Vacuum Reviews

I received it for Christmas. It is very difficult to use. I couldn't get the supplied bags to seal properly after two tries. It is supposed to snap shut, but my wife wasn't able to put enough pressure on it and I also found it hard to close. And it was also hard to reopen.

While this machine may not be the easiest to get started with the vaccuuming -- the directions are not clear that the machine needs to be (forced) closed before the suction will activate [and although it's only sensible that the machine be closed, a lot of pressure needs to be exerted, so it's easy to think you may break it] -- it works well for the cost. The bags are pre-cut or you can select any size you want from the roll that accompanies the unit -- and they are reusable, which make for additional savings as well. I have had no problems with the sealing apparatus. In fact, once the vaccuuming begins, the product works very well. Considering many other units are sold for double the price of this one, I think this is a good overall value.

With out a doubt, the best value home sealer on the market. The materials and construction in this sealer are awesome. Extremely well designed. I find the instructions a little skimpy, and physically too small to read well. But once you learn how to cut and seal a bag, you never have to go back to the instructions again. Yes you do have to press hard to lock the machine to seal, but that is not a bad thing. The builtin bag cutter and holder is great. Rival gives you an unbeliveable amount of bags and rolls with the machine. Two 8" rolls, two 11" rolls, 22 quart bags and 5 gallon bags. The bag material is excellent. My brother owns the top of the line FoodSaver machine and thinks this Seal a Meal is better at half the price. Your not paying for all that TV advertising that FoodSaver has.

Be careful when ordering this product. The photo shows 4 poles,
no where does it say you need TWO kits to make a room as shown.
The description say it has two poles, but the room needs 4 poles to work.

The telescoping twist-lock poles are a dream to work with. This is particularly so when you use the poles for other things such as a 3rd and 4th hand when putting up 4 foot light fixtures, sheetrock, and even fold down attic stairs. In fact I use these poles for these things more than I do for dirt control.

This is a vey useful product for paint projects. It is easy to set up and clean. It works well as a barrier to keep pets and children away from wet paint.

Basically this really is a good product. However there are a couple of things you might be interested to know about it. Firstly, the aluminum "case" which holds the gate does not supply a friction hold on the gate, if you position the device as it is shown in the above picture and open the gate, it will slam down of its own accord. The Gate screw lock which you might want to tighten a little bit to give some tension here to hold the gate open however,has too coarse a thread and often will turn back just enough to lose its grip, this in just a few operations of the gate. I suggest you remove the screw and install a locking nut on it and reinstall the screw to cure this problem. Secondly I wish there were a little more length to the 4 inch extrusions on either side to allow for a quick disconnect for the hose. As it is you must use a hose clamp here or the hose will fall off the end. These complaints aside the device is beefy and should hold up.

I have about 6 of these in my shop attached to permanent ductwork that goes to each of my stationary tools. What I like about them is that the design allows them to be securely mounted to the bench or wall. The assembly consists of 2 cast aluminum plates that are bolted together like a sandwich around the sliding gate. The bolts are standard 10-24, and can be replaced with longer bolts that can be used to bolt the whole assembly to something solid. I also like that the aluminum is thick enough that you can drill a hole in it, and drive a self tapping machine screw into it for a secure connection. I used this technique for securing the ductwork to the gate...the gate can slide shut, and that a lock nut solves the problem.

These gates still leak a little, which is why I do not give them 5 stars, but in my opinion, they're far better than the plastic ones.

These work well but they are not made to fit over your tools port. They are made to be placed in line of the hose, so be prepared to buy lots of clamps, three for each tool.

The photo looks exactly like the Jet model with a large, easy to turn plasstic knob but this Woodstock International model blast gate has only a tiny little metal thumb screw instead. The price difference is worth it in my opinion, but be warned.

