Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Today I fortuitously stopped at the local Oreck dealer. 

Mike, the owner of several Oreck franchises and a few multi-brand stores had brought his new Edge upright from home, as stock had not arrived yet.

It has a more powerful motor, with a true  floating head. LED lights, infinite speed control AND and on-board stretch hose with a permanently attached telescopic crevice tool that is automatically active when the handle is in the upright position.  It lacks the Pilot's pivot head and the Halo's germ killing light. A model incorporating all three features is under development.  It is still easy to push, although it weighs 10 lb and requires a bit more effort than previous models.

There is a commercial OBT upright made by Stein (Sebo) that is very nice at only 450.00.  Oreck WILL be offering a bagless upright, but dealer participation is optional.  The new canister is color matched to the Edge and designed to be leaned on as the user vacuums stairs. Odd looking bare floor/crevice tool, no swivel neck. The bristles fold in to form the crevice tool, and the wand is inserted into a neck that curves more than 60 and less than 90 degrees, much like the OLD bare floor tools made of wood with the metal neck screwed on. A turbo tool is included and a dusting brush.

A cute little bagless canister is available for 49.99  Oreck has increased market share and has 89% brand recognition as a vacuum cleaner. They have become #1in  air purifier sales. (Mike did not say if that was dollar volume, or units or both.

The price of the Edge and matching canister will be about 750.00

Oreck is still marketing, still developing product, and still building a loyal customer base.

There have been statements made to the effect that all vacuum bags clog the minute they collect dirt. The new bags made with the cloth like filter material maintain a very high percentage of initial suction and airflow a they fill, approximately 95%, much higher that the old single layer filter bags.  Miele and others have independent lab test results to back up their claims

Yes but dont forget even though there are high filtration bags on the market, Miele have also upped the ante in power. That's why if you try a paper bag in a current high powered Miele, the suction will burst the paper bag even if it doesn't get a chance to clog up with much dust. So even with a bag OR bagless filter on board, the dust has to clog up initially. Such improvements in paper bags that take longer to clog are one thing, they still clog don't they? Is there an alternative or should be considering water collecting vacuums?

vacmanuk wrote:

It's a fallacy that vacuums are only effective if the suction is constant.  Vacuums can work quite well over a range of suction/air flows.  Unless you're picking up drywall powder or some other very fine powder exclusively, the suction should be more than adequate over the life of the bag (follow manufacturer's directions).  Given that I have a dog in the house, each time I vacuum, I'm actually picking up additional filter material.  Dirt and dust sticks to the dog hair and carpet fibers that are picked up inside the bag.  My Royal Powercast has an indicator light that is supposed to go on when the suction drops below an optimum level.  the light has never gone on during normal use.  I can stick my hand over the end of the hose and block air flow to make the light go on, so I'm assuming that it actually works.  I'm assuming the Powercast is a pretty good vacuum because when the Rainbow vacuum salesman tried to get dirt out of my carpet, he got nothing. 

I have a hard time believing from my experience that a bagless machine, who's filters, screens and bins gather massive amounts of dust, retain maximum suction at all times.

vacmanuk wrote:

The questions to ask are: 

• Is the increase suction power due to the increased bag size?  Maintaining constant/better suction over varying degrees of bag fills?  And/or both?  I suspect both.
• Will installing a MIELE 3.7 qt bag [retired S4 line] in a MIELE made for 4.8 qt [S2/S5] capacity cause a bag to burst?

Carmine D.

Regarding the new Oreck offerings - are they made in the US?  What is the amperage of the new Oreck Edge? 

Severus wrote:

Hi,

It took a little doing as no one seems to know anything about the Edge even on the customer service line.  However, I was informed by customer servce rep who actually went to check for me that the Edge upright draws 600 watts and its accompanying portable vac pulls 840.  I'm sure any of the Oreck repair people or owners here will say that's well above the draw of past models.

Venson

CarmineD wrote:
Well.. prepare to rethink your suspicions. Miele's paper bags are suitable for the S227 to S282 series, i.e.e the much older series by Miele produced in the 1970s to 1980s.





They may be retired in the U.S but the S4 and S5 that you refer to are still very much sold in the UK under several different guises. They use the material bags because of the higher motors built in; rather following what other brands are doing otherwise Miele would still only be making vacuums with 1200 watts these days rather than 1800 to 2000 watts AND offer less filtration layers. The force of the higher suction bursts paper bags. Vax also have this problem with their canister Orange 6000 series vac mode and a way around the bursting paper bags is to consider a washable fabric bag since Vax have yet to invest in the material disposable type.

If you try and fit an S4 bag into the S5 it may well fit but I seem to remember that the bag holder grids aren't the same size. S5 bags are bigger due to their capacity and marketing where the models fit into. Neither would the bags burst compared to paper.

vacmanuk wrote:

Not suspicions.  The S514/S516, both retired in the USA according to the MIELE web site, use the 3.7 qt paper [called FJM vice the 4.8 qt called G/N] and are 200-1200 watt with the 6 dial suction control.  It appears in the USA all the S5 models [current and retired] have 1200 watts use both the 4.8 qt bag G/N [current] or 3.7 qt FJM [retired].

Carmine D.

Both the FJM and GN bags are synthetics to cope with the higher suction and the added filters although some of the older series with paper bags can use the later filter cartridges.