Efficient And Easy To Use, The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner Is An Affordable Home Vacuum Cleaner!

The Good: Inexpensive, Good sucking power, Easy to assemble, Easy to clean, Veryy quiet
The Bad: Not the most powerful home vacuum, Cord is not retractable
The Basics: The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a good replacement vacuum that will serve most households quite well.


A few years ago, I found an amazing vacuum cleaner in the form of the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum (reviewed here!). That vacuum has served my household exceptionally well for the past three years and while the latch that locked to keep the vacuum's handle upright has stopped working, I did not see that as a reason to replace it. My wife, on the other hand, wanted a new vacuum and given that the key selling point of the Rewind Pet for us was its amazing ability to vacuum up all of the Siberian Husky hair in the house, following Myah's death, I could see that getting a brand new, shiny vacuum cleaner was a good idea. Given how successful the Rewind Pet was at keeping our apartment clean for the past few years, Bissell easily earned our repeat business. While I was out of town, my wife picked up a Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner for our home and I arrived home to discover the simple joy of a new, highly-functional vacuum cleaner.

The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a very simple canister-style vacuum and the 1834 is noticeably less-powerful than the Rewind Pet we had before. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is surprisingly light, though; already, I have found that using it to vacuum our stairs is much easier than with any other upright vacuum I have previously used. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner continued the experience we had which found that Bissell vacuums had great durability, despite its light weight.

The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner came unassembled, so our first task was to get it out of the box and put it all together. Anyone with a Phillips head screwdriver can put this together, probably without even looking at the directions; the assembly is pretty intuitive for both attaching the handle and affixing the tube. One simply needs to attach the base to the handle assembly and connect the hose and they all come together in one way. The handle has two pieces which snap into the base and screw together to form the solid drive shaft of the vacuum. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner my wife purchased is predominantly red for all of the front pieces (that are not made out of clear plastic) and black for all of the components along the drive shaft of the vacuum.

Properly assembled, the Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is 44" tall by 14” wide by 12" deep at the base. This is an efficient-looking canister vacuum cleaner with a handle with a guard that actually makes it very easy to maneuver the vacuum. The drive shaft holds the tube, so the handle is not encumbered by the tube which is transporting the sucked up matter from the ground to the canister. The 1834 has the belt and motor assembly in the base of the vacuum, which rotates the brushes. There seems to be suction from the canister area, though, even without the brushes rotating and sucking (which makes sense because the hose on the back of the vacuum detaches in order to get into tough areas). The canister is attached to the front of the handle assembly and snaps in easily. The tube winds around the back of the handle assembly.

With the Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner vacuum properly assembled, it simply needs to be plugged in to power the unit. The cord is attached to the back of the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner, which is a step back from the Rewind Pet vacuum we had before. Instead of having a cord that is internally-wound, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has a fully-extended cord that attaches to the back of the vacuum's base and has to be wound on the back of the handle. The cord does not stay wound well on the back of the vacuum, which lowers the ease-of-use of this vacuum.

When activated, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner makes very little noise. My cat Elim does not leave the room when I vacuum with the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner and our other two cats only seem to leave the room or room immediately adjacent to the vacuum when I start moving it. When they are a room away, they do not seem to be bothered at all by the vacuum actually being on.

As for the vacuum's power, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner works quite well. Even without Myah around, there is still Siberian Husky hair around our apartment and the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has been steadily finding it all. After a month of solid use, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has continued to clean our apartment exceptionally well; with each pass, the vacuum seems to find even less lingering hair from our dear, departed Myah. Elim, however, has been shedding a bit more and the vacuum always gets his hair up exceptionally well.

Because the transport tube comes in the right side of the base, the right side of the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has stronger suction than the left side on this vacuum cleaner. Suction on the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is quite good, but there is a noticeable difference between the quality of the suction on the right and on the left.

The vacuum easily removes dirt and hair and every other form of solid matter I’ve been able to find so far from carpets and walls. Because the hose may be detached from the base, this vacuum has quite a bit more versatility than most uprights and it may be used to get cobwebs as well . . . assuming the cobwebs are within five feet of the base of the vacuum, as that is about the length of the vacuum’s hose. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is easy to move over any level of carpet or hardwood, which makes it easy to clean with.

Use of the assembled Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is exceptionally easy. There is the standard release lever on the base of the unit which allows the handle to be unlocked. This allows one to push or pull the vacuum at an angle, as opposed to perpendicular with the floor. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is activated by a power pedal near the bottom of the back of the vacuum cleaner. The pedal is not as convenient to use as a power button on the handle, but it is functional. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner vacuum may be used on low carpets (or bare floors), medium pile carpets or even longer carpets, with the height of the base being adjusted by a simple knob on the front of the base.

As the canister gets filled up – easily visible as the canister is attached to the front and transparent – the vacuum continues to vacuum with decent force. When the canister is filled, simply unlatch the canister from the handle assembly and empty the canister. The press of a button allows all the crap in the canister to drop out, like the canister has a trap door! The top of the filter twists off and the filter itself may then be dumped into a garbage bag. You can even wash the filter and canister out, but that just puts dirt and dust down the sink. Either way, it is exceptionally easy to get the hair, dirt and dust one vacuums up out of the canister without putting it back in the air, simply by operating the release right in the container one is dropping the matter into!

The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner comes with a pair of attachments: an adjustable rotating brush and a little brush which attaches to that or to the hose itself. I’m not wild about attachments, but both my wife and I used the attachments and found them easy to use, though the sucking power was diminished. The vacuum worked great on the floors and for sucking up matter through the hose directly when we detached it from the base.

Ultimately, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a good home vacuum cleaner from Bissell, even if it is not the most powerful model the manufacturer makes . . . even in a similar price point.

For other vacuum reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cheetah Ash Vac II vacuum cleaner
Kenmore 31079 vacuum
Dirt Devil KWIK vacuum

8/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my Home And Garden Products Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Right On The Verge Of Perfection: Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet Vacuum (Model 7636) Works Wonders!

The Good: Reasonable price for the quality, Incredible sucking power for an upright, Easy to assemble, Easy to clean, Surprisingly quiet
The Bad: Still very right-biased on the suction
The Basics: The best vacuum cleaner I have yet found, the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is quiet and powerful enough to keep my pet-filled home hair-free!


