Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Some observations -

• Oreck is conspicuously missing from the upright ratings.
• Panasonic has a new AeroBlast for $700 is a apparently a poor copy of a Dyson that burps loudly when it reverses the air flow to clean the filter.   Why would anyone pay so much for a Dyson copy, particularly when the filter clogs with fine dust?
  
• Hoover's fall from grace is noted, presumably due to their ill conceived bagless vacuums.  Hoover now has the worst reliability of the uprights.  Dyson is second only to Kirby in the reliability rankings.   
  
• For uprights, Kenmore takes the top 2 spots (bagged and bagless), followed by the Riccar SupraLite RSL3, the Electrolux Oxygen EL5035A, and the Kirby Sentria.  
  
• The Halo is #33 on the list for uprights. 
  
• The $60 Hoover Tempo Widepath has a better tool airflow score than the Dyson DC17 as well as better carpet cleaning scores. 
  

The machine is only as good as the people behind it,you would not believe the things i have seen.

A current trend for the vacuum sales people today is to sabotage your machine. The door to door crowd seems to be very adepth at doing this.

This practice has put a real dark cloud over the business. I will under no circumstance back up any one who does this,They better start looking for another job............

MOLE

mole wrote:

Mole,

What do you mean by this?  Do they actually damage someone's machine, or just run it down?   I have seen, in fact just this weekend, where the salesman will put a machine at a disadvantage. 

I found this weekend that there are honest people out there, and no so honest.  It is unfortunate that one bad apple will spoil the whole basket of fruit.

mole wrote:

Mole,

What do you mean by this?  Do they actually damage someone's machine, or just run it down?   I have seen, in fact just this weekend, where the salesman will put a machine at a disadvantage. 

I found this weekend that there are honest people out there, and not so honest.  It is unfortunate that one bad apple will spoil the whole basket of fruit.

Hi Just, when your around this stuff as long as i and a few others that i know,you can tell if a certain brand of cleaner has been tampered with,the question i usually ask the customer is did you have anyone service check your vacuum for a performance check,the answer is 90% yes i did,either by some local competing vacuum dealer or some door to door outfit. You would be surprised at the little tricks these guys pull, pull out a seal here, put a componet in backwards,adjust the machine on the lowest setting stalling the brush roll,disconnect one of the lead wires and let it dangle on the teminal,eventually shutting off the motor[this is one of my favorites]. Kirby people are really good at belt changes on kirbys and kicking the brush roll out on the high setting or putting the brush rollor in bacwards,[just swap the caps on the rollor and see what happens.And of course the old talcom powder test that blocks the filters up in a hurry,and bags also.

B.T.W. dysons dc17 is  really giving dyson fits,calls coming in to the tech line are non stop,word has it the the weight of the machine and the over aggresive brush roll it's tearing peoples carpeting apart and causing bald spots.

MOLE

Mole,

I understand now.   I know that an old, now deceased, vac man told me once that he loved to see the DTD's hit the neighborhood.  Because even if they don't buy from the DTD guy, they will usually come in for an upgrade or repair within 90 days of their in home demo.   He said all he had to do was usually change the belt/roller or bag and re-educate them on the merrits of their vacuum and they went home happy. 

I witnessed some of that this weekend with the Sewing/Vac shop I visited.  The man had all kinds of meters hooked up to show me how much better his machine was than the others.  One of the "other" machines was a G6, when he showed me it was only pulling about 40 CFM I reached back and checked the bag.  It was a non-Kirby replacement single ply bag that was partially full.  I actually didn't care, because it wasn't my machine, and I wasn't interested in the one he was showing me.  But I could see how some could be fooled with the slight of hand tricks.  Again, that was just one bad apple.  The other two shops I was in this weekend were very friendly and professional.

The DC17 sounds like a real work horse.  The Dyson brushbar on the other machines in not like that but I have heard of complaintes from American users that the other models brushbars are not aggressive enough and the DC17 seems to be the complete opposite.  

Although I have not used a DC17 at my home I do own a DC21. It’s brushes are much to stiff for my berber carpet and I can feel (when bare footed) much fuzzing on the carpet after vacuuming, I am certain it is damaging my carpeting. I suppose I can attempt to put a DC15 brush roll in my DC21 but have not been motivated to do so. Although my DC15 with its brush roll is perfectly fine to use on my carpets. Speaking ONLY of my DC21/berber combo... it should beat my carpets, not bludgeon. I must say the new DC24/25 brush roll looks to have stiff tuffs too.  Dyson's wide spacing of tuffs typically means stiff tuffs.  I hope I am wrong.        DIB

DC24 hi rez photo

mole wrote:

Hello Mole:

Is this the reason that retailers like COSTCO and HOME DEPOT never took on the the DC17 model in their stores and internet Web sites?

Have you heard a rumor that COSTCO plans to drop the dyson line after it sells out of its DC14 Exclusive?

Carmine D.

Hi Carmine,

For the record, my local Costco has not had a Dyson in stock for months.  They don't put out much. So far the Bissell Healthy Home and the bagged Hoover Wind Tunnel 2 are what they have.  No canisters are on display either though Costco online has a broader offering.

Best,

Venson

Venson wrote:

Hello Venson:

How about the iRobot line?  Does your local COSTCO carry it?  The latest and greatest 5th Generation iRobot?  I believe it's the model 500 Roomba. 

Carmine D.