SC3683A Commercial Canister Vacuum Cleaner

Great little vacuum!, April 28, 2007

By 

Donna K. Heck “kemaebe” (OR United States) –

  

This vacuum was one of the first purchases we made when we started our janitorial company three years ago. It has been money well spent! I only gave it 4 stars because there are 2 things that I would have changed on the design and they are really more annoyances than defects. The first one is I would add an automatic winding reel for the cord. It’s a real pain to have to wind it up after each use to transport. The other thing I’d change is on the floor tool. We use it a lot on bare floors. Another model we have has 2 small wheels on the bottom of the floor tool that helps it ride more smoothly on the surface.

For a small vacuum it has a lot of suction and the telescoping wand is a great idea! Just push or pull on the handle while holding the locking mechanism and voila!

Changing the bags and filter is a snap! The vacuum only weighs 10 lbs. so it’s easy to carry and has a handy shoulder strap. It could be a little quieter but it’s not any worse than the vacuum I use in my home.

I recommend the commercial (red) version over the residential (yellow). For $40 more you get a larger motor and better hose and tools. The residential model seems to heat up a lot more than the commercial model probably due to the smaller motor. But you pay for that in weight, 10 lbs versus 8 lbs. The residential model’s hose is a joke! It is so lightweight that it bends and crimps all the time. Also the residential model does not come with a shoulder strap.

We’ve used this vacuum on every job from residential cleaning to commercial cleaning to construction clean-up. It has never failed to deliver! I recommend it!

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space-saving hard worker, May 15, 2008

We bought this to replace a Eureka Mitey-Mite that died after 25 hard-working years. It has the HEPA filtration of my too-heavy Eureka Wind-Tunnel upright and the Power Paw attachment for extra suction that is as good or better than our 2 yr old Rainbow for removing pet hairs from the carpet, and with less effort on our part. The Power Paw, offering additional “oomph!” works on other vacuums, too, slipping onto the end of the hose or extensions.

The hose doesn’t flatten if stepped upon, as did the Wind-Tunnel’s, and the handy “on-board” most commonly used accessories–the corner/blinds wand and a superbly handy 2-headed attachment of the brush end and small flat “foot” are more easy to grab and reattach to the body of the machine than any vacuum I’ve ever used (over 50 yrs experience).

The main downside to this vacuum for me is that I can’t find the MM bags in area stores and must keep track of usage to reorder them online before I run out of spares. However, they come in large volume sets, and each bag holds quite a lot of unmentionables. I used a Mitey-Mite C bag each time I vacuumed the house; I can do the same house at least twice on one MM bag. If I could find bags more easily, this review would go up another half-star. The front-loading bag changes easily without the lid fighting every effort to close it.

If you thought a bagless vacuum was the way to go, think again! SOMEONE has to empty and clean that cupful of “whatevers,” eventually. Even if your vacuum has a HEPA filter, guess where all the little nasties it filtered from your air have landed, waiting for you to put them back into the air on their way to the garbage bin. This canister’s bag with self-closing flap can eliminate the dust and the loose mess of a cup. One doesn’t have to look at the nasty, or share it with the world again; just remove the bag from the canister & dump it neatly into the trash.

With the HEPA filter, it appears we have fewer dust motes dancing in the sun beams, as well. This filter is easily accessible at the rear of the canister and cleans easily with an occasional toss in the washer or rinse-off at the sink. It is also replaceable from stock available most hardware stores (or online). If into aromatherapy, sprinkle a drop of your preferred scent on this filter just before using the vacuum.

I enjoy having extra space in the utility closet–this canister fits on a small shelf and the hose & extension with floor “foot” take up very little space, compared to the Rainbow and all its accessories or the Wind-Tunnel demanding most of the floor space and smacking our faces whenever we peered into the closet for something else.

Unlike the Hoover it deposed, this canister doesn’t chew belts faster than teens chew gum.

The canister is lightweight and can be carried or will follow one obediently, even over raised door stops, without disconnecting at the hose base. It works well with wood, cement, tile, linoleum floors and carpet (as well as on window trims and upholstery). The hose air adjustment slide functions more smoothly than anything else I’ve used, making it easier to avoid sucking off the fringe on the area carpet.

The on/off switch is easily accessed by hand (or foot) and the long cord allows one to clean most rooms (or several adjoining rooms) without moving to a new power outlet. I miss the retractable cord of my 1960’s Kenmore canister and the slide-away grip to quick-release the coiled cord that my Mitey-Mite had (the other half star this model did not receive to have 5 in total), but we find the cord coils tidily under the canister with a few moment’s effort.

After a year’s use, we’re still very pleased with it and hope it comes out in a completely robotized version that also does windows & makes dinner on weeknights.

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