Forum - Easy to use upright for thick carpet

tom_e Newbie Posts: 1	Easy to use upright for thick carpet 12/20/06 at 12:23pm I'm looking for a good cleaning upright that is easy to push on very thick carpet. We put in new carpet about a month ago, and I currently use a Hoover Windtunnel which gives me a blister on my palm every time I vacuum! Also, I would like suggestions for vacuums for a slate floor - the tiles are not smooth. Recommendations?
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Carmine_Difazio

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #1 - 12/20/06 at 12:41pm

tom_e:

HOOVER WT's because of the manual height adjustments are good performers on thick carpets. My sense is your WT may need a new belt and/or brush and/or different rug height adjustment.

The HOOVER Slider, a 3 pound, quiet rechargeable, bagless, revolving brush stick vacuum. It is a wonderful sweeper for all barefloors and even quick small pick ups on rugs. They retail at selected stores for $25-$40. And on an overnight charge can perform for 30 minutes.

For cleaning slate tile floors, the HOOVER Floormate is the best.

As you might already have guessed, I have all these same cleaning requirements in my home: Thick wool Mohawk carpets and Mohawk tile. I use all the above 3 floorcare products. We also have a 9 yo English yellow lab that sheds year round. And 2 grand daughters ages 2 yo and 3 months who make big spills and messes. These HOOVER floorcare products make my life, and my dear Wife's life, very easy so we can enjoy retirement. I prefer the HOOVER filtrette paper/cloth bags for the WT and I use only plain warm tap water on the tiles for cleaning. I vacuum daily and wash the tile floors every 2 weeks. With as needed cleans ups in between. The Floormate is a dry and wet cleaner. All the above can be purchased for $300 and/or less on sale.

HOOVER is running a special for the Holidays with selected retailers (thru January 7, 2007): Purchase a new HOOVER WT and Floormate, and receive up to a $100 cash rebate. Details and forms are on the HOOVER website: www.hoover.com.

Carmine D.

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guess_who Junior Member Posts: 29	Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet Reply #2 - 12/20/06 at 2:51pm Hi again Carmine, Speaking of easy pushing, what about the U6439900, the self-propelled Wind Tunnel? Are belt changes painless and infrequently required and is the weight factor significantly raised due to the drive mechanism? Venson
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tiger21

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #3 - 12/20/06 at 5:03pm

I would recommend the Aerus Legacy or Classic upright.
The cog belt drive for the brush would eliminate the need for belt changes needed when on the thick rug. The motor that runs the brush will run at a constant speed not bogging you suction motor down. A big problem in most uprights is that the suction motor also runs the brush. The thicker the carpet the better chance to bog down the motor, cutting suction and causing the belt to slip and break while the motor tries to run at optimum speed.

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Carmine_Difazio

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #4 - 12/20/06 at 5:11pm

Quote from guess_who on 12/20/06 at 2:51pm:

Hi again Carmine,

Speaking of easy pushing, what about the U6439900, the self-propelled Wind Tunnel? Are belt changes painless and infrequently required and is the weight factor significantly raised due to the drive mechanism?

Venson

Hello Venson:

I don't like the HOOVER self-propelled, even on high pile, because of the additional weight of the transmission. With the weight and mass of the on-board tools, and the transmission, the bulk weight and mass of the vacuum becomes awkward for frequent and daily use by most users. IMHO

Forum readers remember that I am pro HOOVER Z, which is weightier than the self-propelled. The folding feature for the Z makes it better and easier for carrying and manuevering especially in the attachment mode. IMHO

Carmine D.

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RobGwisdala Newbie Posts: 22	Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet Reply #5 - 12/20/06 at 10:50pm Oreck XL21 Riccar Supralite/Simplicity Freedom
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vacuuman

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #6 - 12/21/06 at 12:22am

Well, there are a lot great vacuums out there in vac shops. I would recommend going to a few vac shops to see what they have. Some vacuums that immediately came to my mind are the Sebo (with the optional bare floor kit), Riccar Brilliance (or its sister model, the Simplicity Synergy), and the Lindhaus (with the optional bare floor tool). I would recommend looking for a vacuum with a permanent belt, I notice that people who have thick carpet and vacuums with non-permanent belts end up changing belts all the time. Permenent belts also don't slip, meaning that you will get better, more constant power to the brushroll, which will give better deep cleaning of the thick carpet.