Last summer, when I had the chance to revamp some things around the house thanks to a sudden largess and some great sales, I asked my wife what she actually wanted new for our apartment. I was somewhat surprised when she said she wanted a new vacuum cleaner. After all, our Eureka 4700 vacuum (reviewed here!) had not died and that (usually) was our standard for replacing appliances. My wife, though, had apparently been researching the topic for some time (our Eureka 4700 had been making more noise of late . . .) and she started to talk with me, at length, about Bissell. Bissell is a Michigan-based company that is, apparently, committed to offering quality products at under $100. So, as part of a larger stock-up on housing supplies, I “splurged” the $89.99 (it was on sale that day, rather conveniently) for the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum.

The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet is a very simple canister-style vacuum and the 7636 is only the second canister-style vacuum cleaner I’ve owned and I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the technological advances between my first and my new canister vacuum. The Cleanview Rewind Pet came in a pretty big box and it is a little heavier than some of the other canister-style vacuums I’ve tried. Fortunately, that seems to be because the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is most sturdy, durable and stable than lighter models. The Cleanview Rewind Pet came unassembled, so our first task was to get it out of the box and put it all together. Anyone with a Phillips head screwdriver can put this together, probably without even looking at the directions; the assembly is pretty intuitive for both attaching the handle and affixing the tube. One simply needs to attach the base to the handle assembly and connect the hose and they all come together in one way. The handle has two pieces which snap into the base and screw together to form the solid drive shaft of the vacuum. The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is predominantly purple-gray for all of the front pieces (at least the ones that are not made out of clear plastic) and black for all of the components along the drive shaft of the vacuum.

Properly assembled, the Cleanview Rewind Pet is 45" tall by 13 1/4” wide by 12 1/4" deep at the base. This is a sleek-looking canister vacuum cleaner with a handle with a guard that actually makes it very easy to maneuver the vacuum. The drive shaft holds the tube, so the handle is not encumbered by the tube which is transporting the sucked up matter from the ground to the canister. The 7636 has the belt and motor assembly in the base of the vacuum, which rotates the brushes. There seems to be suction from the canister area, though, even without the brushes rotating and sucking (which makes sense because the hose on the back of the vacuum detaches in order to get into tough areas). The canister is attached to the front of the handle assembly and snaps in easily. The tube winds around the back of the handle assembly.

Once the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum was assembled, we plugged it in – the cord is attached to the base, but winds up into the unit at the press of a lever on the side. After five months of use, the recoil function for the power cord still works amazingly well and I’ve not had any problems.

The moment the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum impressed me with how little noise it made. I’m not a fan of loud noises and the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum impressed me because it was so quiet my vacuum-skittish dog and two cats were amazingly unperturbed. The fact that Myah, our Siberian Husky, remains in the room when the unit is on is amazing!

What is more amazing is that the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum works. We bought ours at a time when Myah was shedding daily and our old vacuum labored to pick up the hair. While the volume of Myah’s hair did not change, the results did. Our rug is tan; with our old vacuum, when Myah was shedding, we would vacuum and get up what we thought was all her hair, but the rug still looked fairly gray. With the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum, the instant reaction my wife and I had after using it from the very first times was “oh yeah, our rug is tan!” The difference in the amount of hair and dirt vacuumed up was that different. For sure, there were still areas that would be so concentrated with dog hair and dust that we would fill the canister within four passes of the vacuum (about four square feet of carpet!) because of how much Myah sheds, but once the canister was emptied, we could move onto the next high-soil area. The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is so efficient that one need not continue to go over the same spots so many times!

The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is not a flawless appliance, though. Because the transport tube comes in the right side of the base, the right side has stronger suction than the left side on this vacuum cleaner. Suction on the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet is the best I’ve ever seen out of an upright vacuum, but there is a noticeable difference between the quality of the suction on the right and on the left.

The vacuum easily removes dirt and hair and every other form of solid matter I’ve been able to find so far from carpets and walls. Because the hose may be detached from the base, this vacuum has quite a bit more versatility than most uprights and it may be used to get cobwebs as well . . . assuming the cobwebs are within five feet of the base of the vacuum, as that is about the length of the vacuum’s hose. In addition to all of the dog hair we never realized had built up this vacuum was powerful enough to suck up was the dust that was caked onto the fan in my tower computer! The Cleanview Rewind Pet is easy to move over any level of carpet or hardwood, which makes it a pleasure to clean with.

Use of the assembled Cleanview Rewind Pet is exceptionally easy. There is the standard release lever on the base of the unit which allows the handle to be unlocked. This allows one to push or pull the vacuum at an angle, as opposed to perpendicular with the floor. Near the top of the handle for the vacuum is a simple button which activates the vacuum. From there, the vacuum does almost all the work. It sucks up anything on the floor and it is powerful with great cleaning power. The Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum may be used on low carpets (or bare floors), medium pile carpets or even longer carpets, with the height of the base being adjusted by a simple knob on the front of the base.

As the canister gets filled up – easily visible as it is at the front and transparent – the vacuum continues to vacuum with astonishing force, making this an impressive vacuum option, while still being affordable. When the canister is filled, simply unlatch the canister from the handle assembly and empty the canister. The press of a button allows all the crap in the canister to drop out, like the canister has a trap door! The top of the filter twists off and the filter itself may then be dumped into a garbage bag. You can even wash the filter and canister out, but that just puts dirt and dust down the sink. Either way, it is exceptionally easy to get the hair, dirt and dust one vacuums up out of the canister without putting it back in the air, simply by operating the release right in the container one is disposing of the stuff into!

Even so, the cleaning power of the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum should not be underestimated and my wife, who has allergic reactions to dust, animal hair and about a dozen other things, has shown a noticeable improvement in health since we started using the vacuum. It gets up so much deep-down crap in rugs and from the air that her allergies are acting up less than they were before, which is pretty extraordinary results that have been maintained for six months of use (so far!). Perhaps most impressive about the suction is that my wife can be in the room when I am vacuuming and not suffer from all of the side effects and hair and dust getting vacuumed up; the filters on the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum are THAT good!

