Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Vacuum Cleaner Advise.

I'm late to the party, but I feel compeleed to say that Riccar has my loyalty now. After going through a string of cheapo vacs, I was steered by a gentleman who runs an actual Vacuum-only store towards Riccar, and based on what I needed he steered me towards the cheapest model he carried. That was about a decade ago, and it's still doing its job just fine.

I can't say one thing or another about Dyson other than the whole campaign for it has something of a Bose-stink about it that makes me cringe.

How convenient, a vacuum thread. My housecleaner told me I need to buy a new vacuum…… right before she quit last week. I was looking at one of those Dyson’s and couldn’t believe how expensive they were. $500 for a stinking vacuum??? No friggin way am I paying $500 for damn vacuum. So how’s that Sears dirt sucker working out Michael??

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.

Mike I'm still waiting for UPS to bring the new vacuum.

It's funny what you said about your house cleaner, ours asked me if I was going to buy a new vacuum, or should she start hauling her own up. I guess that was the hint I finally needed.

The Dyson is totally worth it.

We had a $700 Miele previously, and the Dyson kicks its ass. My wife said so. Who you gonna believe?

My experience with Dyson is not so favorable. My wife and I only used it for about 10 months or so. I used it mostly for vacuuming laminate flooring but it did not do the job sufficiently. It did work better on carpet, but I only have 1 room that is carpeted. My Eureka for less than $200 works much better.

We were given a $300 Hoover as a wedding present. 20 years later it still sucks like a pro. I wish I had bought extra brushes as a backup for the ones I have lost or that have worn out.

My wife swears by the old fashioned Electrolux that you haul around you like a stubborn puppy. I hate it. It has certainly proved reliable but it's 'suckage' is easily beaten by less expensive models. I think it is just a matter that her Mom was brainwashed by a salesman a while back and the precedent was set in her head from day 1.

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.

The Oreck is a very good vac and not to awful expensive.

We've had the Kenmore for a couple weeks now and I'm pretty impressed, lots of suction, super long cord and good attachments. Now the test of time will see if getting a higher priced vacuum was worth it. If it still performs well in a couple years I'll be very happy.