Does Anyone Have an Oreck Vac?

[cschin4]

I am thinking of getting one of these as I am looking for an upright. I don't like the "plastic" look and feel of most of the other uprights. I was looking at the Classic which includes the small cannister vac which looks good for cleaning the car. Anyone have one? How do you like it?

[FrugalFish]

I have one. Have had it since '94 and all it's needed in that time is bags, belts, and a couple sets of brushes. It is a nice little vacuum. On the upside, it is light- great if you have shoulder or back problems- and it does pick up things like pet hair very nicely. It's also great from the standpoint that you don't have to adjust anything to change floor types. You can vacuum living room carpet and go straight on to hard floors and vacuum those clean too. I think it's a plus that it doesn't have onboard attachments, I never used those when we had them on our other vac. Some people can't live without onboard attachments though. I don't care much for the little vac though. We use it, but not as often as we use a different shop-type vac when we have something to vacuum that requires an attachments.

On the downside, the bags can seem expensive- especially if you have pets and they fill up quickly. I also think a heavier vac often lifts the carpet nap a little better. At times the Oreck seems to skim over the surface. If you vacuum frequently this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem- i.e. it's hard to get the nap lifted again once it's a little matted down, but if you're keeping it lifted regularly....

If my Oreck died, I'd probably look for some kind of cannister vac with revolving brushes in the head to replace it. Something that could do carpets well, as well as hard floors and getting into smaller spaces- like under beds or the toekicks of cabinets. I'd probably also look for something bagless. Whether I'd actually be as happy with a newer vac remains to be seen.

In all, it's a nice lightweight vacuum and if you're looking for something that's easy to pull out of a closet and run around the floors of your house in little time, it very good.