The Cleanview Rewind Pet comes with a pair of attachments: a solid tube which extends the hose an additional two feet and a little brush which attaches to that or to the hose itself. I’m not wild about attachments, but both my wife and I used the attachments and found them easy to use, though the sucking power was diminished some using the extension. Far more often, we found the vacuum worked great on the floors and for sucking up matter through the hose directly when we detached it from the base.

As a result, the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is ideal for cleaning a home for those with pets and/or allergies. The original cost might be a little more than some (who aren’t able to splurge at the time) might think is reasonable to spend, but the results make this vacuum a real value and a powerful home appliance worth picking up!

For other vacuum reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cheetah Ash Vac II vacuum cleaner
Kenmore 31079 vacuum
Dirt Devil KWIK vacuum

9/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my Home And Garden Products Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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There's Nothing Sexier Than A Night In Front Of The Fireplace With A Clean Rug!

The Good: Good suction, Easy directions for set up and use, Generally easy to clean
The Bad: No attachments, LOUD, Specific directions of cleaning the unit are hard to execute
The Basics: The Cheetah II Ash Vac allows one to keep a home and hearth ash free with efficiency and a lot less effort than other, less efficient (though quieter) means.


[Written originally after my house fire and the purchase of my new wood stove, this review alludes to a house I no longer have. However, the Cheetah Ash Vac II that I had for it was pretty incredible and all of the subsequent statements still hold. Enjoy!]

Two weeks ago, my house had minor major surgery when I had a Brentwood wood stove (click here for that review!) put in to heat most of the rooms in my house. What I was not told about the usage of a wood stove before I purchased it was that there were things that are needed in order to keep it up and running efficiently and cleanly and the truth is, there are usage and maintenance issues that make owning a wood stove something of a lifestyle choice in addition to a matter of environmental responsibility and energy-efficient heating. So, for example, no one told me that you cannot really blow into the wood stove to stoke the fire. I've worked with fire for two decades now. Blowing into a wood stove to get a fire going again is inviting the pounds of fine ash that are collected within the stove to burst out of the stove like a volcano.

So, after a few days of usage, I came to realize that my new wood stove needed some accessories. First, I needed something to clean the ceramic glass and I found a great product called Speedy White Hearth And Stove Cleaner. Then I needed something to clean up all the ash with. For that, I cast my lot with the Cheetah II AshVac from Love-Less Ash Company. And within days, this cleaner was proving its worth and long-term value.

First, some might question, why do you need a special vacuum for ash? Yes, it does seem like it might be a luxury, until one actually is faced with trying to get the very fine ash out of fireplaces. You can sweep it out, but that makes a dust cloud, no matter how careful you think you are being. Believe me, I tried that for almost a week, sifting the ash to keep the embers and it made a horrible mess. Even just sweeping everything out yielded an obscene amount of ash (very, very fine ash, like burned smaller than dust, so there's a LOT of it!) in the air, on me, the rug in front of the fireplace, and the shelf that is over my hearth. It was that coating of ash making the shelf unusable along with seeing my beautiful red rug looking frosted with gray that made me finally damn the expense and buy the AshVac. Normal vacuum cleaners cannot be used for two reasons: air quality and the fact that one is likely to vacuum up hot ash, embers and such that might ignite a vacuum cleaner bag or melt the suction tube. As far as air quality, a standard shop vac (which is what the Ash Vac is most analogous to) does not have the filters that will adequately filter out something as fine as fireplace ash. In other words, you can suck the ash out of your fireplace and blow it into whatever room you are in with a standard shop vac.

Not so with the Cheetah II Ash Vacuum System. This is basically a shop vac with a three gallon storage capacity with two filters specially designed to keep ash from escaping the canister. The five foot hose is made of aluminum so it is not at risk of melting. This is specifically designed to suck up ash and the more problematic small embers that naturally come with it.

And it works. The Cheetah II does exactly what it claims it will. So long as the filters are kept clean, this has powerful suction that sucks up anything that will fit into the 1" diameter nozzle hole. And you know what? There is no ash in the air after using it. None. Not a speck. It's completely clean! This Ash Vacuum System works wonderfully to keep a hearth and the room adjacent to it clean of ash and dust and it lives up to its reputation.

Attentive readers will note that the caveat on that is "so long as the filters are kept clean". The two air filters inside get clogged ridiculously easily (I'd say once each use when there is heavy ash built up in the fireplace). But, the Cheetah II has a solution for this! The vacuum has a special agitator that knocks the ash from the filters to clean up the inside of the unit without having to open the Cheetah II up!

There are only two problems with this. First, the filter support (which is what the agitator of the clogged ash is called) is accessible only through the brass noggle cover. This piece is tightened only hand tight, but after using the Cheetah II, it becomes virtually impossible to get the brass noggle cover off without a wrench. So, when you have the cover off (which does come off easily with a wrench, no problem, it's just something more you need to have around to actually get the most out of this) you are faced with a straight metal rod with no markings or places to hold it. That's fine for moving it up and down and limited amounts left and right, but it cannot be twisted and that seems to be the motion that works best for knocking off material that has built up on the filter.

That said, the manual for the Cheetah II is VERY well written. If you can read, you can set up your ash Vacuum System! And for those who have trouble with technical writing, there is actually a remarkably clear set of directions for installing the two filters that includes photographs! Not diagrams, but flat-out photos! It's wonderful and simple to use.

The Cheetah II's directions recommend one vacuum up ashes when they are cold, which is somewhat ridiculous; when the fire is out and the ash is cold, my house is freezing! Why would I want to wait until it's all cold to clean it out?! The Cheetah II meets people like me half way with its durable metal construction. The nozzle that goes into the ash and embers is metal so as long as one has gloves (recommended for anyone whose working in a fireplace regardless!) the fact that it heats up some when in use does not lessen the ability to use it.

Gloves are important as well because the AshVac is designed to pick up primarily ash, not embers or unburnt wood. As a result, things get stuck in the nozzle frequently (see next paragraph) and need to be removed. If you're vacuuming from a state of warm ash and embers that will come back with a little coaxing, it's imperative to have the gloves to keep removing (and setting aside) the usable embers while vacuuming up the ash.