You know the saying "You get what you pay for"? Well its true, especially when it comes to this vacuum. It actually wasn't too bad the first couple weeks that I had it. I have short carpeting and it worked rather well on that. However, the bare floor setting is a joke on bare floors- it just sends the dirt flying everywhere. Also, the settings for the accessories (like the extension hose, duster, etc.) is as powerful as a dustbuster. It's next to impossible to maneuver under a coffee table, and if you leave it standing in one place too long you start smelling something, like carpet burning. The worst part is is that 3 months into owning this, I turned it on and it started making a loud cracking noise- I tried to see what was wrong and flicked the switch a couple of times, and black smoke started coming out of it! That was the last time I tried to use it, and I'll never buy a Hoover again!

Do not buy this vacuum- you'll end up like me, looking for another one 3 months later. Pay a little more and get something that will last.

Hoover has hit the mark for the average consumer. This vacuum has the main features you want for a good price. One of my requirements was a bare floor setting because I had carpeting and hardwood floors both. This unit had a wide range of cleaning settings. The weight was very reasonable and the washable alergenic filter was what I was looking for, not Heppa filters as the cost for those is too high. Great unit for the price!
Dave Gacke

I bought the vacuum cleaner last night and assembled it this morning. The instructions were easy to follow (trilingual!)and the unit fitted together easily. It ran the first time time I started it. It is very powerful, much more so than the upright AND canister cleaners it replaced. I like the combination of upright with the flexible hose because less storage space is required. The cleaner performs well to the side, a feature I've not had before. The ON OFF switch seems backward, having to push it down to turn the cleaner off. The unit didn't come with an Allergen Filtration bag and should have. A coupon to buy a package of those bags for a dollar less was included with the documentation. I don't suppose there's a way to have an automatic rewind of the power cord.The unit was purchased at Best Buy as a clearance (not "open box")item.

Most of the noise coming from the vaccuum comes straight out the top. If you're inside, the muffler (which attaches to the exhaust) does nothing because the exhaust noise is nothing compared to the motor noise. Outside, the motor noise goes straight up and away and the exhaust noise is more of a factor.

If you use your vac outside a lot and have fussy neighbors, get it. If not, save your money.

I bought this item for the Rigid shop vac with detachable blower(basically the same unit as the Sears Craftsman version). It makes a noticable difference in reducing the FREQUENCY of the sound, thus eliminating the higher pitched whine that you get without the unit. Although I can't say for sure that it makes the overall sound quieter( I don't have a dB meter), it certainly makes it seem quieter and MUCH more bearable. You do have to watch where you point it though because it will shoot a blast of air in that direction (although this is by design, it is the blower port after all. Also it not fully inserted, it my be shot out by the rush of air when you first turn it on. Worth the money!

I got this for the sears 6 hp shop vac with detachable blower. This muffler substanstially reduced the noise especially the high piched squell. just watch where you point it because the air blows very strongly out of it.

I bought the Hoover Windtunnel in Sept. of 2003 when we moved to Texas. What a mistake. (Guess I was suckered in by the ads). Anyway, while assembling it (with the assistance of the painters who were painting the interior of our house before we moved in) - I was immediately struck at how cheap it looked. Everything was made of plastic and didn't quite fit right. (Even the painters commented on that.) Since then, I've been extremely disappointed by the fact that the hose keeps coming off. Also, the clip that holds the pipe in place has been broken off by a minor collision with a door. Hair is continually stuck in the brushes and needs to be cut with scissors and drawn out manually (yuck). Also, the suction is way less than desirable. All in all this is without question the WORST vacuum cleaner I've ever owned. (I'm 50 years old and have owned quite a few in my life!)

I love the design and power of this cleaner (only used it once so far). It works and rolls like a charm -- despite reports that it has a loud motor, it is no louder than my old Hoover Dimension.

However, I'm not entirely happy with the bagless design.
After one usage, admittedly dirt-heavy since it was the first time with the more powerful new vac and I have two cats worth of pet hair in the house, the HEPA filter looks pretty dirty. I had to take it out of the assembly and work at getting some fuzz and such off the filter that had made it through the settling chamber and pre-screen. Better now, but I'm unclear on how often I will need to replace that HEPA filter for my usage. The filter is not that expensive (about the same as 3 packs of allergen filtration bags for the equivalent with-bag model) but if I have to replace it every 3 months, that will really add up.

