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The whirlpool plant in St. Paul MN used to produce the Kenmore vacuums. My friends dad worked there and we went to the open house there in the '70's. Whirlpool built all the powermate canisters and the hard body uprights that sears had years ago. Sears soft-bag uprights were made by Singer. They moved the vacuum cleaner plant from St. Paul to suburban Cottage Grove. Then around '80, they pulled out of the St. Paul area completely and opened operations in Kentucky some where they could pay people less. Lots of hard feelings toward Whirlpool 'round St. Pauls east side to this day.. The St. Paul plant also produced freezers.

For a short time in the mid '80's, Whirlpool marketed vacs under their own name, as they had in the '60's (Remember the Whirlpool Bambi?)I guess it didn't really fly for them.
 
WP Vacuum Cleaner Beginnings

Whirplool got its start into vacuum cleaners by purchasing Birt-man Electric in 1957, who made vacuum cleaners. They started making vacuum cleaneres under the WP name. Later, they discontinued their WP line, but continued making them for Sears. WP made a comeback with their own line again. They made powerteams and uprights.

WP later discontinued vacuum cleaners under their name again, but continued their upright models under the Kenmore name, as well as Kenmore PowerMates. They also added a power drive version of the upright for Sears. These would have been in competition to the Hoover Concept series. I liked the Kenmore Self Propelled better than the Hoover, because the vacuum did not need an adaptor for hose use and the cleaning raised off the rug when the handle was in the upright/stationary position.
 
Yes, WP was the first to have what is now the Oreck upright. David Oreck worked at RCA WP at the time. He later made the vacuum his. He gets vacuum cleaners from other manufacturers, makes them his, then charges a high price for them.

Singer and General Electric had their versions, but they were more like thin-bodied uprights and looked nothing like the WP/KM/Oreck.
 
Oreck Story

My parents bought a brand-new Oreck setup in 1995, after a cheap Eureka Bravo died and my mom was forced to use an Electrolux XXX for a week...LOL. Paid $299.95 for an Oreck XL upright (foot switch, regular handle, dual headlights) and Buster B minicaster. Upright worked GREAT; very powerful. Picked up pretty much anything; wish they made a set of attachments for this instead of that da*ned minicanister...YUK! Seemed OK at first, but then the front cover plate snapped in half a year later, causing suction loss. My dad reinforced it with a metal plate and it was back in use. The cheap hose ended up with a hole near the canister end; a little duct tape fixed that problem. It was so weak it couldn't even drive a turbine brush, AND it didn't even come with a wide rug nozzle! One of the headlights burned out on the upright but other than that, we didn't have any problems. When we moved to Bellville from Houston in 1998, we had laminate flooring installed in our current house, so we gave the upright to my grandmother, which was a bad mistake; THAT was the one we should have kept! Used the canister for a while, then threw it away when we bought a brand-new Kenmore Progressive upright that year.

I'd have an Oreck again, just the upright this time. The canister is a JOKE.

--Austin
 
My sentiments exactly-the Oreck upright works well-but the canister"hip vac" doesn't-I tried it for my above floor cleaning jobs--that machine blew back out what I just picked up.Its filters are a joke.The oreck upright is the modern "broom vac of the 21 century"It doesn't work real well on my thick carpets-but still fun to use.It WORKS GREAT on bare floors-the only roller brush machine that can.At my neighboring vac store-see ALL TOO MANY of the "Buster" vacs the motors die from their poor filtering system.Sadly the uprights just get abused by users-esp commercial ones.The Oreck won't ingest coins and gravel-if you insist--fan replacement and fan housing replacement are required.Most Oreck uprights in the service place I know just need belts and roller brushes.Those wear quickly.With the canister vacs feeble air movement-you can see why it doesn't come with a floor tool.also its tiny dust bag would fill quickly.The Oreck machine is an imatation of the Hoover "Porta-power vac" a much better machine if you want a "hip" type cansiter vac.You can use it with a cloth dump bag or disposable paper bags.And it has better filtration than the Oreck model.
 
