Dissatisfied with Eureka The Boss SmartVac Vacuum

[chemqueries]

I bought a Eureka Smart Vac Vacuum a few days ago, and I'm planning on returning it to the store. It is one of the worst appliances I've ever purchased anywhere. "Consumer Reports" rated it as one of their "Best Buys." In the future, I will not make decisions based on "Consumer Reports" ratings, especially their so-called "Best Buy" products. First of all, the vacuum gets incredibly hot after just a couple of minutes. I've had several vaccums in my life, and I've used many others that belonged to friends and relatives, and I don't EVER remember a vacuum getting so hot. In fact, this is the first time I've ever had to be concerned with a vacuum over-heating. It happened immediately, the first time I used it, long before any debris could have possibly accumulated or obstructed the air flow.

Secondly, like so many products we buy nowadays, I had to do some assembling of the vacuum on my own. Two of the parts are not flush with each other. They just don't fit! And if that weren't bad enough, all the parts and attachments are made of the cheapest, most easily breakable plastic.

I'm really disgusted by this. I'll stick with Hoover in the future.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I hope this serves as sufficient warning to anyone shopping for vacuums that they shouldn't waste their time with Eureka.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

I listen to Consumer Reports but rarely buy strictly based on their reviews. I find a lot of times, their research is incomplete and biased. That said, I did buy the Eureka vacuum and it's been great (2 years now without a single problem). The funny thing is I bought this to replace a Hoover that quite frankly, was the biggest POS vacuum I've owned. The motor kept eating it's brushes and dying. I won't be buying Hoover again. Cheers, cc

[chemqueries]

Hi. Do you know the name and model number of the Eureka you have? The model number on mine is 4870.

[chemqueries]

Well, I think I got the lemon. It was priced well, lower than at other stores, so now I'm wondering whether it was an "irregular." It wasn't labeled as such, but sometimes I wonder about that when prices are significantly lower.

Are there any particular model numbers you'd recommend?

[chemqueries]

Hi. I actually did disassemble and re-assemble those parts three times before I finally said "To hell with this!"

It's possible there is an obstruction, but the overheating happened immediately, during the first use. I will check again, but because I don't like other things about the machine, I'll probably return it anyway.

Are there any particular brands and models that you like?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

That's for sure. Especially the biased part.

No matter how good the reputation of the brand, there will always be a lemon. The brushes, while made to wear, are probably not the problem, but the part they run against. Tiny defect in machining could have caused that to happen.

I don't think either brand is a good as they were 25 years ago, but nothing else is either. They are not made to last. At work we have both a Hoover and a Eureka and I'd rate them about the same.

[Rudy]

I'm guessing that the airflow is blocked. One way or another, this is the normal cause of overheating and was the cause of problems in the last half dozen vacs I've repaired. Perhaps you should disassemble the parts you "couldn't fit" and try again...or just try running it without any accessories, tanks, filters or hoses attached and if it then runs normally, then you should be able to find what's causing the blockage.

R

[User Example]

Isn't the Eureka Boss one of the cheapest vacuums you can buy? That should have clued you in.

[Sue]

we had one too. The belt broke the FIRST day. It was heavy and awkward to use. assembling it was a PITA. less than six months after we bought it the motor died. It was just doing light vaccuming in a small house with wall to wall carpet. It was a POS as far as I am concerned. we returned it.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Yeah, mine's the 4870 as well. It has worked pretty well for me.

Cheers, cc

[Muvin Gruvin]

strange growin up as a kid can only recall having one vacuum that lasted for eons. Think it was a Eureka. Can tell you not to bother with the Rainbow vacuum.....talk about a POS. And dumping all that dirty water.....since when did dirt dissolve in water? Purchased an Oreck and couldn't be happier......its so light weight and easy on the ole back. Luckily there is an Oreck store about 5 minutes from my house.

[chemqueries]

I don't know whether it's one of the cheapest. It was rated by "Consumer Reports" as a Best Buy, and I think that might mean cheaper in price but I didn't know that meant cheaper in quality, at least as far as CU ratings.

[Art]

The Hoover Windtunnels do a great job. I have a windtunnel head on my central vaccuum. Although it looks and feels cheap we haven't had any trouble with it in the 2 or 3 years we've been using it.

[chemqueries]

Hi Sue,

Do you remember where you bought yours? I'm probably wrong about this, but sometimes I think that "irregulars" and defective merchandise are sold at the cheaper discount stores. I also noticed that a lot of the appliance models sold at places like Sam's Club are the models that are rated worst by various consumer-oriented magazines and websites. Of course, at this point, I'm not going to go by what the magazine "Consumer Reports" says. This is not the first time they've given an excellent rating to an inferior product.

[chemqueries]

vacuum.....talk about a POS.> And dumping all that dirty water.....since when did dirt dissolve in> water?> Purchased an Oreck and couldn't be happier......its so light weight and> easy on the ole back. Luckily there is an Oreck store about 5 minutes> from my house.

I'm not familiar with the Rainbow Vacuum. Is that a brand name or a model name?

When I was growing up, the only vacuums I knew of were Hoover and Electrolux. I believe that Electrolux owns Eureka (or maybe Eureka owns Electrolux).

[chemqueries]

Hi. Thanks for that information. Is the Hoover Windtunnel a bagless vacuum or does it use bags? I prefer vacuums with bags. Even though the bags can be expensive, I can't stand emptying out those dirt cups on the bagless models.

[Rudy]

Not really. We have a built in central vac system.

[Sue]

Well maybe you're right because we bought it at costco, because it was the CR 'best buy". It was not as good as the 15 year old panasonic I got rid of. Now I have a Kenmore that is awsome (too lazy too look up the model, but I will if some one really needs to know), but it was a lot more expensive.

[Ross Richardson]