One thing I always like to remind people, you have spent a lot of money on your new carpet. A good vacuum will not be cheap, but it will keep the carpet cleaner which will make the carpet last longer. A good vacuum will also last longer and perform better over its life than a cheap one.

Also, remember that you will get better customer service, and better quality vacuums from a local dealer. They also let you try the vacuum, can answer any questions you have, and help you make a good decision. And they will be there after the sale with anything you will need for the vacuum. You will not find this in bog box stores.

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Sanitaire

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #7 - 12/22/06 at 1:51am

Quote from tiger21 on 12/20/06 at 5:03pm:

I would recommend the Aerus Legacy or Classic upright.
The cog belt drive for the brush would eliminate the need for belt changes needed when on the thick rug. The motor that runs the brush will run at a constant speed not bogging you suction motor down. A big problem in most uprights is that the suction motor also runs the brush. The thicker the carpet the better chance to bog down the motor, cutting suction and causing the belt to slip and break while the motor tries to run at optimum speed.

But the thing about single motor vacuums that uses a simple belt to drive the brush is that they have better airflow then any other vacuum, because they uses single fan designs that flow much more air, because they push the air through the bag instead of sucking it through, and centifugal fans are much better at pushing the pulling, and because in general these vacuums have the largest bags made, which are able to flow air much more freely. Because the most important factor in cleaning thick carpeting is pulling lots of air deeply though all that carpet, the best carpet cleaning vacuum still remainthe old fan first belt driven brush roll vacuum. Things like Hoover Convertibles, Eureka Sanitaires, Royals, and Kirby's. Certainly a modern Kirby with the fabulous techdrive is the easiest to push, and also a wonderful tube vacuum to boot. Another reason these vacuums are so much more effective "and if you look at the results of the vacuum cleaner conventions vacuum races you'll find they're usually won by some old hoover upright) is because most of the dirt setlles in the bottom of the carpet where there's no air flow and the vacuums with beater bars like hoovers and Sanitaire creates a vibration that causes the dirt to jump out of the carpet. Eureka has the best brushroll, the vibra groomer 1, and the best bag the F&G, that's why I recomend it, but look any of the Kirby generation series.

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tiger21

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #8 - 12/22/06 at 12:36pm

The primary goal of a vacuum cleaner is to dig dirt.
The vacuum cleaner has two things it must do to dig dirt.
1 Rotate the brushroll.
2 Pump air to provide suction and airflow.

Whether the vacuum has one or two motors these two things must happen to DIG DIRT! Single motor uprights have to do both of these functions with ONE motor. However they are both VERY different. Each one has it's own characteristics and act differently from one another. Let,s look at the how these two functions DIG DIRT..
In the rotating brush, the motor should turn at a constant speed. This constant speed will provide optimal balance between carpet cleaning and carpet wear.The speed is dependent on the type of carpet you are vacuuming, for PLUSH or THICK carpet it will run at a slower speed, for short nap it will run at a faster constant speed.
In pumping air the motor speed will change variably depending on the VOLUME being pumped. If a clean bag is in the vacuum, the MAXIMUM amount of air is being pumped and the motor is running at its slowest dpeed If a full bag is in the motor the minimum amount of air is being pumped and the motor runs at it's fastest. This change can be as much as 6000 RPMs!
Obviously if a single motor is attempting to accomplish both of these functions, and of course the vacuum has a bag, the cleaner will not clean as effectively as a two motor unit. At Aerus we have seperated these functions and supplied two motors to seperate motors to handle each.
CLEANING ON DIFFERENT CARPETS DOES NOT SLOW THE MOTOR DOWN LIKE A ONE MOTOR SYSTEM.
.

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VacOMatic

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Re: Easy to use upright for thick carpet
Reply #9 - 12/24/06 at 2:09pm

I've noted a lot of two motor vacs' motors do vary speed considerably depending on load and bag/dirt chamber fullness. But they don't suffer additional compromises of a single motor design.

Sebo and Lindhaus at least warn you if the floor brush speed has changed too much (Felix flashes a light whenever the brush is moving too fast or slowly/stalled).

A few cannisters also vary their suction motor speed in an attempt to maintain constant vacuum level in the hose system (the now discontinued Miele Aluminum and the otherwise so-so Bissell Digipro, to name two).

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