Hoover Porta-Power

I have a Hoover Porta-power. Really noisy but has good suction. I purchsed the optional wheels that snap onto the body so it can roll around. The only thing that got to be a painis that the hose attached to the cleaner with a "Bayonet" action like an car light bulb. PRoblem was that only friction kep the hose from turning and eventually the hose would fall out while being used becuase the two tabs would twist around and line up with the notches. Solved that problem by cutting a very thin piece of gasket material and putting it on the hose. Now the hose stays put.
 
efficiency; sound levels; old vac reconditioning?

Here's a question or two (or three:-). How does one compare the electric power consumption of a vacuum to its suction power? And are there ratings or standard numbers of this type to be found for newer vacuums? The point being, all other things being equal, a more efficient machine is preferable to one that wastes electricity relative to work performed.

About reconditioning machines, and which are worthwhile:

Without even trying, I managed to accumulate four canister-type vacuums here (and I'm not even an appliance collector!). Understood that some of the folks here think that any vac made of plastic is inherently inferior, but my goal here is primarily practical rather than historic.

One is a Sears Kenmore, model number on the bottom is 116-4695, looks to be mid 1960s, light brown bottom half, white plastic hinged cover, with a bag full indicator light and, interestingly enough, a 2-speed motor switch on the back. I recall my family had one almost identical to this when I was a kid, but it had a retractible cord; it looks like the cord reel may have been installed inside the machine. Retractible cords are a useful feature; does anyone here know of a source for the internal cord-reel component so I could install it on this machine?

A couple of years ago I found a Hoover Tempo, model S-1323, sitting next to the neighbor's trash out front. No way in h*ll a potentially working machine should go to waste, so I put that in service. It seemed more powerful than the Kenmore, but it's so noisy as to make vacuuming an acoustically painful task.

A couple of months ago I was visiting a friend, whose housemate was cleaning out the garage. An old Electrolux was sitting on the trash pile. "You're not going to let that go to waste, are you?" "If you want it, you can have it." OK. Two days later I saw another one sitting next to a trash can and figured, "take two & make one," as we used to do with partially-damaged telephone equipment. I haven't even started trying to get either of these working yet; they are in pretty serious disrepair (are they worth having reconditioned, and if so, does anyone here do that kind of thing, and what's the price range?). These machines are in the garage and I can get the model numbers tomorrow; they appear to be 1960s to 1970s models, one is beige/brown, the other is dark blue.

So now that y'all have me thinking about vacuums, I've recalled something I read that the manufacturers' market research found that people "say" they want quiet vacuums but "actually" buy noisier ones on the basis of the assumption that noise means power. Suddenly it dawned on me that I might have been making the same silly mistake about the quieter Kenmore vs. the noisier Hoover!

Here's something I just thought of as a rough way to measure suction power: Get a piece of thick flat plastic of appropriate dimension that it could be "stuck" to the end of the suction pipe. Attach a hook to the center of the piece of plastic, and hang increasing weight on the hook (a bucket of water, keep adding water) whilst the flat plastic piece is stuck to the nozzle. When the weight finally pulls the plastic piece away from the suction pipe, that's the limit of the suction. Water has a constant ratio of weight to volume, so knowing the number of gallons of water would enable calculating the weight that finally caused the plastic piece to be pulled free of the suction pipe.

Where this is leading: Based on some of what y'all said about Kenmores being good machines, and my recall of the item about noise vs. suction, and the fact that my Kenmore has a 2-speed switch (lower power consumption in low speed mode, useful for certain tasks), I think I might just do a decent refurbishing job on that machine and put it back into service as my primary indoor vac. (Ha, unless someone here manages to convince me to buy some classic mid 20th century cleaner in a metal housing; one never knows!:-)
 
Might as well jump in

I remember when I was little, we had an RCA Whirlpool canister vac. It was light green plastic and rectangular. That's the only thing I remember, other than it being loud.
Right now I have an Electrolux Discovery upright that I got off ebay. Got tired of buying a cheap plastic Eureka every couple of years and figured this would last a while. It was used, and needed some minor repairs, but with any luck, it'll be the last one I'll ever buy.
As for Consumer Reports, I think they've gone WAY downhill. They only seeem to test high-end stuff; nothing, certainly, that *I* would ever buy.
And I'll admit that I'm spoiled. I have all the bound issues from the 60's (except 60 and 64) and most of the 70's, I think. The 60's issues had lots of pictures and information. Starting in the 70's, they went through a period of almost no pictures at all, then they moved into line drawings instead of photographs. Bleah.
 
