Customer Reviews

Cordless Swivel Sweeper - Original As Seen on TV by Swivel Sweeper

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(47)
2 star:		(49)
1 star:		(132)

 

 

Updated: January 7, 2006

I have now owned the product for six months. I have nothing to change in my review. I am surprised that people are having so many problems with this product. My unit still works fine; the battery holds a charge; the pole has not broken; the handle has not broken. Maybe my unit is not typical. However, you do need to have realistic expectations for this product. The Swivel Sweeper is not a new revolutionary cleaning apparatus worthy of a patent (as the info commercial implies). It is just an electric sweeper for quick clean ups. If you want the thorough results that a vacuum provides--use a vacuum.

Original Review
I have owned my Swivel Sweeper for two weeks. If you are looking for something better than your dust pan, this is the product for you. If you are looking for something to replace your vacuum cleaner, you are going to be disappointed. The pros: light weight, high quality, cordless, rechargeable, easy to use, maneuverable. The cons: overpriced, can't ever replace a vacuum, time-consuming periodic cleaning. The product is just what I was looking for: a cordless, rechargeable, electric dust pan that I could keep in the kitchen next to the refrigerator and pull out twice a week and sweep the kitchen floor. I have a light colored tile floor and it shows every little particle of dirt. In addition, my cat spreads Friskies on the floor and the sweeper picks up those nicely. The Swivel Sweep is a fairly high quality product. All the parts look well designed, fairly durable (they are just plastic), and fit together well.

The Swivel Sweep is oversold on the info commercial (as to be expected). It will never take the place of a vacuum cleaner. It is not a vacuum cleaner. It creates no suction. It is simply a sweeper. I would summarize it as an electric dust pan. The product has four rotating brushes that sweep items into a small centralized dust pan with openings on all four sides. The Swivel Sweeper is much quieter than a traditional vacuum cleaner; however, one would not use it in a room with a sleeping baby as advertised--it is not that quiet. It makes a tone with medium-high pitched whine. The picture on the box shows the product being used to sweep dirt from a carpet after a house plant has been toppled--forget it! That is not a good use of this product. Use a real vacuum cleaner for that job. This product is really only effective on hard surfaces. A dust pan is not what I would use on a carpet. Yes, you could pick up small items sitting on the surface of a carpet like paper clips, but realistically, to clean a carpet adequately, one should use a vacuum cleaner with strong suction and a powerful beater brush to separate the carpet strands. The Swivel Sweeper has neither of these. The Swivel Sweep is not comparable to a real vacuum cleaner. The Swivel Sweeper has problems picking up some very small items even on hard surfaces. Sometimes an item will shoot across the floor instead of going into the dust pan. I find myself going over the same area multiple times to pick up some items (but no big deal).

Because the product is fairly new, it is a bit overpriced. I think $29 would be more appropriate. I would expect to see it at Target in a year or two for $19.95. Emptying the dust pan is easy. Cleaning the sweeper is not. The Swivel Sweeper comes with a "cleaning tool" which is nothing more than a thread cutter/seam ripper (if you know what that is). Hair (human hair) gets wound around all four brushes and needs to be periodically cut and vacuumed out. The manual says "on occasion" this cleaning need to be done. The manual indicates the battery will last 45 minutes on one charge. That seems reasonable since I am still on the original charge and have used the sweeper about 10 times.

Overall, I am pleased with the product.

I've read some pretty bad reviews on its battery charge holding power, but was intrigued anyway enough to buy one. I LOVE it!! Enough so, that I want to give you these cautions, which I'm observing. Then I'll tell you why it's worth it.

1. It says to fully charge it (8 hours) when you first get it. Do that. Don't cheat halfway through because you want to try it out. Just leave it plugged in, uninterrupted, for the 8 hours.
2. All rechargeable batteries have some weaknesses. This one may have more. While the directions say you can re-charge it before it runs out, I am not doing that. The safest way to treat a rechargeable battery is to let it run out of juice entirely. Then give it a full charge. That prevents any possibility of the battery's "memory" programming itself to only hold a charge a shorter time.
3. Do NOT leave the battery in the charger for longer than 24 hours, and I wouldn't leave it anywhere near that. (They tell you that in the instructions but they don't say why, so people can ignore this.) What happens is... the item gets fully charged (in this case, in 8 hours or less). Then as is the case with ALL batteries, they lose a little charge just by existing. If a rechargeable battery is left in its charger, the charger may charge it that teensy bit to bring it up to snuff. So what you are doing is conditioning its memory for a short charge. (I've heard this from everyone, from Verizon with cell phones on down the line.)
4. Last but not least, because of that last factor, I keep the battery out of the machine. It could still be losing a little charge, but at least it's not plugged into anything.

