Customer Reviews

Eureka 3276AVZ Whirlwind Plus Pet Lover Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Length:: 1:49 Mins

We have two dogs - whose favorite occupations are sleeping, barking, and shedding! Our last vacuum quit the job - I suspect because of the dog fur - so I was glad to see this one designed especially for that tough job.

I was a bit surprised at the amount of assembly required, but it went together easily - I documented it in the video review. The review includes about 40 seconds of vacuuming, and the final results - including what happens when you try to pull out the canister using the hatch button instead of the correct one at the top. All of the fur in the photo on the video was vacuumed up in the time shown of actual vacuuming - I TOLD you they shed a lot!

Anyway, I enjoy the fact that all of the tools are made to grab dog fur, and I really love the cool way you can put the telescoping duster back in and have the vacuum clean it off!

I can't certify as to longevity, but during my first try I was amazed at how much it picked up - even along the edges. I'd give it a full 5 stars, except that I think some of the parts could have been pre-assembled.

****LONGEVITY - UPDATED. After less than 1 year, the entire floor brush had to be replaced - there was a missing seal, and the bearing burned up.

Unless you want to be constantly frustrated and angry, do not buy this vacuum. The genius design has the vent on the front of the vacuum so if you're using it on bare floor, you are pushing the dirt and dust away from you and trying to chase it down. The filter seems to pick up all the dirt and hair so it's constantly clogged. I empty it three times for about 650 sf of space. And, to make it that much more annoying, the chord isn't very long so you have to plug it in in different places to cover a small space like mine. This vacuum is not worth the money or time you will spend trying to clean up relatively small messes. Do not buy it!

I have had two Eureka 4716AVZ `Pet Pal' vacuums in the past 6 or 8 months- the first was exchanged by the retailer after it died within 90 days; the second just died this morning in exactly the same way. Obviously, there is an issue here. The vac under review here has a slightly different model number, but after very careful scrutiny of all photos and the video, plus reading all comments, I believe that my 4716AVZ is identical to the 3276AVZ in every respect.

Pros:
1. Low price
2. Cleans hairy carpets exceptionally well
3. `Power Paw' wand attachment does a decent job of cleaning hairy couches

Cons (go get a snack, this is a long list):

1. Absolutely will fail under normal household use if you have any pet hair to speak of (pet hair is how they MARKET this cleaner!)- first, a bit of pet hair inevitably gets wound around and UNDER the roller-brush plastic end-caps; next, some dirt, hair or both gets under and into the cheap bearings, which immediately heat up, seize and cause the end caps as well as the felt dirt seals to melt into the ends of the roller brush assembly, rendering the machine useless. Your very first clue that any of this is happening will be about 2 seconds of smelling "something burning" as the roller brush seizes up completely and the drive axle spins through the belt, frying it, followed by the stench of burning rubber and pet hair (yum!) as the belt melts apart and snaps, along with the total annihilation into hot goo of the end caps, dirt seals and bearing race inserts. This single defect is sufficient to warrant a safety recall IMHO.

2. As you push your Pet Pal along your uncarpeted floors, you will find that the Eureka engineers cleverly aimed the exhaust air from this machine to blow downward and straight ahead onto the floor in front of the machine. Therefore, you will find yourself chasing hair-bunnies around but never capturing them because this machine blows them away from in front of the machine no matter how fast you chase them. Truly comical.

3. The power toe-switch, located down low on the left side, is difficult to activate because it has been diabolically recessed directly under a loop of the hose and the bottom of the wand storage bracket, which is only about 2 inches directly above the switch. It is easier to activate if you are barefoot, but unfortunately you may cut your foot doing so because there is a rough plastic edge situated directly above the toe-switch waiting to scrape the top of your bare foot. This is yet another safety hazard with this machine and should warrant a safety recall IMHO.

4. The above-vilified power switch has yet another trick up its red plastic sleeve: despite the difficulty of activating it on purpose, it is frighteningly easy to activate it inadvertently! When you have the hose unstowed, which you must do to use the wand or any attachments such as the `Pet Paw' or the crevice tool, the weight of the drooping hose alone is sufficient to cause inadvertent activation of the vacuum! This is simply an incredible safety issue, and it boggles the (my) mind that there hasn't been a safety recall on these machines!

5. Last and least, the power cord routing and placement is such that you must push the vacuum with your left hand because your right hand will be busy holding the power cord, flipping it this way and that to keep it out of the way. This will be great news for all 17 of you lefties out there (just kidding) but for us right-handers it's a real pain, especially considering that there is no valid reason to engineer this machine with the cord exiting the handle area to the right.

Bottom line: if you are left-handed, have no uncarpeted floors, have a professional firefighter in the household and your plan is to spend $75-80 every 3 months on a disposable, maddeningly poorly-engineered and arguably dangerous vacuum, Eureka has you covered with their 4716AVZ Pet Pal and similar clones with slightly different attachments and/or model numbers. It really does clean carpets well... until it goes into its inevitable meltdown- It's not a matter of `if,' just `when.'

