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Thread Number: 22968
Panasonic arrived today |
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| Post# 257061 11/20/2013 at 19:50 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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The Panasonic was packed very well. Ordered on line and it arrived in 4 days for $189.00 with free shipping. 
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| Post# 257062 , Reply# 1 11/20/2013 at 19:52 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today full set of tools and they are full sized too. Store under the lid 
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| Post# 257064 , Reply# 2 11/20/2013 at 19:54 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today power nozzle has full bumper, 4 position height settings, light and overload setting with reinforced belt 
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| Post# 257066 , Reply# 3 11/20/2013 at 19:56 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today underside of power nozzle with center air flow path and wooden brush roller (not plastic) 
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| Post# 257067 , Reply# 4 11/20/2013 at 19:59 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today underside of machine shows the LARGE rear wheels located under the back of machine. It will pull over door sills and it's own cord. Also shows the park positon for the power nozzle. 
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| Post# 257068 , Reply# 5 11/20/2013 at 20:01 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today door removed showing the hepa filter and cord rewind bar 
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| Post# 257070 , Reply# 6 11/20/2013 at 20:07 (3,808 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257072 , Reply# 8 11/20/2013 at 20:14 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today inside showing the size of bag and pre motor filter 
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| Post# 257083 , Reply# 10 11/20/2013 at 21:06 (3,808 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA) | ||
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| Post# 257084 , Reply# 11 11/20/2013 at 21:12 (3,808 days old) by williamr1248 (USA) | ||
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Panasonic arrived today the machine itself has LARGE wheels located under the weight of the motor and cord winder, so it is well balanced and can be easily tipped up for easy storage or carrying. Power nozzle also has wheels at rear so it can be easily tilted back and rolled. 
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| Post# 257091 , Reply# 12 11/20/2013 at 22:17 (3,808 days old) by vacuumfreak95 (Aransas Pass, Tx) | ||
Wow! | ||
| Post# 257092 , Reply# 13 11/20/2013 at 22:24 (3,808 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
Wonderful vacuum cleaner for the money. Add some Kenmore cloth HEPA bags, and a nice horsehair bare floor brush, and you have a great vacuum to clean your home.
Don't underestimate the usefulness of the included bare floor tool - it is actually very good on floors that don't need delicate treatment (linoleum, shiny bathroom tile, etc). It cleans on the backstroke as well as the forward stroke due to its central line of bristles. You can also use it on low pile throw rugs and even delicate area rugs and mattresses. Enjoy the Pannie! :-) | ||
Post# 257096 , Reply# 14 11/20/2013 at 22:54 (3,808 days old) by Durango159  (State College, PA) |
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AWESOME!!!
It looks terrific!! You got the hose I was hoping you would get as well!! I hope you get many years of cleaning with this power house. Great airflow, great agitation, good tools. I am surprised an thought the dusting brush would be horse hair but those bristles will work well too or you can get a separate horse hair tool. The bare floor brush included does work but if you find the front plastic scraping on floors like I have or not taking off fine dust, then a full brushed horse hair generic tool for about $11 at your local vac shop you may love even more.
Overall great buy. I love seeing canister vacs in households!!! To me canisters are the true deep cleaning machines with abilities to thoroughly and easily clean all surfaces in your home. Enjoy the new machine. | ||
| Post# 257102 , Reply# 15 11/20/2013 at 23:12 (3,808 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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| Post# 257107 , Reply# 16 11/20/2013 at 23:56 (3,808 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY) | ||
This looks EXACTLY
like the very first 2004 Kenmore I bought, right down the the color! I can't believe this is still made almost 10 years later.....I remember when I first started using it I thought it was the best vacuum I had ever used....AND.......Up until that point......I had always used upright vacuums. Once I used this baby, I said I'm never using an upright again, and I haven't...
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Post# 257128 , Reply# 19 11/21/2013 at 07:20 (3,808 days old) by countryguy (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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| Post# 257129 , Reply# 20 11/21/2013 at 07:22 (3,808 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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| Post# 257131 , Reply# 21 11/21/2013 at 07:25 (3,808 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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Consumer Reports rated this model as a "Best Buy"...very good value for the price.
