Unreliability of upright vacuum cleaners

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Probably for carpets?

But they don't clean a deep pile carpet as well as one with a powered beater bar.

[Jules]

Ha ha - I didn't say they were good :-) Even as a kid it seemed that some of the power that could have been put toward picking things up was going to keeping the thing off the ground. They just looked pretty awesome, like short, fat Daleks.

Mind you, vacuums with brushes seem to manage to throw stuff everywhere (and often don't have a way of stopping the brushes rotating when you're using the various attachments instead, which seems a bit bonkers)

cheers

J.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Hoover Constellation. They rarely actually floated as easily as you could move one on wheels - and when they did likely floated down the stairs...

[Jules]

I now have this vague recollection of reading about some house (I think it was Victorian-era) a few years ago where the vacuum part was tucked away in the basement, with pipework running to wall sockets around the house into which the various attachments could be plugged. Does that ring any bells with anyone, or am I going completely insane?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. One with an easily used hose attachment helps too for those crevices. The Panasonic nearly gets this right since it's the hose which takes the feed from the normal brushed part. But since it enters the top of the cleaner, pull it too far and the whole thing topples over and smites you.

[David]

Get yourself a Miele vacuum cleaner; by far the best vacuum cleaner we have ever used.

We had a Dyson for 8 years and a Vax for 2 years, now both have been replaced with Miele vacuums, one of them is a cylinder and one is the new S7 upright.

Both are quiet, have excellent filtration which the Dyson did not have, hygienic dustbag change and very powerful.

There are so many good things I can say about the vacuum.

Everything about it is so well though out.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - dunno the make, but you can still buy them. Apart from installation costs a hose long enough to reach all parts of the room is likely to be unwieldy and more difficult to store than an ordinary vacuum.

[Dave Osborne]

Maybe Victorian, certainly mid-late 20th century.

an American thing AFAIK.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Whole house systems go in and out of fashion, but the Victorians barely had any vacuum cleaners, so they won't be until well after that. They were in fashion in the late 1950's when my parents' house was built (but they don't have one, although my mother liked the idea at the time). Many commercial premises of that area had them, but they're rarely still in use. I recall them coming back into fashion in homes the 1970's.

[meow2222]

Maybe you could add your thoughts here:

any problm posting, you can always reply on ukdiy for it to be included.

NT

[The Medway Handyman]

Put it down - move away from the Argos catalouge!

Thank heavens - poor performance, unreliable. Known in the trade as Die Soon.

And they will all die within a few years.

THE best upright vacuum on the face of the planet is the Sebo BS36

- full spec commercial machine, will run rings around a Die Soon

Might cost a few hundred, but it will prolly outlast you.

[John]

I one fancied the idea of a Central Vacuum cleaner - I had a location planned for the pipe which was convenient for each room. The idea seemed to offer the advantage (in my mind) that the power unit could be in my attached garage - it could be noisy and didn't have to have fantastic filtration as the dust wasn't going back into the house. It could even be heavy and ugly! We have a local electrical retailer that sells them - they have a wonderful display of transparent pipes contorting around part of the shop. Example:

[Dymphna]

Dysons rock! But if you let the carpet people know you have one it will void your warranty.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Gabriel pretended :

But the Constellation could blow as well as suck :-)

[MM]

'Zactly.

MM

[MM]

No. I thought at the time that as it was out of warranty by then they wouldn't want to know.

It wasn't all ~that~ expensive. Cost me around £79 in a local department store.

Last longer than a couple of years, certainly I would have expected that. I also have a 25-year-old Electrolux cylinder model (which was my only cleaner till I bought the Panasonic upright). The Electrolux is still working and has only been serviced once. When the Hoover packed up the other day I had to finish vacuuming with the Electrolux, but it was a PITA after the ease with which one can push an upright around. I still keep the Electrolux for doing out the car, though. (However, someone said in this thread that Electrolux was a rubbish brand, too. But mine, being a 25-year-old design, is probably still from the era when goods were made to last. E.g. my Sony portable TV is now 17 years old.)

I checked earlier and found the motor was listed as a replacement part. 59 quid!! I could buy a new upright for that!!

MM

[Jules]

OK, so I'm not going nuts at least... :-)

I'm sure I remember a "Victorian-style" ad (line-art drawing etc.) accompanying the details, hence my thinking it was a Victorian system - but it's possible it was a lot later and my memory's just playing tricks. If it was Victorian then it definitely wouldn't have been something aimed at Joe Public, anyway.

cheers

Jules

[gazz]

"The Medway Handyman" wrote

i was waiting for the dyson haters to start posting :)

horses for courses i guess,

my mum bought one of the first DC01's, when she got a DC07 'because it was better than the 01' the 01 got religated to the garage, where it's lived for the past 7 years being used to hoover the concrete floor of shavings, dust, muck, screws and nails, and being connected to the tools with suction points including a router table and chop saw.

when mum got a DC14, and i moved into my own place, i got her DC07, still works perfectly, we have a very hairy dog and right now is her moult season, so it's getting used a lot on a combo of carpets, wood and tile floors,

we spent today cleaning the car to sell, i haddnt hoovered it for about 5 years and the rear was half an inch thick in dog hairs, i got the shop vacuum out as i figured it would have the most suction being a 2.5kw motor, damn thing hardly lifted the dog hairs,

so i got the dyson out to hoover the mats laid on the floor in upright mode, and just tried the wand on the seats, damn thing got almost all the dog hairs off the seats, had to empty the dust chamber 5 times it pulled so much crap out of the carpets and back seat.

the one thing i do with all the dysons tho is to take them appart once a year, and use compressed air to really blow the passages and cyclone bits out, the 07 is great for that, as everything just unclips, when i get a clog i just need to release a clip to take the section of tubing on the body out to pull it clear, of course that means lots of seals where the tubes would be one piece on other vacuums, but under suction they compress and seal tightly.

if my dyson died tommorow, i'd either fix it or buy a new one,

The only place i don't use the dyson is in the motorhome, but that is because i fitted a centeral vacuum system to it years ago, only a small system with 2 suction points (mot inspectors always ask what the large bore pipes with 2 core wire clipped to them, running from each end of the van cris crossing the chassis to meet at one location are. they never believe i have a centeral vacuum system, so i have to show them it working)

A 3 meter hose allows me to reach from end to end using the 2 suction points, turbo brush does a fairly decent job of getting dog hairs out, but it gets clogges from hairs wrapping around the drive quite often, tho to be honnest i rekon they are my GF's hairs that do that, bit too long to be the dogs i rekon,

[MM]

I've checked the prices. Can't afford that kind of thing. Far too expensive. Ludicrously expensive, actually, now I come to think of it. We are talking: a motor, flexible hose, a dust collection system, a beater bar. Big deal. Okay, so the production quality is good, fair enough. Let's say, it's worth therefore three times the cost of the cheaper models, so around £150 tops. But a price comparison website lists the Sebo BS36 at up to £303 !!!

MM

[David]

I have used a few commercial uprights, the new Miele we have feels like a commercial machine; the motor for the brush bar is separate and very powerful and the underside is mostly metal, very well built too. When I use it I feel like I am using one of those commercial machines.

You should try it out in comet or something.