Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Notice the absence of the Dutch Tech canisters? The presence of the Edge, which was supposed to have been an dealer exclusive? So much for integrity. Oreck dealers fared betetr when Dave was at the helm.

I agree with you that Electrolux [Aerus] and Rainbow are both brands with good vacuum products too that have stood the test of time just like HOOVER and ORECK .  

Having had to try ORECK twice, like you did, speaks more about you than ORECK.  You obviously aren't sure.  Buying, using and selling your dyson DC07 and not buying another dyson while boasting of the brand also speaks volumes.  Still not sure.  

On a good note Consumer Reports, the consumer magazine you like to take exception with, rates the HOOVER duo you bought and used as number ONE in the upright category.  I have to say NOT for $500, $400 or $300.  $250 is more like it.  About what all new dysons are probably worth in a good economy.

Dyson and its 500 engineers FINALLY followed my email advice to them in September 2006 and scrubbed the gawdawful clutch and discontinued the models using it.    Better late than never. 

Carmine D. 

The Oreck store in my town closed. It was successful, so this must be a move by Oreck. My friend who manages a vac shop picked up the local dealership, and has sold out of his first two orders within two weeks, without any advertising

Trebor wrote:

Hello Trebor:

Your friend and the new ORECK Home Health Center owner/operator bought into a turn-key business operation.  Best kind. 

Carmine D.

 

CarmineD wrote:
Hoover may have had a "gold standard of rug cleaning," but wasn't that down to the actual roller bar and metal bars to retain its "beats as it sweeps as it cleans," action? Almost all Hoover models these days Carmine, are made of cheap Chinese produced plastic and there are no metal bars to beat the carpet. At least Oreck have retained the wooden rollers with proper bristles/more brushy action.

vacmanuk wrote:

Hello vacmanuk:

Where the beater bar for HOOVER was its edge over all the other uprights for the greater part of the 20 th century, now and still its the HOOVER windtunnel technology that gives it the edge over all other uprights.  Still the gold standard in rug cleaning.  IMHO 

WRT ORECK, are there ORECK Home ealth Cleaning Centers in the UK and Europe?

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:
Well Carmine, the Windtunnel "feature" to the best of my knowledge has hee haw / i.e. nothing to do with the beater bar or roller brush (whatever one term you prefer). The Windtunnel feature simply points to a dual dust channel that fills up the bag quicker and is probably claimed by Hoover "to pick up more." I dont know if we have those kinds of centres in Europe - hate to say it Carmine - and you know how I feel about Oreck - but Europe and the U.K don't have much popularity with the Oreck models.

vacmanuk wrote:

Vacmanuk, HOOVER doesn't make the claim exclusively about the benefits of WT technology but others in the industry share the technology's claim as true and beneficial/advantageous for best all around rug cleaning.  Interestingly this site, unrelated to HOOVER, also makes mention of the famous HOOVER beater bars of yester year. 

http://www.vacuumwizard.com/hoover-windtunnel.html

I would also suggest that you note other vacuums' claims about maximizing rug cleaning throughout the brush nozzle cleaning swath.  Like the recently introed LG uprights Kompressor uprights.  They are copying the HOOVER WT technology.  LG actually uses the same or similar verbage as you with "dual force" moniker.  HOOVER WT tech actually claims th same cleaning power over the entire cleaning swath of the nozzle, not just in two places of the swath.  Unlike most uprights and P/N which have peaks and valleys in their cleaning swath depending on the dirt/vacuum path in relation to the brush roll/nozzle, WT tech gives the same over all.  IMHO gold standard for rug cleaning.  Eliminates the need for redundant/repetitive back and forth motions over the same rug areas for cleaning.

Carmine D.

WRT ORECK, I suspect the lesser popularity in UK and Europe are in part the reason for a lack of the ORECK Home Health Centers.  The USA market probably keeps ORECK as busy as it wants/needs to be for sales/service of ORECK vacuums and its floorcare products.  BTW, several appliance makers actually added new manufacturing jobs in the USA in 2010 for the first time since 1997.  An increase of new manufacturing jobs of 1.3 percent over last year [2009].  That percentage is expected to be even higher this year [2011] as USA factories are required to upgrade their operations and avoid the additional costs of overhead and labor by outsourcing to Mexico and China.  By recent count ORECK claims to have about 600 ORECK stores nationwide in the USA not counting vacuum store independents which sell and service ORECK's.   With ORECK's headquarters and plants in the USA, it minimizes transportation costs for getting its vacuums and floorcare products to market by saturating the US market and conscoiusly avoiding expansion to your side of the pond.  Transporation costs to get their products to market, next to the raw material costs of production, are the second largest cost to appliance makers worldwide.  Not to mention the exchange rate issues of doing business on your side of the pond.  With the euro concerns and countries in Europe falling like flies to bankruptcy, it will be hard if not impossible to see appliance makers expanding in the UK and Europe. Just the opposite.  Companies will likely leave.  One exception is Germany which is carrying the rest of Europe with the falling euro.

