Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)SPRING 2011 UPDATE (3.5 years later)
It's hard to believe that I've had this vaccum for almost 4 years already and it's still going strong. I'll report back when the thing konks out (unless I konk out first). I'm hoping for an 8 year lifespan (on the vac, not me) - we'll see.
I've started using the allergen bags vs the hepa bags to save a few bucks but I still have hepa bags for when I really want to do a great job (still get the bags from amazon). Vaccuming after a christmas tree still yields that smell of pine needles from the vac regardless of whether it's hepa or just allergen (until I change the bag). Emptying the bag is easier with the self closing feature. String does get caught in the roller and you do have to clean that out from time to time with a knife to cut the strings and pull them out but that's with all vacs.
Much happier still with this upright bagged vac than with the canister vacs or a bagless ones I've had before. I'm sticking to bagged uprights and it's lasting quite well.
Overall, still hate vaccuming but I'm much happier vaccuming with a sensibly priced vaccum than with some $800 Miele or Dyson....this is a sound investment and at least mine has held up very well, no broken parts. Besides, no matter what vac you get, you're going to hate it right ;-) ;-) so why buy a $1,000 vac made by Swiss artisans.
Happy vaccuming.ORIGINAL REVIEWFirst of all thank you to all the reviewers of not just Hoover but Eureka, Electrolux, Dyson, Hoover, Orek, and all the other brands out there --- especially the critical reviews, they're the most helpful in my mind although - I'm writing a positive review. Its a tall order to the people who build vacuums though to build a perfect vac: a tool to help us do something that we inherently hate to do.
I guess you're getting old in life when you can say you've owned 6 vacuum cleaners in your life and having owned 6, I've been through it all: bagged, bagless, canister, upright etc....and I've used every single one of them until they dropped (I never buy to replace a working vac - run it into the ground). This is what my school of hard knocks has taught me and why I bought this one and what I like dislike about this vacuum.
Canister vs Upright
My last vacuum was a Hoover canister and I bought it because I erroneously thought it had more suction than an upright -- actually most uprights are more powerful and better for carpets where canister vacs are more maneuverable and better for hardwood floors. I have about 50% hardwood and 50% carpet but I mostly use the vac on the carpet and use a broom, mop as needed on hardwood so for me carpet cleaning power was the requirement.
Bagged vs Bagless
Bagged vacuums tend to lose suction as the bag fills up -- so your first vacuuming on a clean bag is great and then things go downhill as the bag fills the dirt and mess gets compressed in the bag and you lose suction. Bagless vacuums retain suction throughout the filling of the container but and here's a very important but, you have to empty the container very very regularly, almost a container per room sometimes and emptying the container is always always a dirty affair --- not as bad as empting a shopvac but definitely not what the commercials/informercials show or fail to show and you cannot cheat on NOT emptying the container regularly as the penalty is a time consuming and messy affair to clean gobs of gunk out of your new and sometimes $700 expensive vac that looked so pretty on that commercial --- so if you go bagless empty the container regularly or spend most of your time unclogging your vacuum vs vacuuming your house. Sealing and seating the container is also very important or you can wind up with lost suction or a mess. Also, if you don't empty your container after you finish with a bagless, you create an environment from which dustmites etc can escape etc....and lookes very ugly. Other than that, bagless vacs tend to look prettier (is that possible) no, it must be the marketing talking there but in my experience they're as reliable as bag vacs but no more. All that said, bagged vacs don't need changing as regularly -- you vacuum multiple times (sometimes I change a bag every several months when I notice I'm not cleaning as good as before) so at least to me, bagged works best. I'm not messy and my place stays fairly clean but enough that I'd change a container a couple of times during an average housecleaning.
Cheap vs Expensive
Price seems to be somewhat overrated with vacuums (although $200 is pretty steep in my mind)...Consumer Reports had some great ratings and rated this vacuum 2nd place just under a Kenmore on a variety of tests and much more expensive vacuums were rated less favorably. That said, different people have different tastes and if getting a premium brand vacuum makes you happy - by all means. But in my experience (crosscorrelated with Consumer Reports) price does not correlate well with quality, dependability, or cleaning ability in the vacuum industry. Salesmanship, Marketing, Advertising and cost dictate price in my experience. If you just got an $11million condo, you probably have help and probably aren't shopping for a vac so that particular issue is moot - the rich don't buy vacuums (really) and vacuums are not a class statement in my mind -- so to me, buy something that works, is reliable, and is easy to clean empty.
