Why don't more UK canisters have Power nozzles?

[hooverjedilord]

Hi, I've been thinking recently about canister vacuums, as I see so many American collectors talk about their canisters, pretty much all of them have power nozzles.
I mean vacs like Eureka, Aerus, Rainbow and so on, they all have PN, that got me thinking, most people I know here in England only have straight suction canisters, which really isn't effective on their carpets.

They do seem to be growing slightly in popularity, with things such as the Vax Air Revolve having a PN, but still why aren't power nozzles readily available I wonder?

I mean it's understandable to have straight suction if you don't have rugs or carpets, but nearly everyone I know who has a straight suction also has rugs or carpets, I really think that the brands are cheating the consumers by not offering a good brushroll.

My best friend has been using an HVR 200a straight suction for quite a while, and recently converted to a Vax air cordless lift, and the Vax pulled up so much crap the Henry left behind that the bin was ENTIRELY full! So surely more brands should offer power nozzles? Why are us brits so behind when it comes to the concept of agitation??

 

[human]

Having only visited the UK one time 30 years ago (had a really lovely time, btw), I can't answer the question definitively, but one thing that comes to mind the prevalence of wall-to-wall carpet in UK homes. Here in the States, it's been pretty much ubiquitous since the 1970s, so the power nozzles are a pretty much a necessity to compete with uprights. Higher priced homes here are now reverting to hardwood, tile, etc., as a status symbol. But if hard floors are more prevalent in the UK, then there would be less of a need for a power nozzle. I have hardwood throughout most of my house and I use my Electrolux 1205 without the power nozzle to clean that. I do the carpeted rooms with my Kirbys.

 

[marcusprit]

It's because most people in the UK prefer an upright on their carpeted floor.

I would like to see more cylinders with a PN. I find the noise of a Turbo brush so annoying and i don't like straight suction on carpet.

 

[parwaz786]

I heard on VL by somebody saying that the British public with cylinders like to scrub their carpets with the floor tool cos its satisfying or something

 

[hooverjedilord]

Satisfying? Ha, it really bugs me when people use straight suction on carpets, it's pretty much useless! I guess the British public are badly educated when it comes to vacs Marcus, I also find Turbo brushes irritating as well! But I'd prefer that to a straight suction.

 

[parwaz786]

I think it would be a nice idea for kids to learn about vacuum cleaners in science and how they work etc, would be good and useful too

 

[hooverjedilord]

Yeah, now that would have been a subject I'd have aced! But seriously the importance of good agitation should become more appreciated by the public

 

[parwaz786]

Lol ikr, I would like to make a vacuum exam and take one, maybe a vacuumland member can make one that would be ACE!!!
I remember when I was a kid, SOO many people had Vax 121's, 6131's in orange EVERYWHERE and Dc01's and DC04's etc. Now there are mostly Dysons where I live. The only common straight suction is Dyson cylinders mainly or Henrys/Hettys
Also more people are buying upright Dysons to replace their old cheaper cylinder vacuums like Hoover bagless machines and vax etc

 

[hooverjedilord]

Oh yeah, the 6131 pops up everywhere in my area, my old Art tutor had a 121 which I quite fancied for myself the dc01 used to be very popular here in Winchester, I guess they got thrown out when people realised how crap they were! My neighbour had an arctic blue one, and some bitch my mum was friends with had a standard one from 1993. Henry's are super common here as well.

 

[parwaz786]

People here loved the Dc01's, sooooooooooo popular omg and they just got thrown out for either littlt things, or people upgraded to the DC04 or DC07

 

[hooverjedilord]

They do last a decent amount of time in comparison to other Dysons, but most I find nowadays have snapped handles or the plastic is so brittle it's cracked in several places. And on top of that they've all be clogged up

 

[vintagerepairer]

They are not widely sold here because consumers don't buy them. As has been said already, the UK consumer generally likes an upright cleaner for carpets given that so many UK homes have fitted carpet all over. Those who prefer cylinders do so because they are more convienient for getting around and under things. I don't think it is ever fully appreciated (even by people who live here) just how small and cluttered our homes are.

The canister cleaners we've had with power nozzles were usually large and not particulalry easy to use once the heavy hose and tubes were fitted.

You have to ask yourself what the advantages of these cleaners are for UK consumers. In that you will get your answer as to why they have never caught on.

 

[eurekaprince]

Firstly, there is a historical element here: canisters were invented in Europe and uprights were invented in the USA. The idea of a revolving brush to help clean carpets is "embedded" (pardon the pun) into the North American vacuum cleaner culture. And Americans invented the power nozzle in the 1950's to introduce the carpet cleaning effectiveness of an upright to the canister vacuum cleaner. I think even turbo nozzles were invented by the likes of Singer and Sunbeam in the USA in the 1950's.

Secondly, we here in North America have been limited to vacuums of 1440 watts = 12 amps x 120volts. So our canister cleaners were never going to have the airflow that European canister cleaners used to offer. We never saw a Eureka canister offering 2000 watts of power - ever.

So generations of cleaner users on both sides of the Atlantic got used to using different kinds of vacuums. Also - North American houses in the suburbs in the 1950's allowed for large swaths of acres of wall-to-wall carpeting which was always faster to clean with a revolving brush than a suction only nozzle.

I think now with the new limits on motor power in Europe, you will see the return of lots of power nozzles on your European canisters. You may even see a flood of newer lightweight fan-first (dirty-air) bagged uprights like Orecks which can effectively clean carpets in narrow spaces and carpeted stairs with a 5 amp motor.

 

[vintagerepairer]

As regards Europe, power nozzles were offered for carpets because they neither had the quantity of fitted carpets nor the upright vacuum cleaners to use on them. It was canister pretty much all the way. This was not the same at all in the UK, where upright cleaners have always been avaliable and indeed popular. Probably a 50/50 split, with a lot of us owning both types at the same time.

Manufactures don't have to worry to muich about performance so long as their cleaners still sell. There will never be a "return" to power nozzles for the UK as we have never really had them to begin with. You'd be lucky to find ONE cleaner which had them at any given time, never mind a full range and a choice. Also, the days of fan-first cleaners have long gone...our manufacturers never made much reference to the two types and the clean-air system quietly took over as the principle system. You'd be hard pushed to find a dirty-fan cleaner and those clean-fan models we have are still selling well it seems. So no need to change anything at the moment.

 

[hooverjedilord]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's just annoying that people use straight suction on carpets, it's pure ignorance, the suction and thread picker aren't strong enough to remove the embedded grit and hair, it just doesn't have that reach and power that a brushroll has. But the majority of people I know use straight suction on carpets, as canisters are more popular over here.

 

[vintagerepairer]

It's not ignorance, it's about the fact that overall they prefer the cylinder type of cleaner for whatever the reasons. They don't excell at cleaning carpets, but the beat an upright hands-down on everything else. And lets face it, there's so much more to life than cleaning a carpet.

 

[hooverjedilord]

there's so much more to life than cleaning a carpet.

Is there? To be honest vacuums and Sci Fi is all I have, sorry if I came across as rash, but it just annoys me when people don't consider the performance of the Vacuum. Either way, I'm more of an upright person, but Kirby's are my favourite

 

[parwaz786]

Just curious, being a bit nosy and looking at your profile, which DC04 do you have? We have the silver and lime DC04

 

[vintagerepairer]

I wasn't directing that at you personally, I was saying that the cleaning of a carpet was not going to be at the front of every persons mind, never more so perhaps than at a time like this when the UK faces a general election. For me, I'd be annoyed if someone gave more thought to their lounge carpet than they did to which party they voted for, but of course we are all irritated by different factors.