Vac power consumption versus "air movement" or suction.-In my collection-I have an old Royal 3A upright that can outclean most of todays 10-12A(posted on nameplate of vac)machines.It has to do with the design of the filters-the airpath(how far the air and dirt have to go thru the filters and motor)The "direct" or "traditional" design uprights win in efficiency.The fan is close to what is being cleaned-usually the floor.In newer "clean air" designs the motor and fan work harder becuasde of the longer "airpath" and the motor and fan are further away from the item being cleaned.I also have some older Kirbys that will outperform a newer 12A machine.
If you want cord reels-these are usually sold as replacement parts.-and usually the cord comes with it.They are kinda like an old fashioned window shade in how they work.
I too-have run into the Quiet versus noisey vacs.I used to have an Areos "Lux" Guardian vac-When you ran it-sounded like a B-52 reving for takeoff-usually 'Lux vacs were so quiet but powerful.I commented about that to the salesman-he mentioned about the market preference for the "noisier" vacs.I like the quiet type.That Guardian made a pretty annoying racket-and the cleaning power was less than the Tri-Star-Compact machines that I sell part time and are more powerful with a smaller motor.The TriStar has a more efficient design.The idea of seeing how much weight the vac can lift is a good one. Usually the suction "pressure" is measured with a Manometer type device in inches of water.For example-most twin fan canisters can lift a pressure rating of 90-100 in of water. A Kirby configured as a canister can lift 55 in. The big diffrence is the Kirby has more Cubic Feet Per minute. This can be more important that suction "pressure" alone.The high CFM machine can move more dirt in a given period of time.The other measurement for vacs is Cubic Feet Per Minute" of air movement-like fans or blowers.however-there is a catch-some vac makers state the CFM of the motor alone-not in the vacuum.Look for it stated as "at the hose attachment end"There is a limit as to how much air you can force thru the typical inach and a quarter vac hose openings.-Kinda like how much light you can force thru the film gate in a projector.
there is some truth as to metal better than plastic-esp poor grades of plastic-As the plastic looses its Plasticizers-chemicals that give the plastic streength and flexibility-leach out with age-it cracks and looses strength.Esp bad is plastic vac fans-in some Kirbys that experimented with plastic fans-(Heritage)the plastic fan cracked from age -it worked OK in the floor nozzle mode-but in the higher motor speed hose mode-the fan exploded!A metal one wouldn't do that.I have seen too many older plastic items like that-A metal one wouldn't do that-no age cracking.I do have some plastic body machines in my collection-some perform very well.Just wonder how long they will last.Reinforeced plastic is very good-almost as good as metal-power tool housings are made of these.
 
Good points, Tolivac.

I looked inside my Kenmore and it doesn't seem there's room for a cord reel in there, but I swear the one we had when I was a kid, had a cord reel.

Later on we got a Compact. It was green, this was in the late 1970s. I remember when Mom brought it home, I was immediately impressed. The only drawback was there was no way to store the cord on the machine. However it was very powerful, very clever design, elegant simplicity, and you could even retrieve coins that got sucked up from the floor or rug since the bag was open at the top. Do you ever see those as rebuilt machines, and if so, how much? And what does it take to retrofit them for two-speed motor operation, if that's even possible?
 