The second major problem with the Cheetah II is that in some ways it's too good. I'll openly admit, I'm cheap. I scavenge wood to heat my house so I'm not about to vacuum up embers that could restart my fire and keep me and my cats warm! What the Cheetah II needs are attachments, in specific, two of them. Something the manual will not tell you, but I discovered my first shot out is that if you have an old metal strainer, you can vacuum through it to get only the ash and leave the embers to further pulverize themselves when the fire gets going again. This is a HUGE benefit to anyone using the AshVac, simply prestrain the ash from the embers using the Cheetah II and a strainer (the type with a fine mesh). Stupidly, I wonder why Love-Less Ash Company does not have an attachment - or cap the nozzle - with a straining grid to prevent anything bigger from going into the vacuum. That's an attachment I need because, frankly, it's not working as well to have a whole big strainer in there (I've got an idea how to jerry-rig one). When I purchased the Cheetah II Ash Canister Vac, it was recommended I use a slotted spoon to move the bigger embers out of the way, but I found that still left far too many embers to suck up than I liked the thought of (this unit works best on the ash according to the manual).

The other attachment I need is something like a brush. Love-Less Ash Co. understands that normal vacuums cannot handle dust and fireplace ash. What I don't understand is why they do not have an attachment to help clean rugs or rough-cut wood that gets ash-covered. Perhaps their reason is that after using this consistently, I won't need one. That seems to be the case, but I still have to clean up from the disasters that preceded my purchasing the AshVac!

The only other drawback to using the Cheetah II is the noise. This is a VERY loud vacuum. It seems like it is louder than a normal shop vac (possibly because one is so close to the source as the hose is only five feet long!) and only slightly quieter than a jet engine. I use earplugs when using the Cheetah II, especially when I know I've a lot to clean up (I still have more of the shelf and rug to vacuum, I just could not stand how long it was taking, so I'm breaking up the big clean).

But here the Cheetah II delivers better than any vacuum I've ever used. My hearth has a shelf running over it made of rough-cut lumber and anyone who has ever had anything with rough-cut knows it is a bear to clean. It cannot simply be wiped down with a cloth because debris gets into the textured wood. The Cheetah II, without the nozzle attached to the hose (which is kosher because it's not cleaning up embers or in anything hot) offers great suction and with the filters clear, it makes short work of all of my roughcut that has been coated with ash! My room is actually getting clean! This vacuum delivers!

I then moved onto the rug. I did a first pass with a regular vacuum to get up the debris from the firewood that has gotten onto the rug and then I have been methodically going over the rug with the Cheetah II to get the ash that has settled down between in the rug's pyle. This is clearly working (the color in my rug is regaining its vibrancy!) and after I'm done with this, I'll feel comfortable enough to bring a rug shampooer to the carpet (I could not do that before because that would have simply made mud in my carpet! Yuck, ashy mud!). So, in this way the AshVac is exceeding expectations. It would have still been nice to have a brush-type accessory for this type cleaning using the AshVac.

Cleaning out the Cheetah II (which I only did for this review, it might be weeks before I would have actually needed to do this myself!) is ridiculously easy. Take your Cheetah II out to wherever you would like the ash to be (on a day that is NOT windy!), unlatch the three lid clamps (any user who assembles this unit will know exactly what they are, this cannot be used without the clamps being latched first!) and dump the ash. The filters clean up easily enough using the "noggle" and I'm told they may be used for years if they are carefully rinsed out (which the manual specifically notes not to wash the filters, so that's a cointoss decision).

The Cheetah II has a one year warranty on its parts, but I have not had to exercise that warranty, so I do not know how Love-Less Ash Company actually lives up to it.

My original fireplace, which was destroyed when I had a house fire caused from a break in the flue, had an ash trap and I miss that. All I had to do was sweep embers and ash into a little hole and it fell down into a pit and I didn't have to deal with it until Spring. Now, I wake up, clean my wood stove with the Speedy White, vacuum it out with the Cheetah II and I get on with my day while my fire builds up to a ember bed that keeps the house toasty! And the Cheetah II has done what it promised it would; it's keeping my house clean with much less effort than I've had. It is efficient and it is solving my fireplace ash issues.

Give it a chance and it will take care of yours as well, even if you need gloves and ear protection to make it happen!

[ADDENDUM: After months of daily use, I've noticed the following: 1. It's still VERY loud, 2. The noggle cap becomes easier and easier to remove and the self-cleaning function from the noggle agitation becomes easier to use as well; the filter bag becomes a little more flexible, 3. Nozzle and tube get VERY hot very quickly if using in warm coals (the good news: they cool down just as quickly!) - this is worth mentioning as it might get hot enough to melt some rugs. I've found by storing it right next to a cold outer wall or the stone of my hearth, it cools down quite quickly!, and 4. Suction on this is so good that a first pass over the coals will suck up the lighter ash from about an inch away!]

For other vacuums and hearth appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Kenmore 31079 vacuum
Eureka 4700 Series Vacuum
Majestic Sovereign fireplace

6.5/10

For other home and garden appliances, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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The Kenmore 31079 Vacuum: Is It Cliche To Say Of A Vacuum, "This Sucks?"

The Good: When everything works, it performs fine, Ease of bag replacement
The Bad: Brushes constantly clog, Belts snap all the time, Attachment holders break easily, Doesn't deep clean
The Basics: On the infrequent occasions when all of the parts to the Kenmore 31079 actually work, this is an adequate vacuum, but those occasions are special ones for this defective vacuum!


I'm feeling a little out of my league writing a review of my pathetic vacuum cleaner. I've wanted to write a review for a long time because I think customers ought to avoid my upright. The problem is, I'm unsure what to write outside my most basic experience with it. I recently had occasion to write a review - and a very favorable one - about my new Ash Vac which is a vacuum used exclusively for cleaning out a fireplace. But since then, as I've been cleaning my living room floor more and more frequently, I've found myself swearing quite a bit at my Kenmore Performance Cleaning System 116.

The Kenmore 31079 is an ugly green upright vacuum designed for home use. This dark teal monolith to plastic baffled me at first; I grew up using upright vacuums where the vacuum bag was within a bag, on the Kenmore 31079, it is safely ensconced within a hard plastic shell. This thing that originally miffed me came to be one of the few things I would appreciate about the 31079. This is a 10.0 Amp upright vacuum, meaning the base has wheels and the actual opening for the vacuuming while the movement of the unit is controlled by an arm that comes upward from the base. Upright vacuums require the vacuum to move around as opposed to having a stationary vacuum canister and a tube that the user brings to the dirt (like a shop vac). In addition, the Kenmore 31079 comes with three tool attachments and a tube for vacuuming in hard to reach places that the base of the unit makes it too difficult to clean in.

