When I built the house, I installed all the pipe for a home vacuum system, but never did buy the vacuum. I got to thinking about it, and carrying 30’ of hose around just didn’t appeal to me. Plus, I’d have to figure out where to keep the thing. I suppose I should re-consider that.
My in-laws have a whole-house vacuum system. They hate it. It barely has any suction, and toting around the 30' of hose is a PITA. So says my mother-in-law. They've had repairmen out to look at it and were basically told that it was working normally. They don't even use it any more and just use a normal vac.
My mother is a die-hard Electrolux fan as well. Up until about a year ago, she was still using the same Electrolux vacuum that she'd been using since I was a kid. So it was at least 20 years old. She loved that thing. Maybe it was the same salesman, Murph.
Its motor finally died and the repair cost was a bit much, so she bought a $500 Dyson. She liked it at first, but after about 8 months it started to really lose suction. She followed all of the cleaning directions to no avail.
Last weekend I took the whole thing apart in a last-ditch effort to fix it. The little tornado tubes & part of the filter housing was plugged up with dirt and carpet fuzz. So much for an un-clogable vacuum.
It's back to normal suckage after I cleaned it out, but it's sort of ridiculous if this thing is going to need a complete overhaul every 6 months.
I use a plain-jane $100 bagless Dirt Devil that we bought at WalMart about 8 years ago. Quite literally a freshly-married, first-place-of-our-own, we-need-a-cheap-vacuum, vacuum. The brushes are pretty worn down and I need to change the brush belt, but it still sucks as well as the day I bought it.
~15 years ago, as a teenager I worked at a video store where we had to vacuum the floor every night. The store had an Oreck. Not that a teenager could actually be impressed by a vacuum cleaner, but I do remember thinking that it seemed to be a pretty good vacuum. It lasted through several years of constant (daily) abuse. It did a good job at keeping heavily trafficked carpets clean, even when being run by teenagers.
