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Latest Consumer Reports vacuum rating
QUESTION: Consumer reports just did a review of upright vacuums
and they recommend the Kenmore Progressive with Direct
Drive 31912 or similar #31913 for $330.
Curious......does anyone own this model out there and
can give me some feedback on it?
I looked at it over the weekend..... don't know.....
looks like a lot of plastic for $300.
ANSWER: Consumer Reports says they don't get advertising or kickbacks from
product promotions.
Yet the worst pieces of junk ever devised always seem to hit their top
10 list of best buys.
They also do NOT test everything they claim to have tested or used.
Which is blatantly obvious if you read some of the reports in the
regular magazine on a product they claim to have tested.
As far as vacuum cleaners go, any vacuum, no matter how cheap or lousy
it is constructed will pick up a bowling ball or pull steel balls the
size of the interior of the hose through it.
What you do want is the a vacuum that has a velocity and volume of air
passing through it (with a dirty filter) as high as you can afford to
purchase but not overkill for your purposes and in the shape or type
of vacuum you prefer for your own usage.
If you ever find a vacuum that can pick up 1 pound of drywall compound
sanding dust and then turn around and pick up 1 pound of BB's
afterwards, without blowing the dust through the machine, you have
found a vacuum worth it's weight in gold, even if it only cost $89.95
The only vacuum I have ever seen that could do this was an overpriced
Silver King and I don't believe they are manufactured any longer.
Reading Consumer Reports is better than nothing at all. I've found
them to be a good guideline with many purchases. For example, for
most products they list features and the importance of each. Having a
20-foot cord may be useful to some, not to others. Noise may be
another consideration. One caution is buying a product based on
brand which many consumers do. CR states specific brand and model
number in their tests. Unfortunately, vacuum cleaner models are short
lived and by the time you read the ratings many of the models have
been discontinued. Volume of air in a household vacuum cleaner is
not as important as velocity (the opposite is true with shop dust
collectors). Some models are better than others for cleaning stairs,
tile floors, carpeting, upholstery, or auto interiors. Using a
household vacuum cleaner (or a shop vac for that matter) to pick up
drywall dust is a definite misuse of the machine. I have an 11-amp
Panasonic upright vacuum cleaner and do not have any complaints about
its performance, but the refill bags are not found in most stores.
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