Dan

The lark looks beautiful, if you ever wanted to, a auto parts store should be able to match up a small amount of paint to repaint that handle. 

I also buy allot of new machines to see how they work, although its cheaply made one of the cheapy's I am most impressed with is the new Eureka airspeed one, It wont win any build quality contests but it actually cleans rather well, and its dual cyclone tech actually keeps the dirt off the filter rather well.

I wish we had donation tax benefits here but they canned them a few years ago 

Yea I have a similar problem with one of my machines, To restore it to its original beauty or keep it the way it was made by been used every day. Its a tough choice but I think I have made up my mind, I want it to be like it was when that loved one first got it, It was there new vacuum and even though they were not vac mad like  back then it was a big purchase and they would have enjoyed having it all new   

We Sadly don't get Tacony products in SA, but I will say I agree with Dan on a few points,( and while we are friends we have very different tastes in vacuums )  

For one I am very big on buying stuff that is  made in the country you live in, it is after all supporting the economy you live in. 

Second I have never understood why so many people find sebo's so wonderful, I have had every model they have made and still own my Felix and G1, The build quality is ok but no were near as great as people make out, There performance is OK but not fantastic, and they are missing many convenience features that others include.

The x4 was my least favorite sebo only which could never get the height right from new.(I owned 4 from new all the same) If you don't believe me on this rub some sebo dry carpet cleaning powder into your carpets and use your x4 to clean it up and vacuum your carpets every day for a week, Now go down to your local sears or walmart and buy a $ 40,00 Bissell power force, Bagged or bag less it doesn't matter, Go and vacuum your house again and see what the x4 left behind because it can never get the adjustment right. The bag will be full of powder.

Out of interest I did the same thing with a x4 and better G1 with manual height setting, I dry cleaned the carpet in my one test room at my factory, vacuumed every day for 5 days with the X4 then vacuumed with the G 1 same machine but without the electronic height adjustment, One bag filled 3/4 with powder the x4 left behind because it simply can't get to it.

I was equally  unimpressed with the d4, Its build quality was not on par with machines half its price, Its PN was big and bulky compared to the competition and it didn't have a switch ( which I see is been remedied ) on the handle. 

The Felix is one of my favorite sebo's, It cleans really well but again falls short in the convenience department, the hose is a joke and it still fails me that a machine made in a country that has 90% hard flooring in homes doesn't have a On OFF brush button on the handle or upper body( at least it has one unlike all  other sebo uprights ) Hepa filtraion is not even standard for that price either. 

One last point they are prohibitively expensive to repair if something goes wrong, More expensive than many machines costing twice there price like Kirby's and Rainbows.

My opinion, If you want a good vacuum for carpets don't buy one designed in  a country were the average home has none.  

Just one other point, a particle tester can ONLY be used to give an accurate result in a clean room. IE No contaminates or particles in the air.

If you go to a vacuum shop and they use the particle  tester and show you zero in the reading then its been fixed. No machine will be able to get a close to a  zero reading outside of a clean room.  

Think of it this way as-well, a vacuum blowing clean air int a room is going to moving air particles around if you put a particle tester to the vacuum it will pick up the particles in the air been blown around.

The best reading I ever got was on a Nilfisk hazardous dust vacuum and that was 0.02 , micron, it was analyzed and found to be factory dust that had settled on the filters during manufacture.

The really good analyzers ( the ones professionals use )  will tell you the different size of the particles they pic up.

I have actually done this, you have to rent a lab and a couple of techy guys who know there chemistry. You cannot do this in the front of a vacuum shop 

Dear Gm1982

I never said I didn't think Sebo was a quality machine, I just said its not the great quality that people brag about. 

I have extensive knowledge about vacuums, I own plus minus 300 machines currently but have had over 1000, If a new Mid - high end machine is launched I buy it, I may not keep it and mostly I don' but I buy them and use them as my daily driver for a few weeks some times longer to evaluate them. Every time Sebo launches a new vacuum I buy it take it to my shop, test it, then I take it home and use it. You cannot evaluate a machine correctly buy using it a few times in the shop. 

I think this more than qualify's me as a expert in vacuums. I work in the industry, I own a vacuum shop, I have helped luanch a few vacuums in our market and get them ready for our market. 

My interest in vacuum cleaners stems deeper than just liking how they look or a cleaning with them, I am interested in the engineering, How well they are made and what makes them different to each other. 

