Bagless Facts and Fiction
I'm on my second Hoover as of two days ago... first one is still operational after 20 years... but I wanted some upgrades. My greatest desire..? I wanted to be released from the vac bag. But even though that has been accomplished... I'm(we're) still not free from some vac maintenance chores... and the occasional filter purchase. One step forward, two steps back maybe?
First, some perspective. A bagless vacuum is nothing more than a
glorified and highly stylized shop vac. All this crap about "wind tunnel and "cyclonic technology" and other such buzz word descriptors accompanied by dubious conceptual design claims, is just a bunch of advertising hooey meant to distract any buyer from a problem that is NOT preventable in any vacuum.. eventual loss of suction. If this isn't true you wouldn't find elaborate instructions with every model imploring you to clean filters frequently and to empty the dust cup often. If they don't get cleaned in the prescribed manner...
Comparison to Shark Rotator Professional
I have a Shark Rotator Professional Shark Navigator Professional 3-in-1 Lift-Away Rotator (With Additional Accessories Included) - Model NV500/NV501 that is about 3 months old so I think the most accurate review is to compare the two. I vacuumed first with the WindTunnel 3. I noticed it was considerably heavier, made much more noise and was harder to push. The head is bigger so it covers a larger area so that is good. It has 5 settings for carpet pile--4 for various heights of pile and 1 for hardwood floor. I tried a couple of different settings for the carpet but none of them made it easier to push. As is typical in my house, one room fills up the canister (because of the pets we have and especially since it is shedding season). I removed the canister to empty it and found that while emptying it from the bottom sounds good in theory, that in practice it made a bigger mess than the Shark. More dust flew...
The Big Sweep-Off: Hoover Wind Tunnel 3 versus Dyson DC33
I did a head-to-head comparison of the Dyson DC33 Multi-Floor versus the Hoover Wind Tunnel 3, Model UH70901 (Amazon price $149, available through Amazon Prime). Is the Dyson worth more than twice as much as the Hoover? Here are the results:
Overall design: The basic design of the two sweepers is very similar. They are both bagless "cyclone" style vacuums with D-loop main handles and a looped carrying handle on the top of the dirt canister. (Dyson successfully sued Hoover for patent infringement over Hoover's use of bagless cyclone technology. After a court ruling in Dyson's favor, Hoover settled the suit for a $6.3 million payment to Dyson.) The Dyson weighs 17.6 pounds and the Hoover comes in at 19 pounds, which makes it a litle more awkward to carry up and down stairs. Dyson wins because its machine is lighter and because Hoover didn't play fair.
Cord: The Dyson features a 35-foot cord that must be manually looped back on to the canister. The Hoover...
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