Standard usage of the Kenmore 31079 is rather simple. After a vacuum bag is in it (see below) and a belt is on the base connecting the cleaning brushes to the motor, the unit is ready to be used for regular day to day vacuuming of a home or small office space. The 31079 has a simple two-prong plug and runs on normal electricity so it's as easy as plugging the unit into the wall socket and turning it on. The 31079 is activated by pressing a big plastic knob on the back left quarter of the base. The button is easy to activate using one's foot and it seems designed with just that in mind.

For ideal range of motion, there is another pedal just behind the power switch, which releases the lock on the upright arm. This allows the user to move the vacuum with less stress and energy than trying to move the vacuum when the arm is perpendicular to the base (which is the ideal position for storage and carrying the vacuum). The pedal release for the upright portion is very close to the base of the cord for the power supply and at least four times in the past two years since I first obtained my 31079, I've tripped on the cord while trying to release the locking mechanism. This strikes me as poor design, having both bits so close together, especially when it is expected that one would be making a stepping motion to either activate or deactivate the unit or release the lock.

Once it's running, simply move the vacuum back and forth to suck up all of the surface dirt on rugs, tile or wood floors. For more dense rugs with less pyle, the Kenmore 31079 offers an easy height adjustment on the front of the base. Looking at the front of the unit, on the lower right side, there is a simple slide lever that allows the user to adjust the height of the vacuum from low to medium to high. What might take the user by surprise is that this height adjustment only comes into play when the upright arm is unlocked! Sitting and adjusting the height while the arm is locked perpendicular to the base will not alter anything that can be seen. The height changes only occur when the upright arm is unlocked. The slide adjustment is very easy to use, so children or senior citizens would have no trouble at all adjusting the height of the vacuum base.

There is also a convenient light panel on the front of the vacuum base which lights up when the unit is on. This is a dim light that barely illuminates anything, but it's a decent thought, even if it is not designed well enough to serve its apparent purpose. So, when the unit is plugged in, the height it adjusted, the upright portion is unlocked so it swivels with the natural motion of trained vacuuming, one need simply turn it on and go to town to eliminate surface dirt.

If only it were that easy and it worked that truly and directly! Instead, the Kenmore 31079 is a mess when it comes to its functionality. Where to start? Well, the first thing that went wrong - and almost always goes wrong - was that the belt snapped. Actually, the belt did not snap, it was worn through! To clarify, the belt is a flat rubber piece that connects the drive shaft of the motor (the thing that's turning around when the motor is running) to the brushes on the front bar. It is the belt that allows that front bar to rotate, which sends the brushes spinning, which lifts the dirt, hair, dust and other solid matter up off the floor and into the sucking channel that is the vacuum. That's the theory anyway.

No matter how I oil the joints at the edge of the rotating bar, reposition the bar or the belt or alter my stride or movement of the vacuum, the bar locks, the belt stops moving and the end with the motorized pin that rotates simply burns through it. This happens to me at all height adjustments, when the bar's brushes are completely cleaned of hair (human and cat!), dust or debris. In fact, I've stripped away everything that easily gets wound around the bar or the bristles and the result was the same. The longest I've had a belt on this vacuum last is one month. In the past two years, I have gone through forty-three vacuum cleaner belts! Sure, they might only cost $3.00, but that adds up for something that is supposed to last. And I've confirmed on multiple occasions by consulting with both the manual and telephone customer service professionals (very friendly people, by the way!) that I am installing the belt properly.

This is the most irksome and severe problem with the design and function of the Kenmore 31079. The next on the list would be that it does not clean all that deeply. In addition to not functioning properly for long (and depositing hot, smelly rubber shavings when it goes), when it does work, this vacuum at best gets the surface dirt, hair, etc. It does not deep clean, even when kept in the lowest position to the ground.

On the front left (when facing the unit, on the opposite side of the front as the height adjustment) of the Kenmore 31079 is the tool port. The tool port is where the tube plugs into the base to redirect the vacuum from below the unit to the end of the tube. This allows one to vacuum hard to reach places that the vacuum will not suck material from through the base. The 31079 comes with a hard-plastic wand with a tapered end that allows for edges to be cleaned efficiently and precisely. Or rather, it would if the vacuum were powerful enough.

The tool port provides suction for the vacuum through the tube, but it's a very weak suction. I've watched clumps of cat hair resist the pull of the vacuum when using the attachment! At least with the base things like cat hair get stuck in the bristles and moved off the floor, but the tool port and related attachments are absolutely worthless. They are window dressing for the product to try to sell it as a versatile machine, though it does not function adequately in this regard.

What is even more laughable is that two of the three attachments are simply extensions! There is the tube, then one may use up to two 20" hard plastic extension tubes before attaching the 12" nozzle wand. With the nozzle attached to the extensions, the end of the tube is essentially 88" away from the vacuum source and the suction is so weak that dropping things like hair and dust bunnies into the end of the nozzle will not guarantee that it gets sucked into the vacuum cleaner bag! Ostensibly these extensions and the tube are designed to allow the Kenmore 31079 to fight high-up cobwebs but it does not do even that.

The extensions and tube are conveniently hooked to the sides and back of the upright arm. Or rather, they would be if the clips that held them there did not break easier than thin ice on a warm lake (okay, it's a stretched metaphor, but these clips broke ridiculously easy, the attachments fell off and I was tripped by hard plastic extensions!).

So, why do I keep this cheap piece of barely-functional vacuum cleaning wimpiness? Well, I can't afford a new vacuum at this point.

But also, it's not all bad. To change the vacuum cleaner bag, all one has to do is lift a lever at the top front of the upright arm, which releases the hard plastic shell covering the bag. The bag simply slides off the open hole in the upright arm and can be disposed of that easily. Similarly, when putting the new bag on, it's a simple matter of pushing the opening for the bag onto the suction hole, and closing the hard plastic shell until it clicks locked!

