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Thread Number: 19739
Above floor cleaning on an upright, at what cost? |
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| Post# 220131 2/21/2013 at 12:41 (4,081 days old) by stricklybojack (Southern California) | ||
I'm starting to doubt the need for above floor cleaning on an upright is worth the cost in:
the added weight, the lost performance with the longer more bendy dirt-path, the added bulk to the machine, & the added cost to the machine. At least for how much i use it that is -i'm sure for many it's a huge plus- I'm just a two machine guy i guess. 
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| Post# 220134 , Reply# 2 2/21/2013 at 13:08 (4,081 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 220144 , Reply# 5 2/21/2013 at 15:09 (4,081 days old) by GM1982 () | ||
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The Miele upright s7 makes one of the best on board hose and wand set... Riccar is pretty good as well. Click and go | ||
| Post# 220270 , Reply# 7 2/22/2013 at 08:03 (4,080 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
I much prefer two separate vacs: an upright for carpets and a suction-only canister for everything else. The engineering to create one vac that does it all is overly complicated and too expensive and too prone to break down. The combination vacs are also too heavy and bulky to use. Uprights that try to offer the ability to clean surfaces beyond carpets often have hoses that are too short and useless tools and problematic systems to shut off the brushroll to protect feet, hands and floors. Power nozzle canisters have overly heavy electrified hoses and bulky hose handles and noisy power nozzles and electrical connections that are prone to breaking.
You can get two high performing easy-to-use vacs that will cost less than a combo vac and take up not much more room than a power nozzle canister in your closet. From my analysis of the latest Consumer Reports tests, the best duo for the money now is the Hoover Platinum Bagged Lightweight Upright (get the package without the companion PortaPower canister to save some $) and the Miele Olympus (Contour in Canada) suction only canister. Together they will cost under $600 and take up no more than two square feet in a closet. Retailers should bundle them together in a package deal! | ||
| Post# 220283 , Reply# 9 2/22/2013 at 09:49 (4,080 days old) by Blackheart (North Dakota) | ||
Diverters | ||
| Post# 220286 , Reply# 10 2/22/2013 at 10:35 (4,080 days old) by electromatik (Taylorsville, North Carolina, U.S.A.) | ||
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The Miele Twist is only $429??? Why then do they charge over $1,000 for thier best canister with thier best power nozzle? My that's a huge price difference. | ||
| Post# 220293 , Reply# 12 2/22/2013 at 11:50 (4,080 days old) by GM1982 () | ||
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Why do they ask $36,500 for an Audi A4, and $127,000 for an Audi R8...features, performance, options, etc.... that's a huge price difference | ||
Post# 220303 , Reply# 13 2/22/2013 at 13:52 (4,080 days old) by KirbyUltimateG  (Troy Ohio 45373 USA) |
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Kirby uprights and Royal All Metal uprights are excellent for carpets/rugs/hard floors and above the floor cleaning. Kirby's are also able to shampoo carpets/rugs/stairways/furniture/car interiors. | ||
| Post# 220345 , Reply# 14 2/22/2013 at 17:30 (4,079 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA) | ||
I don't care for the onboard tool setup on most modern uprights. The main reasons being: there is no way to move the vacuum without pushing it by the handle, the hoses tend to make the whole machine fall over, and the attachments are generally lacking.
The older uprights with converter pans avoided most of these problems, but then the tools weren't on board and had to be stored separately, and you didn't have as much suction as you do with onboard hoses. This is one reason I prefer a canister for all-around cleaning. They're much easier to do above floor cleaning with, and the attachments are generally better than those on an upright. I guess as mentioned above Kirby uprights and Royals kind of have the best of both aspects, especially with the Kirby's "canister mode". | ||
| Post# 221086 , Reply# 17 2/28/2013 at 08:20 (4,074 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2) | ||
I've tried the extension hose and then an added straight extension tube approach with my Sebo uprights - but its too bulky and the hose has to be stored elsewhere after use. They're only good if you use the hose once a year IN the home for ceiling clearing or require it for the car OR if you just want the hose at the time of cleaning whatever you are doing and prepare to compromise. I find vacuuming the ceiling is a job that happens may twice or three times a year - it may be different for others.
