Consumer Protection

Vacuum Cleaners

By Meg ⋅ May 21, 2007 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I have a bad back, so began my quest for a new easy-to-use vacuum cleaner. The quest began a year ago, with my discovery of the Dyson. I purchased the Dyson animal DC15 purple thing. Expensive but with the pull-out wand with long hose, I thought “this is perfect”. The ball feature makes the vacuum move and turn with a flick of the wrist and no body weight at all. My 5 year old could do it one handed. The problem, besides the price, is that this fabulous plastic rolling ball has a major drawback. It provides you with a static shock -frequently. FREQUENTLY!! 3-5 times in a room 15×15 ft. I contacted the company and they said it was a design flaw, here let us send you a new wand that will take care of the problem. Wait 6 weeks, contact them again, “I am sorry, there must have been some kind of mix up, I will get that wand right out to you.”
Wait 6 weeks, get the wand, replace current wand, (very easy, 45 seconds to accomplish) begin vacuuming and get shocked just as frequently as before. The only difference is that now my 5 year old has a 3-4 foot metal wand to play “shoot the cat” with.

So I contact the company again with promises of a solution, new design around the corner. Wait 6 months, receiving my free shock treatment on a weekly basis, Ok, monthly basis. (Note- This is the place the Kirby guy comes in). So, I contact the company again and they allow me to return the product for a full refund. Other than the 2 hours of phone contact and one hour of waiting at the UPS store to get it boxed up and charged to the company, no problem, hassle-free.

So ends the Dyson leg of my quest.

Enter the Kirby phase…….Back to Kirby guy.

Doorbell rings at dinner time, I hate that!! Open the door on a freezing cold evening an there is a Kirby guy standing there. Now everyone that knows me knows I enjoy getting a rise out of people almost as much as I enjoy seeing exactly how much I can get away with. So my husband although annoyed, is not surprised when I invite the guy inside. Why you might ask? Let me explain. First off, my brother just gave me two lazy boy chairs. They belonged to my parents and have spent quite a few years at his home. Including some years we shall refer to as “college-like years” My point, one of the chairs smells not so rosy. No idea why, and I am continually frustrated my the fact my husband cannot smell it. For me, it about knocks me over when I walk into the room and he cannot smell it at all. This phenomenon is a whole other blog entry, very complicated and ongoing. Anyway, this chair is driving me nuts and I am too busy and cheap to get it cleaned. Second factor to consider as to why I invited Mr. Kirby in is this- My
eldest son (10 years old) is a huge science geek. He makes my house a very fun place. Loves to know how things work, cannot take enough things apart, and at his young age able to reassemble more things than I. So, Mr. Kirby freezing on my doorstep says, “Have you seen or tried the new Kirby cleaning foam, works on carpet and upholstery in 15 minutes, can I come in an demonstrate for free?” Well, I think, free chair cleaning and an educational demonstration for my kid. I do not let my eldest take apart nearly as many things as he would like, and Mythbusters is just not satisfying his craving for destruction. So I tell the guy, “There is no way I am buying a Kirby but if you would like to come in and clean my stinky chair, knock yourself out.” He replies, “I am freezing cold and have a quota for demonstrations to meet, I will clean your chair, meet my quota and we both can call it a night.”
I opened the door. Two hours later, as my husband is seething, my eldest is in his glory watching and spraying foam, I tell the guy, “well, I guess if I can return my Dyson shock therapy, I will give you a call, please go now, so that I can eat and get the kids in bed.”

From there, I returned the Dyson and called the Kirby guy to discuss price. Now keep in mind, that this process took awhile. In a nutshell, asking price is over 2 grand. Low offer was 1 grand, with much dickering and sob stories, and luck and blah, blah, I got the guy down to $500 with many accessories and a promise not to tell. I then went on to say no it is just to heavy of a product. As nice and dependable as the Kirby is, it is heavy!! Second and only other drawback, fan vs. intake situation. Basically, what you vacuum up must get to bag, and it either goes thru thee fan or not. Now if you read the web sites I have listed below you will learn about a “where the fan is located” situation. Does the debris you suck up go through your fan or not? If it does you are at risk of chipping and otherwise damaging your fan with every vacuum sweep. Being a house where things are regularly taken apart, and build again, staples, nails, screws, tacks etc are a part of everyday life for me. (Three kids, two dogs, two cats, and my husband is a contractor/builder….) Anyway, so Kirby guy is less than thrilled, I am proud of myself to sticking to what I told the guy to begin with, I was not going to buy, and FYI- the chair still stinks. Apparently Kirby foam cleaner is not as fab as the sales pitch.

