washer enthusiasts: what's your choice of vacuum?

[aquacycle]

Hi folks,

I thought this might be an interesting area for discussion.

I know a lot of us on here are members on both autowasher and vacuumland, but I am aware that there are a lot of members on here who aren't interested and don't collect vacuums. This got me thinking - what vacuum does someone who isn't interested in vacuums but still into washers use? The cleanliness aspect and of course wanting a high performing, reliable machine surely would be the same across all appliances, right? For example, I'm not really interested in food mixers like a lot of members here are, but I would still do my research and buy something I know will be good.

Based on the same principal, what vacuum does everyone use around their home and what made you chose that particular model?

 

[NYCWriter]

I'm a member of Vacuumland ...

... and I just replaced my 1996 Fantom Thunder with a brand-new Aerus Guardian Platinum canister.

It was a tough decision, actually. I'd been happy with my Fantom, but living in an apartment, it was so darn LOUD (like a shop vac) and I couldn't run it at night without waking the dead. I was also getting very tired of how dusty it got every time I used it, and the mess of emptying out the bagless dustbin.

I'd always had an upright, and I was leaning towards a Kirby or a Royal, until my friends on Discuss-o-Vac showed me how much more practical a canister would be for a relatively small apartment.

The "Lux" turned out to be a very smart purchase.

 

[aquacycle]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your input and glad you're pleased with your Aerus. We don't have the Aerus-Lux machines over here - wish we did! From what I've been reliably informed and read online, they're great machines - solidly built and very powerful.

We have "proper" Electrolux cleaners over here. They're pretty naff. Infact, I think our Electrolux cleaners are still US Eureka cleaners. Lux have brought out a more high quality range recently which are branded "Electrolux" in mainland Europe, but in the UK they're badged AEG.

How are you finding using a cylinder compared with an upright?

Chris

 

[polkanut]

I love my Hoover Model 68, and also my recent thrift/charity shop acquisition, a Regina 3 speed Electrik Broom.

 

[NYCWriter]

Chris ...

... it's taking a bit of getting used to, actually. I'm used to just rolling the sweeper out of the closet, plugging it in, and turning it on. Now I have a couple more steps, as the unit itself is stored in 3 pieces: Motor/bag unit, power nozzle and tube, and hose. But that's quickly outweighed by how much more quiet and powerful it is than the Fantom. and I'm finding it's SO much easier to navigate around and UNDER furniture with a flat power nozzle rather than an entire upright vacuum.

A slight disappointment, though. Aerus went out of its way to cover the edges of the main unit with material that won't scuff the furniture, but didn't put the same material (or at least a wraparound rubber bumper) on its tough plastic power nozzle. For the most part, the main motor/bag unit stays stationary in the middle of the room, posing little danger to scuffing furniture; it's the POWER NOZZLE that's being maneuvered around chair legs and whatnot. I find myself having to be extremely careful -- more careful than I should have to be -- in going around my fine wood furniture, because of the lack of protection around the edges of the power nozzle.

And FORGET ABOUT letting a housekeeper do it. No freaking way would she be as careful as I am.

 

[aquacycle]

Great insight, thanks Matt .

We've always been an upright family - my mother wouldn't use a cylinder if you paid her. But since moving out, I've had one of each on the go. I always seem to go back to uprights though for some reason.

Storage has always been my biggest annoyance for cylinder cleaners. I have no cupboard space in my house and my Sebo upright tends to just get shoved in the corner, wherever it's been used. This isn't a problem as it's a nice slim profile and doesn't get in the way, but cylinders tend to be more difficult to do that with. At least, by the sounds of it, you've developed a good storage system for it.

Out of interest, what became of your Fantom?

 

[NYCWriter]

My Fantom ...

... has been promised to a fellow member of the board who collects Fantoms.

I wanted it to go to a good home where it would be cherished.

