Upright Vacuums Reviews

While this vacuum works well when it works, the belt drive assembly is a mess! Either my machine is defective or the design itself is terrible. The belt comes off after only a few minutes of vigourous use and without the belt turning the brushes, the vacuum is useless on carpet! Definitely a waste of money.

The brushes on the spinning roller are coming off (not just a few either) and I've only had it a month.
I quite like the vacuum for its handling, width, cleaning, etc.
Probably wouldn't buy another of this model.

Go for a Royal classic with the aluminum housing.

I received this sweeper and used it immediately. It was easy to put together and was excellent for cleaning animal hair. The belt did come off the first time I used the vaccuum when it grabbed my telephone cord, but I was aware from reading the reviews on Amazon.com that this is a problem with this sweeper. It only took me about 10 minutes to put the belt back on, and I have been more careful and the belt hasn't jumped off since. I would not pay $500 for this sweeper, but I got a terrific deal for a great sweeper at $99!

Yes, I bought one of these beauties online and paid a fraction of the MSRP and I feel that it was the best deals I ever made. I have 3 cats and you can imagine I needed something that would really get down to business. This Royal is a serious, get-down-to business, treat you right kinda gal. I'm gonna get another one as they are heavy mind you. Not something you can casually take up and down stairs on a whim. My house has never been cleaner. Everytime I start it up, the air becomes fresh and my floors and carpets look new again. Wonderful piece of equipment and it looks great too. You can actually leave it out. I love to look at mine. It's pretty and actually can serve as an accent piece in the house. Just kidding but really, it is very pretty and well put
together to do serious cleaning. It really leaves other vacuums in the dust. No pun intended but it does literally do that. It shines like no other and performs like no other.

I purchased this vacuum for my wife after researching vacuums fairly extensively. I looked at the Hoovers (commercial and residential) the Eurekas (residential and commercial) and nearly every other brand. And you know what I noticed? They're all plastic! Even the parts subject to a lot of wear and tear.

But this baby is solid dye cast aluminum - or at least all of the important parts. This baby is built to last and the warranty reflects that fact! 10 years! And if a vacuum can be beautiful this vacuum is just that. It has gorgeous lines.

So, it has beautiful lines and is built to last. Can it vacuum?! All I can say is that this vacuum sucks. According to the literature I've come across it sucks better than any vacuum out there. It does come with attachments, but they are NOT carried on board.

My wife loves the attachments that come with the vacuum and how they work. She said that she was able to get the couches and chairs cleaner than ever before. I use the attachments to clean my desk and keyboard and it does a better job than our old vacuums.

This vacuum is HEAVY (!!) - no way around it, but it DELIVERS!! And despite its weight it is a delight to use. It will suck up dog hair better than any vacuum I have ever used and with two labs that is my acid test for a vacuum. We've owned Hoovers, Panasonics, other Royals, two Electroluxes, and others and NONE of them hold a candle to this vacuum. But bear in mind that it is heavier than your usual vacuum cleaner. But for me and my wife the trade-offs are well worth the extra weight. It is not a vacuum cleaner you will want to lug up and down stairs. I kid you not, I bought three. One for each floor of the house.

This vacuum looks better, is built better, and cleans better than a Kirby, supposedly the best vacuum out there. Do yourself a favor and get one!

GREAT vacuum. Expensive? Yes. Heavy? Yes. Indestructible? Yes. It picks up pet hair and pet dander like nothing you have ever seen. Nice for people with allergies and has decent filtration. The thing has so much suction that it will, in fact, pull itself across the floor.

I am not generally the sort of person who waxes rhapsodic over vacuum cleaners, but even I think this thing is cool. If you find the use of power tools to be oddly intoxicating, you'll like this vacuum. I am an indifferent housekeeper at the best of times, and outright neglectful most of the time. Our dog hair problem was so bad that even *I* thought it was out of hand. For those who don't know, Dalmatians shed an astonishing amount, year round, and they shed little tiny fine white hairs that are unusually tenacious at clinging to carpet and fabric. Our Dirt Devil picked up maybe 60% of the hairs.

The Royal isn't made of plastic - it's metal - and it is the Sherman Tank of vacuum cleaners. Your choice: buy multiple cheesy plastic vacuums over the next 10 years, with housings that can crack and break (I admit this probably isn't a problem if you don't vacuum vigorously, but plastic does get brittle), or buy one vacuum that you can use for the rest of your lifespan.

Bonus: you'll get in great shape hauling this thing up and down stairs. I admit it's not ideal to use on stairs, due to the weight, but it works wonderfully once you learn how to wrangle it.

One other caveat. We used this vacuum on our very short household carpet and also on our large wool Pottery Barn rug. Because of its amazing vacuuming prowess, we know now that we should have made sure to reset for higher pile when we were vacuuming the rug. We were so giddy at the prospect of actually removing Dalmatian hair from the floor that we just thought we should go for the most vacuumage possible. The backing on the rug has broken down over the past two or three years, and it is now a very floppy rug with some visible wear marks in the pile. This isn't a reflection of the quality of the rug - it's just that the super-suction of the vacuum gave the rug more of a beating than it could take on a daily basis. If you're going to use this on plush area rugs, be sure to set for the appropriate pile depth, and I'd be hesitant to use the Royal on antique or heirloom rugs. LL Bean braided rugs have held up OK.

Our first exposure to these vacuums was in a restaurant setting. It's the only vacuum that held up to years of careless janitors whacking the thing into base moldings, steps, etc. It's also the best tool by far for industrial-type carpet. Tons better than the Oreck and much cheaper... and if you look at large hotel housekeeping staff, you'll find they are often using these. Easy to repair and maintain, as well.

It's not a cute brightly colored sports-car-esque vacuum. On the other hand, are you buying a vacuum to suck up dirt or as a piece of decor?

If you can't get it shipped to your home state, see if you can buy the vacuum through an industrial janitorial supply / appliance shop. Amazon's price is lower, but the shipping reflects the price and weight.

If you don't have the severe dog hair problem we do (in other words, if you don't own a Dalmatian), or if you have a substantial % of your house in wood or tile floors, then consider combining this with a Roomba. The Roomba does great for the daily maintenance on the hard-surface floors (not so well at keeping up with pile carpet) and gets the area by the walls, under cabinets, etc. You can use the mighty Royal for your carpet areas and the Roomba for the hard surfaces, and then use the Royal for the bigger / weekly vacuuming. The Royal is overkill for wood floors, although it won't hurt them.

Seriously. Buy this vacuum. The rest of my house looks, um, a bit cluttered, but the carpet looks great.