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

Hello Trebor:

Let me be the first to opine on the 3 I'm familiar with.  Probably repeating myself for those who read and post here regularly. 

Best of the lightweights for quality and performance is probably RICCAR/SIMPLICITY.  Next best for quality and performance is ORECK especially on low to medium carpets.  Close second is the bagged HOOVER TTI lightweight which Consumer Reports ranked number 2 recently for uprights.  Especially for higher pile.  Quality wise I rate HOOVER/TTI lightweight less desirable than ORECK. 

BTW, FWIW, some retailers are selling the HOOVER lightweight with compact canister for $219.  Down from the $399 MSRP.  Almost by 50 percent.

Carmine D.

Trebor wrote:

HI TREBOR

I gotta agree with CARMINE.....except i find the Oreck to be more sturdy than the Riccar lgt/wt.......but would you consider the panasonic jet-flo 5amp as a light wt.......its awsome...takes a beating by many ....day in day out....and wont quit......riccar-panasonic-oreck-hvr.....in my view are by far the best  from what ive seen first hand.....many wont agree.....but for the money/service life/workhorse..........i think these are the best out there.

turtle1

retardturtle1 wrote:

Hello turtle1:

ORECK is the icon of lightweights.  I know some RICCAR pro's who made the jump over to ORECK and say the same as you about ORECK quality vice RICCAR. 

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:

HI CARMINE

Love the power of the riccars.........but solid build/quality goes to oreck. ...a larger fan wouldnt hurt. but its pretty great as is.

Seen some of the royals come in with locked up motors......so i assume hoovers clean and lite versions also may suffer this ....not sure.

Heard from a few about the bagged platinum.....most love it ,a great deep cleaner....some say way to loud......but happy overall....wish i had one to test/try out

but none come in...

turtle1

Thanks to all who responded, but what about the former Bissell lightweight, now marketed by Tacony under 4 different brands?
It has dual suction fans

Trebor wrote:

HI TREBOR

I like the twin fans as a deep cleaner.......but have heard so so feedback on the reliability of them... have used them a few times and do a great job,

Most say its way too loud....a screamer it is.....but ive heard louder......id say its yet to prove itself to be a solid and reliable performer......reguarless of who made it.

and not seeing it lasting in a heavy use enviroment....just my views and word of mouth from some users.

I would take one in a second and use it to death... fix flaws/make repairs as needed along the way....reg services ect.....only because i have the res. to do it at no cost or very little.....

turtle1

I would say Oreck wins the under $300 title while the high end goes to the Riccar SL5 with it's metal agitator and lifetime belt.  One thing I have noticed with our customers is that the majority of female shoppers prefer the feel of the Riccar unit and especially the handle (SL3's and up) over the Oreck D grip.

Dusty

Oreck has just introduced a new TOL  XL called ' The Pilot'  It has a swivel neck and a new double helix brush roll..
Offering upright, hand held canister, battery electrikbroom, and 12 V car vac as a package. No wonder Hoover cut their price!

Trebor wrote:

I like the platinum pilot...nice...but even with the extras its overpriced...even if it is an oreck. I like the $300 oreck set up...great bang for the buck with many years of service life.....some really great  upright vacs with a long life are availiable at or under $300.....seems like a good place to start looking...in my view.

turtle1

dusty wrote:

I totally agree on your sl-5 views.....i only wish it [ sl-3 -sl-5 ] had a metal handle shaft like the orecks.....that to me would make it the champ overall...or at least pretty darn hard to beat.

turtle1

There are other lightweights worth considering:
Sanitaire SC9050 DuraLite Lightweight Commercial Vacuum Cleaner at 10 pounds.

For what it's worth, Dyson does offer a lightweight vacuum as well. The performance was middling in Consumer Reports, but I mention it because they tend to have fairly positive user reviews.

Although canister vacuums tend to weigh more overall, I'm not sure that they wouldn't be a better option for someone wanting a lightweight vacuum. Certainly with some you feel like you're dragging along a dead pig. However, most of the time, you're just pushing the power nozzle with the canister parked. My mother in law who's in her 70's uses a 20+ year old Rainbow. While it would be heavy to carry everything at once full of water, in practice you don't. The canister rolls, and you only push the powerhead and the hose. Dragging along the canister might be a drag, but in general it sits while you move the power nozzle.

Severus wrote:

Hi Severus,

A lot has to do with whomever's preferred manner of cleaning. I think a well-designed canister vacuum not only handles floors well but makes tasks like stair cleaning a lot simpler and also eliminates the need and expense of two devices if you want to do more than just floors. (Hoover and Oreck lightweights provide enough oomph for carpet and bare floor cleaning but offer small portables to take up the slack above the floor.) However, a vacuum really has to fit the user's personal likes if it is to be regularly employed. For housekeepers accustomed to handling above the floor work like dusting, etc., by hand, a lightweight upright is probably a good deal.

Venson

Severus wrote:

Totally forgot about the 9050.....ive yet to run across one....and havent heard anything on how it performs. wonder if its durability is on par with its comm. red line  big brothers tho? Anybody have a chance to test or use one yet?

turtle1

Well, I have been in the vacuum business for awhile now. I have sold my share of lightweights. As far as power and cleaning capability, Riccar outperforms any Oreck. Oreck only cleans the surface, it does not do a deep cleaning as the Riccar. We sell alot more Riccars than Oreck

tomtlb66 wrote:

I hear this often as a selling point for RICCAR/SIMPLICITY lightweight uprights.  Consumer Reports rates RICCAR/SIMPLICITY lightweight models over ORECK, but not by much of a difference, in fact very close in comparative tests.  Explain please, if you will, the reasons that the RICCAR Supralite deep cleans carpets better than ORECK which you say is a surface cleaner.  What gives the RICCAR the edge as a deep cleaner vice ORECK as just a surface cleaner.  In features and performance?

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:

1. Bigger motor Fan 2. Stiffer Brush Roll. Not only a deeper clean but actually vibrates the dirt up from the carpet and MUCH easier to push than an Oreck 3. Long lasting Belts (One version even has a Hall Sensor that shuts off the brushroll, virtually giving the machine a lifetime belt). Oreck belts should be replaced 6-8 months to ensure optimum efficency. 4. The Aluminum Handle Orecks almost always loosen at the screws making the handle sloppy and harder to control.

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?