Piranha Phantom VC4501(A)-5

Piranha's Best! – As a professional house cleaner I use this vacuum the most. I Love it. It gets kicked around and worked hard. Like any vacuum cleaner they work best when everything is clean. Actually all of the piranha vacuum are good especially for the price etc. Cheers from Scottie @ house.perthcleaningwa.com  Show details

Great little number – Had this vacuum since 2010 when we moved into our house. Shouldn't say it but its been used for renovations, plaster dust, brick dust. Cleaned the filters regularly and haven't had an issue touch wood. Suction is still great. It is light and easy to carry although sometimes grab the dust canister to pick it up. Easy to maneuver. I don't… Read more

really know what to rate the noise against, to me it is fine. Used on tile, parquetry, vinyl tiles and carpet.

Good value – I've had this vacuum cleaner for more than 2 years now, and it still works as well as when I got it. It only cost about $99, so I wasn't expecting perfection, but it does a good job and is easy to push around. I had some trouble with working out how it all fit together initially, but once I figured that out it was fine, and haven't had any more… Read more

problems. It's quite easy to remove the container for emptying and then it just clicks back into place again.

Worked well for a year or so but then lost all suction – This vacuum cleaner was pretty good (on tiles and very thin carpet) for about a year but then kept losing suction. No matter how many times we take all of the filters out and clean everything, the suction is getting worse and worse. There is one part that we can't even get to in order to clean it. Very frustrating, disappointing and wasteful.

Thinking about upgrading to Miele but this still works >5 years – Have had this $99 unit for over 5 years. Vacuum daily (yes). I didn't used to be a vacuuming nut but I have a fluffy rag doll indoor cat who loves jumping in and out of litter tray probably even when she gets bored. Therefore litter tracking is frequent. Fluffy hair dropping is every day & very obvious on timber floor. Haven't had problem with… Read more

unit except lately where sucking was so poor it couldn't even do kettles chip crumbs very well but it just needed a good clean out especially at the head. Banged it against concrete a few times, took filter out and hit it too outdoors. Just needed a good smack. Which you can afford to do with cheap old Kmart appliances. Might still get a Miele anyway. But so far so good.

Dec 2015. On an update. It did work after a snack outdoors but not for long. I upgraded to Miele. The suction on the piraña pretty much lost its life. Suppose it did it's job and was cheap.

After 6 months it's lost all suction – Just needed something cheap due to lack of funds moving into a new home and didn't have a vacuum cleaner. At first it was fine after a couple months it loses suction. The brush head broke. The suppliers office is around the corner from my work and was able to purchase another one for $15. Now around 18 months of owning it, the dirt container won't… Read more

come out at all! my partner and I have tried numerous times. Cannot empty it and looks like I have to purchase a vacuum ASAP since this is out of warranty. Was great for something cheap to get us by. If you are looking to replace after 6 months then this is the one to buy.

for the price, this thing does it's job well – Bought this about 2 years ago from kmart, I think for 99. At the time, I felt drawn to it due to the many filters, instead of just the one filter (had one cheap big w vacuum cleaner previously...lasted long but meh...anyways). Pros: -does it's job well, it sucks and sucks and sucks. I am a crazy cleaner and I clean my apartment every week, or… Read more

even spot clean now and then. Machine never stopped due to overheating (even in summer).

-big container. I never had to empty the container until I've done at least 2 and a bit more rooms.

-long cord

-extra attachments

-you can clean the filters! With some mild detergent (I use those for woollen), it's quite effective to clean the filters even the white ones.

Cons:

-after 1.5 years the base head's wheels broke off. Now I Gaffer tape the whole thing together. I suppose you can always buy a new one for 15 from their website, but gaffer tape still works

-emptying the container can be messy. I suggest emptying them over your green bins outside. You also have to shake it real good (or bang it against your palm), so that the dust within the container (the cyclonic part), is dislodged

-not really easy to manoeuvre

-it is loud NOT quite as they marketed it. Unless if you use it on low...but then you won't be sucking much

Overall it's not a dyson/miele. It will do the job and it will do it well. If you are looking extra functions, then this is not for you. If you are on a budget, this is probably the best for you. It's 99 bucks, not sure what others are expecting from this machine.

Cheap and cheerful, lasting way longer than anticipated – I bought this when moving into a share house when I was broke because I needed something immediately and cheap, and this seemed the best on the shelf in Kmart, it had the highest wattage, multi-cyclone centrifuge filter and multiple foam filters with a rear HEPA filter on the outlet instead of just a single "central" HEPA filter like all it's… Read more

cheap cousins alongside it, and the display of this model looked more robust and solidly put together than all the others.

For $99 from Kmart I honestly did not expect it to last me 6 months, but I have now had it for 2 years and 6 months, vacuuming weekly or twice weekly for that entire time being used and abused by at least 7 people and it has never caused me a drama, with no signs of slowing down.

I personally vacuum pedantically, all carpets of all rooms, corners, skirting boards, lounges, ledges, everything. I honestly do not know what the other complaints are about, the suction is good, though not mind blowing, but it does the job. Just empty the canister into the bin after each use, and I find I need to dust off the first foam filter above the multi-cyclone part after 3 use, push the vacuum head brushes up or down depending on soft or hard floors, and bobs your uncle.