My mother also doesn't like canisters. She's been using an Amway Cleartrack for years, but lately she's been complaining about how heavy it is to push around on her plush carpeting. For this reason I'd argue that canisters are better for older people, since during vacuuming you're only pushing around a light power nozzle, while the bulk and weight of the system is dragged on the floor behind you, rather than you pushing the entire unit back and forth, back and forth.

 

[abcomatic]

I have a Kirby, a Hoover and a Hoover Constellation from 1958 and all work well. Gary

 

[sudsmaster]

Currently I use mainly three vacuum cleaners in the house: a Bissell Butler canister, an Electrolux Ergospace canister, and a Eureka bagged upright.

The Eureka does very well on carpeting, but since there's only one big carpet in the house, in the living room, that's where it's used. The rest of the house is mostly hard flooring (hardwood, vinyl, or laminate).

The Butler hangs out in the master bed/bath area, while the Ergospace handles the area in between the living room and master suite.

Out in the shop and patio areas I use a variety of wet dry vacs. My favorite is a big stainless tank Ridgid. It's powerful and much quieter than the older Shop-Vac that it's replaced. Have a smaller stainless tank Shop-Vac for the patio kitchen (brick floor). It's quieter than the older all-plastic big Shop-Vac.

For the main kichen I use a Hoover Spin Scrub. It does a pretty good job of laying down a layer of cleaning solution, scrubbing it lightly, and then sucking it up again. Although for stubborn spills I find it's helpful to pre-treat with concentrated cleaner and scrub with a long handle floor brush.

Oh, and there's a little Bissell Green Clean Machine for when a carpet or upholstered surface needs some extra attention.

Yeah, I have more vacuum cleaners in storage, but those are the ones I actually use.

 

[NYCWriter]

Kirbys ...

... are ideal for typical American homes with large open expanses of carpeting.

 

[passatdoc]

Miele and Miele

Have a 2002 Miele S500 series canister, which was a gift from a relative, which has so far provided 13 years of trouble-free service. Over the years, have collected a number of useful attachments: micro cleaning set, mini turbo brush, extra long crevice tool, extra wide dusting brush and upholstery brush.

About the only area in which it is only "very good" and not "superior" is in cleaning carpets. I have the 217 power head, standard issue in 2002. The 217 is not height-adjustable and had a narrow sweep width. Miele now makes a compatible 227 power head, which is standard on its highest end models, with a wider sweep and which adjusts for carpet height. However, it's priced at $225-250, which drove me instead to look at Miele S7 uprights, the most basic of which I was able to buy for $400* (now priced at $450). No headlight (so what) and no HEPA filter (can replace conventional filter with a HEPA for $35) and only basic attachments, but since I already own a lot of attachments, not an issue for me.

The S7 is made in Germany. Have never seen any machine perform better on carpet than this one, and like its canister cousins, it's quiet. The twist feature makes it easy to maneuver around furniture. Hose suction is very powerful, and uses the same attachments as the canister. It nearly propels itself on carpet. Only drawback is that it's VERY heavy. I have a single-floor house, so no problem, but I wouldn't want to lug it up and down stairs every day, even with its convenient built in handle. There is no cord reel, consistent with other uprights, but the cord is nice and long, easy to clean even a large room from a distant outlet. This machine even does a good job on hard floors, does not scatter dirt around (a control on the handle turns off rotating brush for use on hard floors). All controls are on the handle (power, brush on/off, suction control) except for the foot-operated pedal to release the handle. Can open up to 180 degrees needing only 5" clearance to go under furniture (can't make itself as low as a canister but it tries).

My S7 is only 18 months old, so I can't comment as to long-term reliability, but so far it's been great.

*Miele rarely will offer sales prices in the US (like a $1000 model for "only" $899) and when they do, it applies to ALL of their dealers. Any dealer caught discounting without company approval is quickly ejected. Amazon sold the S7 for the same $429 (at that time) as everyone else, and did not technically discount the price. Instead, there was a $15 gift card for every $150 spent in vacuums, so I qualified for $30 in gift card rebates, while technically paying the official Miele sale price ($429 instead of $449).

