Best vacuum cleaner (one that doesnt have plastic agitator housing)? Dc17 dyson worth it?

I bought a Hoover U5140-900 back in march of 2008, just the other day, it became the third vac in about 5 years to die, because as the belt broke the agitator flopped around too much, eating away at the plastic notch that keeps it in place (so any new belts you put on quickly become scrap)... This was a bag type..

I had a bissel vac at one point, bagless type (cleanview).. it suffered the same fate, and the canister was always a mess trying to empty... I also had a Hoover TurboPower Foldaway Upright (3100 widepath bagless); u5178-900, which was similar...

A friend has said to go for a dc17 dyson sweeper.. but brand new at Target (or online), they are $349 min. Refurbished, there is one out there for $198.. its bagless, does well with pet hair, but i'm not sure if it even has a hose attachment.. i'm assuming the housing isnt plastic, so maybe it would in fact last longer..

I could just go buy another hoover, for $74 shipped.. and hope to get

1.5 more years out of it.

In 6 years, i've spend $250 in sweepers.. maybe not that bad...

So, is the dc17 sweeper worth it? Are there cheaper alternatives that dont have plastic where the agitator lives?

Any thoughts?

Thanks very much

Reply to
markm75
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The Mar 08 CR rated the $60 hoover tempo widepath above the $550 Dyson dc17 But, they picked the kenmore progressive at $300 as #1. Of their 9 Quick Picks, 4 were hoover, 3 kenmore, 1 electrolux, 1 Riccar.

Funny, the cheaper hoovers seemed to rank higher than the more expensive hoovers....

In general, Consumer Reports seems to rate Hoover quite a bit better than Dyson or Oreck. Compound that with bang fer yer buck, and Dyson et al don't even come close.

In general, infomercial stuff is very very very high priced stuff for what you get, and often just outight crap. Parts are very very expensive, service lousy, really the whole basis for their business is about on par with Extenze, Enzyte, and all the other scams.

Reply to
Existential Angst

My cheap vacs last 15 years? even with pets, since you are hard on them get one of those extra warrantys that gives you a free replacement rather than fix it, or maintain it like you should. How can a belt ruin a housing and you not notice noise or no performance, do you change your car oil when its needed or by the manual.

Reply to
ransley

Our experiences are different. After always using cheap vacuum cleaners recommended by Consumer Reports, we bought a Dyson DC25. It is without a doubt the best vacuum cleaner we have ever used. If you want to test for yourself, buy one of each from a store with a return policy. Vacuum with the cheap one, then vacuum with the Dyson.

We bought ours from Best Buy during December when it was $100 off. One of the things that impressed us was the almost universally positive customer reviews on

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While those reviews can be pumped by Dyson or BB, our experience has been that the reviews are exactly correct.

If the Hoover above worked as well as the Dyson, I think I'd still pay the difference to get the bagless, easy-to-empty system that Dyson uses. This thing makes vacuuming easy. The "ball" design is fantastic, as well. It only takes a few minutes to get used to.

Consumer Reports is a good resource, but I find customer reviews to be more helpful. It's best to read both before making a decision.

Reply to
mcp6453

My pick would be to get a used Filter Queen if you can find one (they show up on eBay occasionally.) Basically it's a well built Shop Vac type thing with superior filtration. I wouldn't pay list price for one though, it's a rip off, and their distribution is a borderline Amway MLM-type thing. I have one and love it. The power head for carpet is a little cheezy but the rest of it will probably last forever.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Well, $550/$60 is almost a factor of 10, so one would expect the Dyson to vacuum 10x better than the Hoover, and/or last 10x longer. Or, sing and dance....

Reply to
Existential Angst

The Consumer Research web site is a good review consolidator site and makes it easy to compare reviews and opinions from a number of sites.

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R

Reply to
RicodJour

I run a janitorial service. What we have been using the past decade are the Panasonic Commercial vacs with the 14" wide beater bar.

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Another vac that has been a favorite of Janitorial service for decades are the old standard Eureka uprights with the 12" beater bar. They come with a shake out bag or a dust cup.

