Does your vacuum cleaner suck too much?

It looks as if the problem may be the new carpets rather than the vacuum cleaners. The ordinary turbo tool is simply powered by the air flow and not motor driven, and is only really suitable for short-pile carpets.

New carpets with a wool content liberate a lot of fluff and threads when new and should be vacuumed at a low speed, with the air vent partly open and with the cleaning head raised to a high position. Not all vacuum cleaners have these features.

As Wavechange says the turbo head should be disengaged or replaced with the standard head for long-pile carpets. The machine will also struggle if the dust bag or container becomes full quickly as it will with a new wool-pile carpet. It is probably better to brush the carpet by hand initially to release most of the fluff.

We have two Miele vacuum cleaners [one upstairs, the other downstairs, and we clean the stairs with a battery-powered Samsung stick]. We are having new carpet fitted later this week on the stairs and landing and I shall see how our machines perform.

We once had a Dyson cleaner but found its performance unsatisfactory; it was also very noisy and too heavy so I cleaned it up and we put into an auction with a lot of other items. So popular are Dysons that it fetched more than we paid for it three years previously.

Every since Hoover promoted ‘Beats as it sweeps as it cleans’ I have been concerned that aggressive vacuum cleaners could do more harm than good to any half-decent carpet.

Here’s an old advert to enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2sNntaeP-s

I’ve managed fine without turbo-brushes, preferring to vacuum frequently and take off outdoor shoes when I come home.

This is a well known problem with modern cleaners that tend to have more suction than older models. The Which? review for your cleaner states: “The maximum setting is so powerful that it’s uncomfortable to move on any type of floor surface, but you can find a comfortable level with a bit of trial and error.” That is an understatement of the problem in my view.

Knowing the problem you have described from reading vacuum cleaner reviews I chose a Miele cleaner supplied with a turbo-brush head intended for use by pet owners, even though I don’t have any pets. It was also supplied with a standard cleaning head, so I was able to confirm how hard that was to use on carpets. The turbo-brush (Miele Turbo Plus STB 200-205 STB 201 Vario Vacuum Brush Head – now discontinued) makes it a much easier to use on carpets, though if used on hard surfaces it sounds like an aircraft about to take off. The current equivalent costs in excess of £70.

Here is a video comparing the older and current Miele turbo brush heads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PUr91J6cg

It would have been helpful if the Which? review of the vacuum cleaner had also commented on how powerful the machine was on the minimum setting because, as Mr Tulloch says, even on a low setting it is a strain to operate it on carpet.

The widespread domestic trend to replace carpeted floors with laminate or wooden surfaces presumably led to a fall in demand for vacuum cleaners so the manufacturers have developed machines more suitable for hard flooring but not suitable for conventional carpets.

Our Miele vacuum cleaners have a sliding shutter on the tube which can be opened to a greater or lesser extent to reduce the suction at the nozzle or cleaning head. This is good for cleaning lighter weight and unfitted mats or rugs in the same overall room cleaning operation.

The turbo heads also have a foot-operated toggle switch which can alternate the brush elevation between hard and soft floor coverings.

This is a well known problem since manufacturers increased the suction power of their cleaners. The problem will reduce as the bag starts to fill but the easiest solution is to use a turbo-brush, where the suction drives a revolving brush. These come with some models and are particularly popular with pet owners because they are effective in collecting pet hair, as are upright cleaners.

Numatic use the name Airo Brush to refer to their turbo-brushes. Here is a video showing two sizes of these brushes in action, brought to you buy a guy with an obsession with vacuum cleaners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwQjond4JkQ I presume that the turbo-brush can be bought separately as well as in the kit shown.

As pointed out, turbo-brushes are noisy. Mine (not Numatic) reminds me of an aircraft taking off but it makes the cleaner much easier to use.

We have a Henry as a reserve vacuum cleaner and for certain purposes. It has a normal power level activated by the green on/off switch plus a red booster button which creates additional suction. These seem to give effective vacuum force variation without the problem Christine has mentioned, but the type of rug might be the cause of those problems: small or lightweight ones and those with fringes are difficult for any vacuum cleaner. The traditional remedy was to take them out, hang them on a line, and beat them; this is good for children too.

Some Numatic cleaners (Henry and friends) have two power levels like yours, John. I have not seen one with a slide valve on the handle – a crude but effective way of reducing suction.

On our Henry, there is a grip ring on the upper length of the metal tube which can be rotated to reduce suction [by venting the vacuum force]. Perhaps this feature is also on Christine’s machine and she hasn’t found it yet; it’s not exactly obvious.

My Miele vac has a rotary switch to set the power level to the motor and a slider on the hose connector that reduces the suction. Luxury.

Thanks for drawing my attention to the rotary control on the Henry cleaners, John. Hopefully this will help Christine.