Here is their summary: Consider this bagged canister if you want capable cleaning and airflow for tools at a moderate price--and don't have a dog or cat. Strengths include impressive carpet and bare-floor cleaning, along with strong suction for tools. Handling is relatively easy despite this machine's 23 pounds. You also get manual carpet pile-height adjustment (better for matching the brush to the surface); suction control (helps protect drapes when using tools); a brush on/off switch (safeguards bare floors and prevents scattered debris); and the retractable cord found on many canisters. But pet-hair pickup was only so-so. Highs • Excels at removing embedded dirt from carpets • Performs well when cleaning bare floors; ideal for kitchens, bathrooms, and hardwood floors • Excels in capturing all the dust it picks up, which is good if you have allergies or respiratory illnesses • Strong tool airflow, which is a factor if you will be using the vacuums accessories for cleaning • Has a manual carpet-height adjustment, which is better than automatic systems at matching the brush to the surface • Has suction control, which helps protects drapes when using tools • Has a brush on/off switch, which safeguards bare floors and prevents scattered dust and debris • Has a retractable cord, which allows you to rewind via a slight tug or a push button Lows • Lacks telescopic wand • Lacks swiveling power head | ||
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Post# 257132 , Reply# 22 11/21/2013 at 07:27 (3,808 days old) by countryguy (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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| Post# 257138 , Reply# 23 11/21/2013 at 09:05 (3,808 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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| Post# 257157 , Reply# 25 11/21/2013 at 13:37 (3,807 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257172 , Reply# 27 11/21/2013 at 16:19 (3,807 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257173 , Reply# 28 11/21/2013 at 16:30 (3,807 days old) by jmurray01 (Scotland) | ||
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| Post# 257177 , Reply# 30 11/21/2013 at 16:55 (3,807 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY) | ||
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I just remembered something else
I think in 2004, it was 229 dollars? Can't remember exactly....Used almost everyday for 2 years....which I guess is possibly the equivalent of ten years for a "Normal" person? Not sure....For 189 dollars.....used once per week which I would think MOST people would do, it could possibly last a long time if used correctly...but someone like me would only get a couple of years out of it....Maybe 3 max......There are videos on YOUTUBE of people ordering the part and changing the connections.....so it must be a pretty common problem. I actually did this to one of my Kenmores but it wasn't easy (for me) because those little plastic pieces are so fragile when taking them apart and trying to put them back together. You have to be so careful and I ended up breaking something. This is a video of a guy repairing the HANDLE part, not the lower part.
Out of the three Kenmore's I had.......I remember on ONE of them, I had a problem in ADDITION to the connections.......The cord that runs from inside the PN up to the neck of the nozzle started to FRAY....It's never really touched so I guess it's from the motion of using the PN over time. You could actually see the wire inside the cord itself. I put tape around it... If the bag starts to smell before it needs changing, just put some Rainbow D&A on a cotton ball and suck it into the bag..When I do this with my Lux, there is no smell. That Green D&A must inhibit bacterial growth inside the bag. CLICK HERE TO GO TO mark40511's LINK | ||
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Post# 257207 , Reply# 31 11/21/2013 at 22:33 (3,807 days old) by Durango159 (State College, PA) |
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Vacuum Scents
Most vacuums get a smell over time. You are removing dirt from a rug along with germs, bacteria and other things. Then that dirt festers in a dark, humid, warm closet inside that machine with more dirt being added on a regular basis. Darkness, moisture and warmth create the perfect elements for the growing of germs, dust mites and other things. The smell of vacuums come from the festering of dirt and germs. Unless you were changing the water like in a Rainbow, or had an Activated Charcoal cone filter like on a FilterQueen then any vacuum can smell. Replacing a bag generally eliminates this along with maintaining a clean pre-motor filter, which us collectors know very much about but many consumers ignore!! Kenmore HEPA bags will help reduce this odor along with scented tablets that you can get from Sears, Home Depot or manufacturers like Oreck, Electrolux, FilterQueen or other manufacturers scents.
I highly recommend the Micro Clean tablets that you can get from Home Depot, they are cheaper than Sears and smell very close if not exactly like the Hoover Tablets of years ago. I wish Hoover still produced packages of their tablets. I also miss the Vacuum Puffs scented beads that I could find years ago. That company available from many dollar stores came in Fresh Outdoor, Lemon, Georgia Peach, Vanilla, Apple Cinnamon, Pine and a few others. They were the best!!!!! Really wish they were still available. | ||
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Post# 257208 , Reply# 32 11/21/2013 at 22:41 (3,807 days old) by Durango159 (State College, PA) |
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Forgot
The Hoover Spirit, Dimension 1000, Futura, PowerMax, and 1st generation Windtunnel canisters all had a terrific bare floor brush. The Kenmore does have bristles down the middle similar to those. However the Hoover was much better because bristles were much softer for better dusting, and also had bristles along either side. The bristles on the sides help keep the tool well balanced and straight at a set height off the floor. The Kenmore tool primarily has very short stiff bristles along the middle. By lacking the edge bristles the tool has a large tendency to lean forward on the forward stroke thereby scraping the front plastic edge along the floor. Additionally the bristles are very stiff in my opinion and while being good with hair and crumbs they don't remove fine dust or sand well from a floor. That's why I suggest a generic horsehair brush. Just my personal suggestion, I've clean houses for years and have used many vacuums. The Kenmore bare floor brush leaves more dirt for the mop to find and makes the job harder in my experience when compared to many others.