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I usually spend about $300 or less each for vacuums. Commercial vacs are built to withstand daily use over several years. And sometimes my cleaners bang the vacs around quite a bit. But you have to find a janitorial supply store to find those or order off the internet.

David

Reply to
hibb

Never tried a Dyson. When my 20+ year old Electrolux died of motor failure a couple of years ago, I picked up 2 Tristars on Ebay on the cheap, (one for upstairs) and they work quite a bit better than my old one did. they seem like they are built for the long haul & I expect to get 20+ years out of them. I may throw a motor at the Electrolux just for grins & have a nice second backup. I don't care for uprights, so they aren't even in my search. I do have an ancient Kirby upright that I keep just because it has some neat attachments that help with the carpet cleaner.

Reply to
Eric in North TX

Personally, Hoover will never sell me another vacuum. The first one to let me down was the ~$400 self-propelled Wind Tunnel, best vac I ever owned, for about a year. When it broke down, they wanted almost as much to fix it as a new one would cost. Got a small Hoover canister, advertised as "everything a vacuum should be." It's nothing a vacuum should be. It's weak, loud, falls apart regularly, does a poor job, got a bag the size of a sandwich bag. Third one (slow learner, I know), bought in desperation at a Black Friday sale, is an upright bagless that gets up about a tenth of the dirt and dog hair and burns through belts about every third time I vacuum. If looking at vacs on Consumer Reports, my best advice would be look at the reliability records before you spend any serious money.

I've never had a Dyson, but I have numerous acquaintances who do, and they all love them. Granted, you've got a big stake in liking a vac that you dropped $500 on, but really, they all rave about and recommend them.

Jo Ann

Reply to
Jo Ann

Hmm, my recommendation would have been a self-propelled Hoover. I've had two and both have been very durable. The first was only replaced because the other half wanted a new one, nothing wrong with the old one and it's parked. It's over 20 years old and the new one is now about 8 years old. I did have to replace a lever in it because I failed to follow the instructions and picked it up by the upper handle one time too many and broke the little arm.

I've very skeptical of any of the bag less designs, there is no way they can not be spewing out very fine dust particles without a bag there to trap them.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Thx

Reply to
LouB

I usually by rebuilt vacuums at places like Big Lots. Cost is about a

1/3 or 1/4 what you normally find them. I buy "factory rebuilt" on a lot of items and have had no problems. I started doing it when my now father in law told me that rebuilt items were better than the original factory runs. That was the way he bought his power tools.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

Reply to
jimmy

I liked my self-propelled Hoover so much I talked a friend into getting one like it when she was shopping. Hers broke even before mine did. I felt bad that she'd bought it on my recommendation, but we both sort of felt as if the score was evened when mine bit the dust not long after. I'm glad you've had better experience with them, but I think they've lost me for good.

Reply to
Jo Ann

We don't have a Big Lots or other places to shop refurbs near here. Can you recommend any good online sites to buy refurbished vacuums? I'm actually in the market for one right now. I need a canister model (multiple floor surfaces, stairs).

Jo Ann

Reply to
Jo Ann

After I posted previously in this thread, I went back through my Amazon orders and realized that I previously purchased the Hoover U5140-900, based on recommendations from Consumer Reports and from here. The belt has burned up on it twice, and my daughter just threw it in the dumpster. I don't share the enthusiasm for it that Consumer Reports does.

Reply to
mcp6453

Reply to
hibb

I like old Kirbys, I have one in my garage to clean the carpet in the loft. Problem with the new ones is they are too complicated and heavy, self propelled, etc.

Kirbys never had the best filtration though, they were always bag-type and really old ones just used a cloth bag with no paper inner bag.

nate

jimmy wrote:

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I had a Dyson and loved it. I had the pet model and it really picked up and was easy to use. Then I had the knock at the door and a Kirby salesman showed up - the Kirby is better. Once you purchase one you won't have to buy a new vacuum, because you can get the motor redone at a much lower cost. The vacuum on it is much more than anything else.

Reply to
Dymphna

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