CarmineD wrote:
It is without doubt, that in my opinion, the U.S are swayed by the patriotic "made in America," appliances that swings the vote for purchases, and yet Carmine half of Eureka and most of Electrolux's products are produced in China. The U.K does not have many manufacturing bases left in any appliance foothold, with the only exception being Numatic Henry vacuums wholly made in England. Dyson, Hoover (Italy owned by Candy SPA), even Panasonic - they are all, if not wholly produced in China and has been the case for the last ten years. Hoover still produce the Purepower in the U.K but only by screwdriver assembly where the most of the vacuum is made in China before being sent to the U.K for minimal assembly. What you're saying isn't new that "with the euro concerns in Europe...companies will likely leave..." They already left - it's just that the U.S are slow to see where Chinese products are being made hidden by royalistic brands that U.S buyers in the past went for.

Secondly, when it comes to rug performance in the U.K it isn't as highly beneficial to buyers. Buyers couldnt care less if the beater bars are made out of wood, or if a standard test has given them greater status than another brand. Infact in the commercial field, many companies will go for the SEBO brand or another company that use the SEBO design because of the structure of the roller bar and the ease of removal, rather than how long the bristles are etc. Sanitaire/Electrolux did try and sell their metal upright here last year. It hasn't been a success - the model is too heavy by U.K tastes and the steel bar hasn't met universal approval because of the U.K & Europe's preferences to thinner floor coverings and vinyl/laminate.

vacmanuk wrote:

Hi,

That comes as no surprise to me.  Here we've always maintained a "more's better" outlook.  Circa 1950, only 10 percent of carpeting product on the American market was what we could have referred to as tufted and the remainder was woven.    Woven carpeting save for issues with lint and pet hair were easy enough to maintain.  The lack of challenge due to limited carpet types may well have been a reason why all those straight-suction Electrolux tank-type vacs were felt to be so wonderful and sold well.

However, with the development of man-made fibers, nylon's arrival in 1947 for one, the picture changed here.  Everyday, rank-and-file folks could begin to buy affordable but luxurious looking carpeting with heavier, deeper pile.  Hoover had beater bars long before that point in time but I feel the "beats as it sweeps as it cleans" sales pitch was more angled toward reminding the public that Grandma's day had passed.  You no longer had to take up your rug and put it on the washline in the backyard to whack it thoroughly clean by hand because Hoover had incorporated the idea in an easy to use machine.

Hoover and its beater bar still had an edge on the American market when it became obvious that the denser weave and depth of the carpeting styles we'd begun to take a shine to weren't necessarily a piece of cake to clean.  The Hoover company more than met the challenge.  What makes me curious is if it has been mainly economics or mentality that has made European and American tastes and needs different.

http://www.carpet-rug.org/about-cri/the-history-of-carpet.cfm

Venson

Venson wrote:
Up until 1987/88 Hoover continued to sell the "last of the classic lines," which meant Junior and Senior/Convertible/Powerplus uprights having the last of the metal beater bars. Hoover UK continued with the Junior before being replaced eventually by the Turbopower range which had a plastic roller and plastic tufts. Hoover weren't happy of course that their old Junior was missing out on sales and made a limited run of "last batch" models with a plastic roller similar to the style of the Turbopower. I know a few owners who have these models and say quite happily that the plastic rollers are better on pick up. However I much admired the old fashioned metal bars until it our Junior sliced up our vinyl floor! Hoover made a lot of campaign adverts in the UK (most of which you can find them on You Tube) but I have to say, that over the compeititors such as Electrolux and a few other brands, Hoover stood out as being better designed and having a much better pick up because of the beater bars - the Electrolux Z500 didn't have any beater bars until Electrolux changed the brush roll to adopt a single line of plastic to act as a beater bar - it however, wasn't as successful on pick up due to its straight design compared to Hoover's turbine effect of the beater bars.