Thread Number: 19517
Consumer Reports (March 2013) Vacuum Tests |
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Post# 216795   1/30/2013 at 08:26 (4,103 days old) by GeorgeCT (Fairfield, Connecticut)   |   | |
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Well guys, the results are in for Consumer Reports vacuum testing for March 2013.
As you may know, I'm in the market for a new canister vacuum and once again Kenmore tops the list with its Intuition (28014), followed by: (bagged canisters) 2 Kenmore Progressive (21714) 3 Miele Callisto (S 5281) 4 Kenmore Progressive (21614) 5 Kenmore Progressive (21514) 6 Hoover WindTunnel (S 3670) 7 Electrolux UltraOne (EL7070A) 8 Electrolux UltraSilencer DeepClean (EL7060, El7061 Lowe's) 9 Panasonic (MC-CG902) 10 Miele Titan (S 2181) 11 Panasonic (MC-CG983) 12 Panasonic (MC-CG917) 13 Riccar Immaculate Premier / Simplicity Gusto 14 Electrolux JetMaxx Green (EL4040) 15 Miele Olyumpus (S 2121) 16 Miele Delphi (S 2121) 17 Electrolux UltraSilencer (EL6986A) 18 Miele Topaz (S 6270) 19 Aerus Lux Legacy 20 Aerus Lux Guardian Ultra 21 Sebo Air Belt (C3.1) 22 Sebo Air Belt K3 Volcano 23 Miele Jasper (S 6290) Now I was seriously considering both the Aerus Guardian Platinum or Riccar Immaculate Premier. The Guardian Platinum is too new to even make the testing for March but the Immaculate Premier is placed 13'th. with only a "Good" at carpet cleaning while it got an "Excellent" on bare floors. It was the only vacuum to get a "Fair" for noise (the lowest). How could mostly all the expensive reputable brands do so mediocre while the less expensive (cheap even) clean so much better? Vacuums 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,11,12 got a "Very Good" at carpet cleaning while vacuums 7,10,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 only got a "Good". Number 23 was "Fair" (the lowest of the whole group). Is Consumer Reports off their rocker or are these results for real? I still have a Kenmore Progressive (bought October, 2008) that I gave to my parents that still works great. I bought it because it was so highly rated. Is the Kenmore Intuition not the same vacuum it used to be? Isn't it still made by Panasonic? Did Panasonic lower their standards/quality? Now I'm torn between the $500 Kenmore and the $1400 Immaculate Premier. What to do? |
Post# 216797 , Reply# 1   1/30/2013 at 08:34 (4,103 days old) by heritageiihd ()   |   | |
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If you have them, could you post the reports for upright bagged vacs for me? We are in the market but don't have CR. |
Post# 216803 , Reply# 2   1/30/2013 at 09:01 (4,103 days old) by GeorgeCT (Fairfield, Connecticut)   |   | |
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Post# 216804 , Reply# 3   1/30/2013 at 09:10 (4,103 days old) by NYCWriter (New York City)   |   | |
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... appears to have a reverse-elitist bias.
Meaning, nearly across the board, from cars and refrigerators to vacuums and mittens, CR seems to go out of its way to ding premium brands in favor of the more proletariat models. And my own experience has often proven them wrong. I think when they do their ratings, for every given criterion, they rank through the lens of *price*, for their measure of "value". For that reason, I take what they say these days with a grain of salt. |
Post# 216805 , Reply# 4   1/30/2013 at 09:16 (4,103 days old) by Durango159 (State College, PA)   |   | |
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Don't get the Intuition canister. No bueno there. Suction cleaning is great with it. Powernozzle cleaning-- Consumer Reports is definitely off their rocker. It's the bulkiest, hardest to maneuver and oddest power nozzle system. Those power nozzles are very delicate and have broken for many consumers. The bare floor tool that is part of the powernozzle is no good either.
Consumer Reports is good as a guide but sometimes their reviews are quite mind boggling. In 1996 they rated a Eureka at Excellent for carpet deep cleaning and Hoover at Very Good. I used both side by side and finished the cleaning job with the Hoover. Eureka did not do nearly as well. Panasonics and Kenmores clean well, their motors are made much cheaper now and don't last as long as they used to. One thing that really helps the Panasonics is the CenTec power nozzles they're equipped with. The motors in the CenTec heads are very quiet and yet very powerful. They're power beats a few other brands power heads. The Hoover Windtunnel S3670 is an excellent cleaner and that power nozzle is very very powerful. The Riccar is a great unit. I think they do quite well on carpet but they're smaller opening for agitator and the non chevron design may put them slightly behind a few other models. Overall they're still great cleaners. One thing about the Riccar, Simplicity's is that they are very very powerful suction units. I have a Riccar 1700 canister vacuum. The suction level at full power which is what Consumer Reports tests at could pull paint off a wall, although this sounds great it can be overwhelming for the agitator, causing too tight a seal with rug, thereby slowing agitation. 90% of the time I run my Riccar at 60% power!!! It's still powerful to accomplish the task while also being quieter. Even on barefloors with barefloor brush 60% power does quite well. With the Riccar set at 80% power it cleans substantially better than one of my house cleaning clients Sebo D4 canisters. This is my recommendation and advise as a canister vacuum lover, using them to clean houses professionally for the past 18 years!!! |
Post# 216815 , Reply# 9   1/30/2013 at 10:02 (4,103 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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I would definitely question their high ratings on the Kenmore products. My ex-wife and I bought one new in 2002 and was the sorriest piece of plastic junk I've ever seen. Sure, it picked up cat fur great, but it was simply not up to the task of vacuuming the house 3-4 times a week. Sears had to repair plastic hose connectors twice under warranty and when she and I split up, it was held together with nylon cable ties. As others have pointed out, CR's testing is pretty superficial and involves little or any real world testing for durability.