As for other complaints I've read, just understand how this thing works. It is NOT a vacuum. There is no suction whatsoever. It is nothing more than a sweeper. It has round brush rows on all sides that sweep matter into a tray (and it's a little tray). And that's all that it does. HOWEVER, it does that so well that... well, let's just say my floors are cleaner than they've ever been. I run this thing around maybe once a day, and it's just great. I empty the little tray (which is extremely easy to detach and re-attach as the head of the unit is on the floor -- you don't have to pick the unit up and hold it over the trash). Then it just snaps back on with a good, confirming click. And I would plan on emptying the tray every time you use it, because this thing picks up dust and everything.

One other thing. From time to time clean the brushes. Threads can get wound around and while they are just not a problem to pull off, you don't want them getting too wound up. It's just not a biggie at all.

So in short, yes there are a few things to remember, but this little unit is SO incredibly handy, that none of the above things are worth hassling yourself over. As for it working on carpets, it does okay on short pile carpet (you will hear the motor slow down a little). But it's meant mainly for floors.

I also love the fact that it has a magnet on one side of the head and on the handle (which matches up and holds) because it stores in the teensiest width places.

So this is a big review FOR it, but with the cautions that you can't expect it to be a vacuum because it's not; and you do need to do whatever you can to maximize its battery life between charges. As for customer service, I don't think there is any. I called them to get the lowdown on how to maximize its battery life between charges, and it's nothing more than a call center. It's not the actual company.

I just absolutly love this thing. I track dirt in from the barn and from the outside, and it is soooo handy for daily maintenance of floors (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) I haven't vacuumed my kitchen floor for over a month (ouch! but it's true). I just run this thing around and it gets into all sorts of crevices and corners.

Oh, one other caution. I am VERY careful not to run it over water or other spills (particularly anything sticky!). The reason is because those brushes are obviously going to have dirt encounters, that's what they're for. Any liquid, I'm quite sure, would just make for gunking them up.

I hope this is helpful, because the reviews I've read would have dissuaded me from having ever tried it. But they were ALL complaints about the above things which are quite easy to avoid.

I LOVE this product, and can't say enough good things about it. I purchased this product after being extremely disappointed with a more-expensive Bissell sweeper I purchased (see my review for Bissell 2800B Perfect Sweep Turbo Electric Sweeper).

There are numerous complaints in the reviews from people saying that their battery will no longer hold a charge. In reading the owner's manual, there is a warning addressing the battery life:

"IMPORTANT: ...When recharging, charge time will vary dependent upon the amount of power left in the battery after its last use. Recommended recharging time for the battery after completely depleting is 6-8 hours. Battery may be left in charger for extended periods of time, but do NOT exceed 24 consecutive hours. Doing so may lead to shortened overall battery life. It is not necessary to wait until battery power is fully depleted before charging."

I would be willing to bet that this is the cause of the problem for many of the negative reviewers. In their defense, the warning is somewhat buried in the manual and is fairly easy to miss. The manufacturer of should make this warning much more visible.

I purchased the swivel sweeper in August of 2005. After owning it four months, it no longer works.

The pole broke after 2 days of usage, and the company did replace the pole; however, it took five weeks and three emails to customer service before I had a replacement pole. The sweeper was not used for approximately one month. Now, after three months of using the swivel sweeper, the battery will NOT hold a charge. To replace the battery, the Ontel company charges $15 plus $6 handling/shipping, for a total of $21. Called the corporate offices and they said that the battery is only supposed to last 3-6 months (actually, mine lasted 3 months). Hence, to run this stupid contraption, you must be willing to spend an extra $84 a year (4 x $21) just to keep the battery going, and that doesnt even include other parts that need replacement. Seems to me the company intentionally made a poor quality rechargeable battery so that you'd have to keep replacing it! That is not an ethical business practice to a consumer who is on to scams like this! Also, they say that it runs up to 45 minutes on a single charge, but after 1 month, the battery starts to fail, and after three months, the battery holds a charge for about 30 seconds and then dies!