 

[aquacycle]

Kirbys are ideal for typical American homes

My parents were demonstrated the G3 in 1993. At that time, they had a Panasonic upright (MCE-44). My Dad was very impressed with the machine, but after learning it was £1200, he was less than pleased. My Mum didn't want it at all. In the end, the salesman managed to sell my Dad an ex-demo Legend 2 for £300 with the full dry dusting tool kit and the shampoo kit.

My mother absolutely HATED it. Bear in mind, my Dad did little to no housework at all (one of the main reasons they divorced in 1996), so my Mum was constantly cleaning up, cooking and washing for 4 kids plus my Dad. The Kirby was heavy, awkward and impractical. Granted, it was far too big for our house - we had a 4 bed, medium sized place with a lot of rooms but they weren't all that big. She hated the fact that you had to remove the rug nozzle to attach the tools and how heavy and bulky it was to use. The Panasonic did just fine (in her eyes) in half the time.

Eventually, to save argument, my Mum just stopped vacuuming when my Dad was in the house. She would do it before he got home or when he was out and just use the Panasonic. After my parents divorced, the Kirby got shoved in the cupboard and used purely for shampooing and in 2001, my Mum saw no point in keeping it and threw the whole kit into a skip.

As much as it was a fantastic cleaner, for a full time working single mother, it was totally impractical.

 

[NYCWriter]

Jim ...

"No headlight (so what)"

I absolutely could not live without a headlight on my vacuum.

Even in brightly-lit rooms, there are shadows and dark corners where you really need to see where you're going and what you're about to pick up.

 

[passatdoc]

Electrolux canister

My parents (in their early 80s) have a two story home with mostly carpet on the main floor, and all tile downstairs. It's what we call an "upside down house": built on a hillside, on the downhill side of the street, with living room/dining room/kitchen/breakfast room/master bed and bath on the ground street level floor. You go downstairs to reach the second story, with three more bedrooms and a bathroom. Because of the hill, the downstairs footprint is only 60-65% of the upstairs footprint.

THe stairs are fairly steep. Their housekeeper comes twice a month and does the upstairs carpets with her own commercial upright. Downstairs, however, the housekeeper needed something to do the tile floors, plus my parents needed a lightweight canister they could move between floors if need be (but most of the time they keep it downstairs). We went to Lowes and bought the 9A Electrolux:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_302664-7382...pl=1¤tURL=?Ntt=electrolux+canister&facetInfo=

and have been very happy with it. Does not have an electric hose, hence no power head, but none is needed since the housekeeper brings her own upright for upstairs. The hard floor brush is excellent, attachments include dusting tool, upholstery tool, and crevice tool; all do the just well. Machine is quiet. For someone without carpet this would be an excellent machine. Electrolux did at the time offer a TOL canister with electric power brush, selling for roughly $500. This model was about $270 and seems in retrospect to have been worth the money.

 

[aquacycle]

Jim, nice call with the Miele's. They're fantastic vacs.

I have to say, it is quite obvious that the S7 was designed with the US market in mind. I only know a few people who have them here as they're SO large and heavy. That's great for thick carpets in a big room, but for UK and European sized homes, it's too big. A friend of mine brought his S7 to my place for me to try, just after they came out. I could barely move it around my living room as it was just too large.

Don't get me wrong, I think they're great, but I do wish Miele would manufacture a smaller model for European homes (as Hoover did with the Junior and Senior/Convertable models)

 

[NYCWriter]

European homes?

I think THIS European living room could handle a Kirby, S7, or a Hoover Convertible!

 

[passatdoc]

@NYC Writer

Matt, I simply turn on the lights when vacuuming. I also listen carefully. The Miele is so quiet that you can hear all but the finest dust being sucked up and lifted into the hose (or it makes a rattling noise as it hits the hose walls). So I use my ears as well, as a guide to what has just been removed and as a clue as to what else might still be on the floor (i.e. might want to go over it again).