Last night for example I bought a lovely fleece top blanket for my bed. Being new and clean though unwashed, it left a lot of lint on my duvet which would make me sneeze through sleeping. At the time I was vacuuming my room with my Sebo X and decided just to get the extension hose out to reach all parts of the bed. A perfect job with the turbo brush added and no problems. However, I had to go back to the closet to store the hose and the mini turbo brush. Such is the life when you own a classic upright like the SEBO X. I now use my Miele canister to clean out the car with the car clean set and whatever canister I have in the home to clean the ceilings and above floor line areas; this is one reason to why I bought Sebo's D series; not just for the longer cable length to get around my parents large home, but for the fact that the hose and tubes achieve greater reach with everything I require being to hand as well as being lighter - and nothing to store away at the end apart from the whole machine. Yet, although the canister isn't compact sized (it isn't supposed to be). I live by the mantra that an upright is ideal for carpets and the canister ideal for everything else. When you live in a home that has everything such as hard floor, carpet, high ceilings, pets and everything else life throws at you, I've never felt that ONE vacuum cleaner is sufficient although my parents did live quite happily with our Sebo X1 Automatic for many years and took a broom with a damp tea towel added to the bristles for cleaning the ceilings before they knew of Sebo's additional tools. Hard floors just got wiped over with a damp mop to take up months of dust. My parents were too busy to be cleaning home all the time; an aspect that I can now afford to do. The same goes with washer dryers - we had them - 3 of them all from different brands - in the end it is far easier just to have two separate machines to cope with in a large home. European machines in general are steadily improving in their reliability but they're not quite there yet in being able to build a washer dryer (without being too expensive, cue Miele) that is built to last - and without expensive heater elements from burning out. | ||
| Post# 224268 , Reply# 20 3/19/2013 at 13:46 (4,055 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2) | ||
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My mother was the same due to a hand injury and a slipped disc. She loved the Oreck for a while but the noise level got to her, being a musician and opera singer.
However, the UK seem to be on the slow uptake of producing a decent enough upright that is light with tools. About the only machine I've been able to find that has good enough performance for light cleaning WITH tools and a hose is the super Electrolux stick vac I bought a few months ago - no longer sold here which is a great pity. | ||
| Post# 224563 , Reply# 23 3/21/2013 at 14:32 (4,053 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2) | ||
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Good lord - your poor mother - All that fuss with so many vacuums.
How times have moved on - when you consider what she had to vacuum in the home, ONE vacuum would suffice nowadays but depends on how much time you're going to put in to cart that ONE vacuum around. "Old uprights without tools," doesn't really make much of a difference with uprights that have tools - let's face it, we all know that uprights are lousy even with longer hoses claimed to do stairs yet either fall over when left at the bottom of an "average staircase," or the tools and hoses are difficult to store back in after use. A lof of major brands have tried the flush fitting tools idea and only a few are successful. I think that's half the battle - if a brand adds tools and hoses etc, they must be able to offer ease of storing them after each use. Your mother's choice of a Vax Mach Air upstairs and downstairs is a great idea - both have usually short hoses anyway (unless its the Reach model or otherwise with the clip-able extension hose) though you've probably may have experienced that the Dyson copied 3 in 1 tool comes off regularly out of its holder - that's what I found a lot, particularly when the power cord brushed too close to where it sits. | ||
| Post# 224815 , Reply# 26 3/23/2013 at 11:49 (4,051 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2) | ||
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Hi David I tried the extension hose on the back of the handle idea, but it was a right nuisance wriggling and hitting the back of my wrist each time I handled my "base" Vax Mach Air that does without the long cord. Plenty of plug hopping - good exercise I suppose!
As for the Air3 swivel model - I tried the model at my local Currys, one being the model with the longer cord and a base Air2 model with the swivel - each model had just arrived in the store and had not been used. I think I may have been the first customer to request to try the machine plugged in and switched on. Sadly I just don't find it to be any better for its swivel function - I found the floor head too cumbersome compared to the fixed position of the older series, plus it took a few attempts to lock the handle into the upright position once I finished off - certainly as a previous Hoover Slalom owner with its 9.5 metre cord as standard, I began to realise that the Slalom is better made with that sole respect - even if other owners have had problems locking the handle up- if only Hoover hadn't had put that daft suction dial disc on the base plate, I'd still have the Slalom, despite the difficulty of the pet hair tool locking in (I just took mine off!).
Surely then if your mum is susceptible to dust and fragile vacuums, wouldn't a bagged upright be better? Either Sebo Felix or the X1.1 or X4 series would suffice.
I too was going to create a new post but I feel I probably take up too much responses in/on this site already! I can't help it, I just love all kinds of vacuums - anyway I've done a video review of all of the Sebo uprights I have. Catch it on You Tube - you'll see that when I'm cleaning under the grand piano or dinner table I'm literally just hanging onto the handle of the Sebo X models.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO sebo_fan's LINK | ||
| Post# 224829 , Reply# 27 3/23/2013 at 13:46 (4,051 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2) | ||
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Interesting video there, David. I can see you're not giving much of the carpet by the slidey doors a chance - they look as if they have been turned up too much by an upright's brush roll going back and forwards on it. Still the hose is pretty much what I did with mine but I found that the suction was not as strong as opposed to the way the hose should be fitted. | ||
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