Enter the next phase of the vacuum quest- research phase. Odd it would take me this long to get to this phase.

I must do a better job, I tell myself and safe myself the frustration I experienced over the last year, and two vacuums cleaners. So, I read, and read, and research.

Here is a short list of the web sites I found to be the most helpful. These are in no particular order and some only helped a bit. Some with information, some with price finding and comparison. FYI, I also used Consumer reports magazine, but they are somewhat limited in that commercial vacs are not included in their reviews.

**** http://www.a-1vacuumandsewing.com/wizzc.html The best site I visited

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner second best for learning what I need/want

* http://www.abcvacuumwarehouse.com/ very nice compare vacs feature.

http://www.lindhaususa.com/enter.php?location=/hcp_4.php

http://www.pro-team.com/products.asp

http://www.miele.com/

http://www.allergybuyersclub.com/

http://www.allergybuyersclub.com/

http://products.howstuffworks.com/upright-vacuum-cleaner-reviews.htm

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/house_and_home/vacuum-cleaners/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/

This is not a complete list of all the sites I visited, but gives you an idea of where I was.
Lessons learned- consumer reports is limited and not as accurate as I hoped. Kinda like comparing food quality but only reviewing fast food and not fine dining restaurants. Good for limited research. I quickly learned that commercial quality was what I wanted. If I am going to spend more than $200, it better be good.
I also interviewed cleaning crews on my husbands work sites, janitors from the schools, house cleaning services etc.

Nutshell findings:
Miele is a great home vacuum. Along with Sebo, Kirby, Dyson (love it or hate it), Hoover and Panasonic. CFM is more important than amps. And canister vacuums are best. Beater bar is important to getting a good clean, fan placement as we discussed briefly earlier, bag vs bag less and hepa filter issues all must be considered.
Best commercial is Windsor, followed by Lindhous, pro-team and Riccar. I settled on a hip pack pro-team vacuum. 8 lbs and great CFMs. You will have to use the sites to get a better understand of CFM, basically it is the lift. The first site, A-1 vac was the most helpful.

At first I chose the Windsor, it was the best, and highly recommended by the cleaning industry. Filter is excellent. But it has short hose and it tipped over. Both common issues with uprights. Not going to help me with my back issue, so I ruled them out for me. Next was Lindhous, although the rep I spoke with at Lindhous was willing to give me a deal on the vacuum, the distributor in my area was not as generous. I got hit with a “bait and switch” with a discount vacuum place in the springs, (Lindhous had recently stopped using them as distributors because they keep pushing the Oreck crap machines, and had missed removing them from the site as a listed distributor) The Lindhous is nice in that it can be a backpack vacuum as well as upright. So tip problem was solved and an attachment hose helped also. 11lbs without base. Good CFM’s (92). But the cost and the nonsense with the local distributors caused me to dismiss them. I was simply annoyed and really only wanted a small vacuum for the dusting and stairs anyway, my old, old vacuum would due for other stuff. If I needed a vacuum for house, I would choose Miele or Lindhous. So as I began to look at lighter vacs, I discovered the 8lb Pro-team hip style Tailvac. Wear around your waist, no back issues, to twisting, pulling, pushing. 112 CFMs. It does not have the beater bar, so I will have to pull out our other vacuum for once a month solid clean ups. But this I can use, clean stairs, dust, make the kids vacuum their rooms. He novelty of it makes them want to use it and light weight makes it nice like a dustbuster. Long cord is also nice.

The pro-team is under $400, I am hoping local guy will give it to me at $300-350 including attachments. I have yet to buy it, unfortunately, we decided to paint the house instead of buy a vacuum……. I know Dyson has come out with a handheld and I know their big vacuums have over 100CFMs so I am intrigued, but my husband would have a conniption fit if I brought home a Dyson. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall as I brought that up?