(Clinton Bast) wrote in message om...
I was checking for reviews/comments on the Riccar Radiance vacuum
cleaner but I didn't see any. This model must be very new, since even
the Riccar website doesn't mention this model. Well, I guess I'll
post a review myself so I can help others who are looking for a vacuum
cleaner.


Pros:
Great for cleaning carpets.
Great Warranty (6 years! Even on the belt!)
Designed for reliability.
Telescopic hose wand.
Sharp-looking dark candy-apple red color.
Made in USA (it feels good when Americans make a quality product).

Cons:
OK for cleaning hard floors, nothing impressive.
I'd like a dusting brush with more bristles.
Expensive (we paid $699).

CARPETS
We have 5 cats and 2 dogs, so pet hair is a problem for us. Our old
Kenmore and Kirby uprights did pretty well at cleaning hair from our
medium-pile living room carpet. But pet hair seems to stick like glue
to our large low-pile area rug. Our old vacuum cleaners never cleaned
that rug very well. The most effective method I used in the past was
to put on a pair of rubbery-sole bedroom slippers and rub the hair off
with my foot. Well, we took the rug to a vacuum store and took one
back-and-forth swipe and the carpet looked like new! Since my wife
didn't want to comparison shop for vacuums all day, we bought it right
then and there. Unfortunately, because of that impulse buy, I never
did learn if other vacuums performed as well. However the salesman
says the Hoovers he has (which were top rated in Consumer Reports)
don't perform as well as the Riccars. But I really wanted to try some
other high-end brands like Sebo or Lindhaus.

The Riccar is designed for deep-cleaning the carpets. It has two
6-amp motors. If I understood the salesman's explanation correctly,
one motor is for creating lots of suction and the other is for
creating lots of airflow and to operate the brushroll. I don't know
the vacuum and airflow specs, but the salesman thinks the CFM is
around 150, which I found unlikely since that is better than most
canister vacs.

One problem we had with the Riccar Radiance is that the suction is so
powerful that when we vacuum our living room carpet, it pulls up the
carpet so much that it triggers the "jammed brushroll" switch which
turns the brushroll off. Our carpet is probably a little too loose.
So whenever we change the bag, we need to vacuum other parts of the
house first to start filling the bag (which in turn reduces suction)
before vacuuming our living room carpet.

I hope this isn't a problem for us in the future, but we filled the
first bag after vacuuming our house only one time.

HARD FLOORS
It cleaned up pet hair and dirt from our vinyl kitchen floor just
fine, but so could our old Kenmore. It didn't do as well cleaning up
some of the kitty litter that gets scattered around our basement. Our
old Kenmore would clean that up in one swipe. One swipe of the Riccar
leaves some litter behind. It did a very poor job picking up the
kitty litter when the bag was close to full (maybe I should've bought
a Dyson, the vacuum that never loses suction). I found that using the
hose is more effective at cleaning up kitty litter. So I'm going to
see if I can buy a larger floor brush hose attachment.

TOOLS
It has some cleaning tools. You first have to turn a dial to "Tools
On". This appears to divert the suction from the floor nozzle to the
hose. The hose and "wand" just barely reaches our 8-foot ceiling. I
like the telescopic wand. You extend the wand by sliding a black
collar that is on the wand. As the wand extends, it "ratchets" through
12 different lengths. It stays locked in those positions. This is
much nicer than the system on our old kenmore where you slid the tube
and locked it into place by turning a dial. The dial would always
come undone on us and the wand would shorten.

One attachment is both the dusting tool and the upholstery tool. The
upholstery tool has stiff uneven bristles that are pretty effective at
removing hair from couches, not perfect, but much better than our
Kenmore. You make the dusting brush by clipping longer bristles on to
the upholstery brush. I wish they were two separate attachments. I
also wish the the dusting brush had more bristles. I'm used to round
brushes with lots of bristles.


QUALITY/RELIABLITY/DURABLITY
Riccar apparantly designs their machines for years of reliable use. I
learned from the website www.ristenbatt.com about what design features
make a vacuum reliable and this vacuum seems to have them.

- It uses a tough rollerbrush belt that doesn't stretch. It is
warranted for 6 years.
- It uses two motors. This probably means less wear and tear than
using one motor.
- I belive that no debris actually hits the fan like in "dirty air"
models such as old Kirbys.
- The handle release switch is made of metal. The release positions
molded into the body of the vacuum are reinforced with a strip of
metal. I noticed this feature right away since this was something
that broke on our Kenmore.
- It has safety features to protect the motors. It turns off motors
if the rollerbrush jams or the motors overheat. It also has a bag
full light.
- THe roller brush is metal and uses replaceable bristles.
- Base plate around the brush roll is metal.
- Most of the casing seems to be made of a somewhat flexible plastic
(ABS?) that doesn't look like it will crack.
- It uses 6 leds for lights. These will probably last longer than a
normal lightbulb.
- I do worry about breaking plastic clips when clipping dustbrush onto
the upholstery brush. I also worry about breaking clips when snapping
some of the filter holders back in to place.
- I'm assuming it must be reliable if they are willing to offer a
6-year warranty.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS
I'm very happy with its carpet cleaning capabilities and Riccar's
reputation for reliablity. But I wonder if I could've found another
upright vacuum cleaner that cleaned carpets just as good but cleaned
hard floors better. I was very curious about the Sebo X4 upright but
the nearest dealer is over an hour away. The Lindhaus models also
caught my eye. These were highly recommended at www.vacman.com.

A followup:
The vacuum cleaner store adjusted the sensitivity of the "brushroll
jammed" sensor. So now the vacuum does not turn off unless it really
is jammed.

I also bought a floor brush attachment and that seems to clean up the
kitty litter pretty well.

- Clint