One thing I will note is it's probably best to just always leave the adjustable power on its highest, when it's set lower the centrifuges slow down and don't work as effectively to keep dust out of the filters, to me adjustable power on this kind of cleaner is more of a feature for features sake and a design flaw, rather than actually that useful. I prefer to use the slide opening on the wand to reduce the suction force as this does not affect the dust separation in the machine an keeps the filters clear longer.

Of course, this vacuum does not have any desirable features like power head and what not, and it couldn't hold a candle to the engineering of Dyson, or the suction of Vax or Hoover or the build quality of Miele etc, but it is obviously not supposed to. It is a $99 Chinese vacuum from Kmart that does what it needs to, vacuum on a budget. And in the context of its asking price I'd have to say it's probably best of a bad bunch.

Piece of Junk – Don't buy this vacuum cleaner. It continually stops working after about 10 minutes of "cleaning" and then cannot be started again until after some time. Kmart should be ashamed to stock such a useless piece of junk. If you only pay $100 for a vacuum cleaner then maybe you expect the suction to not be as good as other more expensive models, but for it not to even work is completely unacceptable.

Very noisy – We brought this vacuum over others as it was 2400w and it said it was quite. It is far from quite. So noisy that I can even vacuum as it hurts my ears. The worst vacuum and even after we did use it I went over it again with a borrowed vacuum and it still picked up a lot if stuff. The piranha doesn't even clean the carpet well. NOISY

Don't Know What The Other People Were Doing, Mines Great, Not A Trouble In The World, And For Only 1 – One Thing People Say About It Is That It "Loses Suction After The First Time" I Think They May Have The Power Dial Turned Down, OR They Might Have It Too High Up, If You Place Your Hand Over The End And It Goes Into "Squeal Mode" As me And My Missus Call It Then You Need To Dial It Down On The Power Button Until It Goes Back To A Normal… Read more ·  1

Operating Noise.

It will have zero suction when this is happening

The Filter Is Just Blocking Off The Flow Of Air.

We Use It For Everything, And After Almost 2 Years, I've Only Now Cleaned ALL The Filters, ( I Only Cleaned The Black Ones Till Now)

It Gets Everything We Want Off The Floor,

I Just Can't Really Fault It For Anything

A HEPA Filter Machine For 100 Bucks, If I Had The Need Or Space I'd've Bought Two By Now. Excellent "Power Dial" Set The Suction To Whatever You Need, Cheap, Easy To Clean Up (Remove Chamber - Open Bin Lid - Push Button - Done!)

Get a broom for $10- will be more useful than this garbage – I got ripped off from Kmart with this useless and worthless vaccum. More than actually vacuuming my house, I spend time cleaning the bloody filters to try and get this thing to atleast suck up basic stuff from my floor. Poor suction and also will take a chunk of your time trying to maintain and get this to work. Im not goin close to this brand… Read more

anymore, Id much rather not vacuum my house at all, saves me the time taken to clean this vacuum cleaner.

Just about everything

Absolutely terrible – This is the worst vacuum cleaner I have ever wasted my money on! Always cleaning the filters and emptying the bag but doesn't change a thing! I would not recommend it to anyone! Only worked the first time I pulled it out of the box! Very disappointed in the product Nothing Everything

Piranha Phantom 2400W. The Great Under Achiever!! – Ever since new this vacuum has never performed well. The filters are cleaned regularly (god only knows why as it doesn't improve the performance). The suction is so poor that it wouldn't even suck the skimmed milk off the top of a rice pudding. I guess it's the old story of you pay for what you get and in this case you get sweet nothing. BUYER… Read more

BEWARE!!!!

Terrible suction .... wouldn't even pick up a bread crumb.......we had to pick it up by hand.

Waste of money – I purchased my Piranha from K Mart and it is useless - Got recommended by a friend who purchased the smaller one. Thought I would get the next size up as I have dogs but terrible suction. May try the smaller one and just bin this one. Dont buy this one Suction is terrible

Absolute garbage – This machine stopped working after 15 mins and I mean stopped totally. Save yourself $100 and buy something else. Customer Service does not exist. I would not recommend it to anybody. Bought it about 5 or 6 weeks ago but did not use it until today 7/10/12 am very upset as the previous machine I threw out but was better than this piece of garbage. Nothing Does not go

Absolute garbage! – Whatever you do DO NOT BUY THIS VACUUM. I bought this machine yesterday. When I used this vacuum this morning, the first 10 minutes, it was working fine. But after that, the machine started to make strange "blockage" sound and suction power dropped to almost ZERO! I tried calling the customer care, but theyr'e not open on weekend, they're… Read more

only open Monday-Friday, 9-5. WELL, How many people do you know vacuuming at home DURING working hour? The company musta assume only unemployed people buy their vacuum!

An absolute garbage of a machine, I wouldn't even call it VACUUM machine at all. Because it does NOT vacuum anything (well... not after the first 10 minutes at least)!

Everything! Not working, Expensive, Extremely inconvenient customer service, etc...!!!

Absolute garbage! – I can suck better than this vacuum. Even with 2400 watts, this has to be the worst vacuum I've ever used. After 5 seconds of every use, it makes the sound of a blockage, even though its almost brand new, none of the hoses are blocked and the dust container is almost empty. I can't even return it to the shop because I didn't keep the box, but if I… Read more

did, I would have returned it the next day. A total waste of money, not happy at all.

Expensive, non efficient