I'm going to try it a couple more times, but if I have to
manually handle the HEPA filter (not just dump out the bin) after each vacuuming, which is tedious and kind of defeats the
purpose of a filter designed to keep allergens away from contact with me, I will take it back and get one with a bag. I would rather throw away a bag more frequently than deal with cleaning out the filter and assembly after each cleaning...

I do like the bagless design in theory and it certainly is cool to watch how much dirt you have collected...

I just bought this vacuum cleaner a couple of weeks ago. Actually I bought the U5761-900 which is the same thing just with an additional extension hose. Proir to this we had the basic Hoover upright that simply got the job done, or so I thought. For years we have been living with two dogs and what we thought was clean carpet. Boy were we wrong! The day we brought this vacuum home, we ran the vacuum quickly over the floor. I immediately saw dirt and pet hair starting to swirl in the chamber. The odd part is, we just vacuumed the floor the day before with our old vacuum. (By the way keep a firm grip on the cleaner when you turn it on, it'l take off on you). As I went to remove the canister from the vacuum I could not believe my eyes. This thing was loaded with dirt and hair. I wondered how my dogs could have any hair left. This vacuum is absolutely amazing! It took me a while to bring myself to fork over that much cash for this unit but I thank God I did. As for the reiview that mentioned he couldn't find the filters anywhere. I shopped around my local stores and asked if they carried all the supplies that would ever be needed for this vacuum (in particular the filters). EVERY SINGLE ONE who sold the vacuum, had them in stock.... For pet owners or baby "owners" this vacuum is a dream! And Im a GUY who doesn't mind to vacuum now...But we won't mention that to the wife! Good luck in your vacuuming adventures!! I would also recommend the Hoover Steam Vac! Its just as amazing!

The Good, Bad and the Ugly...Replacing an ancient Hoover was not too hard to do. Decided on the Dirt Devil Featherlite, for several reasons: Has a Powerful 12 Amp motor, Easy to manuever, Light-weight, Scuff guard, etc... It does the job well until it starts to fall apart. It goes through belts at a steady pace due in part to the belt drive assembly. The metal pin attached to the motor drive gets very hot and will melt the rubber belt till it breaks. In order to replace the belt you will need to a hire a contortionist to help you while you're holding the Featherlite upside-down. After six months of use and several belts later, a piece of plastic suddenly deposited itself on the carpet as I was vacuuming. What was once a purrring machine now sounded like a garbage disposal on steroids. Now the Ugly... a couple of uses later, it was emanating a burning rubber smell. The roller brush had froze as it had welded itself to the drive guide which is made of plastic.(It should be incased in Metal) To sum up... There are some parts that are in conflict with one another and greatly reduce the life of the vacuum. FRICTION is the DEVIL in this case. If 'ROYAL' the actual manufacturer did the necessary tweaks, it probably would last a couple of years!

I have several pets, so I spent a lot of time trying to find the right vacuum. I eventually found what I feel is the perfect vacuum (Dyson Cyclone!).. this is definitely not it!

While this is a decent vacuum, it just doesn't hold up well compared to others. The suction is average at best, you will get MUCH better suction from the Dyson. The price is very good though, and when you're talking 4-5 times more cost for a Dyson, this might work for those who need decent vacuum and can't afford the Dyson.

Some pros:
-Fairly powerful
-Decent suction
-Very lightweight
-Bagless (saves lots of money!)

Some cons:
-Attachment hose is WAY too short
-Very noisy
-Easily tips over
-Bagless bin is messy and a pain to clean
-Vacuum head is big, making it difficult to vacuum underneath furniture

If you live in a small apartment and/or have no pets, this will probably be more than enough vacuum. I live in a house with 3 dogs and 2 cats, so I needed a more heavy duty and reliable vacuum - which I got with the Dyson. The dirt devil is probably the best vacuum in its price range though, so I do recommend it for those who don't need the super heavy duty vacuum.

