Which Upright Vacuums Suck? (In a Good Way)

[roo_ster]

Howdy:

I am in the market for a upright vacuum cleaner.

Requirements:
Light Weight
Low Bulk
Effective on hard surfaces and thick rugs/carpets.

Circumstances:
Mostly hardwood & vinyl flooring.  Several LARGE wool carpets 1-1.5" thick.
Small wife who gets exasperated with heavy & bulky stuff.

Background:
We currently have an old-school Electrolux canister vac with both hard floor and carpet attachments.  It does a better job than anything we have ever used.  Problem is, that it is heavy and crazy bulky.

My wifes old Eureka was pathetic & got kicked to the curb after we got married. (The eureka, not my wife.)

We picked up an Oreck from a garage sale for $5.  I spent time fixing it & some $$$ on a new belt.  It does not have the cojones to clean the thick rugs, period.  They were designed for super-short commercial/business pile.  It is light & handy, though.  So is a push broom.

[Fly320s]

Well, I was going to recommend Oreck, but never mind.  We like ours.

I don't like the plastic-fantastic models, such as that British brand that was recently popular.  I looked over one in Target.  I figured it wouldn't go 6 months before something broke off.

[Brad Johnson]

Requirements:
Light Weight
Low Bulk
Effective on hard surfaces and thick rugs/carpets.

Unfortunately, light weight and low bulk usually equal less performance.

Is the weight and bulk issue something born of needing to get into small spaces, or is the user afraid that it will be too bulky to operate? *EDIT TO ADD* should have read the rest of your post before asking - doh!

My (now ex) wife was 5'1" and weighed barely a hundred pounds soaking wet. She got around with our Kirby fine. Of course, it was one of the self-propelled models. You can get rebuilt Kirby's at the outlet stores for a song.

Brad

[client32]

The $40 vacuum at Wal-mart.
We got it after many problems with our Oreck.  It does a great job at sucking.  I don't know about the hard floors though.

[roo_ster]

I do not require light weight & low bulk, being a Y-chromosome type.

My wife, however, really has to put effort into dragging the Electrolux around.

So, yes, it is a user-driven requirement.

As to the Oreck, it has a 3-3.2 amp motor whereas most uprights have 10+ amps these days.  The reason Orecks are so popular in commercial apps is that they are light & sufficient to the task of cleaning short-pile carpets.  We ran the two (Electrolux & Oreck) side-by-side with new bags after I refurbished the Oreck.  It was no contest.

I stil keep the Oreck around for mid-week cleaning.  It provides an 80% solution.

[Brad Johnson]

If that's the case, I wholeheartedly recommend a Kirby. Kinda pricey unless you pick up a refurbished model, but darned good and a lot of them are made right here in Texas (Andrews, to be exact - about 1.5 hrs southwest of Lubbock). You can contact their corp office and see if there's a factory store in your area.

http://www.kirby.com/relations.shtml

Brad

[Sindawe]

If you can find a decent one used, the Regina Housekeepers were pretty decent at sucking.  They are a gamble though, since the manufacturer folded.

I currently use one of the Hoover bagless models.  Does a dandy job of picking up cat hair, my hair, dirt and the like from the carpets.  The only complaint I have is the dumping the dirt cup does tend to get the dust scattered about.

[Brad Johnson]

Did a quick search on ebay and came up with

Kirby Gen V - http://cgi.ebay.com/G-5-KIRBY-VACUUM-CLEANER_W0QQitemZ250027111580QQihZ015QQcategoryZ43531QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There's only a couple hundred more to choose from.

Mine is a Gen III. I think they are up to the Gen VII or VIII by now. No problems at all and the thing works beautifully. Don't bother with the shampoo attachment, though. The "dry" systems leave a residue that often attracts dirt worse.

If you can find a decent one used, the Regina Housekeepers were pretty decent at sucking.  They are a gamble though, since the manufacturer folded.

Weren't they bought out by, like, Hoover or something?

Brad

[Bogie]

The reason that Orecks are used by a lot of "fine hotels" is that Oreck _gives_ them their vaccums...

