9800-5 Montgomery Blvd NE

Albuquerque, NM 87111

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Vacuum Cleaner Manufacturers

Beam: One of the best central vacuum systems available. Beam is owned by the same parent as Eureka, making it a very available commodity. They are territorially distributed though, and can be pricey. Also you can get stuck with "the dealer" and not be too happy about him.

Bissell: Best known for their carpet cleaners, like the Little Green Clean Machine. They are a progressive company in this field, and yet they maintain the elusive border between quality and discount prices. These are widely distributed and easy to get parts for. They work the best in their field of carpet cleaner/extractors for home use. They do break down, but parts and repairs are not unreasonable. Their vacuums are not recommended by us, in spite of their worthy efforts.

Dirt Devil: Can you say cheap? We mean the quality, not the price. This is a company made famous by a few select small products which serve the public well. Unfortunately, we can't endorse much of their line. Their parent company, Royal, has a nice line of metal vacuums, though, which have excellent warranties, and reasonable to good performance.

Easy Flo: A little bit of an edge over their better known competitors in the central vacuum arena. Permanently mounted self cleaning filters, high quality construction, quiet operation, and low emissions, make this an excellent choice for a central vacuum system. An excellent alternative to the Beam, Eureka, and Nutone brands. www.easyflo.com

Electrolux: The classiest act of the door-to-door solicitors. Very pricey though, because of their sales methods. Good cleaners, and among the most reliable machines (canisters). The new ones are not quite up to par with the old ones, though, and even die-hard Electrolux fans are well advised to examine alternatives, particularly the Miele canisters, and the Lindhaus uprights. Electrolux uprights do not hold up as well as their canisters. They also are in the central vacuum biz, but we see no reason to go this direction.

Eureka: The nation's largest selling vacuum cleaner company, with a hand in every niche. Some of their newer, made-in-Sweden canisters have great potential for the upper-middle of that market. Their uprights vary from Bravo designs that we won't have in our store, to industry-standard Sanitaire commercial units, used daily by millions with justifiable happiness. Be aware of their bag situation, however. You will probably have to go to a specialty vacuum store to get the bags for your machine, as there are thirty-odd bag styles available for Eureka machines currently. If bags aren't your thing, try the Whirlwind. At $299 it's the best bagless system right now.

Fantom: The marketing success of the nineties. Take a venerable household appliance make, Iona Appliances, and couple it with a hot-selling infomercial, and you have a company that almost goes broke, recovers, succeeds, and changes its name to more closely align itself with its new key product. Unfortunately, Fantom is not as good at engineering as they are at marketing. Their uprights have no bags, and are the most filthy, disgusting-to-work-on vacuums we ever get in our shop. Many customers like the way they pick up, but to us they look like snowblowers. They break easily, and unpredictably. If you have to get one, get the Fury. It seems to hold up better. Don't believe a thing about the "bagless" system. It is not cheaper, because you need their HEPA filter, which barely contains the dust, and doesn't seem to help with allergies at all. If you don't believe it, stop by any repair shop and look at their Fantoms in the incoming repair line.

Hoover: They invented it. And they keep re-inventing it. They were the first ones to use a beater on a vacuum, and now with their new line, they are acknowledging some of it's drawbacks. They created the first upright vacuum with a motor bypass. They got cheap and went to all fan-based systems, and now they are returning to bypass systems. If you had an old one that lasted forever, don't expect your new one to last a similar amount of time. The company with the highest name recognition in the industry is ignoring its customers, and its longtime dealers, trying to offer a higher profit, and quality, line to discounters such as the "?-Marts". What these large discounters want, however, is a product that will need to be bought every few years. They can't make money if they sell you one once. Maybe this is the smartest thing for Hoover to do with their business, but you don't need to go along with it.

Koblenz: This is a name brand for Thorne Electric, inc. They are the OEM supplier to just about everybody for the basic carpet shampooer/floor scrubber that you see everywhere. You know the one; it has two 5" brushes, a tank, and a handle. Many homeowners had these before the rage of the carpet cleaners hit a few years ago. Nice product, built well, and still available.

Lindhaus: The most interesting and rugged of the upright vacuums. Now with a canister model going head-to-head with Nilfisk and Miele, Lindhaus is going to make waves in the industry. Their upright vacuums have three filtration methods, are virtually indestructible, and are unusually re-configurable for different floor types. This is the only substantial, quality-made, unit that can have it's cleaning head removed, and changed out. A home with carpets will want their extraordinary power-nozzle with a high speed spinning brush. A home with all hardwoods will love the head that runs on felt, has no moving brush, and concentrates the airflow on the floor. Their power nozzle is quickly being accepted as the best in the industry for use on central vacuums too, regardless of brand.

