The GoVacuum Blog

I had almost forgotten about the Carpet Pro CPU-1 Heavy Duty Household Upright Vacuum Cleaner until someone asked me what I thought was the best vacuum cleaner under $200. The Carpet Pro machine is made by Tacony USA, who also makes Riccar and Simplicity vacuum cleaners. This model is made under the Carpet Pro name brand. The CPU-1 has metal in all the right places including the motor, the handle, the bottom plate, and importantly the roller brush.

The thing that makes this vacuum so durable is the patented clean air bypass motor system. This means that everything that is vacuumed up goes directly into the vacuum bag first, instead of going through the fan and motor first like many other vacuum cleaners. This makes the motor on this machine much more durable since all of the dirt is captured in the bag first and then clean air is passed through the motor. As long as you keep the filter underneath of the bag clean (it’s washable) your motor will last you 15+ years without any problems.

Most other vacuum cleaners use a plastic roller brush. The plastic roller brush will actually melt if anything is mistakingly vacuumed up in the brush like a sock or tassles on an oriental rug, for example.

The Carpet Pro machine has a completely metal roller brush, and metal bearings. The brushes themselves are made of Teflon, and slide out of the brush roll, allowing you to replace just the brushes, instead of replacing the entire roller brush assembly completely. Since the brushes are made of Teflon, they really do a nice job of deep cleaning carpets, as well as eating pet hair for lunch!

The really only downfall to this machine is the fact there are no attachments on board the vacuum, and the color of the vacuum might even hurt your eyes (bright yellow)! Previously, people complained that the attachment hose would fall out while using it, however, they have recently improved the hose to fit more securely in the vacuum and not fall out. The deluxe set of attachments is nice because it comes with a 15 foot hose, which allows you to leave the vacuum at the bottom of your stairs and work all the way up without moving the vacuum cleaner.

Most people have never heard of Carpet Pro, and become worried about being able to find bags for this machine. This is not a problem as the machine will either take Riccar 4000 bags (slightly harder to find) or you can use Panasonic upright bags which are widely available in your local grocery store, or home improvement stores or with us here at GoVacuum!

This machine is by far the best vacuum available for under $200. You can’t find this type of quality at this price. The sister companies Riccar and Simplicity sell similar machines for $400-$700.