Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Well, it's now 7 years since I bought the Lindhaus Aria and while it still has great suction, the vacuum is falling apart.

A couple of years after buying this vac, the power cord got tangled inside the vacuum with only about 3 feet of the cord out. I couldn't see paying someone to "fix" the issue and tried to do it myself. However, the Phillips head screws are located deep in the body and none of the screwdrivers I had would reach them. I went to Home Depot and bought a variety of longer Phillips head screwdrivers but none were long enough and the one that was had a head that was WAY too big to fit in the screw head. So I just attached an extension cord.

A couple of years later, the cover that goes over the tools came off. Actually, the plastic part that fits in one side of the canister broke off so I just left it off. The hose was always a weak point, folding over on itself and cutting off suction, but it eventually got worse and happened more often.

Then, one of the plastic "thingy's" that hold the hose in the canister wouldn't pop out so that if you tugged too hard on the hose as you were vacuuming the entire hose would come out of the vacuum. This part is spring loaded and the "spring" seemed to have lost it's spring. Then the power head stopped working. Turned out the plastic casing on the electric connection from the telescoping hose had become frayed and the power head wouldn't maintain the electric connection. WHen I bought this vacuum fortunately it came with a second telescoping section so I was able to hook that one up and get the power head operating again.

Several months ago, I went to turn the vacuum on via the foot switch and lo and behold the plastic cover over the switch broke - more to the point a small plastic extension on the cover that goes over the foot switch that attaches it to the canister broke - so now there's just this small switch I have to manually depress to turn the vacuum on and off.

Unfortunately, last week when I tried to check to see how full the bag was the other plastic "thingy" that holds the hose in the canister wouldn't depress so I could get the hose out of the vacuum to access the bag. I tried as hard as I could to get it to depress and eventually it just broke - actually it turned out that the "spring" was really just another piece of plastic that "acted" as a spring and apparently over the years from connecting and disconnecting the hose to replace full bags the plastic just lost its flexibility. So now there is only the other plastic "thingy" that doesn't pop out on the hose and I have to use a screw driver to pop it into place to hold the hose in the canister - but it's kind of hit or miss as it wants to fall into the depressed state so the hose comes out of the canister.

Had I realized just how much plastic the Lindhaus was made of I never would have bought this vacuum. Would it REALLY have cost that much more to use metal parts instead of the cheap plastic parts that this vacuum is made of?

So what to do. In my prior review of the Sebo, Miele, Riccar, and Lindhaus back in 2009 I ranked the Sebo highest based on my personal demoing of all those models. Based on that experience, I just ordered a new Sebo Airbelt D4 canister vacuum. I sure hope the Sebo has a longer lifespan than the Lindhaus.

You could have saved yourself a great deal of money and bought a much more powerful vacuum had you instead bought a Kenmore Elite canister vacuum. I also have a Lindhaus Aria canister but it hasn't fallen apart to the degree yours has (I am typically gentler on home appliances than average). The few things about the Lindhaus that do frustrate me occasionally are shared to a degree with the Sebo, namely the soft start feature and the miserable hose material used by all the European vacuum companies. Sebos are not as powerful as the best canister vacuums out there and they have their share of problems too. I have two Sebo uprights and both have problems. The whole handle pulled out of one last Saturday. They have a lot of very expensive and very finicky electronics in them, moreso than the Lindhaus which is actually a pretty simple machine. Your critique of the hose is correct. Mine was similarly awful. I ended up buying a replacement at a deep discount and found Lindhaus has revised the hose material somewhat, eliminated the swivel at the handle end (no more frustrating intermittent power loss due to momentary loss of contact) but latches on the canister end appear to be unchanged. The big Kenny has more suction and vastly more airflow than the European vacuums, much better hose material (and Kenmore/Panasonic hoses can be disassembled to replace worn out hose casings or switches, saving you a pile of money compared to buying a complete new hose). The motor in the Elite is a real gem with airflow on a par with the best Kirby but still quiet like the Lindhaus. The one thing Kenmore has that few can match is their outstanding Pet Powermate. This is a hand held rotating fabric brush that fits on the end of the hose, but where Miele and others use air driven turbo brushes, the Pet Powermate is driven by an electric motor. It will not bog if you dig in to the fabric to clean your sweet doggies hair from the sofa like turbo brushes do. It also has an innovative and highly useful "Contour Brush" attachment that is just the best for cleaning top shelves and ceiling fan blades. Kenmore electronics in my experience are highly reliable. Another outstanding pair of vacuums to consider are the top of the line Panasonic canisters, the MC-CG955 and MC-CG957. Same canister with different power nozzles on each. The 955 gets the innovative new All Floors nozzle that can polish wood floors, clean the grout between ceramic tiles, brush base boards and vacuum area rugs without trying to slurp them into the brush while the 957 gets the new Super Plush nozzle, designed for deep pile plush carpets like berber. Panasonic makes most Kenmore vacuums and share the same outstanding hose designs and electronics. You're welcome, Count Vacula