Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

We recently purchased a Sebo Felix from Costco.com and my wife does not like it at all.  It runs hot and was heavy/akward to carry as a canister.  Luckily Costco has a great return policy!  The most important feature for her is light weight and she really likes our 10-year old Oreck.  I've gone to both the Oreck store and an independent vacuum store to look and compare.  The Oreck and Simplicty Freedom seem very similar.  I like the high end Simplicity Freedom model F3700 [priced at $399] without the companion canister and $499 with the canister because it has a metal brush roll.  The lower end freedom models don't have two speeds and frankly don't seem as good as the Oreck to me.  At the Oreck Store I tested the Magnesium, which was interesting, but costs $399 as well [$499 with canister].  Also, not sure about buying this new and unproven model although it was incredibly light.  Costco is running a special thru January 15th, where I can purchase the Oreck XL & Canister companion for $248 [$50 off costco price].  At the end of the day this seems like the best value to me, but I'm curious as tot he opinions on this forum.  Thanks very much!  

The UK is pretty much the same - in terms of buyers for vacuums - they don't want to spend anymore than £100 on a machine ($153) and if they are pushed to buy Dyson then they'll go for it (up to $595 or just over $650) and treat it like an investment. Where our large appliances are concerned, washers and dishwashers start around the £199 price range and go all the way to £2539-00 ($304 to $3884) refridgerators go for completely different prices, thanks to your influence (not yours personally, but the U.S style "grande" sized fridge/freezer combination.) The most expensive and largest is a range from a company called Sub Zero and it costs £12,500 (you could buy a car for that kind of cash) equivalent to $19125.00

Our 3 month electricity bill usually amounts to £749 ($1149) on average (including power), and that's because Scotland continually has cold weather, rainy for most days and prevents clothing from being hung outside, or being frozen to the washing line. Also it's very cold all around the year but our summers are very short, so at least there's a good respite of not using any heating as it's usually warm enough to get by without it. But for the most part it's quite expensive to run. The cost of gas used to be cheaper but because it's more precious to get out of the ground, can be additionally expensive to run all the time.

I've managed to get the bill down to £400/£500 however simply by using as little electric light as possible, energy saving lights, low motor powered vacuums (even if the SEBO and Miele models I have have high power, they can be used in the lowest rating) and only using the dishwasher maybe once or twice a week. The washing machine now only gets used once every 2 weeks to try and go through all the clothing I have rather than stick to my favourites and ignore the rest!

vacmanuk wrote:

I think electrical rates are better where I am now than in New York but there has been a trade-off -- I'm now paying for water.  (just once I'd like to feel I came out ahead In some spots I'm told, you not only rent and pay  for water and electricity for light, heating and cooling but trash removal too.  At least I don't have to call "Rent a Frog" or "Lease  a Owl"  -- they're included in the deal for free.

As for cleaning equipment choices, there seems to be only a very limited amount of bona fide vacuum shops in my area -- I'm talking for miles.  Everyone appears to be taking what Wal-Mart has to give here though there must be a Kirby guy somewhere around as I notice them turning up for sale as pre-used regularly.

Wasn't the UK Hoover Junior our Lightweight (USA version)?

Seems like that Lightweight wasn't too popular here?

hooverman wrote:

They of course were lighter but I think compactness was more the sell point -- the near wallop of a full-sized Hoover, beater-bars and all, but easier to tuck away.  The cleaning swath was narrower, for most of the line, and I don't think that garnered much enthusiasm.  "Will it clean," was more the question than, "How heavy is it," during the time the Hoover Convertible was king of the hill. 

Venson

Venson wrote:
The Hoover Junior (or Lark as it was known in the States) was a fantastic seller for Hoover in the U.K, not least Scotland where the Cambuslang factory churned out many. We had them, my grandmother had them and nothing else beat it at the time for carpet dust pick up. It was still at that period of vacuums where people bought uprights for carpets and canisters for suction above the floor and hard floors. The Electrolux Z500 series didn't even come close even though it was a true upright with a hose connection and was better for fitting than the Junior/Lark's hose at the front, and it was a Clean Fan system compared to Hoover's dirty fan. WHICH UK testing still recommended Hoover uprights though! Quite literally we Brits fell in love with the VW Beetle-esque style and the Art Deco models before that and of the slogan "it beats-as it sweeps- as it cleans." Buyers for canisters were more then likely dabbling with Electrolux rather than going out for the also, dearly beloved Portable and "Connie" Constellation models. Loosely based on the Convertible, there was the Senior - we had one of those and I recall my mother preferring the Junior because it was lighter to handle and get around the carpets. We even had the last modern version in the 1980's, a U1104 model which at last was made in plastic exterior that made it a bit lighter to carry as well as a flat drive belt and a top fill dust bag, although the U1012 older style machines had a top fill bag.

I've often loved the Junior - it was effectively the vacuum I grew up with. The U.S then fell in love with the horrendous Boss uprights with the "Back Saver" handle in the 1980's. Many Brits weren't convinced of those - we had better Electrolux models by then!

As Venson points out, the Junior/Lark was lighter- but U.S homes have always been bigger than the U.K and everything else.

Ok, I haven't exactly read all of the responses, cause this caught my eye and was signing out, but given that I am a vacuum enthusiast and technician, I have worked on Orecks and the riccar/simplicity supralite/freedom and will say that even with the base supralite/freedom, you have better cleaning power than the oreck. The riccar/simplicity vacs use the same motor through out the 5 variants, the only differences are having a switch on the handle or having one on the body, having the multi speed switch, having a wooden brushroll, having a metal brush roll, having a hall sensor (jam detection) and having paper bags or micron filtered bags. The fans and motors are the exact same, so the rsl1 cleans the same as the rsl5 when the rsl5 is on high, the differences are the cloth collection bag vs the paper, the metal brush roll with replaceable strips, the hall sensor and the multi speed switch on the handle.

The riccar/simplicity models handle hair and other debris better than the orecks because the fan has a deeper fin with a tighter curve shape to deflect objects and keep hair from winding up.


I own an oreck commercial XL, an RSL3 and an RSL5... Would take the riccars over the orecks any day...

jkbmmv wrote:

Someone finally answered the question, Riccars blow Orecks away if U can stand the noise lol, or buy the 2 speed and run on low.

jkbmmv wrote:

vacman2 wrote:
I have to agree that Tacony's  Freedom/Supralite upights are very good and perform very well.  I have said this from their beginning.  What I have to ask is, have you tried the other Oreck residential uprights?  They make other series of uprights like the Pilot series(mentioned earlier in the thread), which started out as the XL21,  and the Edge upright. 

We are Oreck fans