Since I''ve spent the past 24 hours (or more) researching vacuums -and bought two to try out at home, side by side -I thought I should share my findings with the rest of you.
First off, my 23-year-old Hoover canister finally died on me a few weeks ago. I''d had the thing at the shop maybe once for some work, but other than that, it still worked like a charm til the very end. It had a self-propelling power head that roared like a elephant and scared small children and pets, but it but really sucked the dirt in its heyday. It was sort of scary on hardwood, but I made do. After all, it was practically a member of the family -the same age as my oldest son.
So when it died, I knew it would be a hard act to follow. I knew I wanted a canister. To tell you the truth, what I like most are the long wands that I use to clean everything from ceiling fans to air vents to baseboards. The little attachment hoses on the uprights just didn''t seem like they''d do the trick. I liked the idea of bagless, though I''d never tried one. The guy who cleans my carpet once a year recommended Dyson. After looking at Dysons, reading reviews and seeing the prices, I decided I didn''t want to spend that kind of money.
In the end, I decided to test-drive two vacuums: the Electrolux 4101A Ergospace Green Canister ($149 at Costco) and the Hoover MultiCyclonic SH40060 ($149 at Target.) Both sounded great online, so I decided to buy them both, assemble them and do a side-by-side comparison.
Bottom line: The Electrolux, cute and "green" as it is, is going back. The Hoover is staying.
The Hoover isn''t as well made as my 23-year-old dearly departed that''s obvious. But it seems far more solid than the Electrolux. I nearly broke the Electrolux simply trying to unsnap and resnap the filter compartment -the plastic seems thin (yes, I know it''s recycled) and flimsy. I can''t imagine it holding up a year -I''m not sure it will last a month. Same thing with the plastic hose, which also seems flimsy compared to the Hoover. Even the power nozzle-heads (two of them, which I can''t imagine wanting to swap out very often) seem sort of cheap. On the plus side, the telescoping wand works very well and is nice and long, the 3-in-1 crevice tool is sort of ingenious once you figure it out (no help from the manual there!) and the motor has variable speeds, which is neat. Another negative: The hot air "exhaust" blows out straight up at you -I felt like I was in a wind tunnel (a hot wind tunnel) if I got too near the canister.
The Hoover, on the other hand, snaps together neatly with lots of clever, well-designed little latches. The bagless design seems very easy to use, and economical. Two filters, both washable. The wand telescopes, not quite as smoothly as the Electrolux, but it''s fine (much better than the two-part wand in my old Hoover.) The tools (just two and admittedly not great) store neatly in the rather heavy hose handle. The handle has to be heavy, I guess, because it contains the power switch which is another big improvement over my old Hoover (and the Electrolux), where the power switch is in the canister, which may be some feet away away from you just when you want it most.
But in the end I wanted a vacuum that could clean. So I decided to run each through its paces on my hardwood floor. Fairly dirty and dusty, since as I said, my old Hoover died "a few weeks ago."
The Electrolux was first up. It wasn''t bad, though the blowing hot air was a bit bothersome. It was quiet and it moved easily along the floor. It''s lightweight and easy to pull. But there was one stubborn Christmas tree needle stuck in the baseboard that just wouldn''t budge, even though I went over it again and again. Christmas tree needles are my litmus test.
So out comes the Hoover, to see what it can do. It''s a bit heavy, but feels solid and sturdy in a reassuring way. It''s much quieter than my old vacuum. I can actually carry on a conversation while I''m cleaning. I can hear the doorbell ring.
And when it gets to the Christmas tree needle -wooooosh! Gone. Just like that.
What was I thinking? Momentarily swayed by a cute green bungee-cord (what''s that for, anyway?) and the promise of being green and environmentally correct, I nearly forgot the most important rule of vacuum purchasing. A vacuum needs to vacuum well. I think the Hoover MultiCyclonic and I will have a beautiful life together. And it''s sturdy little blue body is growing on me.
I picked this up at Costco for considerably less than I see it advertised elsewhere. I have many unhappy vacuum experiences and thought was just fated to hate the product or spend big bucks. This one is just the ticket for me, on a budget but living in a kingdom of cobwebs and pet hair. I have vaulted ceilings with beams, and this is the first time I have not had to stand on a chair or lift the vacuum canister onto a counter to reach every nook and cranny. Long hose, long cord, very portable, and wow, it REALLY does adjust when you go from bare floor to carpet so that you don''t get sucked down onto the carpet. The suction adjuster is easy to use, but I didn''t even need it. Love the bare floor setting, which has little stiff brushes that loosen debris that might be a little stuck to the floor. I also have cabinets off the floor with space underneath, and this is the first time i have been able to easily reach all the way under cabinets and furniture with out having to assemble some sort of contraption or get under the furniture. Don''t care about headlights, as long as I can get in and out under that couch! The cannister follows smoothly along, and because the hose is so long, I actually pull it less than with my last one--actually everything about it feels smooth. Wand is very easily adjustable and actually is long enough for a tall person to be comfortable. The accessory tool is very simplistic, but it does fit in the vacuum and I always seems to lose all those tools anyway. For someone who is happy with just a small round brush and a crevice tool, it''s fine. If you want a lot of fancy accessories, you''ll need to purchase them separately or look elsewhere. I have mostly bare floors, so I can''t speak to its performance on carpet. But I''m happy to not have to contort to hold down the corners of area rugs to vacuum over them. I still hate vacuuming, but at least I am not having ranting fits about how much I hate the tool during the process.
