Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

 The new Riccar SL5 now has a V belt with lifetime warranty.  Anyone think Oreck will finally make a change to their system to keep up?  With the SL1 and SL4 faring so well in Consumer Reports I would think David and the gang may want to finally change how their machine works.

Dusty

CarmineD wrote:
According to the Riccar website, the Superlites come in at less than 8lbs.

Dusty

mole wrote:
Riccar call it a Kevlar belt, I would describe it as a V belt.  Either way it's considered a lifetime belt and is covered under warranty as long as you own the machine.  The new agitator is also metal so I suspect (haven't had a chance to see it yet) that it's the same roller that's in the Radiance. 

Dusty

dusty wrote:

Hey Dusty:

According to the latest Consumer Reports, it's 9 pounds.  I'm sticking with my facts until I can verify the weight myself.  But, thanks for the info.

Carmine D.

The Riccar uses a poly V belt (like the fan belt on a car) which is Kevlar reinforced. For belt protection it has a Hall sensor that measures the speed of the brush and stops the motor immediately if it gets jammed. This also has a steel brushroll. In my opinion this is a much better machine than the Oreck in pretty much every way.

CarmineD wrote:

The XL doesn't have a manual height adjustment , doesn't have a brush cut off switch and the motor is too small.  Among other faults it clogs easily and belts wear out all too frequently even if it is not used.  It has inferior performance to heavier vacs and lighter vacs.  It is praised mostly for its weight and not performance. Free gifts have to be included with it in order for it to sell. Ol Dave must have had it designed to weigh in at 8 lbs so it would be in a seperate class from all other brands and could be best in class.  What a genius.

The Oreck isn't even best in its own class now.  The Tacony and TTI-made lightweights have since surpassed the Oreck in terms of cleaning performance AND value.  Proof that you can still be a lightweight machine and a REAL vacuum cleaner vs. a glorified electric broom or hair dryer on a stick.  And in the case of the Tacony models, also proof that you can use a lifetime belt on a single-motor upright without any problems.  Not that having a disposable belt prevents the Oreck from burning out the motor due to an obstruction in the brushroll...

A couple of years ago at the Hoover store, they had their very short-lived (due to the TTI buyout) Tacony-made Ultra Light Weight (ULW).  One of the comparisons they showed was an Oreck fan next to the ULW's fan.  The Tacony fan was considerably larger and had more blades, I forget the exact count but it was a lot more than 5

-MH

Motorhead wrote:

Hey Motor:

The problem with HOOVER outsourcing the ULW to Tacony was getting after market parts for it.  Especially the fan.  HOOVER [hence the end user customer] couldn't buy/replace the fan as a stand alone part item if it broke.  The user had to buy/replace the whole motor.   HOOVER employees and HOOVER ULW users were furious over this problem.  Wondering if that, more so than the TTI takover, resulted in the short lived ULW sales. 

ORECK fans are, and have always been, readily available and replaceable as a stand alone part item.

Carmine D.

I don't see how a Hoover dealer receiving aftermarket parts from Tacony would be any different than an independent licensed to carry Riccar or Simplicity.  Unless of course the ULW-specific fan (or other parts as such) had the Hoover name on it

At any rate, I wouldn't consider the TTI-made Hoover Clean & Light as a step backward, just Hoover going from one decent machine to another for whichever reason.  Those I've heard who have bought them love them.

CarmineD wrote:

Why would Hoover engineers let this get by them.  If you outsource the part can be built to your specs.  Sometimes it pays to have 500 engineers that know what they are doing.

I have heard that Oreck fans are not long lasting.  Perhaps that is why they are so readily available.

Actually Carmin, Hoover could get the fans seperate from Tacony, just as we can as a Tacony dealer.  The Hoover store in Denver even has the fan is stock...

Since we seem to be a bit uninformed here as to the entire life story of the Hoover ULW, I'll let everyone here know it.  Back when Hoover introduced the ULW, the agreement with Tacony was that the ULW would only be sold in the  Hoover facotry stores, so as not to put a version of the Riccar and Simplicity lightweight machine in big box stores.  Tacony is known for its commitment to it's dealers and even for a large Hoover contract would not stab them in the back.  With the fact that the Hoover factory stores are dying out, Hoover needed a machine they could sell thru the BBS and it's other far from independant dealer outlets.  This fact combined with the fact that Hoover now has access to the TTI built lightweight which was much cheaper for them, as a part of TTI to get caused Hoover/TTI to dump the ULW for a machine they made themselves and could sell everywhere.