The GoVacuum Blog

The Earlex IS2000USMP Steam Caddy is a VERY versatile machine. More than just a steam mop that can clear your floors, the Earlex can do everything from floors, to windows, upholstery, sinks, bathrooms, ovens, and stoves. This machine can even help you steam your garments and clothing to get any annoying creases out.

The Earlex has all the attachments you need included with the machine, no extra attachments to buy. From just one tank, you can get 30 minutes of steam cleaning out of this machine.

Amazing cleaning power with absolutely no chemicals, just plain water! Machines like these are the first step towards making cleaning a more eco-friendly activity by making sure you aren’t harming the environment with the use of any toxic chemicals.

Our retail stores love the Hoover Self-Propelled WindTunnel (U6439-900), simply because it is one of our most popular vacuum repair customers. But never would you find us trying to sell you one of these machines if you came to us for a recommendation for a quality vacuum.

Brand new, the Hoover Self-Propelled WindTunnel seems excellent. With new belts, filters, etc, the vacuum does a great job.

After approximately one year, however, the vacuum will start going downhill. This is by far one of the most repaired vacuums out there. And this is mainly due to a poorly designed belt system. It has a combination of two belts; one driving the agitator brush and the other driving the self-propelled mechanism. What happens is as soon as one belt inevitably goes bad, the other is soon to follow and break.

You will be having to replace the belts at least once a year, if not more. One other problem is when customers pick up the machine by the handle (lets face it, this is the most convenient way to carry) it causes the self-propelled actuator arm to break. There’s too much tension on the arm, and it will rip the screw right out of the plastic actuator arm. You need to carry the machine with the carrying handle on the back of the vacuum to avoid this.

There’s not much you can do to avoid the belt changes, however, as it is a flawed design by Hoover.

On another note, the Hoover Self-Propelled WindTunnel is very heavy so if you will be carrying it up and down stairs, it should be a serious concern for you.

Like we said before, when the machine is working it actually cleans very well. But, those times of good cleaning from this machine will be few and far between.

If you are like many Hoover WindTunnel owners and have to repair this machine’s belt yourself, you are in luck because we have created a video demonstrating how to do a belt repair in our GoVacuum Video Series. Check out the video below:

Many customers contact us about carpet extractors, asking us which we recommend and which are affordable. When it comes to carpet extractors and a good price, the Royal CE 7910 Carpet Extractor can’t be beat.

The Royal 7910 is an upright extractor that does a great job of cleaning carpets and rugs. The machine has some very nice features including the rinse cycle, which allows you to rinse carpets without soap or shampoo. The machine is unique to most other household extractors because the brushes on the machine don’t retract into the brush housing when placing them on the floor. The Hoover, Bissell, and Eureka brushes all retract into the housing of the machines.

The Royal 7910 extractor is like a vacuum cleaner with two rows of brushes; one spinning clockwise and the other spinning counter-clockwise. This allows you to clean both sides of the fibers in the carpet.

The other features that set the Royal apart from its competition are the warranty and how easy it is to perform routine maintenance on the machine. Most home carpet extractors are very difficult to take apart for cleaning and maintenance. The Royal 7910 is the exception. No tools are needed to take the front housing off to clean out all the pet hair. The manufacturer’s warranty on the Royal 7910 is 3 years parts and labor. I have not seen any major issues with this unit, and with a warranty of 3 years, I feel confident in this machine for many years to come.

Among the hundreds of vacuum cleaners we sell, the Sebo Felix Upright is by far the highest rated vacuum by GoVacuum customers. We consistently hear great feedback on this machine. On a side note, the Fun color is my favorite color and because of it, I assure you that you will never, ever lose this vacuum! The Sebo Felix Upright is a very versatile, lightweight, and powerful machine.

You can easily convert the vacuum from a full size floor vacuum into a very portable hand held vacuum. Like all Sebo vacuums, the belt on the machine is warrantied for the life of the vacuum, meaning you will never have to spend money on new belts like you do with many uprights. Sebo is the only company in the world to guarantee the belt for as long as you own the machine. The rest of the vacuum comes with a very strong 5 year warranty.

Let me describe the machine itself to you. The Felix has two motors in it. One is a suction motor, and the second is the brush roll motor. This allows you to turn off the rotating brushes, and easily switch from carpet to bare floors. With rubber wheels in every part of the machine that comes in contact with the floor, rest assured that this machine will never scratch, chip or gouge your hard surfaced floors.

For your viewing pleasure, I am also going to share with you a video that Sebo UK provides, showing the features on the Felix.
In the video you will see how the machine is very easy to maneuver. The entire handle pivots in your hand (very similar to the Dyson Ball) which allows you to very easily get into tighter spots.

Check out the video here.

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.

Out of all the vacuum cleaners GoVacuum sells, the Sebo X4 Extra is by far our best upright vacuum. Sebo is a German company that has been making vacuums since 1969. Sebo also makes vacuum cleaners under the following name brands all over the world; Karcher, Tornado, and Windsor. These machines are built to last forever.

One thing that really sets the Sebo far apart from any other upright on the market is the filtration system. The European term for HEPA filtration is S-Class filtration. What makes the Sebo unique is that the main filter to the vacuum is actually before the motor. Every other vacuum cleaner, the main filter is after the motor. Most have some kind of pre-motor filter which is usually made of foam, and really only stops large particles from going in the motor and damaging it. Because the Sebo’s S-Class filter is before the motor, this means that ALL dust particles are stopped from going in the motor, even the very fine dust particles that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

In 6 years of selling Sebo vacuums, GoVacuum has yet to do a warranty repair. What’s impressive is that even if you took a 5 year old Sebo, the inside of the motor housing would still be 100% dust free because of the sophisticated filtration system.

Most upright vacuums don’t perform on bare floors very well. Upright vacuums are really designed to clean carpets. The Sebo is the exception to the rule. The automatic height adjustment on the X series automatically adjusts the head of the machine to match any type of flooring. Even delicate oriental rugs are no problem. Most other machines you have to fight with the rug, and try and straddle the rug while you vacuum at the same time.

In terms of customer satisfaction on uprights, the Sebo X4 Extra ranks number one. We highly recommend it for anyone looking to get over the junk vacuum habit and looking to really experience what German engineering can do for cleaning your house.