Yes, ease of bag replacement is something I'm a sucker for and it raises this vacuum out of the truly abysmal range (though anyone and everyone I talk to about vacuums I find myself saying "Avoid the Kenmore 31079!"). And, truth be told, you ought to avoid it as well.

For other vacuum and small appliance reviews, please check out my takes on:
Eureka Maxima 4700 Series Vacuum
Dirt Devil KWIK hand vacuum
Dyson Air Multiplier fan

3/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page for a listing!

© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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The Eureka! 63073 Dust Filter For Our Eureka Maxima 4700 Vacuum: Very Average.

The Good: Fits perfectly, Keeps crap from getting into the air.
The Bad: Clogs far too easily to be superlative.
The Basics: Durable, but easily clogged by common household dirts, the 63037 replacement filter for Eureka vacuums is good, but not extraordinary.


A few months ago, my wife proudly purchased a new vacuum for us. It was an inexpensive vacuum, the Eureka 4700 vacuum (click here for that review!) which has served us well ever since. However, I discovered two things rather quickly. First, the filter for the vacuum gets clogged ridiculously easy when living with a dog, two cats and a rabbit and that once the filter is punctured, it is pretty much worthless.

The filter for the Eureka 4700 is the 63073 filter. This is a surprisingly heavy air filter which is able to filter out all manners of dust and allergens and prevent them from going back into the air. Using the 63073 is remarkably simple. It is essentially a 5” long cylinder with a 3” diameter which has three tabs at the top. The tabs fit into slots in the wind chamber (the removable place that would have the bag if only the 4700 had bags instead of a canister) and one need only twist and the filter is locked in place. The filter is locked in solid with the plastic components, though the actual filter is a compressed fiber material that is stiff like canvass.

Once the 63073 filter is locked in place and the canister is returned to the vacuum, simply turn on the vacuum and the filter does what it is supposed to. This filter is exceptionally good at preventing hair, dust mites and dirt from getting back into the air after vacuuming and as a result, it is good for people with allergies. My partner has allergies and after using the vacuum, she never seems to have trouble breathing, so it is a winner in that regard.

Why am I not enthusiastically praising this filter, then? It’s quite simple. The 63037 filter gets clogged ridiculously easily. When passing the vacuum over the floor near the litterboxes our cats use, the 63037 gets so clogged that the suction on the vacuum diminishes noticeably. This becomes a huge problem when trying to clean the filter out. This filter is intended to be washable, however, kitty litter does not wash out of it. Instead, it becomes something of a clay and makes the filter useless. And the filter does not hold together when trying to remove the caking from the filter. Instead, one is much more likely to puncture the filter.

The problem compounds with normal hair and fibers as well. Large bits of animal fur, for example, will quickly clog the 63037 and the result is that the vacuum becomes unusable until one cleans the filter out. The easiest way? Bang the dusty, dirty, hairy filter out a window. However, this puts all sorts of dirt, dust and hair into the air again and ultimately, it undoes the benefits of such a powerful filter.

In short, the 63037 is adequate, but in no way extraordinary.

For other vacuums or small appliances around the house, please check out my reviews of:
Dirt Devil KWIK hand vacuum
Dyson Air Multiplier fan
Hamilton Beach 727 Milkshake Mixer

5/10

For other appliance reviews, please visit my index page for a listing by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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An Utterly Worthless Handheld Vacuum, The Dirt Devil KWIK Is Not Worth Its Price.

The Good: Stylish, Intuitive to use
The Bad: VERY low capacity, Almost no sucking power, Poor balance in charger, Pointless attachment.
The Basics: With its stylish look, the Dirt Devil KWIK almost bamboozles this reviewer into ignoring the fact that it has low functional abilities and no capacity to speak of.


For the last two years, my mother, brother and I have been collecting caps from various bottles of Coca-Cola products that have codes on them. These codes give us points which we can use to purchase products and the idea is cool. We get things for free that might otherwise be expensive from Coca-Cola's trendy catalogue of electronics, music and the like. So, when I saw the Dirt Devil KWIK handheld vacuum in the Coca-Cola database I was pretty psyched. My Honda Civic Hybrid was getting a bit dirty inside and I figured a little handheld vacuum like this would be ideal for cleaning it out. Sadly, upon receiving this device, I realized that I had fallen for an almost P.T. Barnumesque product and that my car was going to remain pretty dirty after my cross-country trip.

The Dirt Devil KWIK is a handheld vacuum, what in the 1980s we called a dustbuster (Dustbuster is actually a trademarked name for a specific brand's handheld vacuum) and I was actually surprised companies were still making handheld vacuums. When I worked at a department store in the late 1990s, the products had pretty much disappeared from the marketplace. The Dirt Devil KWIK is a stylish attempt to reinvigorate the sagging handheld vacuum market and if it is any indication, these devices are as dead as big sideburns, polyester and synthesizer music. The Dirt Devil KWIK looks good, but it is an utterly ineffectual device designed for those who want the appearance of being on the cutting edge without any regard for the practicality of the devices they have around the car or house.

The Dirt Devil KWIK comes in two pieces; the unit and the charger. The charger is a round base that sits on countertop or tabletop and there is no way to wall mount it. The charger is a 2 1/2" tall silver-gray plastic station that receives the handheld unit. The charger has four rubber pads that prevent it from slipping on whatever surface it is set upon. From the charger extends a cord that stretches just under five feet ending in a USB male end. Yes, you read that correctly; the Dirt Devil KWIK charges through a USB port, as in from your computer! There is no option to charge this outside a USB port and it cannot be plugged into a wall socket. This is intended to make it convenient for plugging into car USB ports (which many new models of automobiles have). Again, this is designed to be cutting edge and trendy as opposed to practical in anything more than a single medium.

On its base, the Dirt Devil KWIK most closely resembles a faucet that rises out of the surface it is on and then descends back into it. Designed by Karim Rashid (I've no idea who that is, but the base proudly lets the consumer know that is who designed it, I may only assume the name means "Looks good, but utterly impractical), the Dirt Devil KWIK is all curves. The faucet analogy is not a bad one; the unit itself curves up out of its charger like a faucet and has similar lines and curves. As well, the entire handheld vacuum is silver-gray. To its credit, on my household desk surface, the Dirt Devil KWIK's charger base does not move.