As for me, I'll stick with my metal monsters, thank you very much. |
Post# 216826 , Reply# 11   1/30/2013 at 11:12 (4,103 days old) by GeorgeCT (Fairfield, Connecticut)   |   | |
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Post# 216846 , Reply# 14   1/30/2013 at 13:59 (4,102 days old) by HooverCelebrity (Germany)   |   | |
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While I appreciate the enthusiasm regarding these results, we cannot have them duplicated and posted on this site due to copyright laws. I have removed the picture. -Fred |
Post# 216868 , Reply# 15   1/30/2013 at 15:18 (4,102 days old) by KirbyUltimateG (Troy Ohio 45373 USA)   |   | |
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I always recommend a vacuum that is rated at least Very Good in carpet cleaning/Very Good in hard floor cleaning/Good in suction/Very Good in filtration by Consumer Reports. |
Post# 216879 , Reply# 16   1/30/2013 at 17:48 (4,102 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)   |   | |
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I have the Progressive 21714 ranked #2, and it's not a bad vacuum. The attachments are bulky but decent compared to what a lot of other canisters have these days. Build quality could be better, as well as motors, as was mentioned above. All of the current Kenmore canisters are made by Panasonic, as far as I'm aware. The model number of mine still starts with 116.
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Post# 216883 , Reply# 17   1/30/2013 at 18:24 (4,102 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)   |   | |
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I bought their top of the line cannnister due to CRs test a few years back. Suction was ok on hose, but not great. It never came off of high, let say it went to a new home in a year for free? Long hose great! Clean or not light, cool, if only to amuse. Early pricy and smelly hepa style cloth bag.Gray I think? It was $550. I think its still running, but was unimpressed.
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Post# 216884 , Reply# 18   1/30/2013 at 18:25 (4,102 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)   |   | |
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Post# 216913 , Reply# 19   1/30/2013 at 23:08 (4,102 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada)   |   | |
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This is not a new list. This identical list has been on their website ever since the arrival of Miele's S6 series which is several months ago.
They are preparing their annual spring cleaning edition which often has new ratings for new vacs. The title on the website is just preparing web surfers for the new information. Consumer Reports is very valuable for those of us on a strict budget. Why spend $1,000 on a vacuum when one costing half as much performs better and is easier to use? And I am sorry to say that so many vacuum salespeople have provided me with so much misinformation over the years, that I trust Consumer Reports test results and brand reliability surveys at least as much as what the sales people tell me. If Consumer Reports surveys have consistently shown Tacony uprights to have more repair problems than Kirby or Dyson or Hoover, I trust that data more than what a salesman will try to make me believe. This is the explanation of data that Consumer Reports provides: "Kirby was among the least repair-prone brands of upright vacuums, while Rainbow was among the least repair-prone brands of canister vacuums. Hoover and Electrolux were the most repair-prone brands of canister vacuums. That's what we found when we asked more than 102,000 readers who bought a vacuum between 2008 and 2012 about their experiences. The graph shows the percentage of models for each brand that were repaired or had a serious problem. Differences of less than 4 points aren't meaningful, and we've adjusted the data to eliminate differences linked solely to age and use of the vacuum. Models within a brand can vary, and design or manufacture changes might affect future reliability. Still, choosing a brand with a good repair history can improve your odds of getting a reliable model." I do not abuse anything I buy, and I have had over 20 years of service on a $100 Eureka upright, and over 10 years of good service on a Hoover SP Windtunnel. Even my $500 Kenmore Progressive canister is onto its 11th year of service with only one motor change. The motor change did not bother me, as it only cost $140 5 years into its use. The vac is great, still going strong, cleans well, is easy to use, and was the top rated canister in Consumer Reports for many years. Some of us like Consumer Reports information, others don't. Just like some of us will swear by Rainbow and Kirby and Dyson, others won't. Variety is the spice of life - as they say! :-) |
Post# 216916 , Reply# 20   1/30/2013 at 23:10 (4,102 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)   |   | |
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Post# 216928 , Reply# 21   1/31/2013 at 00:16 (4,102 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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Post# 216931 , Reply# 22   1/31/2013 at 01:18 (4,102 days old) by floor-a-matic (somewhere)   |   | |
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Why don't CR test the Filter Queen Majestic 85th Anniversary & TriStar CS canisters? Both are great cleaners, I. M. O. |
Post# 216937 , Reply# 23   1/31/2013 at 02:07 (4,102 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)   |   | |
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Never take CU's test advice as gospel on ANY product-I suscribe to them for fun-can't take any of their reviews as serious.And another line of vacuums CU hasn't tested- metal Royals and the Blue Sanitaire lines. |
Post# 216940 , Reply# 24   1/31/2013 at 04:16 (4,102 days old) by pr-21 (Middletown, OH)   |   | |
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When I was younger, I took Consumer Reports as gospel on vacuum cleaners. I have learned over the years to use it as a reference point only. I do enjoy reading their report, but....I don't agree with them on a lot of things. They use a mixture of sand and talc, or used to. Did not read this report yet. Vacuums like the Rainbow always rated low....except in recent years with the addition of the hepa filter and larger motor....My Rainbow has been my overall best cleaner, in my opinion, for years...Everyone but Consumer Reports know that you cannot pick up non wettable substances with a Rainbow. What is talc????????????????
Anyway, I do like the surveys on brand reliability, but even that has its flaws. A lot of consumers don't even change the belt...
PR-21 |
Post# 217066 , Reply# 25   2/1/2013 at 00:03 (4,101 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)   |   | |
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Post# 217073 , Reply# 26   2/1/2013 at 01:37 (4,101 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY)   |   | |
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