Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Hoover Recalls Upright Vacuum Cleaners Due to Fire and Shock Hazards U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 27, 2010 Release #10-248 Firm's Recall Hotline: (888) 891-2054 CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772 CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908 Hoover Recalls Upright Vacuum Cleaners Due to Fire and Shock Hazards WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product. Name of Product: Hoover(r) WindTunnel T-Series(tm) Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaners with Cord Rewind Feature Units: About 108,000 Importer: Hoover Inc., of Glenwillow, Ohio Hazard: The power cord is not properly routed or securely seated in the cord rewind assembly allowing the power cord to be pulled loose. This poses fire and shock hazards. Incidents/Injuries: Hoover has received three reports of minor burns to carpet and furniture and one report of a minor burn to a consumer's hand. Description: This recall involves Hoover(r) WindTunnel T-Series(tm) Bagless Upright vacuum cleaners with the cord rewind feature. This feature enables the cord to wind inside the vacuum for storage. The following model numbers and manufacturing codes are included in the recall. Model Numbers / Manufacturing code ends with... UH70110 UH70120 / HO9A O9A UH70200 UH70205 / JO9A KO9A UH70210 Vacuums with the manufacturing code KO9A followed by a green dot are not included in this recall. Vacuum cleaners with the cord rewind feature sold after November 2009 and with any other manufacturing code are not included in this recall. The model number and manufacturing code can be found on a label on the lower rear part of the vacuum cleaner. Sold at: Mass merchandisers, department stores and independent vacuum retailers nationwide and online from August 2009 through May 2010 for between $100 and $160. Manufactured in: Mexico Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled vacuum cleaners and contact Hoover for a free repair. Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Hoover toll-free at (888) 891-2054 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.hoover.com/tseriesrewindrecall To see this recall on CPSC's web site, including pictures of the recalled product, please go to: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10248.html

M00seUK wrote:

Hello M00seUK:

HOOVER is one of the first upright brands to use cord winders.  It's track record for reliability of the winders, up to this particular model, is pristine.  Sir James kow towed manual rug height adjustments for years in favor of self-adjusting head nozzles.  He put these concerns to rest once and for all with TOL dyson DC28 which uses manual rug height adjustments.  I put more reliance on the actual track record of the HOOVER winders, which to HOOVER/TTI's credit, were voluntarily recalled, than Sir James' proclaimations about avoiding them.

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:
Yeah, I would agreed that JD's decision on these points was likely more to do with cost at the time: "people don't want cord winders (which often are the first to break) " and "height adjusters aren't useful to most people". Both statements are true for people like me, but not everyone.

M00seUK wrote:

I respectively disagree M00seUK.  Sir James Dyson does not make product feature decisions based on their respective costs.  Look at a few of his products:  10 inch fan priced at $300.  6 minute operating handheld priced at $270.  Electric Hand Dryer priced at $1400.  Lights priced at $900.  Dysolv carpet cleaner for $12.  The premise sounds good.  Excellent retailer spin by dyson.  But, no, I can't accept/believe that prohibitive costs have ever served as a reason for dyson to keep typical industry wide features from becoming standard for his products.  Not with dyson having 500 full time engineers on board whose payroll overhead expenses have to be factored into the prices of all his consumer products.  Sir James has shown time and time again he has no qualms about pricing his products 200-300 times higher than the industry competition. 

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:
Um, no - you've jumped to the wrong conclusion. I didn't mean that people *won't* pay extra for these features. I meant the J.Dyson *thinks* (either rightly or wrongly) that most people don't *need* these features and that Dyson needn't go to the cost / trouble of including them. Of course Dyson makes decisions on cost (to them) as a feature that might not be priority for most people will eat in to their margin.

M00seUK wrote:

Hi M00seUK,

The Dyson DC28 rated well in our Consumer Reports and is probably the first of Dysons that merited a higher rating over other Dyson models.  Besides a better brushroll, it had, at last, a height adjustment. 

Conveniences like height adjustment for upright vacuums and canisters with power nozzles, lights for illumination in badly lighted areas, cord reels and speed/suction adjustment are boons. 

Speaking of cord reels I have new vacs that have them and forty year old vacs that also have them.  They're all working.

Venson

M00seUK wrote:

Then, let me backtrack and restate my conclusion which differs from yours.  For years Sir James Dyson was mislead about the importance of manual rug height adjustments.  He was mislead because he concluded they were not a priority for most people.  Rather than eating into his profit margin with their inclusion, instead he gave buyers ONLY a self-adjusting floating head nozzle.  Lo and behold sometime before June 2009, Sir James had an epiphany about the matter and reversed course in his thinking on manual rug height adjustments. So he added them to the DC28, which retails for $599 an increase of about $100 over the typical dyson upright up to that time.  I conclude from this occurence that:  If Sir James Dyson believes/feels the feature is a priority [either rightly or wrongly] he builds it into the product without concern for profit because dyson prices the product upwards for its inclusion.  Cost is not the issue for the feature's inclusion.  Something else other than the increased cost that will diminish his profit margin [as you claim] is the motivating reason for its inclusion. 

Carmine D.

Venson wrote:

Hi Venson:

On the subject of cord winders, I believe Sir James Dyson's statement that they are problematic and hence unworthy of inclusion is just a misguided excuse for not offering them on his upright models.  Just as was his excuse for not including the manual rug height adjustments which he reversed course in June 2009 with DC28.  And upped the MSRP.

Carmine D.

But they are problematic on older machines. I've worked on several Panasonic uprights that had auto cord rewinds and the company copied Hoover UK in the 1980s by fitting the auto cord rewind at the top recess just above or below the carry handle. Panasonic got so fed up with recalled vacuums that they stopped auto cord rewinds on their 1990 vacuums. Physically by design if a motor that rewinds a cable from the floor upwards all the time at the end of cleaning, its no wonder that the weight and pull of the plug and associated cord weakens the mechanism over time. The Mach 6 in the UK (by Vax/TTi) and the old Vax VX series have auto cord rewinds located at the bottom which is a much better thought out idea. Still, though it is something that is "another thing," like to go wrong over time.

Carmine - I had no idea that Dyson fitted a manual adjuster on the DC28. How does it work? Does it follow the standard that there are selective notches/dial style that the owner can adjust themselves to different carpet heights or something completely different?

vacmanuk wrote:

From the dyson web site:

vacmanuk wrote:

With the HOOVER cordwinder recall, the issue was the leads inside the winder pulling off/apart with user pulling too hard.  Not the plug.  Since 2005, the HOOVER bagless Elite Rewind upright, which sells for $90 to $110 by most retailers now in US, has used a cordwinder without any problems/issues based on my reading and research.  The complaint/issue most often cited with the HOOVER Elite rewind is the cord length, called short by some at 24 feet, not its mechanism.  At the current price, it is a budget model that is a popular seller among most US retailers.  No cord rewind problems so far after 5 years of sales to my knowledge. 

Carmine D.