I'm not replacing my battery and giving into this corporate scam! And, I'm letting everyone I know that they'd be better off finding another cordless sweeper that holds a charge!

After using it maybe a total of 7 times it no longer works. Yes, it has a warranty but as another reviewer put it - is it really worth spending the money for s/h? Don't waste your money! I just basically threw away 40 bucks.

I bought this at Christmas time. Within 2 months it stopped working. I called up Ontel and they said it needed a new battery. So I figured it would be cheaper to buy a replacement battery than a new vacuum and purchased another battery at $20 including shipping. It still didn't work with the new battery. I called them again and they said I needed a new swival head and they would only charge me an additional $7 for that. They sent it to me and it still wouldn't work!! I called them again and they said there is nothing they could do since the warrenty was up. I have left many messages to the supervisor and sent many e-mails and they won't even talk to me!!

Save your money and go with a more reputable company!! I wish I would have!

I owned the Swivel Sweeper for 2 months before it broke. I would have given it 4 - 5 stars before it broke but not anymore. It does a great job of getting up all the visible dirt, hair, debris, etc. from hard surface flooring and floormats. I have no carpet in my house so I cannot rate it on that. It's easy enough to use that my 3-year old loves to help out. The problem is that something in the gearbox must have broken because the motor makes noise but the brushes don't turn. Because I am still in the 90-day warranty period, I was given the option of sending another $12.99 (handling fee) to have the unit replaced or return it for a refund of the $40 purchase price. I haven't decided yet. I've already spent ~$55 with the purchase price and ridiculous $15 S&H. I'm not so sure I want to spend another $20 ($7 to send it to them and $13 handling charge) to get another one. It's just a little too cheaply built. I'd expect to pay $15 - $20 for the item at Target/Wal-mart.

I purchased a Swivel Sweeper, manufactured by Ontel Products, through amazon.com. The handle broke the third time it was used. We followed the directions in the manual, which said to send the sweeper, still on warranty, to Ontel with a check for $12.99 to cover shipping of a replacement. When no replacement was received within a reasonable time, we called them to find out what was happening. They could not find the package we sent to them, even though their warehouse manager signed for it. We informed Customer Service of the UPS Tracking Information, with the name of the person who signed for the package at Ontel, the manager of the warehouse. Customer Service said we should stop payment on the original check and send them another check or give them a credit card number in order for them to send us a replacement. A stop-payment would cost us $30.

In other words, they would not take responsibility for their mistake. In view of their terrible service, I would not recommend Ontel products to anyone.

Other comments from customers indicate they have had similar problems with Swivel Sweeper Handles cracking or breaking. Swivel Sweepers are definitely an inferior product.

I got one at a thrift store that was brand-new and it works great. It picked up the wood shavings that my pet rodents throw around and I spilled some natural sugar on the floor last night and it cleaned up the large portions of it. There is no suction, only the rotating heads that act like brooms on all sides and it swivels. I don't know about paying forty dollars for it, I bought mine for 8 dollars. I'd say it's worth about half of what they are selling it for now. Give it a few months, they'll go down.

This SO CALLED SWEEPER IS **%100 JUNK**.. I purchased two with the idea that one I would keep and another I would give as a gift.. The one I kept worked for 1 to 2 minutes AFTER a complete recommended charge (6-8 hours).. Tried recharging, worked for less than 30 seconds... When the second one arrived, I knew I wasn't giving it away so I figured I would try it.. Worse, different charger and different battery - as soon as I would set it on the tile floor, immediately it shuts-off.. I feel there should be a class-action suit over such a product that was MEANT to rip off the public... All I can say for those who are lucky enough to read this before ever purchasing one, DON'T GIVE IT AS A GIFT AND BY ALL MEANS REALIZE THERE ARE UNBELIEVABLE NUMBER OF SUCKERS LIKE MYSELF WHO BOUGHT THE HYPE ONLY TO BE LEFT FEELING SCREWED !!!