Unreliability of upright vacuum cleaners

[The Medway Handyman]

Because I spent 30 years in the cleaning machinery business & I've sold thousands of them (badged for another manufacturer).

They are a joy to demonstrate, they change the colour of many carpets, they virtually never break down even in 7 day commercial cleaning regimes and if they do they are simple to repair.

Huge top fill bag, clean vacuum turbine, bag full warning that really works, electronic brush control, brush clutch, replaceable brush strip (takes less that a minute), fantastic edge cleaning ability - the list goes on.

[The Medway Handyman]

Could be worse. I found myself agreeing with Dennis a while ago...

[John]

What is the "Electronic Brush Control"?

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

Couldn't agree more. I use plain text for email too. I use a most plain-text reader (Pine 4.64 for Solaris). Use of 8-bit character set is also disabled. Pine recognises my posts as plain text.

I made a minor mod (character set set to nothing) as per

Is this post better?

Kostas

[geoff]

Sit down and pour yourself a strong drink

[The Medway Handyman]

Push button control of the brush 'pressure' so you can adjust it for long or short pile. When its right a light comes on.

[MM]

All those bells and whistles are nice. The key point, though, is the motor. Without a motor the bells and whistles kind of lose their effect...

I am just not convinced that the motor in a Sebo (the most important component) can be orders of magnitude better than the motor in lesser cleaners. Unless the manufacturers of the latter *deliberately* sabotage their designs to build in planned obsolescence.

Are you sure that you haven't fallen for a massive propaganda exercise

- like those who eschew Black & Decker with a curl of the lip? Nothing has convinced me yet the the very, VERY expensive Sebo isn't just a very clever maketing campaign, because I do not believe such an extortionate price is justified.

MM

[MM]

More marketing speak, of course!

MM

[John]

Intrigued- is it a motorised brush adjustment? How does it know when the height is right - torque on the brush roll? What happens if you have too much pressure? I would have thought some sort of active control should be the way to go if it already has a control.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

FreeView is mainly 16:9 aspect ratio so a 4:3 set is not going to show the correct picture, unless it has a 16:9 setting - unlikely with one that old.

[Huge]

Perfect. Thank you.

[Huge]

I've seen them in use in hotels in the US. If Americans are prepared to buy a non-American appliance for commercial use, they *must* be good.

Yes, the motor failed on mine after about 10 years, but it was easily obtained and fitted - the machine mostly slots together and can be dismantled without tools. It has never gone wrong otherwise, and rarely blocks. Unlike the Hotpoint vacuum we had before which used to go wrong every time you used it and regularly blocked up. In the end I took it into the garden and burned it.

[The Medway Handyman]

The brush on a Sebo has its own motor & is driven by a toothed belt. Its either the torque or more likely the power consumed by the brush motor. Anywho, you have a touch button to raise or lower the brush & red/green lights. Too much pressure will stop the brush after a short while & a warning light comes on.

[The Medway Handyman]

All machines are designed 'down' to a price.

I'm the worlds biggest cynic. I've seen them in use at places like T4 Heathrow doing 6-8 hour shifts and only needing a bit of a service now and again.

Kirby & Vorverk at the scam artists in vacuum cleaners.

[John]

But there may be an assembly plant in the USA.

Brand names are not good indicators of the country of assembly (I have a British Honda!).

Entry into a market can require a manufacturing presence in that country. (Offset and Countertrade agreements)

[David Klyne]

Our SeboX1 is 10 years old now and I think I would be lying if I said that we had cherished it but it has not let us down! It is also a very clever design in that you can easily get to all parts of the machine and its very easy to remove the roller to clean it. The real truth about long life and cleaners is looking after the filters. The Sebo filters are pretty substantial compared to a lot of cleaners. Before Sebo entered the retail market they made commercial cleaners and still do so they do a good pedigree. As far as price is concerned our machine was the same price as a Dyson but to my mind a far superior design and better reliability.

Davis

[Huge]

[The Medway Handyman]

I haven't tried the newer

First I've ever heard of that - having spent 30 odd years in the cleaning machine game?

[John Rumm]

Probably more likely to reach the limit of what you can suck out of a domestic power socket - especially in the US.

Later Dysons have a pressure bypass valve on the top of the cyclone anyway - if you cut off the airflow completely it opens.

[The Medway Handyman]

Indeed. Electrical system designed by M Mouse esq.

Prolly to ensure cooling air for the motor.