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| Post# 257214 , Reply# 33 11/21/2013 at 23:49 (3,807 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257223 , Reply# 34 11/22/2013 at 03:41 (3,807 days old) by Ultimatevacman ( Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
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| Post# 257227 , Reply# 35 11/22/2013 at 05:01 (3,807 days old) by Turbo500 (West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
They never seem to be very popular though
That's largely due to shag carpeting never being particularly popular in the UK and in recent years, the increase in popularity in laminate and wood floors. The UK market tends to flit between uprights OR straight suction cylinders mostly.
I agree with others, this is certainly an attractive looking cleaner. That wooden brushroll looks great too. Hope you're happy with it. | ||
| Post# 257230 , Reply# 37 11/22/2013 at 05:20 (3,807 days old) by Turbo500 (West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
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This post has been removed by the member who posted it. | ||
| Post# 257232 , Reply# 38 11/22/2013 at 05:26 (3,807 days old) by Turbo500 (West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
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This post has been removed by the member who posted it. | ||
| Post# 257233 , Reply# 39 11/22/2013 at 05:36 (3,807 days old) by Turbo500 (West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
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It seems the cylinder cleaners with a PN are the machine of choice for a lot of our US friends, and it's easy to see why. Homes in the US, from what I've seen, tend to have such a variety of floortypes that a cylinder with a powernozzle is the best way to effectively clean all the different surfaces without having to change machine.
For example, a friend of mine in Tennesse has: Living Room - deep pile carpet Dining room - solid wood with rug in the middle Hallway - Parquet Kitchen & utility room - tile Study - low pile carpet Stairs - solid wood with a carpet runner up the middle Bare in mind, that is just 1 floor of his house. It's not like in the UK where a lot of homes have 1 type of flooring throughout. Because the floorhead can be changed so easilly from powernozzle to straight suction, the PN cylinder is the obvious solution for homes with a variety of different floortypes. The other alternative is an upright with brush controls, but even then they often have a habbit of just pushing larger particles around and not actually sucking them up. And unless one owns a Sebo Felix, the floorhead cannot be changed to a more suitable one between floortypes. Air driven turbobrushes are ok, but they do have a habbit of slowing down on contact with carpet and they simply can't groom a carpet or get between the fibres to remove embedded grit as well as a powernozzle. As for reliability, I imagine there is little to no reliability difference between a PN cylinder and an upright. Dyson motorhead cleaners are not more reliable/unreliable than any other Dyson cleaner. And the Sebo Felix is essentially a cylinder with a PN stood upright - no complaints on reliability there either. Infact, I've heard of more Turbobrush failures due to larger particles being sucked up by the user and shattering/jamming the turbines. And it's not just the US. It's also important to note that in mainland Europe, very few people have upright vacuums. I imagine this is largely due to the popularity of bare floors in hotter climates where an upright would be useless, but even in countries like France and The Netherlands where the climate is more similar to the UK, uprights are not popular. Infact, all of my friends and relatives on the continent have cylinder vacuums. Cylinders with a PN are still widely sold across Europe, again aimed at homes with a variety of floor types. I was in a department store in Amsterdam last month and there wasn't 1 upright on sale, but all the high end models had powernozzles. | ||
| Post# 257244 , Reply# 40 11/22/2013 at 09:12 (3,807 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257258 , Reply# 43 11/22/2013 at 11:08 (3,806 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257305 , Reply# 45 11/22/2013 at 16:15 (3,806 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY) | ||
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Masking the problem
I'm not sure what's in those tablets......but "if" it's something to kill bacteria, that wouldn't be masking. To me masking is Spraying air freshener where a wet dog has been. Now, it smells like air freshener AND a wet dog.
Someone on here mentioned this product a while back.......so I will include a link. It's a small bottle of solution that kills odor. I'm sure it kills the bacteria as well. I've been meaning to buy some to try in the vacuum bag to see if it works. CLICK HERE TO GO TO mark40511's LINK | ||
| Post# 257323 , Reply# 46 11/22/2013 at 18:20 (3,806 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257325 , Reply# 47 11/22/2013 at 19:17 (3,806 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY) | ||
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William -
Where did you buy this?