Designgeek:
At a radio station I worked at during the 70's,and 80's they got Kenmore vacs on trade out and the company had an accouint with them-Ordered them all the time for both studio and transmitter.These had cord reels-had to fix them on occasion-what a pain.I am not in favor of cord reels-they are cool when they work-but a real pain when they don't-most of the time you have to order a new cordreel assembly-cord and reel together.On early Compacts-you could wind the cord around the switch and hose intake. On later ones they put a cord winder clip on the hose intake.That made it easier.also it would swivel to the side(like those on most uprights) to release the cord.The newer TriStar models the cord winds on the bottom of the machine.I like either way.I don't care for cord reels anymore.Many times they are not covered under warrantees either.The electrolux ones(old models) were the only ones that held up.I have a cord reel on a 'Lux LX that still works-over 50 years old!If you want a rebuilt Compact-most good independent vac shops can get them.Usually they rebuild them-they are pretty easy to rebuild.I don't know of a two speed motor available for them.I suppose you could add one if it could fit in the "pig" housing-or Maybe you could wire a diode in series with the motor on a 2 position switch for a lo speed-this is commonly done on non-tapped winding motors.I esp like the convenience of dumping of the TriStar and the ability to recover lost things.Customers like that too-many times that sells them the machine.Sadly the TriStar company doesn't "rebuild" older Compact or TriStars machines. would be nice if they did-like Kirby does!
 
Tri-Star Speed Selector

Yes,

When I worked for my old boss at his vac store, I had one of those Maroon Two Speed Tri-Stars come in. It had the Eureka Rotomatic Powerhead with a three position suction regulator in the nozzle head about where you would normally find the Headlight dormer on the higher end Eureka models.

I liked this machine becasue I could use it for a bench vac, and also use it to clean up the carpet on the floor also. The hose was strictly Eureka as well, but had a different handgrip from the traditional Eureka design. It had the handle tubes with the full length cord clip channels, and it had clear attachments with burgandy sparklies in it, and the speed switch was a rocker type with the traditional Low/High markings on it....it had the metal kickswitch above it in the direct middle.

I know that, like at home I eventually tired of it and replaced it with a traditional FilterQueen as my bench vac. The Tri-Star while having good suction, was IMHO not (quite on par) with a FilterQueens suction, and the bags on the Tri-Stars filled quicker than the FQ dirtpot/conefilter.

It was completly rebuilt with a Vibra-Groomer I , that replaced the wooden Disturbulator, a NOS Compact hose as the old one was Ok, but not in good enough shape for a complete rebuild ( I did include the original in the sale tho), and after a thourough cleaning was sold for quite a nice sum considering it's age....I believe $249.95 It sold quite well since we had a much newer Tri-Star right next to it that had a price of around $600.00.

I know the lady personally who purchased it, and still refers to it as her Redbutted pig...and still uses it daily. In fact about a year ago, the last time I saw her...she told me that she needed some bags finally...and had just ordered some off the internet.

It was a sweet machine...to bad I diddn't keep it.

Chad
 
This is one of those instances for me where convenience is almost as much of a factor as durability.

I have to believe that cord reel problems are exacerbated by misuse, e.g. letting the cord rewind at full speed such that the plug strikes the case with a loud *thunk!* and eventually the wire pulls loose or develops an open contact. VS. holding the cord and walking it back into the unit at a more reasonable pace.

Dumb Question dept: where were the 1970s Compacts made?, and where are the modern TriStars made?
 
Cordreels and TriStars

Yes,I can agree-misuse of the cordreel by the user is a problem.On the cordreel equipped machines I own-i do hold the plug end of the cord until it has rolled back up.It just seems that he "Lux cordreels were the most durable-have found some-yes the plugs were replaced.
On where Compacts and Tristars were built-Under IEC Compact name thay were built in Aneheim Calif. When It was under "TriStar"a division of "Lux-the building of the TriStars was moved to the "Lux Bristol Va plant.Now I hear from a TriStar Dist in Raleigh they are now built in a factory in Dallas, Tx.On the underside of Mg1 models it says Bristol Va. On the bottom of the MG2 model-latest one-it is marked Dallas,Texas.The TriStar headquarters is in Dallas as well-same as with "lux.Both TriStar and Areous Lux were owned by Eureka-and up for sale.Eureka wants to get out of the Hi end vac biz.
 

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