The Dirt Devil KWIK, the actual handheld unit is a nine inch long curved handheld vacuum that is round in the hand and has a simple button underside that controls it. The device is intuitive to use and the best possible analogy to anything else ever seen confirms what my readers already know about my status as an Alpha Geek. The Dirt Devil KWIK most closely resembles a Type II phaser from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." From its curved handle to the tight entrance through which matter is sucked, this handheld vacuum looks most like the weapons from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" more than anything else.

The design is somewhat impractical for setting into its charger as the curved handle must rest flat in order for the pins on the unit to connect to the pins on the charger and recharge the handheld vacuum. This necessitates bringing it into the base at an angle and removing it from the base often knocks the charger over, especially when it is in a car.

If it seems like I have spent an inordinate amount of time on the look and style of this device, there is a reason for that. The Dirt Devil KWIK is all about style, not substance. Using the handheld vacuum is ridiculously simple. When one wraps their hands around the unit, there is a button on the underside that activates the vacuum with a single touch. Releasing the button leaves it on and tapping or squeezing it a second time turns the vacuum off. When it is on, it emits a low buzzing sound and it sucks up dust and a limited amount of dirt.

My assertion that this is all about style and not substance is reinforced through the device itself. First, the Dirt Devil KWIK has atrociously little sucking power. I used it on the seat and floormat of my car to test it out. Yesterday, my wife and I went to the beach and she tracked some sand into the car. There was a little sand on the seat and a lot more on the floormat. The seat had the sand right on the surface and a single swipe of the unit did not remove any visible dirt. A second pass sucked up a few grains of sand, but by that time I noticed the unit sounded different. The opening to the Dirt Devil KWIK is only 3/4" wide by 1/4" tall, so this is not designed for picking up a lot of matter at all. Still, I would have thought it could handle some dirt and dust. I passed the Dirt Devil KWIK over a single swatch of the seat a foot long twice before I noticed it sounded different.

So, I turned it off and looked at the device. To its credit, the device it thoroughly intuitive. The head of the vacuum has a pair of icons which show locked and unlocked positions. So, I twisted the head to the unlocked position and popped the nozzle for the vacuum off. It was that easy! That revealed the filter for the Dirt Devil KWIK. The one inch long by one inch wide filter bag was already filled! The cloth bag was coated with dirt and dust. So, I shrugged, tapped it clean - away from the car - and it became white and clean with a firm breath or two. The bag was easily reinstalled and the nozzle twisted right back on and I went back to vacuuming. Two swipes later, the bag was full again!

This vacuum has no capacity to speak of and because the filter is above the motor, the moment it becomes full, it loses what little sucking capacity that it has. I made four passes of the car seat before all of the SURFACE sand from our beach trip was removed! My mother came out with a stiff handbroom and dustpan and we attacked opposite floormats. Within a minute, my mother's low-tech solution had cleaned a floormat, my new Dirt Devil KWIK had been filled and emptied twice with no noticeable impact on the cleanliness of my car! In other words, this vacuum does not work to clean anything but surface dust with any adeptness. Anything as small as a pebble will not be lifted by the unit.

The battery capacity on the Dirt Devil KWIK appears to be good. With over fifteen minutes of constant use ("constant use" here defined as about thirty seconds of use, thirty seconds of cleaning the filter, repeated for fifteen minutes) the battery showed no signs of lessening the sucking lack of power of this handheld vacuum. Given how worthless the use of this machine is, one suspects that the battery will always be one of the last things to go. Recharging the unit seems to happen quickly and no matter how long I've used the Dirt Devil KWIK it always seems to come out of the charger with the same capacity for not sucking up dirt and dust.

The Dirt Devil KWIK comes with a single attachment. Tucked into the base is an attachment with a brush that easily clips into the nozzle. It does not significantly reduce or actually affect the sucking power of the unit to shove it into the nozzle. It also does not seem to do much in the way of brushing dirt out of surfaces - like floormats - to make available to the sucking power of the vacuum (the bristles are too soft). It is easily removed from the base, though and it clips right back in easily as well.

Because there are positive design attributes to the Dirt Devil KWIK, I was tempted to knock this up a little, but I kept coming back to the idea that no matter how easy the device is to use, it still doesn't DO what it's supposed to. There's no reason for anyone else to be made miserable by this fine looking, poor working product.

For other vacuum cleaners, please check out my review of the Eureka Maxima 4700 series vacuum by clicking here!

2/10

For other appliance reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Our New Vacuum, The Eureka Maxima 4700, Works Remarkably Well At Our Home!

The Good: Inexpensive, Decent sucking power for an upright, Easy to assemble
The Bad: Problematic canister cleaning aspects, A little louder than I’d like.
The Basics: A pretty wonderful vacuum, the Eureka Maxima 4700 vacuum is very inexpensive, easy-to-assemble and easy-to-use, even if it is a little loud.


Back in January, my wife lured me into A Store I NEVER Shop At and it’s hard to imagine now that she didn’t do it with an ulterior motive. After all, it seems unlikely that it would be coincidence that led us right to the vacuum cleaners and lo and behold! there’s one which is only twenty-five dollars on sale. I can smell a setup a mile away and after treating me to a lunch at our local Chinese buffet, my wife just wanted me to lug the appliance out of the store. Grumble. Even so, with months of pretty vigorous cleaning behind us, it left me with plenty to write about. Our new vacuum is a Eureka Maxima 4700 upright vacuum.

Immediately, it is worth noting that the Maxima 4700 model number is the number for the entire line. As a result, the last two digits vary with each color of the vacuum cleaner. So, for example, my partner and I have the 4707, which is a beautiful dark blue color (which my mother went out and bought hours later at the same place when she saw how nice ours was). The same store had the 4704 which was a deep purple and a hideous neon pink model with the last two digits that I didn’t even bother to take down. My point is, despite the colors of the plastic shells on the bottom of the upright vacuum, all model numbers of the 4700 series Eureka Maxima upright vacuum operate identically. They are made from the same molds and they vary only in the color.

