The Good, The Bad and The Plastic!

I am reviewing the Hoover U6617-900, which seems very similar but doesn’t appear on Epinions. Let me qualify the review by saying that we have a single-story house with 3,700 square feet. 1,600 square feet are wood laminate flooring or vinyl flooring. The rest is an ultra-plush carpeting.

This vacuum is a bagless, self-propelled Wind Tunnel model with HEPA filtration. It comes with a crevice tool, extension wands, a general purpose attachment, and a turbine upholstery brush. The latter is my favorite tool. It really gets the cat hair off upholstery.

It has several height adjustments to accommodate different types of flooring. When returned to the upright position, the beater brush turns off, to prevent damage to the floor. This was our first self-propelled vacuum and it is a dream to drive. Very effortless, and the self-propelled feature can be switched on and off as needed. This was the best vacuum I have owned.

This was our second bagless vacuum. Other reviews on Epinions from allergy sufferers seem to favor bagged vacuums, but in my case this was not a problem. One advantage of a bagless model is that you can visually note how full the canister is. We simply take it outside to the trash can to empty it. The other of course is the lack of having to buy bags.

We bought the vacuum at Sears in July of 2003, and took out an extended warranty on it. I am not a fan of extended warranties, but with the decline in quality and/or durability in many appliances over the years, I felt it would be worthwhile. All went well for about nine months during which time the vacuum performed as it should. Then, the odor of burning rubber developed and the beater brush stopped functioning. Aha! A slipping belt, I thought. While capable of changing this myself, I wanted to get my value from the extended warranty and thus carted the vacuum off to the Sears Service Depot for repair.

The vacuum was in the shop for 10 days to two weeks and came home with a new belt. It worked fine for about a month and then developed the same symptoms. Back to the shop. To make a long story short, I took the vacuum in last week for the fourth time. The Sears extended warranty provides for replacement for a product if it has been in the shop four times. I intend to get the vacuum replaced at no charge. That way, we will have a spare, if needed.

Unfortunately, this is not your Mother’s Hoover. Although we don’t abuse the vacuum, we don’t feel it should be exhibiting the number of failures it has. We use it once a week and do the entire house. Certainly, we can’t be the only people with thick plush carpeting. If you have a Berber or shorter pile plush carpet, and/or have less of it than we do, I whole-heartedly recommend this vacuum. Otherwise, I would scrimp and save and buy a higher-end unit that will last many years.

After this last breakdown, we decided to buy a high-end vacuum and use the Hoover for backup. We headed down to the vacuum shop and talked to an expert. We had it in mind to buy a Kirby or a Royal, but at the recommendation of the head repair tech, we bought a Riccar Radiance model. It has several important features that are lacking in other vacuums. 1. It has a metal beater brush, with replaceable bristle strips. Metal is more durable than plastic. 2. It has lifetime belt warranty. The belt is a serpentine-type, which means it has “teeth” on the inside that mesh with the drive pulley. 3. It has bypass air flow, which means if you suck up a screw or paper clip or similar item, it does not flow through and possibly damage the motor fan. 4. It has a five year warranty, which includes three free tune-ups and cleaning in the shop during that period. Yes, it requires bags, but according to the repair tech, most high-end vacuums do. Since it is a brand new model, it has not appeared on Epinions yet, but when it does and after I’ve had some experience with it, I will provide a review. By the way, it cost $899 with an instant $100 rebate.