with more details, but this was 36 years ago and I just wasn't into such things in any great depth.

When my wife and I got married in 1974, we basically started out life with nothing. Our first rented house was furnished literally with cast-offs from relatives and so on. My wife was 18 years old, and one day went down to Repp & Mott, the dirt-bag auction house in our home town of the time and bought some chairs and a table for $5. That sort of thing.

For wedding presents, we had been given the usual stuff, some useful, others obviously re-gifted and useless. One present was a $50 gift certificate for Sears and Roebuck. That was a biggie at the time. Since we needed a vacuum cleaner, we decided to use the certificate to get one at Sears. We went to their local store and picked out an upright vac, which I don't remember much about but the nozzle assy. was plastic and sheet metal, sheet metal pole handle and a bag with little dot holes in it. Since this was the 70's, it was in yellow and light green pastel colors with some white. As I recall, it used up most if not all of the $50. I lasted less than a year. It just kinda fell apart with normal use. I don't think it came with any kind of accessories, it was just a floor vac and if you wanted to do around the edges, well, get a whisk broom.

To replace the sadly and prematurely lost Sears machine, I used a lesson from family experience. My dad's mother had left behind a Kirby Model 510 when she died in 1958 and my mother has used it ever since. Still has it, but with the usual bag, cord, and wheel replacement over time. Anyway, I figured that if this had been a good machine, I'd get one like it. I went to a local vac shop and bought a used Kirby Model 511 and we had it for over 25 years before it needed replacement.

 

[1926700]

my choice is.....

a Kenmore Duo-Power from the 60's......absolutely no suction....i really think a Hoover DAM is alot better....

 

[bimmer740]

The Fantom Fury

I convinced my mother to purchase a Fantom Fury to replace or use along with her Eureka Express canister and our Lux tank when they were all the rage back in the early 90's. It was reasonably priced and came with the extra extension hose as an added bonus. I remember the first time I used it in our basement I nearly filled the dirt bin, its not a very large room and it was vacuumed on a regular basis. Maybe it was just the way it seemed to "fluff up" the dirt inside the container that made it look like more than it really was. Its funny though, I recently ran into our former housekeeper last week after maybe 15 years of not seeing her and she was responsible for some of the Fantoms many "accidents". We also had a housekeeper that lasted for one day who was a total nut and went storming out of our house saying the Fantom was possesed with some type of omen, she obviously wasnt properly medicated and was soon deported for letting her temporary citizenship expire. While the unit did have good suction, some good tools for its price point (dusting brush was very nice), and wasnt a screamer like the others, its did have several short comings. One huge problem was it leaked dust like crazy! Through the seal where the dust bin met the machine, from around the HEPA filter, even through the motor housing. I remember taking the machine apart because I didnt think it was working that well and I was disgusted by all the dirt that had accumulated inside the motor and the base housing. The overall concept of the machine was good but it was just executed so poorly along with crappy build quality, which lead it to be tossed out to the curb after just a few years. Its a shame since it was a good looking machine that had a lot going for it but its downfall was the poor design of the motor placement. It was a supposed "bypass" design but the motor was almost directly inline with the dirt. Its not really the worst machine Ive used, the Regina Housekeeper is the worst, but it certainly was the biggest dissapointment after all the hype surounding the brand and our initial impression of its performace.

 

[whirlcool]

Fantom Fury

We must have had a defective one. Everyone else we talked to who had one said they were not that hard to push around. Ours seriously was like pushing a pickup truck around the house. It just did not want to roll. The wheels moved freely, but the machine itself did not want to move.
It's the only vac we've ever had that left the room dustier than before we started to vacuum.
At least we got some of our money back. Our Miele dealer gave us $100.00 off on a new Miele when we traded the Fantom in.

What ever happened to the Fantom Company? I heard they ended up being a real disaster?

 

[whirlcool]

Interesting Tidbit

I came across a marketing video from Fantom for the Fury. Interesting to watch.

 

[nick]

Interesting Tidbit

i think that is mary from the waltons tv show

 

[tolivac]

The "Fantom" is now Euro-Pro.I have heard Mr Dyson was part of the Fanton Fury design team.When the Fantom Co went under Mr Dyson founded his own company.
I have seen many sad looking Fantoms in vac shop dumpsters.And according to CU-the dirt and dust bypassed the Fantoms HEPA filter and was blown back into the air.I have seen a few VERY DIRTY Fantom HEPA filter housings-and on the exhaust side.Also Fantom was tied into Iona Appliances in some way.

 

[vac_whisperer]

Thats interesting... fantom furys do look sort of like dyson DC-01s.

VW