Someone once told me that if you buy the Panasonic INSTEAD of the Kenmore, that some key areas are made more robustly than the Kenmore.......but I'm not sure if that's true. It looks EXACTLY the same. Oddly enough, those connection do fit nice and snug so you would "THINK" that you wouldn't have a problem for a long time.....I saw this for 189.98 free shipping @ walmart.com.... Most other places on the web this same vacuum is as much as 300 to even 400 dollars! And what made you want to buy this out of curiosity? | ||
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Post# 257335 , Reply# 48 11/22/2013 at 21:23 (3,806 days old) by Durango159 (State College, PA) |
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The scent tablets from Home Depot are about $6 for 8 tablets. I use 1 tablet per bag and usually break it into 2 or 3 pieces. I find that brand and the Sears Home Care brand are very pleasant smelling and not overpowering. It's not a Good Cop/ Bad cop situation when the bag is full, usually it's about neutral. Normally by the time a bag smells putrid without a scent, it's about 2/3 full anyways so it's time to go and refresh your vacuums efficiency. The tablets are nice, because it's a whole large tablet and not a fine powder like some other scents that can clog pores. Large tablet can't go through exhaust so all you're doing is smelling and not inhaling harmful fumes or powders.
The pre-motor filter is part number: CF-1 Generally these are sold as a 2 pack for about $6 I've had no problem washing these filters myself as well. I'd say depending on use they should be washed or changed quarterly. The post motor HEPA filter part number: EF-2 Generally sells for around $13. I believe this one lasts about 9 months. There are several threads available discussing Canister vs. Upright and Turbo head vs. Electric power head. Therefore I'm not going to beat this horse too hard but, here's my quick thoughts. Years ago many thought that uprights were the carpet warriors and that canisters domain should be bare floors only. Electric power nozzles have come quite a long way. There are many power head canisters that perform better than many uprights. Vice versa there are some uprights that do better than some canisters. Much of it comes down to user preference and home design. Personally about 90% of my home is carpet. Canisters are my preference. I'm more than happy with cleaning ability with the machines that I've chosen. The maneuverability, quiet noise, ability to shut off brush roll, high performance air flow for deep cleaning carpets and for attachment use with out bothering with a stretch hose are all things I love. Additionally a fitting a 1.25" metal wand around furnishings and tight spaces along with getting under beds and other furniture is FANTASTIC!!!! The air driven turbo nozzles look very nice, and sound cool and perhaps some work better than others. Much of the problem lies that they steal much of the machines airflow in-order to power turbine for brush roll. The electic power nozzles allow both motors to perform full power. Just a couple weeks ago I did a Filter Queen demo for a central vac household with a Turbo Cat Zoom head that was in great shape. Brush roll bristles looked great and were clean. The Turbocat head sounded great and left nice groom marks on the rug. I ran it over an area for 100 passes. Then I ran the FilterQueen for a couple swipes. The amount of dust, sand, pet hair and lint found by the FilterQueen over the same spot where the TurboCat Zoom had just gone over 100 times with very good air flow from the central vac was unbelievable!!! I really thought using the Turbo head with powerful central vac had done a good job. I was COMPLETELY amazed what the FilterQueen found on several dirt pads from the same area. Attached link is a youtube video with a turbo head vs. electric power head. Happy vacuuming to all!! CLICK HERE TO GO TO Durango159's LINK | ||
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Post# 257358 , Reply# 50 11/23/2013 at 06:18 (3,806 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC) |
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Now I know that HD sells Panasonic vacuums-the HD place in Greenville closed several years ago-the building still sits empty-Costco was supposed to move in-so far--no Costco.Would give Sams Club down the street a little competition.Hope the Panasonic works out-Its a sarace between the Panasonic and the Rainbow! | ||
| Post# 257423 , Reply# 52 11/23/2013 at 22:16 (3,805 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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| Post# 257424 , Reply# 53 11/23/2013 at 22:17 (3,805 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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| Post# 257496 , Reply# 55 11/24/2013 at 18:04 (3,804 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 257497 , Reply# 56 11/24/2013 at 18:22 (3,804 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY) | ||
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I hate that bag collar system | ||
| Post# 257557 , Reply# 57 11/25/2013 at 15:59 (3,803 days old) by jade_angel (Fort Collins, CO) | ||
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It might be possible to MacGyver some kind of extension on there so that the seal mates up tighter. I had that same issue with a Kenmore Progressive (which AFAICT is pretty much this same machine, with a few differences), and I thought I might have been able to fix it, but I gave up on the machine when I moved | ||
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