Riccar Vacuums

My sister has one. After 1 year of use it died on her, and it was covered under warranty so the distributor gave her a new one no questions asked. In looking back, she thinks it blew a fuse and fried the vacuum— her house does tend to blow fuses with vacuum cleaners. (Weird, I know!)

My cousin who cleans houses for a living swears by Rikkar. She has used every brand out there and tells everyone she knows to buy a Rikkar next time they need a vacuum.

We had an Oreck for 20+ years, and this is what the vacuum shop recommended as a replacement. Key parts are metal, and it’s made in America. We’ve only had it a year, so time will tell.

Also it’s very lightweight to go up and down the stairs.

For me it would probably come down to cost.

I don't have a ton of carpet in my house. I have original wood floors, and a few area rugs. My steps are carpet.

I have 2 sharks. The one I use upstairs, where there is very little carpet and mostly bare wood floors is a Shark Apex liftaway. It is very light and almost like a stick vac - but a little better. It was about $200 when I got it. I LOVE it. It does so well on bare floors, but also great on carpet.

I am pretty faithful about cleaning the filters, which I think is key to them working right. I take out the foam filter and tap it clean outside, but I also wash it clean about once a month. That keeps the dust out of it, and I think the key to the vacuum performing well.

I am so happy with my Sharks, and the price point is right for the quality. I could buy about 6 of them, for the price of a Riccar.

Thanks to the Peas, I'm busy now learning about some high-end vacuum cleaner I might now need. Enablers.

My Kirby is going on 30 years now, and it still works like a charm. They were ridiculously expensive when I bought it, but my mom had one that was close to 30 years old at the time, and I did get mine at a pretty significant discount. (Friend of an acquaintance needed one more sale to make his quarterly goal or something, so he sold it for about half-price.)

I'm glad I've got it. We have had other vacuums through the years to keep on different floors (drawback to the Kirby is it is HEAVY!). I liked my Shark vacuum, but I tried a couple of Hoovers and did not like them. I also don't care for the Oreck I inherited from my SIL when she passed, although I understand why she liked it so much since it is lightweight and was easy for her to handle with her MS.

I think my mom's Kirby made it to 40 or so before it finally died, or she couldn't get bags for it anymore. I should probably stock up on my bags and belts LOL.

I'll have to keep an eye on the Riccar as a possible replacement some day.