The Eureka Maxima 4700 is a very simple canister-style vacuum and the 4700 was actually my first experience with a canister-style vacuum cleaner. My partner was quite excited by the prospect of a vacuum cleaner which did not require any bags and where the filter could be easily cleaned (she had one before and loved it). The fourteen pound Maxima 4700 came in a pretty big box which is more bulky than heavy. The Maxima 4700 came unassembled, so our first task was to get it out of the box and put it all together. Fortunately, this is a ridiculously easy process and one that only required the use of directions for the correct placement of two of the six screws. Anyone with a Phillips head screwdriver can put this together, probably without even looking at the directions. It is that simple to assemble and the base, handle assembly and hose truly have only one way they may all fit together. The handle has two pieces which snap into the base and screw together to form the solid drive shaft of the vacuum. On all of the 4700 Maximas, the handle assembly is comprised of hard black plastic, which seems both very durable (and because I got a handful of dust all over it, is very easy to clean off with just a wet cloth).

Properly assembled, the Maxima 4700 is 43" tall by 13” wide by 12 1/2" deep at the base. This is a very standard canister vacuum cleaner in terms of appearance with the handle in back extending upward from a hinge. The handle holds the tube which actually transports the sucked up matter from the ground to the canister. The 4700 has the belt and motor assembly in the base of the vacuum, which is where it sucks from. The canister is attached to the front of the handle assembly and snaps in easily. The tube winds around the back of the handle assembly, so the motor has a lot of work to do to push dirt and other vacuumed matter up into the canister and through the filter. Still, it is hard to argue with results and when this was activated, it sucked up cat hair I didn’t even see!

Once the Maxima 4700 was assembled, we plugged it in – the cord is attached to the base, but winds organically up the back of the unit – and set it on its way. Instantly, it seemed very loud. I’m not a fan of loud noises and the Maxima 4700 is clearly not a vacuum trading on stealth. Oddly, both my partner and I noticed that after about a minute of use, it began to quiet down. Still, this is a fairly loud vacuum cleaner. Because the transport tube comes in the right side of the base, the right side has stronger suction than the left side on this vacuum cleaner. Suction on the Eureka Maxima 4700 is the best I’ve ever seen out of an upright vacuum. In fact, it was so good that we ran into a problem on a rug we did not realize was frayed at the edge. Running the Maxima over the edge of carpet, the spinning brushes tore apart the edge and sucked a whole row of carpeting into the machine, or more accurately, around the rotating bar with the brushes in the base! The incredible aspect of this is not that it tore up the loose threads at the edge of the carpet, but rather that the Maxima continued to work without any delay or apparent stress on the motor or belt. It was only when we went to empty the canister that my partner tipped the vacuum and noticed that the bar below was wrapped! Removing the carpet pieces was easy; we unplugged the vacuum and gently pulled the threads back, rotating the bar the opposite way, unwinding the carpet from the bar.

The vacuum easily removes dirt and hair and every other form of solid matter I’ve been able to find so far from carpets and walls. Because the hose may be detached from the base, this vacuum has a little more versatility than most uprights and it may be used to get cobwebs as well . . . assuming the cobwebs are within five feet of the base of the vacuum, as that is about the length of the vacuum’s hose. In fact, the only thing the vacuum did not seem powerful enough to suck up was the dust that was caked onto the fan in my computer (believe me, anything that might relieve my poor computer’s fan I’ll try, including vacuuming out my computer). Even so, the Maxima 4700 is easy to move over any level of carpet or hardwood, which makes it a pleasure to clean with.

Use of the assembled Maxima is exceptionally easy. There is the standard release lever on the base of the unit which allows the handle to be unlocked. This allows one to push or pull the vacuum at an angle, as opposed to perpendicular with the floor. Just to the right of that on the base is a red lever which may be depressed (and locked into place) to activate the vacuum. From there, the vacuum does almost all the work. It sucks up anything on the floor and it is powerful and has great cleaning power. In fact, as an objective test, my mother took her old Dirt Devil over an area of carpet downstairs and then used the Maxima on the same area and the Maxima still found dirt, dust and hair to pull out of the carpet! It was actually quite impressive. The Maxima may be used on low carpets (or bare floors), medium pile carpets or even longer carpets, with the height of the base being adjusted by a simple knob on the front of the base.

As the canister gets filled up – easily visible as it is at the front and transparent – the vacuum continues to vacuum with astonishing force, making this an impressive, as well as inexpensive, vacuum option. When the canister is filled, simply unlatch the canister from the handle assembly and empty the canister. The top of the canister twists off and the canister may then be dumped into a garbage bag. Here is where I had a bit of a problem with the Maxima 4700. The canister has two holes in it, the top and the hole through which the dust and dirt and everything else enters the vacuum. Ideally, one wants to put a bag over the canister and empty it so everything comes out of the canister without kicking up a huge dust cloud, but this is seldom possible. You can even wash the filter and canister out, but that just puts dirt and dust down the sink. Either way, it is exceptionally difficult to get the crap one vacuums up out of the canister without putting it back in the air! This is annoying and can be a lot more time consuming (tipping the canister over in a bag and waiting while the contents settle out of the air) than simply pulling a bag out of the vacuum. As annoying is what happens to the bag afterward. If you empty the canister into a bag and simply place that in your garbage can, the next time anything is thrown in the garbage, a cloud of dust will be kicked up!

Even so, the cleaning power of the Maxima should not be underestimated and my partner, who is allergic to my cats, has shown a noticeable improvement in health since we started using the vacuum. It gets up so much deep-down crap in rugs and from the air that her allergies are acting up less than they were before, which is pretty extraordinary results after only a weekend of use! Of course, while we were cleaning, it was nightmarish for her, but even then, the Maxima 4700 was sucking up far more than it was kicking up into the air. The Maxima comes with a pair of attachments: a solid tube which extends the hose an additional two feet and a little brush which attaches to that or to the hose itself. I’m not wild about attachments, but both my partner and I used the attachments and found them easy to use, though the sucking power was diminished some using the extension. Far more often, we found the vacuum worked great on the floors and for sucking up matter through the hose directly when we detached it from the base.

As a result, this can be a great vacuum for anyone who has serious traffic in their house, despite how noisy it may be to operate. It is easy to use and the filter is easy to wash out, making this a value for improving the cleanliness of one’s house and potentially the health of those who live there!

For other home appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Dyson Air Multiplier fan
Whirlpool WGD5200 Gas Dryer
Samsung Stainless Steel microwave

7/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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