Some vacuum cleaners have a control for motor power on the handle, which is better than having a suction relief valve on the handle and a power control on the cleaner. The ones I have seen had a cable between the handle and the cleaner but the modern approach is to use a wireless controller on the handle. With ‘stick’ cleaners this is not necessary if the motor unit is at the handle end but having a heavy motor next to the handle of a stick cleaner can make them cumbersome.

As well as the motor speed controller [which we tend not to alter] and the vacuum relief slider on the tube, our Miele also has a foot-operated valve on the brush accessory which makes it convenient when cleaning small loose mats in doorways. It is possible that these various operational features are not appreciated when choosing products and people buy one with a nice appearance, a pleasant colour, or a funny name.

Her indoors, she who must be obeyed, has an argumentative cleaner named John.

The appeal of smiling Henry and friends has helped a British company to continue to manufacture their durable, repairable and sensibly priced products in the UK.

Numatic produced special edition versions named John and Lewis, probably sold a well known retailer.

At least you know your place in your household, John. 😉

I have never thought of John as a sucker.
If Numatic can successfully make cleaning products in the UK (Somerset) at sensible prices, why cannot Dyson. I’d like to Back Britain where possible, and see good products made here supporting jobs. Maybe Brexit and COVID could be an incentive.

The first carpet cleaner I was ever aware of was named Ewbank. I was astonished to find they were still going.

Ewbank is still going but the brand was swept up by US brand Earlex.

Have you bought a British made cleaner, Malcolm? I have twice considered doing so but the problem has been storage. Maybe I should have looked at one of Henry’s smaller siblings.

No, my last cleaner was a Miele bought 17 years ago and still going strong. It was bought on the basis of Which? reviews. However, some say the UK cannot compete in the appliance market but clearly this is not the case; but they need to maybe look harder at the performance.

Some of us have said many times that we would like Which? to show where products are made in their reviews. Sometimes this is difficult to know, for example where companies manufacture in different countries. Sometimes products simply assembled from parts produced in other countries. Nevertheless, I suggest it would be useful to provide information where this is available.

I have had a look at the evolution of Miele canister cleaners. Mine, which is around 20 years old, has a rotary control for motor speed on the vacuum and a sliding suction relief valve on the handle. To save carting it up and down stairs I bought another one early this year and that has six power levels controlled by foot-controls, which is more convenient.

Miele offers a cleaner with a wireless remote control in the handle, but that’s more expensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fj1XzRmBrM&t=856s I believe other brands also offer wireless remote controls. A better solution would be to have some sort of trigger to temporarily increase the speed where more suction is needed.

I’m not surprised that QC does not pay attention to suction power, Patrick. Even with the current maximum wattage of 900 watts (half that of some cleaners before the EU legislation) it’s not a meaningful measure of how effective a cleaner is. As Which? has reported, lower power has not meant a decrease in the effectiveness of cleaners. Upright cleaners use tend to have high suction but are effective because they combine suction with rotary brushes/beaters. https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/vacuum-cleaners/article/vacuum-cleaners-energy-label-explained-aVMnp9z71EkN

Despite lower power there remains a problem that many vacuum cleaners remain difficult to use on carpets, the focus of this Convo.

In Convos on sustainability some of us have expressed concerns about how cleaners with rechargeable batteries will last. Which? now warns us about ones with no replaceable battery, but before buying a cordless vac I would want to no the cost of a spare battery and will the be available in ten years time. Have Choice and CR looked at this issue?

It’s always interesting to learn how different consumers’ organisations look at similar issues so thanks for your contributions.

That’s interesting. Increasing the motor power as the bag fills makes good sense if you want to maintain suction. Modern bags are better than the ones we had 20 years ago but the suction power of bagged cleaners does reduce as the bag fills. It’s disappointing if some manufacturers have done this to cheat in the tests rather than for sensible reasons.

At one time. Which? would not rate Dyson cleaners as ‘Best Buys’ because of unreliability. Dyson then introduced a five year guarantee on mains-powered cleaners, so I presume they improved their designs. Their motor designs are interesting and more efficient than their competitors. I would not have a bagless cleaner if I was paid to take it, but Dyson have convinced many people that this is the best approach and the major manufacturers all offer bagless cleaners, I believe. That’s marketing.

The EU specifications for cleaning performance do not specify temperatures but cleaning performance. Shorter washes at 60°C have been replaced by longer but equally effective washes lower temperatures. This protects delicate fabrics and saves energy. Manufacturers are removing meaningless temperature figures from their machines and instead indicating the purpose of each program.

I have not managed to find any reports providing evidence of manufacturers using ‘defeat software’ to increase the motor power in their vacuum cleaners. Is there any evidence of this? It implies cheating rather than a simple automatic compensation to increase power as the bag fills to maintain suction.

Nevertheless it does not make much sense to carry out tests only on empty cleaners, as Dyson has pointed out.