Vacuum cleaners - Oreck?

[WVBill]

My wife is wanting a new lightweight vacuum cleaner. She's seen the ads for the "Oreck 8 lb vacuum - the one they use in hotels" yadda yadda....

Anyone have experience with these?

Any other good recommendations? We've had ones from "Dirt Devil" and they've never seemed to clean very well or last very long.

We have mostly hardwood floors with some carpets.

Thanks

WVBill

 

[mjarrels]

Don't know anything about his vacuums but he does fly a cool single engine aircraft!

mark

 

[Scooby074]

The hotel thing is true. Years ago we ran a 40 unit motel and all we used were Orecks. They held up quite well in that environment. I cant say for sure if the current offerings are made to the same quality of the old ones, but if they are, then the Oreck will serve you well as a no frills type vacuum.

 

[Tororider]

I have never owned an Oreck, but have heard good things about them. We went through a lot of dirt devil type vacuums before settling on a Dyson. The dyson has held up well for a couple years, never gotten jammed up with anything and has lots of convenient attachments. I forget which model we have, but I think the ball one is a little bit smaller/lighter. Good luck.

Oh yeah, when one of the plastic controls on the height adjustment broke on the dyson, their customer service was great and they had it taken care of shortly.

 

[2manyrocks]

We have an oreck xl I bought reconditioned for about $15.00 at a thrift shop as I recall. It is very lightweight and picks up well. We also have an old Kirby that will suck the carpet off the floor, but is really heavy by comparison. The Oreck gets used more because it is so much easier to handle and does about as well in my experience. I definately would prefer to carry the Oreck upstairs compared to the Kirby.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

No personal experience but recently saw an aunt have one and I took a look at the power requirements. Tag said 2.5A, sound pretty small compared to the typ 10-12A. IMO the small power requirement has to have some impact on cleaning ability.

Now, if using on bare floors mostly, may do an adequite job and light weight is more important than absolute cleaning ability.

 

[2manyrocks]

This Oreck xl2800h2 is 4 amps so you may want to check whichever model you are looking at. I don't see any way to adjust the cleaning height on this one. I agree with Mickey_FX that there may be a tradeoff between absolute cleaning ability and the light weight. I started to say in my prior post that your carpet and the amount of dirt might affect your degree of satisfaction. We are vacuuming a low pile carpet where the dirt tends to stay on the surface. If you are vacuuming a carpet where the dirt falls into the carpet or you're vacuuming up animal hair, then you may want more power if this is going to be your only vaccum.

I bought both our vacuums used at thrift stores and have less than $50 in the two of them combined, and can switch back and forth as the situation needs.

 

[thatguy]

See that attached ratings sheets... Hope this helps

Brian

 

[dex3361]

Wife has had an Oreck for a while and the cost is to much for the machine. That is her opinion I dont have one about all I do is empty the bag and fix it when it breaks.

 

[texbaylea]

I am a great fan of built in vacuums. We installed one when we built our former home in the early 70's and the last I heard it was still going strong. I put one in the present place for less than the fancy machines that are being pushed. It does well on smooth floors and power heads are available for carpets. The power unit, ours is in the attic, draws about 10 amps @ 120v and has a very powerful suction. All you have to move around is a 35' hose and the attachments.

The bag holds 6 gallons so we only need to change it about once a year (your mileage mat vary ).

I bought our Nutone CV350 on line from Central Vacuum Stores in St. Petersburg, FL There are many similar names leaching on the reputation of these folks but their service is very good. They have all the necessary pieces for a DIY installation.

Vernon

 

[mbohuntr]

We have the yellow dyson and absolutely love it! It could use a longer wand, but other than that it's awsome! Dog hair goes bye-bye quick! no dust either.

 

[FrogLick]

We've had an Oreck for several years and other than the light weight don't really like it. Guess it generally cleans well enough but doesn't even come close to cleaning near baseboards, bags are really only available at Oreck dealers (which makes them expensive), and it's expensive for what you get. If you need to do something using hand tools you'll have to drag out that cheap little canister that they give you for "free" (more specialty bags!) that only does a marginal job. I'm thinking of replacing it with a Riccar which is also light weight, but I think it may actually clean better and is USA made. Didn't see the Oreck listed on the above Consumer's Report PDF links.

 

[Dargo]

See that attached ratings sheets... Hope this helps

Brian

I bought an Oreck at a pawn shop several years ago. It didn't work very well and broke within a year. I don't recall the model.

On a side note, I was given a Dyson 'Animal' by a niece a little over a month ago. It was a wedding present duplicate and she didn't really care for it. She gave it to me because we have an indoor dog (fortunately he actually sheds very little). I have to agree with her and Consumer Reports. The Dyson Animal is pathetic when compared to any of the 4 other indoor vacuums (we have a large home) we have. It does a terrible job in comparison and is loud. It got 're-gifted' again and I gave it to my dad to use in his shop. I wasn't impressed with the Oreck and the Dyson was a flat disappointment and deserves it's low ratings.

 

[coobie]

My wife is wanting a new lightweight vacuum cleaner. She's seen the ads for the "Oreck 8 lb vacuum - the one they use in hotels" yadda yadda....

Anyone have experience with these?

Any other good recommendations? We've had ones from "Dirt Devil" and they've never seemed to clean very well or last very long.

We have mostly hardwood floors with some carpets.

Thanks

WVBill

We bought a oreck about 8 years ago,it held up very well.We now use a Kenmore vacum that picks up dirt alot better IMHO at 1/4 of the price of the oreck.coobie

 

[8934]

After going through several vacuums I happend to notice the brand they used at work. It is a Pro Force made by Pro Team commercial duty unit that works great. It is light and quiet, do a internet search and check them out.

Bags and filters cost substantally less than Oreck also I beleive. They are not paying for a lot of advertising.

 

[Bird]

I guess we're just old fashioned; still using a Hoover Wind Tunnel vacuum, and a Hoover Steam Vac; both from Sears. And of course, a 5 hp, 12 gallon Craftsman shop vacuum.

 

[Dargo]

After going through several vacuums I happend to notice the brand they used at work. It is a Pro Force made by Pro Team commercial duty unit that works great. It is light and quiet, do a internet search and check them out.

Bags and filters cost substantally less than Oreck also I beleive. They are not paying for a lot of advertising.

That's actually the one we have in our guest house. I like it really well. The one I have has an offset on the right side to get under overhanging counters and get the edges where regular square shaped vacuums can't get.

 

[deputyrpa]

My mother bought an Oreck simply because of the weight. It replaced a 1970s Sears canister vacuum, which still works. The Oreck cleans OK, but takes a few passes to get the Lab hairs off the rugs. It doesn't hold a candle to our Lindhaus upright. The Lindhaus has two motors that generate significant suction, runs extremely quiet (don't need to turn up the TV volume), and has a real HEPA filter system. It's 11 years old and runs like new.Lindhaus USA - Home Page

 

[groundcover]

I got tired of junk vacuums and went to an industrial supply place and got the Pro Team Pro Force 1500XP. Slightly lighter than a heifer but boy will that thing clean!

 

[mattman]

We have a Bissile bagless vacum. No bags just dump the canister and go again. This is the best vacum I have used. It will suck up more dirt than you have in your carpet. You can watch the canister fill up with quickly. It is not what I would call lite weight but not to bad. I think it came from wal-mart, was not very expensive. It is a 12 amp model. So far not a problem with it. Would buy another one in a heart beat.