Bear in mind, I had the canister for a decade before adding the S7 upright, and the my canister never had a headlight on its power head (newer models incorporating the 227 power head do have a light; vintage power heads do not), only a green indicator lamp to indicate that the power head is spinning (can turn off brush for hard floors). So most vintage Miele canister owners, and in fact most new owners with anything priced below $1000, aren't used to having a light at all. Miele's hard floor brushes, which most people use for tile or wood, simply don't have lights at all, even today's TOL models.

But thanks to the quiet operation, you can hear dirt being sucked out of the carpet. You learn to use your ears as well as your eyes---something that is difficult with noisier machines.

 

[sudsmaster]

But who dusts the chandeliers and the wall encrustations?

 

[aquacycle]

Matt, LOL, yes that carpet is just begging to be Kirby'd. But can you really imagine cleaning this size room with a Kirby or S7?

This is my living room. Granted, it is small even by modern UK standards, but typical of houses built in the 1800's and early 1900's. There are lots of houses of a similar size still around.

Newer houses are bigger, with lots having what is known as a "through-living room" where the living room stretches the length of the house and usually incorporates an open plan dining area. I will try and find a picture of my Grandma's living room, which is more modern but still typically English.

 

[passatdoc]

I do ceiling fans with the wand and the wide dusting brush. Chandeliers with wand (if needed for height) and the standard small round dusting brush. Keyboards and car dashboards come out really clean with the optional Micro Cleaning Kit which I own.

 

[passatdoc]

@chris/AquaCycle

Agree, the S7 is better suited for the North American market, with greater use of carpet and larger homes. The only way I'd want to clean your living room would be with a cannister and power head. My S500 could do a nice job. Btw, the second reason I bought the S7 was to have as a back-up in case the S500 has to be repaired. I take the S500 for routine maintenance every couple of years, and the shop needs a week or so to do the work (costs $40 and may have contributed to the long, trouble-free life of this machine), so I like having the S7 as a back up. In very tight spaces, the wand can be attached to the S7 hose and a hard floor brush attachment used (using the S7's hose, which accepts all standard Miele attachments. My home is medium-sized (for us) and on a single level.

I think the S7 may open markets for Miele in the US in homes that would never consider a canister due to large expanses of carpet (but bear in mind, carpet is sort of a middle class thing, more affluent people use a lot of wood or tile; my own home is 65% tile/35% carpet). It does as good a job on carpet as any other machine, and the higher end models include attachments that are far superior to anything offered on a domestic machine. Some are sold as "dog and cat owners" model or "allergy sufferer model", probably both with HEPA filters and offering turbo brush or wide upholstery brush or wide dusting brush. All of the S7s here have the same 12A motor and the mechanics are the same. The filters and attachments are what distinguishes the different models and price ranges ($449 to about $1000).

ps: remember, "Hoover" is NOT a verb on this side of the pond, even though Hoover Vacuums have very high name recognition. We use "vacuum" as our verb of choice. I have heard London-area relatives use "Hoover" as a verb.

 

[aquacycle]

Hi Jim,

The Sebo manages quite well. I do have all carpet upstairs, so I tend to use the Sebo upstairs and on the large living room rug and then use a cylinder cleaner to do the wood floor in the living room and kitchen with. Unfortunately, not many manufacturers offer an electronic powernozzle here anymore. Miele stopped selling the "Revolution" PN cleaners here in 2009. The only ones left now are Dyson and Sebo, I believe.

I'm dying to get a Sebo D4 with the powerhead, but they're very expensive to buy here. I believe the D4 retails for £350 - £399, vs the £175 - £250 for the Automatic X (vacuums tend to be cheaper in the UK than in the US for some reason).