Down side: The filster is supposedly washable, not sure about that. The bags are pretty small, but that is the trade off for having the canister be very portable. I have''t bought any bags, but I may spend a fortune on them.
Buy Electrolux Ergospace Green Canister Vacuum Now
Just bought this baby at Costco. Overall, I rank it very good, and I''ve been looking for a long time for a cannister vac. worth buying -most of them look like they should be marketed thru Toys-R-Us. And, guess what, it''s made in Hungary big surprise and well made at that. It''s well engineered and very powerful. Has a long vac. hose and a long, retractible power cord. The machine also runs fairly quiet. And, it has a continuously variable, motor speed control for varying the degree of vacuuming power something I''ve never seen in a vacuum.
It does require three filters to operate: A rather smallish conventional bag on the intake side, a flat rectangular filter on the exhaust side, and a "motor filter" whose purpose I have yet to ascertain. These are collectively hyped as "HEPA" filtration, a term that has been misused to the point of being utterly meaningless. Be prepared to spend money for filters.
By way of accessories, it comes with two floor vac nozzles, and little else. If you want any other decent acc.''s, you will have to buy them separately (not an easy or inexpensive task). It does include some sort of small "multi-purpose" tool which is basically a throw-away. But, the hoses do take standard 1 1/4" acc.''s.
About the manual: It has the obligatory (and utterly worthless) safety warnings. It is written in three languages (one of which is English). The diagrams and the fine print are almost unreadable which is a big drawback, since, with three filters to change, and lots of neat little features, a nice big foldable instruction sheet would be much easier to use.
On the whole, however, it definitely fills a market niche for a reasonably well made, utilitarian cannister vac. I will probably buy another one as a spare.
Read Best Reviews of Electrolux Ergospace Green Canister Vacuum Here
The 4101A appears to be the new version of the (also high-rated) UltraSilencer EL6984A. I''ve seen mention of that on several other sites, even though the Electrolux web site lists both models as being current. So, you should have a look at the reviews for that model as much of the commentary should apply to this one.
It works great; tons of suction and minimal noise (it is far quieter than my upright, which was already a quiet model). The hose is 9'' long, which in my opinion is a perfect length. Six feet is more common, but with the extra 3'' you don''t have to pull the canister around quite as much and can more easily access the tops of cabinets, etc with the hose attachments.
The telescoping wand and floor nozzle are fairly agile & once you get the hang of how the joints bend it is easy to clean underneath tables, chairs, couches, etc. You need minimal clearance (only about 2.5-3") to get under something I found no furniture in my home that I couldn''t get under with this vacuum. Coming from an upright this is a huge improvement and I suspect it will allow me to keep the house much cleaner overall.
The "turbo head" works well on two of my three area rugs. They are all medium/low-pile and around 6''x8''. This is not a power head, but has a rotating brush driven by airflow. It is surprisingly powerful if you attempt to stop it with your hand you''ll notice that it''s got quite a bit of kick... However, as the head becomes starved for air the head (obviously) loses power I suspect this is why it works better on some rugs than others; they must have a weave that allows more air to get through. A true power head (which contains a motor to drive the brush) would not have this problem.
That said, all three of my area rugs came out looking just as clean as they do with the upright. And, even with the normal head (not the turbo head) the rugs cleaned up nicely though they lack the "just vacuumed" look that you get from a rotating brush. The turbo head gives you the vacuumed look and I imagine cleans a bit more thoroughly than the standard head, but not quite as well as an upright vacuum or true power head. Is this a problem? I don''t think so, but if I lived in a house with lots of carpeting I''d opt for a true power head. The turbo head gives you a little something extra when needed, making this an ideal vacuum for people living 90-100% carpet-free.
The "green" moniker attached to the vacuum is a bit weak if you ask me. Sure, they used recycled plastics and it ships in a cardboard box but to suggest that this vacuum is somehow better for the planet than others is a stretch. In fact, until my research showed that this model is worthy of consideration for its cleaning abilities I had discounted this model as "probably a piece of junk that they expect people to buy purely based on the ''green'' label". Maybe it''s working for them, but I''d suggest that people would take this vacuum more seriously if they focused more on it''s cleaning capabilities and make the green bit more of an aside: "Hey, this vacuum is great and by the way, we''ve made the shell from recycled plastics because that''s the environmentally responsible thing to do".
Finally, I recognize there''s a trend toward bagless vacuums but I''ve opted for a bagged model for a couple of reasons. First, I have a bagless "dust buster"-style hand vac. While I think bagless is ideal for that style of vacuum, it is a bit dusty when emptied and you need to thoroughly wash the whole system every couple of months or else stuff will start to grow in there (it''s used a lot in the kitchen). Second, as a group bagged models consistently outscore bagless models in Consumer Reports. It seems that the whole bagless trend has more to do with the Dyson marketing machine than it does cleaning power.
Want Electrolux Ergospace Green Canister Vacuum Discount?
After reading the reviews of this product I was excited to purchase. Unfortunately, the bottomline is the product does not have much suction. It is great for a quick vacuum of the kitchen floor to pick up some residual daily dust -but for anything more than that, I would not recommend. Moreover -the bags are not the easiest to take in and out. Not happy with my purchase. Off to buy another vacuum
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