Miele: This is the standard of excellence by which everyone else is trying to compare themselves. Miele is a 2 billion dollar per year, privately held German firm. It is still run by a Miele after 100 years. Their entry into vacuums was about 70 years ago. They single-handedly started the transformation of the vacuum industry into a high-filtration vacuum industry. Their products are uniquely useful and diverse. They are well built, and curiously colorful. This company is on an exponential growth curve, riding a wave of customer satisfaction that seems to have no end. It is worth taking a look to see what all the hype is about. www.miele.com

Nutone: A contractor-grade, inexpensive standard in the central vacuum and appliance business. We like their intercoms, but their central vacuums are really not top-shelf. Parts are inexpensive, though, and they are adaptable to other companies accessories. Nutone should be credited, however, with being one of the oldest and most respected suppliers to this industry.

Oreck: This is the advertising success of the last decade. Although Oreck spends as much to advertise each unit that they sell as they do to make it, it should be noted that in the lightweight arena, they have one of the most rugged products available. It is not, however a deep cleaner because it has very little suction. It is a good surface cleaner because of its high-speed brushroll. If you want lightweight, and don't care about tools (there aren't any - that 16 lb. bowling ball is held up by a separate unit) then it is worth looking at. It does work on commercial style loop carpet, and vinyl floors. Due to its lack of forward wheels, however, we don't recommend it for saltillo tile or hardwood. Oreck also makes a very nice orbital buffer, and their little Buster-B hand-held vacuum is fairly durable.

Panasonic: This company seems to have a niche in the world picked out for itself; Second best, but priced to make it an easy recommendation, and a good deal for the consumer. Their upright performance plus line offers nice features, including high suction, motor protection, metal brushrolls and bases, and good filtration. Their canisters are a very good value for a middle-priced line. This is probably the reason that Sears uses Panasonic as one of their manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, and Sears sells about a third of the canister vacuums sold nationwide. Even Royal buys stuff from these guys for their top-of-the-line canisters. Panasonic appear to have a 7-10 year design life. This we consider to be quite reasonable given the initial purchase price. If we had to give a "best-buy" to a company in general, it would have to be Panasonic. http://www.panasonic.com/PCEC/home_app/vac_perf_upf.html

Regina: Out of the vacuum business. We never carried their products because of what we considered to be poor quality. They were very good about their warranties, and continue to be reasonable about their parts availability, though, and we must say that we respect them for that!

Riccar: A very nice step up from the Panasonic series. This company is owned by Tacony, one of the nation's largest and leading suppliers of vacuums, sewing machines, parts, notions, accessories, etc. Riccar is a friendly competitor to their sister company, Simplicity. Both offer extra features and quality that are affordable, and durable. Their cleaning ability is excellent, and should be seriously considered by anyone wanting a little bit of quality for a change. They offer high-filtration systems that don't cost very much to maintain. This line is a real treat in a world gone mad with disposable appliances. Their 6-year warranty is nice too.

Royal: An old-timer in the vacuum business. Their main success has been their all-metal made in America line. These units are dependable, clean well, and don't exhaust too much dust. Their tools are not great, and are expensive, though. The company has recently changed its direction, however, emphasizing the sales of its Dirt Devil models. These are mainly plastic bodied models, with wood brushrolls. They are a slight step off the bottom rung of the quality ladder. We wish that Royal would re-emphasize their quality roots. It seems that they may be leaning that direction, and if they are, we wish to encourage them!

Sanitaire: The classic red or blue models that clean almost all of this country's schools, offices, and hotels. The blue lines are more expensive, and offer small feature additions. This style machine has been around for a long time, is easy to fix (and needs it), and cleans commercial carpets well. This is the '57 that every backyard mechanic can work on.

Sharp: Ugh! High profit margins bring dealers who should know better to this line. Parts are quickly obsoleted and expensive. Many times a simple part, like a brushroll will cost as much as half of the retail price of the unit. This is truly a disposable machine. These are anything but "best buys". To their credit, though, for about $160, you can get a disposable machine that will outperform the competitors disposable machine at the same price. Still, we hate to recommend something that we know will wind up in a landfill before long.

Simplicity: The more progressive, little sister to Riccar. Not as widely known, the Simplicity has many advantages over its peers. They have truly nice automatic height adjusters, excellent filtration, and use metal in the brushroll, base, and heat-sinks, which add to the longevity of the product. Their top model uprights have some of the best tool suction we've ever seen, and they really have a high customer satisfaction. We get a lot of referral business from friends and neighbors who tried a Simplicity and just fell in love with it. They also have some nice commercial models, which are very nicely positioned for job-sites that require tool suction. Their 4-yr. warranty is nice too!

 

 

Representing these FINE Products!