 Nature may abhor a vacuum, but this is a good one |
| Review Date: January 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: G. Ware Cornell Jr., Weston FL |
If you were to read my other reviews (324 of them as of the time I penned this one) you will see that I have never, ever reviewed any household cleaning supplies or devices. There is a reason for this, and the fact that I am male, a lawyer and pushing sixty ought to give you some pretty strong clues. Now how I came to review this nice Kenmore is a long story and involves my mother-in-law. For a significant birthday milestone, I am not allowed to say which one, my mother-in-law took my wife on a long cruise and tour of Italy. This left me at home with two responsibilities-feed the cats and don't mess up the house. The former was comparatively easy; the second a bit more daunting. So I did what any red-blooded American husband would do-I secretly engaged a cleaning lady. My plan was upon her return she would see how nice and clean everything was and would trust me if she should ever again leave for an extended period during football season.
Like all plans of this kind, my plot was instantly uncovered for two basic reasons. The first was that the house was substantially cleaner than I am capable of making it. The second reason involved her being greeted by said cleaning lady when she walked in the door. My wife however is no fool and she told the cleaning lady to return regularly. In spite of the fact that our house has a central vac, the cleaning lady told my wife she preferred a Kenmore canister vacuum (I not making this up) and to keep her happy we bought her a really good one.
The story cannot end there however. You can't write a review about how easy it is to buy a vacuum cleaner. Imagine then my surprise when I was told to assemble it from the box and vacuum up the dead Christmas tree needles. Having done so I am now more than qualified to write a review. So here goes.
Assembly:
The vacuum comes in a box with even the bag inserted. All one has to do is take it out, plug in the hose and the power head (or other attachment), turn it on, and get to vacuuming.
Vacuuming:
Tugging around this canister is no more difficult than lugging a thirty foot central vac hose (okay so I have vacuumed before). The 360 degree swivel keeps the hose from kinking, so I was not constantly twisting the wand. The wand itself is made from aluminum and telescopes out about 3 feet. The power head can be used on bare floors or carpet and the switch conveniently goes from off to floor to carpet and is located on the handle grip. The floor setting will not work properly if the separate pile height setting on the power head is not set to XLO which is Sears-speak for extra low. There is a second power head gizmo for vacuuming stairs and if I am ever stupid enough again to buy another house with stairs I will amend my review to tell you how it does. Additionally there are many non-powered attachments for dusting (what's that?) and crevices.
Storage:
There is a place for all the tools including the power head. The storage of the power head required a quick trip to the owners manual for instructions. That does not diminish the utility of on-board storage for all the gizmos. It is a good idea and well executed.
Suggestions for improvements:
Like most men, I cannot see dirt. Many times my wife will point out areas where I was supposed to have vacuumed as being ignored. So a result of this, one obvious suggestion would be a GPS so I could tell if I have ever been over a particular patch of floor. A second suggestion would be a video monitor like in those new luxury cars that shows thats behind you. The sound of the vac while relatively quiet disguises any noise my wife makes when she is sneaking up to see if I am really working. |
The best canister vacuum I've ever used!!
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| Review Date: June 27, 2009 |
| Reviewer: ENS, Blackhawk, CO USA |
The Kenmore Progressive Canister is one of the best canister vacuums I've ever used! I clean houses for a living and at one of the houses I work at they have me use this vacuum. The house is approx. 4,000 sq. ft. and I use this vacuum on the entire house once every week and I have been for 4 years now. The floors in the house consist of hard wood, flagstone and carpet. This vacuum has always worked great for all the floors.
The one thing that is a bummer is that the hard floor attachment that has short bristles wears out over time on the uneven flagstone section of the foor in their home. This problem is not the fault of the product just the rough floor in their home and it is easily resolved buy repacing that attachment every six months to a year which can be special ordered through the company. However, if your floors aren't made up of rough, uneven flagstone then I don't think you will ever encounter a problem with the attachment.
This vacuum is also fairly light weight and for my 5'1" frame I can easily get it around and up large flights of stairs. I love all the attachments, some of which rotate to get in those hard to reach corners. There is something for everything.
I cant say enough good stuff about this vacuum. It really is great. I am going to get one as soon as I have the $$$ because I'm sick of sweeping all my wood floors and blowing dust and dog hair all over my new baby. |
Good Vacuum
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| Review Date: May 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: random, |
I've owned this product for nearly three years and am very pleased. Emissions is excellent-it will not blow around/spit out dust. The suction power is great on both carpet and bare floors. One complaint is how it loses suction power as the bag fills. Dysons are advertised as being able to maintain full suction power, even when they need to be emptied. I wish my Kenmore were like that.
If you're working with powdered carpet cleaner (like Capture), be aware the bag will fill quickly. You'll want to change the bag after working with substances like that.
The pet hair attachment is wonderful for stairs and cars. It can be slightly difficult to attach/remove, especially when you first start using it.
All the other attachments slip on and off very easily. Though another complaint would be that the door on the body of the canister where the attachments are stored is flimsy. Sometimes you have to fight to shut it.
I like that this vacuum is lightweight and easy to handle. Carrying it up and down stairs is pretty easy. Vacuuming the stairway isn't too much of a chore. It does a great job of reaching into tight spaces, especially with the help of the attachments.
Overall, I'm very happy with this vacuum. It delivers great performance at a good value. Remember to look over your owner's manual. You'll discover helpful tips on how to make this thing run more efficiently. |
I liked this unit
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| Review Date: April 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Lopatka, West MI |
| I liked this unit and I used one for several years and then donated it to a young, newly-married couple who are still using it to the best of my knowledge. I felt it was sturdy and I liked having the controls on the handlegrip, the ease of popping the bottom unit off with a foot peddle and reattaching bottom unit with a push and click method. The retractable cord never once jammed. A longer cord would have been helpful, but it wasn't a big problem. I also like that the accessories were in a covered compartment on top of the unit because they wouldn't fall off like some upright units. Bags were a little tricky to attach but once attached, they were fine. Only once I attached it poorly and it blew dirt on the inside of the canister. Mine didn't have a hepa filter which would have been nice, but overall it was a decent vacuum cleaner. |
Buying my Second One
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| Review Date: May 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: New Mercies, |
| After eight years, super hard use, and not a single problem, the motor to my kenmore progressive canister just died. I researched dysons and played around with the idea of getting an upright, but just kept coming back to the Kenmore. It really did a great job and was easy to use. My 7 year old claimed vacuuming was his responsibility and this vacuum is light enough for him to push around where the majority of uprights aren't even close. The plastic cover to the place where the extra tools are stored snapped off and I didn't bother putting it back on because the tools stay in place without it. Other than that, it survived tons of cat hair, three babies, linoleum, tile, crappy carpet, and new carpet fuzzies. Time for a new one! |
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