I bought this vacuum because it was advertised as great for pet hair. I have had it for about 6 months now. I have been constantly frustrated with this machine. The design is terrible. The dirt inlet into the cannister is positioned too close to the filter so it clogs every 5 minutes. It also doesn't seem powerful enough to pick up even small dirt. Every time I turn the machine off there is a pile of dirt that falls out. It is so bad that I have to move it onto the tile before I power down so I can sweep up the mess afterwards. Don't waste your money - buy a different vacuum. I want to throw this stupid thing out the window every time I use it. I keep praying it will die so I can buy a new one.

this vacuum represents everything awful in the world.
I'm absolutely certain it was designed to fail.
for me in less than 6 months.

Not only will I never, ever buy any eureka product ever again, I will also stress the importance of avoiding all eureka products online, to friends, relatives, and grandchildren. Maybe just randomly stop people on the street to raise awareness.

save your money & get one of them German built ones.. seems they actually care about their product and may even use their brains when designing them.

The only reason this vacuum gets 1 star is because there is not option for 0. I did not even know vacuums could be so poorly designed. Does not have variable height levels which causes it to make terrible marks in rugs/ carpets. Billed as being portable, when in fact it is bulky and takes up more room than implied. Nothing about it makes it a "pet-loving" product other than animations of paws and cats. The exhaust vent faces forward making it worthless on hardwood; blows dust, dirt, hair, everything in its path away so it never actually cleans. This thing is more like a leaf blower than vacuum cleaner. I think you will be happier with any other vacuum on the market.

This vacuum is a serious waste of money. It worked fine the first couple times we used it, but then it started just spitting out dust and leaving a trail behind it. The problem is, it clogs horribly. I can't even finish my entire living room without stopping to unclog the hose. For a vacuum advertised as "Pet Lover" it's pathetic. I'm sick and tired of cleaning cat hair clogs and dust blowing out all over the place.

Seriously, don't waste your money on this vacuum. Total POS.

We have had this vacuum for maybe 2 years now and just haven't gotten around to replacing it because it does still work. However this is one of most high-maintenance appliances in the world. The belts break like they are made out of glass and the the filters and hoses clog constantly. I have never once yet been able to vacuum the entire 1100 sq ft house without having to stop and unclog something or break a belt. The canister holds a lot, but when the hair clogs up the entrance to the canister, what good is that? It's a bad design. The hose goes into the canister right where the filter is located, so things jam up behind there and then nothing gets picked up. It's lousy on bare floors - as another reviewer noted, you end up trying to chase stuff around. And the duster is supposed to self-clean? It hasn't done anything since day one and actually broke so now the duster part is about 6" long. The handle held up-it's the duster head that came off. This duster sounded good in theory but has never worked for us.

When everything is unclogged, clean and working, it does do a good job on the pet hair, but those times are few & far between. Filters and belts need very frequent replacing and it adds to the cost of the vacuum overall. Save your money for a better design.

This thing rocks! I have average length carpet (not shag, and not industrial business carpet, but somewhere in-between) and I have two cats, one long haired. Usually I can vacuum my whole upstairs before I have to empty the bagless container, but I had to empty it immediately after I vacuumed my living room (The waste container is just as big as any other vacuum I've had, so it's not the size. This thing is sucking up a LOT more stuff than my old bissell).

The cord is shorter than some vacuums, but as long as you have a plug in every room, you'll be fine. That also means it's less cord to wind up when you're done!

The model I bought comes with a dust wand. When you're done with the wand, you put it back into it's holster and the vacuum sucks the dust off of the wand inside it's little chamber. It also came with an accessory that is excellent for furniture and kitty towers. It's one of those brush attachments, but when you attach it to the end of the hose, suction turns these little bristles inside and it stirs up and collects the hair deep down!

I have a back porch with industrial carpet & it's always covered in cat hair and bird seed. I did get pelted in my bare feet with some of the seed while I was vacuuming, but it sucked up the hair and I wasn't using the lowest height setting.

I had to assemble it myself, but it was only 5 screws and didn't take long at all. Came with easy to follow instructions.

Got it at walmart for $80, but it is definitely worth $200 easy!

Here's a tip to the folks at Eureka: If you're going to design a vacuum for pet owners, it should be able to pick up the occasional hair or two without clogging. The opening to the collection canister has a tiny gap in which pet hairs jam up immediately. After the pet hair collects to about the size of a ping-pong ball (about 3-4 strokes of the vacuum) the canister is Officially Clogged, and will not pick up any more pet hair. I'm not kidding, pet hair is kryptonite to this shiny purple triumph of marketing over engineering.