I simply cannot believe that a Tacony vacuum is not as refined as a Sebo considering a Sebo is mediocre at best. If Dan says the is well made then I tend to believe him as we are both Mercedes fanatic's. You know why? Refinement and quality My Daily driver is a Hyundai, its got every bell and whistle but my 29 year old Merc is of much better quality and refinement. 

I also know that any product that has Tom Gasko's involvement has to be a good product. 

Dan if we lived closer I would be very worried about our banks accounts because together we would spend way to much time buying and testing vacuums and not working LOL. Not to mention Merc's 

I look forward to visiting as soon as it is possible, it would be great fun. I also hope that you have your next vacuum shop going when I am able to come visit. 

BTW I love those Eureka smartvacs, One of the best cleaning machines they ever made, It was a beast though. It was sold as an Electrolux here in SA and came in grey with yellow accents. I still have it some were. 

That's exactly what I did I got my hands on a green windtunnel self propelled. 

When you retire ??? I am not waiting that long to come visit 

Ow wow, Those are beautiful, I am a big fan of convertables, both in vacuum and in car form HEHe. They were called the Hoover 652 here in SA and the switch was on the base of the machine, We did not get the awesome colours you guys did either. 

Here is one I restored 

I have one lexan based Convertible with the old style top, the rest have the full hood cover. 

I must get one of those hoods ( like in the pic of the three machines ) from you sometime, We never got that style here and I really like it. 

Wow Dan now that is a beautiful Kirby, I like the wood grain finish. I would love to get one like that, I have never seen them here but i know they were sold here. The most popular older models here are the Hirritage II and Legend II I have both, 

I must add a Eureka lik ethat to my collection, Its one model of machine I don't have any Eureka's( of that design)  or Sanitaires in my collection

No they didnt sell that model here.  It was only in the 90's that we stated getting Eureka/s badged as Electrolux's starteing with the Widtrack 

I have never seen the small nozzle for the Legend II

Hi Shaun 

Yes the last two on the left are Royals, both 240v , I have another commercial Royal too but its in use in our workshop 

I see your miele's paint also started to scratch off the hose handle, This is what I am talking about , I know how you take care of your machines and for a High end machine the quality simply isn't there anymore 

Dan 

Do you have the latest one,  Forget what you guys call it there.  

I have the previous LUX version, and was not impressed with the EU style hose and pn, but the machine was well made

ARE the USA versions made in the USA ? or Hungary like the EU versions 

I personally think people worry to much about sealed filtration too, Even the best vacuums with the best sealed system will fail of they are not maintained resulting in a machine that leaks air.

Did we all die of allergies and dirt 30 years ago? No, Are you trying to tell me that because my Grandmother used a Electrolux ( SA Electrolux ) with a Cloth bag her home was Filthy No, People these days are so obsessed with Clean they forget to live, That's why every second child has allergy's now.

I did have allergy's as a child, Pets , dust, chocolate, Grass . Every one told my Mom to get rid of the cats but she didn't, I mowed the lawn every weekend and vacuumed the house regularly with Our Moulinex major ( not known for filtration ) and lets not even get started on the chocolate, There is a good reason I am not thin :).

The truth is buy constantly been exposed the the things I was allergic to I built up a resistance, Owning a successful vacshop also helps, dust and lots of it in the workshop.

Today  I can get a face full of dust without even sneezing( old Electrolux 25 unloaded all its dust into my ace today )  and I have many pets at home too. 

Dan , Were some of the supplied without the rubber grip on the handle ? 

Benny 

When you do mass manufacture they tend to look at making a certain quantity on vacuums, ( batch).

Now why they do this is its pointless looking at the cost of making one vacuum, The tooling costs and such make this impossible, So you look at making say a 100 000. Now if they were making them in a particular color like they did in the USA( lets say pink)  This would mean they would have to specially order  pink grips, costing 1$ each. Now to you and I 1 $ is nothing mere pocket change so why not fit a handle grip, Trouble is you are not ordering 1 but 100 000 so that's 100 000 dollars you have to pull out of capital just to fit a grip to a handle.

This is more evident when you get to cars, You know those budget entry level cars that manufacturers make. They take the bottom of the range car, strip out a 4 dollar clock,  hubcaps $ 70.00, and car mats, $70.00 and remove the lower bumper spotlights ( $80.00 ) and suddenly they car is $ 3000.00 cheaper, How ? its all down to mass manufacturing and producing in batches.

Gareth