[Desertdog]

You asked about an upright.  If you would try a canster type, I like the Rainbow.  Expensive as new, but it pulls the air through a tank of water.  You never lower the amount of suction and it does not spew anything back into the air.  In fact it could be used as an air cleaner, but not economical for that use.
I love the way it cleans, but my wife hates to use beause you have to start with fresh water each time and then dump the tank and clean it up.

As I said expensive new, but used ones can be found reasonable, if your lucky.

[HForrest]

If you would try a canster type, I like the Rainbow.

I don't have personal experience with these, but I know a person who has several dogs (and thus a considerable amount of dog hair on the floor), and swears by the Rainbow.

[MillCreek]

I have often wondered if the Dysons are worth the money.  They seem to have some very enthusiastic fans.

[charby]

I have a Dirt Devil bagless one I bought at Walmart for under $150. Its a year old now and still does a pretty good job for the money. For hard surface floors I'm a pretty big fan of a Shop Vac then follow up with a dust mop.

-C

[Larry Ashcraft]

Rainbow.  The only trouble is, they're expensive.  I think ours was $1100 over ten years ago.  You can call your Rainbow dealer and they will sell you a used/refurbished one though.  I think I paid $425 for the one I use at the shop.

And if banning people is stupid, why do I enjoy it so much?   Especially trolls!

[Unisaw]

We recently bought a Dyson.  We have two Bernese Mountain Dogs (which are known to shed a little ) and the previous Eureka upright just didn't cut it.  So far, so good with the Dyson.  One feature I like is that there are no bags or belts to replace.

[RocketMan]

SWMBO and I bought a Dyson at Target awhile back.  We really like it, it sucks well and has been holding up to our sometimes rough use just fine.
The wife has long blond hair that tends to end up on the floor. (Don't tell her I said that...)  The Dyson doesn't miss any at all, picks it right up from the carpet.
It's easy to empty, and also easy to see how well it is picking stuff up given that it is a transparent bagless model.
It helps that I work for Target and got the customary discount, but it was still easily worth what we paid for it.

[Standing Wolf]

My Hoover isn't much of a vacuum cleaner.

[Sindawe]

The wife has long blond hair that tends to end up on the floor.

If you don't already know, best to keep an eye on the rotationg brush and its bearings.  When I had my Regina in the 90s and long hair, I went through three rollers due to the hair getting snarled up in the brush and welding the bearings solid.  Since I've grown my hair long again in the past two years, I've had to replace the brush on my current vacuum cleaner due to the same problem.

Well, I'm bored with the long hair anyway.  Just another reason to cut it off.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Kirby's are great but are like hauling around a large tombstone.  
For that reason, I'd tend to pass.

Go with a Dyson IF you can find a used, or discount deal somewhere.

Good luck!

[RocketMan]

Sindawe,

Believe me, we're keeping an eye on those bearings.  The Hoover that preceded our Dyson was done in by that exact problem.
So far the Dyson has handled it well.

[Guest]

Sharp.

Yeah I know.

I went into a Mom&Pop  Store that  sells and services home and commerical needs from vacuums to floor finishers to shop vacs to stuff I have no idea what they are, much less what they do.

Owner and one of the older repair guys said "Sharp". So I got the Sharp.

So for about 4 years now, these guys were correct. They shared it was rare to have one come in for repair, other than the "normal repairs" - like someone vaccuming over the cord, some kid yanking the cord out , or dog chewing on the wheels or attachements.

"Be surprised how many dog chewed vacuums we get to fix. Dogs usually hate vacuums and will run away. When the owners are gone the dogs chew on the thing"  



Upright, easy to handle, all the attachments fit and stay put. Works on hardwood, linoleum and carpet. Bag is easy to change.

Oh I also snagged one of those lightweight manual "room brooms". That thing is handy to run over carpet, under dining table , even kitchen floor.

One can even run it over carpet real fast and it looks like you just vacuumed before company shows up.

"Oh you shouldn't have vacuumed just because we were coming over". -company will say.

"Not a problem" - you can reply.