THIS VACUUM SUCKS! AND I DO MEAN THAT. YES, IT IS A POWERFUL SUCKER AND WILL GET THE DIRT OFF YOUR FLOOR. YES, THE CONTAINER WILL BE DIRTY, DID YOU WANT IT LEFT ON THE FLOOR? YES YOU MUST DUMP IT INTO A GARBAGE BAG AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THE SCUM THAT WAS ON YOUR FLOOR. THIS SHOULD PLEASE YOU, AND PROVE THAT IT REALLY DOES WORK! IT HAS WONDERFUL CASTERS SO IT CAN ROLL ALL AROUND IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS-SIDE TO SIDE, NOT JUST BACK & FORTH. YOU CAN NOT COMPARE THIS TO A $500.00 DYSON CYCLONE. THAT IS LIKE COMPARING A FORD PINTO WITH A LEXUS! WERE TALKING UNDER $80.00 HERE! NO IT PROBABLY WONT LAST 5 YEARS LIKE OTHER EXPENSIVE BRANDS THAT IS WHY IT IS LESS THAN 80.00. BUT FOR A FEW YEARS AND BEING LIGHT WEIGHT ETC. ETC. I HAVE 2 AND CAN ACTUALLY STAND TO VACUUM WHEN I MUST! A GOOD DEAL FOR THE PRICE, AND PERFORMS BETTER THAN A VAC OF THIS PRICE RANGE SHOULD. HAPPY CLEANING!

i just got this cleaner today, slapped it together, proceded to break a plastic floater (used to shut off the suction when the tank waste tank is full). Very fragile and it looks like your are supposed to pull on it and discard it. Not so. Other than that the machine works OK. I have never used a carpet cleaner, but I just got my third dog and decided it was time. Decided I would just buy one and try to clean the carpets every three months.

I cleaned half of my carpet tonight and it looks noticably better. These carpets were old and filthy and they actually look good now.

Before going home from work today a coworker was knocking the machine saying how his neighbor bought one, returned it and got a nice Hoover (with rotating brushes). Almost sent mine back instead of opening it but I am too impatient and wanted to try it.

Things I like:
The bladder system
The heater
The soap feeder (adjustable)- though i think it uses more soap than it should.
Ease of assembly
Attachments

things I don't like:
that plastic thing I broke.
everything is plastic (but I think it would be hard to find one that isn't).

Things I would reconsider:
I have never used a steam cleaner, but the idea of rotating brushes seems like a good one to me. Therefore, I would consider a Hoover if I hadn't already bought this one. But I am happy with this machine and the attachments (especially the scrubber brush). It cleans well and is easy to use.

No complaints- hope it proves to be durable.

I normally don't enter reviews for products I have purchased, but after using this machine I had to respond. My carpets have been professionally cleaned for years, but this has become quite expensive. I decided to try the cleaning myself, and after careful investigation I decided the Bissell machine was the one I would try. And wow did it work! My husband couldn't believe how clean the carpets have become. And with the convenience of having this in my own home, I can clean any time I want. I would recommend this product to anyone!

The Bissell Pro-Tech carpet cleaner is WONDERFUL. The results are equal to that of a professional job!

I rent a house and the carpet had not been cleaned in over 5 years. I have two cats and for a while a roomate with 2 cats. Making my house a 4 cat household. Needless to say I had problems with cat odor and stains and thought for sure the carpet was ruined. Thanks to the Bissel Pro-Tech the carpet now looks fantastic. I used the Bissel Pet odor and soil removal formula and I can't smell a single pet odor!

The 12 amp motor removes water from the carpet extremely well. Within 1 hour my carpet was dry enough to walk on, though still damp in the spots where I used the heavy traffic setting. I was also nicely surprised at how quiet the Pro-Tech was, combined with the perfect pass speed sensor it was actually fun to clean my carpet.