And don't worry, I know the word "Hoover" is not a verb. I always refer to said machine as a vacuum cleaner on here but in day to day life, I tend to use "Hoover" as a verb when speaking to other people. Most non-vacuum enthusiasts I know tend to call it the "hoover", despite it being another brand. My Mum has always referred to it as "the vac" whereas my Dad (in this delightfully dull Yorkshire accent which I have sadly inherrited) always calls it the "'oovah".

Chris

 

[xraytech]

I have quite a lot of vacuums, but when it comes down to daily use for me it's a self propelled Hoover Concept paired with a Hoover PortaPower

 

[NYCWriter]

Jim ...

Um, YES I turn the lights on when I vacuum also.

And still the headlight is an enormous help.

And for the record, the Aerus is quieter than the Miele. I tested both.

I came close to seriously considering a Sebo until I found out it had no headlight on the power nozzle.

 

[NYCWriter]

And Jim ...

"We use "vacuum" as our verb of choice."

Maybe you do in California.

On the East Coast we "sweep".

 

[aquacycle]

On the East Coast we "sweep"

I "sweep" with a broom and I "vacuum" or "hoover" the carpet.

Funny how different regions, even in the same country, have different words and phrases for different things.

I remember once visiting friends in Surrey and her Mum said "oh, I must pass the vacuum". I remember thinking "you must WHAT with the vacuum"? Up here, I'd just say "oh, I must vacuum". They also referred to mowing the lawn as "passing the mower". Weird.

 

[passatdoc]

ps Amazon and Miele

As I recall, Amazon does not sell Miele vacuums directly. Instead, they partner with a bricks-and-mortar dealer that agrees to ship for free, which constitutes a sort of discount. The dealer obviously gets lots of volume, and is not breaking Miele company rules, since they are allowed to have their own websites and sell on the internet (at standard prices): Best Vacuum and Total Vacuum, both I believe in Chicago, sell a lot of machines on their own website.

The problem is, if something breaks, many local dealers will balk at performing warranty repairs on a machine they did not sell. Reviews by Amazon purchasers sometimes state that the local dealer gave the customer a hard time over place of purchase. Since I once received a Miele as a gift (granted, my parents were the purchasers and they accompanied me to a store to buy it; they insisted I have a Miele), I suppose one could say it was received in the mail as a gift from a relative or friend. The people at my local Miele store know my canister but do not know that I now also own a S7 upright. I'm enough of a regular customer that they would know they didn't sell me the S7. So far it has not needed servicing. If it did, I would probably have to concoct a story to the effect that my mother sent it (she bought one and liked it so much, she also bought one for each of her kids, from her local dealer).

The S500 canister was purchased at a sewing/vacuum center about 15 miles away from here, when the two local businesses in my town that now sell Miele did not yet exist, i.e. we went to the closest store at that time. Even so, when I bring it in for servicing, I am sometimes asked where it was purchased (for God's sake, it's 12 years old) and I explain it came from Moore's Sew and Vac in Mission Viejo, before the local store I now use for repairs even opened.

 

[passatdoc]

we don't even have mums here. Either mom or mommy. No mum, no mummy, not even Persil (as least my mother was above suspicion in terms of not being one of those mums who didn't know that Persil washes whiter....since we had none, and it was impossible that I might walk to school with a classmate with a visibly whiter shirt).

 

[aquacycle]

UK homes...

Just incase anyone is interested, see link below.

This is quite typical of a 3 bed semi-detached UK home and probably the type of housing you'd see the most of in the UK.

The house I grew up in was very similar in size to this, only we had a larger kitchen and an extra bedroom. We also had a seperate dining room and living room, unlike here where it is more open plan. But you can use your imagination - the rooms were roughly the same size, so draw an imaginary line about half way up the living room/dining room.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43541198.html#

 

[NYCWriter]

The nice thing about Aerus ...

... is that regardless of where you purchased it, for the life of the vacuum, the local dealer will service it. And for the first 20 years, it's free.

WIth free pick-up and delivery. Including free delivery of replacement bags.