Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

I would like to hear the experiences of owners/users of the following lightweight bagged uprights in comparison to the Orecks and each other

HOOVER PLATINUM

BISSELL, now available as Karcher, Tornado, Powerflite and MaidLight

RICCAR and SIMPLICITY

HOOVER and ROYAL clean n' light

any others I have missed/neglected to mention

with regard to deep cleaning an various carpet/floor surfaces, surface litter/pet hair pickup, bare floor cleaning, edge cleaning, cleaning under furniture (nozzle raising up or not) noise, ease of use, and cost of maintenance

Thank you Lucky1.  I would add that the RICCAR is 5.5 amps vice the ORECK 4.0.  Does that make a big difference?  Maybe?  Maybe not.  BTW, while I replace the belts as often as you say on the ORECK Classic, I have yet to have to tighten the handle screws after exactly 3 years of usage this month.   I don't mind the softer brush tufts on the ORECK.  In fact I prefer it.  Why?  Makes for a much better vacuum cleaner on barefloors and tiles which is about 70 percent of my home.   I have always thought that the RICCAR/SIMPLICITY lightweights are a tad bit above the ORECK's in performance and quality. 

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:

Hi Carmine

Ive seen the orecks under other names...some with medium to agressive brushrolls....and can see where the orecks would/could benefit from this upgrade or

at least offer this as an option....Lucky1 makes some great points.....and do agree with most...as riccar is my vac of choice/fav.

But from what ive seen, the orecks in my opinion are the more solid/durable built of the two.....an option on the brushroll is all thats missing...because the time tested quality

and soild build of the oreck  has been proven in both home and commercial use.

turtle. 

I've had the Powr-Flite PF62EC for about 2 years.  At  $ 159 what are you waiting for??

Strong build, made in USA,  dual fans  160 cfm.  8 lbs. You can get all replacement parts on line.  Yes it screams, thats what ipods are for :-)

Lets not forget the humble Miele stick vacs- they're good if you can put up with the long handle.

The Miele stick vacs use a telescopic tube as a handle and are somewhat adjustable, and can operate with the tube between the nozzle and the cleaner for long reaches under furniture. The one model will even accept a powerhead to deep cleaning carpet. The addition of a power nozzle, hand turbo tool and hose kit raise the total price to approximately $750.00. But for a household with mainly bare floors, some carpet that needed deep cleaning, and is short on storage, I could see it being an ideal choice. Some people will never satisfactorily switch to a canister.

Trebor wrote:
Well, we don't have them in the UK. Last time was around 1990 and I bought one a couple of years ago. Miele named it "The Alternative" and carries model number 142. As such its a basic model and the UK ones only have a fixed height single tube with a slide in lock handle at the top. My mum uses it solely for hard floor pick up using an additional Miele parquet brush tool. There used to be a long flexible hose attachment for it turning it into a canister possibility, but I don't really see how it would work with the exhaust filter at the back - it would probably keep floors very hot if the stick vac was made to lay flat for a long period of time. $750 is a lot of money! They only cost about £140 /$225.15 when they were sold in the UK.

Talking of lightweight things, a friend of mine has just moved into a new home and its tiny. They have just enough space for their SEBO K canister and nothing else. However, he's got a long staircase with which the SEBO is great for doing and the SEBO spends most of its time upstairs where all the new carpet is (and the turbo brush is doing just fine). However, to combat the problem of hard floor cleaning and instead of carrying the vac constantly up and down the stairs, as space was at a premium I decided to go and buy a lightweight cyclonic upright vacuum from a UK company called Lakeland. Now, I've not seen this kind of stick vac before - but perhaps you guys in the U.S/Canada have: Here is the cordless version - I bought the mains powered version and he adores it - so handy to use especially with the hand held part that just comes out. When inspecting it in the shop, the hand held part is very familiar to Electrolux, especially as it has a slide out crevice tool on the base similar to the Ergorapido Mk1 / Pronto.




And the mains corded version (800 watts) which doesn't have the brush roll but a simple 2 way hard floor/soft carpet standard floor head:





There's also a video of it on the main product page: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/F/product/22758

Lakeland are a franchise who deal in homewares - they aren't a manufacturer, but rather like Amway, they sell cleaning products for the home etc etc!

vacmanuk wrote:

Have here Vacmanuk in the USA.  ORECK typically offers as a promotion with in-home trial and sales of its high end uprights.

Carmine D.

vacmanuk wrote:
The 750.00 was an approximate price for the deluxe model which will accept an electric power nozzle, along with said power nozzle (the bigger one which will stand up by itself) and a turbo hand tool, and a hose/wand kit. and a parquet nozzle. Just the vac itself is 379.00

Trebor wrote:
Effectively you could just buy the cordless motorized brush model that is in use with the S4 and put it onto the S140 series. Wouldn't that be cheaper to buy?