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Riccar Radiance Vacuum review
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. |
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