I had purchased a less expensive carpet cleaner from Dirt Devil and found it to be useless. I cleaned my dining room twice with it and all it seemed to do was make the carpet damp with little improvement on odor and stains. I returned that and spent ... more on the Bissel Pro-Tech, but it was completely worth it. I cleaned my dining room one time with the Bissel Pro-Tech and the carpet in there looks BRAND NEW!

The Turbo brush and accessories are great for hard to reach corners and for the steps and did an equally fine job cleaning the carpet.

Assembly was simple, I did it by myself while my husband was working. I followed the advice of other reviews here and read the instructions manual, everything worked like a charm and I would suggest taking the 5 minutes or so to read the manual as well. It mentions important things such as which setting to have the cleaner on when you are putting new solutions in, or draining dirty water. I would have never known this without reading the manual.

The only thing that concerned me with this Pro-tech was the lid on the water container. It has a handle for easy carrying, how ever the handle is attached to the lid, to remove the lid you just have to move the handle forward. I was concerned it would fall off while I was moving the container to and from the sink and spill dirty water all over the place. Just be careful and place a hand underneath the container when transporting it.

Don't make the same mistake I did, if you are looking for a carpet cleaner it is obvious you get what you pay for. Though this model is a little more expensive than others, it is a great machine with professional results, and its completely worth it.

I can't believe all of the negative reviews this product got, so I had to defend it some. It is a much better product than others I've used in this price range. IT IS GREAT ON HARDWOOD OR BARE FLOORS FOR SUCKING UP DOG AND/OR CAT HAIR AND DUST, BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR HEAVY USE ON DIRTY CARPETS. I have a short-haired indoor dog that sheds a lot, and it sucks the dog hair up much better than heavier vacuums I've used. It is very light in weight, so it's pretty easy to maneuver or use hand held. The only thing I don't like about it is that it takes a few minutes to effectively clean the dust filter. You must clean this filter every time you use it because it gets nasty from all the small particles it will pick up. As long as you use it with a clean filter it will work good for LIGHT use. If you try to use it in place of a heavy vacuum, it will overheat and shut itself off. It's a lot better than the Dirt Devil models I've used in the past. I think most of the people who trashed this product were expecting a heavy duty vacuum cleaner for $60?

I recently purchased a home with 85% of the house having hardwood floors. Coming from an all carpet apartment I already had a excellent vacuum, but on wood it just made the floor vibrate so hard it didn't do a good job. After months of sweeping and then using 2-3 swifter cloths per room I just got frustratd. My husband saw this "gadget" and had to have it. Well with 3 cats and lots of fur to spare I must say that this little gizmo works well. It does pick up hair, dirt, and even the small leaves that fall from my plants. It does need emptying after each room and the cord is a little on the short side but if you have at least two plugs in a room you should be fine. I also LOVE that it can be turned into a hand vac. I have severe allergies and dusting does no good. So after I vacuum a room I use it to get rid of all the dust in the room and since it has a HEPA filter I highly recommend it to other people with allergies. It is just so much better than trying to lug a huge vacuum around the house.

Wow - this is a great product, with some minor flaws that can be overlooked. This product is perfect for any type of hard surface, ie. hardwoods, vinyl, tile etc. This works some much better and faster than a broom and dust pan. We call it our "electric broom". The product has a lot of power - you can actually use it on a thin carpet and still get good suction, but it doesn't have any bristles like a tradtional vacuum, so it can't get deep into carpets. I think when you weigh the pros against the cons, you will decide to buy it. Here they are:

PROS:
- Very powerful suction, gets dust, hair and anything in its way
- Small, can be easily stored away
- Versatile, can be used like a vacuum or a handheld "dustbuster"
- Easily converts from the two different uses

CONS:
- The filter is a huge mess and is pretty hard to clean, although thats almost every bagless vacuum
- The air that blows out of the side is pretty powerful, so it tends to blow the dirt around before you vacuum it
- The product can get pretty hot (I hope that doesn't mean a bad motor - only time will tell)

As I said, I believe that the pros outweight the cons of this machine and it is very worthwhile to own. I think that you will be as pleased with the Shark as I am.