Nilfisk
Motor doesn't last – Vp300 series. First one lasted two years then motor gave up. I had got on very well with all flooring. I purchased another one. This 300hepa has only… Read more
lasted 21months. On off switch cost $100 to repair 6 weeks ago now the motor has given up. I only use it 8 hrs a weeks. Unless your prepared to buy a new one every twenty months don't buy it. Very disappointed with Nilfisk and made in China.
Design fault – We had 4 of these operation in our school. All failed because dust gets through the filters into the motors. When heat builds up with constant use… Read more
the motor suspension rubber deforms (permanently) and allows dust into the motors. This in turn cause the motor to fail. This is a commercial vacuum. Using it for long periods shouldn't be a problem. Regular cleaning of the bags has not helped. Motors are half the price of the unit to replace. The motor suspension kits if you catch the issue early are in very short supply from Nilfisk. Just shake the vacuum up and down to see if your suspension rubber has deformed. You can feel the motor move around.
Perfect – I switched to this vacuum on the advice of a friend who had several fail from another brand as did mine. This is a great vacuum technically for commercial use but is fine for home use. Very solid. Can't imagine it would break down in 10+ years.
I purchased the SC100 to clean polished concrete floors with the microfibre (white) brush. Overall the machine is solid, it has a long power cord and… Read more
a large solution tank so it well suited to cleaning larger domestic areas. I can do a clean on a single tank compared to around 8-10 refills with the Tineco. The cleaning head is very bulky so it can't get into narrow areas and twisting or turning the machine will leave puddles behind. So it is well suited to large areas with few obstructions. I have kept my little Tineco S9 to clean smaller areas. In terms of capacity and ability to clean it is better than any of the domestic machines that I have tested. It does an excellent job of removing dirt from the floor but a poor job of drying the floor leaving a trail of water on each end of the brush. I have to do the floor twice, the second time without water, and this leaves the floor clean and dry. Note that this issue doesn't exist with the blue (carpets) and black brushes which both pickup almost all of the water used. The vacuum accessory is a waste of time and poor design leads to a loss of suction through the brush. I have thrown mine away and blocked the hole. I have reported these issues to Nilfisk and can't get them to confirm whether my issues are a design issue or a machine fault. The local sales agent and the service agent have both inspected the machine and can confirm that my issues are real but I can't get a response from Nilfisk. Apart from these issues build quality and design are OK but not what we used to expect from European appliances.
Want a vacuum to last – I bought a commercial vacuum after a domestic one failed within 18 months (previous one lasted 2 decades) cleaning a small Unit. I was a bit dubious… Read more
of this vacuum having an 800 watt motor and especially a 350 watt normal setting. Only had it a few weeks and have not been disappointed. It cleans better at 350 watts than the old one did at 2000 watts. Have found no need to use the high 800 watt setting other than to see what it can do, 2/3 carpet, 1/3 timber floors & tiles in wet areas. The motor just has this low end guts that the high powered domestic vacuums don’t have. It almost make vacuuming pleasurable! Other things I like are a longer hose, the old one felt as if the vacuum was always under your feet. 10 metre retractable lead (the lower model has a plug in lead which is probably more suited for commercial use) is great, an extra 2.5 metres over the old one. It has a 10 litre dust bag, probably about 8 litres in actual use as dust bag volume in the canister are always smaller than what manufactures say, but still 3 times the domestic vacuum, and the dust bag lid that comes off completely, it won’t ever break. The vacuum is a bit more bulky, but really not by very much and the extra brushes are stored on the outside of the vacuum. If you can put up with a touch more bulk the vacuum is so much better than these high power energy sucking motors every manufacture is using in the both bag and bagless. I had an 1100 watt vacuum for 2 decades, it worked better than the last one at 2000 watts. This one at 350 watts works better still. It comes with a hepa H13 filter, I put in an H14 filter, not because it needs it, but simply because you can (not mentioned it their brochure)! The only thing I can think of that it really needs is a setting lower than 350 watts for dusting shelves, and it only comes with one dust bag, but it is 10 litres. Have ordered a pack of antibacterial bags which will last me ages! Lastly it has an energy rating of ‘A’ (15kWh/annum) which Australia still is a generation behind with our energy sucking appliances and vague labelling!
Edit 24 Sep 2021. The vacuum is still going, couldn't be happier with it. A few months ago I spent a week vacuuming the roof space after an infestation of rats. I had bought some medical grade vacuum bags & recycled them by cutting off the bottom & threading on a piece of 20mm PVC pipe with a slit.
The rubber nozzle attachment wore down a bit, but one really can't complain as I worked it hard scraping into every last corner on the rough original fibre plaster ceiling & oregon timber framing.
I still use this vacuum on the 350 watts setting 99.5% of the time. The 800 watt setting is handy but it is just not needed most of the time. The high wattage vacuums should simply be banned.
Performance – Excellent vacuum cleaner, in fact the best I have had
No pad pressure – I purchased a Nilfisk AS510B scrubber-drier, I bought it 2nd hand, apparently 1 year old, I found the downward pressure of the pad was almost non… Read more
existent and rang Nilfisk Australia to see if there was any adjustments, the person I spoke to acknowledge that the centre of gravity of this machine was over the back wheels and not forward, we discussed if there were any options to put more pressure at the front, nothing he could let me know, when I researched scrubber driers this one appeared to be what I was looking for, unfortunately the positioning of the batteries in the rear has made the machine not perform as expected, the scrubber barely hits the floor, I asked if I could add some weights to the pad surround to get a better downward pressure, he said sure just dont over do it, but couldnt tell me how much to add, I think Nilfisk needs to go back to the engineers and look at a way to position the correct weight onto the scrubber or pad, not sure what my next move is, but until I can achieve enough pressure on the scrubber it will sit in the shed gathering dust