What was I looking for:
-I've come to realize in life that the honeymoon period for a vacuum is extremely short, much shorter than the 6mos with me and a new car or the 2years with my average house....its more like 5 minutes so knowing that my love affair would be limited to reading the reviews on Amazon after my old vac broke and a brief consumation of the first vacuuming, I settled on looking for these qualities:
1) Something that worked well
2) Reliability & Dependability (works well for years)
3) Clean (not have to empty the bucket every 3 minutes)
4) HEPA
5) Carpet cleaning Power
6) Low Hassle
What made me buy this:
1) Bag (in my experience, they're less hassle overall and neater for me)
2) Carpet cleaning power
3) Autorewind of power cord (I know I'm lazy)
4) Dependability and Reliability
5) Consumer Reports
6) The 10 gazillion reviews on all vacuums here on Amazon (yes I read them and some of them are amazingly insightful and there are some people here who must be paid to write reviews and thankfully they are easy to spot. I found some of the more critical honest reviews useful and sometimes comical....especially the electric shock defect on one major and highly advertised brands...I was laughing at your pain fellow reviewer but seriously thank you for bringing it to light and steering me from some a $600 mistake...as a disclaimer, I'm not paid and I am an owner of the U8311-900....btw, one easy way to tell most fake reviewers is to look at a reviewer's other reviews and if they only have one or review 6 vacuums ask yourself the question....the real reviewer will have a healthy body of reviews on different products they buy for our homes and personal use after all, we're just living our lives out here)
How I've fared with the Wind Tunnel 2 Bag vacuum;
1) Setup was very easy - two screws to attach the handle
2) Came with 3 HEPA bags (1 installed, 2 new)
3) Was vacuuming in 5 minutes
4) Has a clean dirty indicator (its more of a gadget...small optical eye...in reality, you can hear if you're picking up dirt or not usually but it looks neat)
5) The wand and accessories are right there (it makes it easier for me since with the canister vac, changing from floor to accessories was a chore)....granted, the only real accessory I use is the edge cleaning wand so I can get my edges clean....overall very happy to be able to use it readily
6) Not too loud -- quieter than manhy of my other vacuums
7) Wide -- its not a small beast, you can tell this is a vacuum for a 2+ bedroom abode with carpet but not too heavy - average for a large upright.
8) HEPA bag - I am not a clean freak but knowing I'm not putting dust back into my air is good to know
9) Self Sealing Bags -- again not a total clean freak but good to know I don't have to stick my fingers into the mess or breath the dust when I change the bag.
10) Easier to store over a canister vac -- put in upright position and roll into closet vs bending over to pick up canister dragging huge hose and then pushing the whole thing into laundry room and 5 minutes later hear the clack as the vacuum falls over if I don't secure it right.
11) Manual heigh adjustment for my type of carpet
Pet Peaves:
1) The cord's position makes it so that you run over it with the left back wheel if you don't clip it to a provided clip (very minor and the engineers thought enough to put the clip) but if it breaks, I can see myself vacuuming with one hand and holding the cord with my left.
2) The cleaning wand is the handle and it telescopes with a little pin (kindof like the type that modern aluminum crutches have) you push the little pin and it telescopes out but the result is that there's just a little bit of play as you push and pull the vacuum (almost unnoticable) but its there, I noticed it when I first assembled the vac and then forgot about it once I started vacuuming but if you're overly obsessive compulsive, I can see how if you fixate on that, it could drive you nuts
3) Its not self propelled but then again, that's a whole other mess of things to break that sometimes works and sometimes don't work.
4) Its no where near as maneuverable as a canister vac but I knew this going...Read more›
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Hoover U831900 Windtunnel 2 Bagged Upright Vacuum Cleaner
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