Customer Reviews

Eureka 4870DT Upright Vacuum

5 star:		(178)
4 star:		(110)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I've been using the SmartVac for over a month now. It is a great vacuum for the price. Some of the positives about it are: terrific vacuuming suction, clean air smell while vacumming, easy attachment system, and soft wheels for hardwood floors. I noticed that after I vacuumed my 15 year old carpets that I had to use force to close the doors since the nap had been raised so high. The rugs look noticeably cleaner and have a raised, fresh look. Negatives to the vacuum are the heavy weight, and the cheap plastic pedal that lowers the handle takes getting used to.

To address some of the comments made by others. The attachments all fit very snugly in their holders. You need to use enough force to "snap" them into place. I, too, thought the upholstery tool was loose until I realized that you need to use quite a bit of force to snap it into place. Once snapped, it won't go anywhere until you snap it out. For vacumming hardwood floors, you need to make sure that the vacuum is lowered to its lowest position and that the brushes are turned off. I also bought a small turbo head, a deluxe floor brush and a 10 foot extra hose. They work great together for cleaning under beds and for the car and furniture.

In summary, I think this is a great vacuum. For an extra $30 or so you can get some attachments that really make it work wonders. I now can leave it at the bottom of the stairs, while using the 20 feet of hose to clean all of the stairs and the wall, if I'm inclined! The suction is still very strong even with the extra hose. Hope this is helpful.

I'll admit that I'm one of the worst when it comes to sweeping the floor with a broom. No matter how hard I try, there always seems to be some elusive dustbunny that resists all efforts to corral it in the dustpan. So, when my wife and I went shopping for a vacuum cleaner, we zeroed in on models that were capable of vacuuming the acres of wall-to-wall carpeting in our home and sweeping the tile and vinyl that make up the rest of our floors. A HEPA filter and disposable dust bags were necessities because of her allergies (your allergist will tell you that bagless cleaners are an exercise in futility unless you take the cleaner completely out of the house and shut the door behind you when emptying the dirt container).

After we pared down the list, we consulted the leading consumer reporting magazine and bought the highest rated model we could afford. And that's how we came to own this cleaner.

I vaguely remember reading that Eureka's engineers cobbled together the prototype for The Boss SmartVac series by actually mounting a classic "torpedo" canister cleaner and its motorized carpet brush on a wheeled rig with a handle. Once they determined that it COULD be done, they refined the design into a unit that really does combine the suction power of a canister with the carpet cleaning ability and easy mobility of an upright, with the added convenience of having the cleaning tools along for the ride. You can see the "canister cleaner on wheels" inspiration in the larger photo here on Amazon.com.

In operation, the cleaner is surprisingly quiet, producing a breathy drone that still permits conversation. Though not self-propelled, the cleaner's brush roller turns so rapidly, it almost propels the cleaner for you. A headlight helps you spot obstacles in the cleaner's path.

The 15-inch wide cleaning path shortens your vacuuming time and offers right-up-to-the-baseboard edge cleaning ability. For more stubborn debris, you can put together the extension wand and attach the crevice tool. The upholstery tool does an admirable job on carpeting under, say, a bed that can't be moved. One notable feature: When the handle is returned to the fully upright position, as when cleaning with tools, the brush roller stops, preventing worn spots on your carpet. A brush roller switch lets you turn off the brush roller at other times for sweeping bare floors.

A few engineering features are worth mentioning. The cleaner's motor is completely isolated from the suction path and protected by its own final stage filter, meaning small hard objects like coins, nutshells and buttons won't damage the fan blades or jam the motor. The micron filtration dust bag, motor filter and HEPA filter equal 3 stages of filtration before the air is expelled. The brush roller belt follows a twist-free path, extending its life and reducing the risk of belt breakage. Should debris actually clog the suction path, all of the hoses can be detached and cleared. If a particularly nasty item has damaged the hose or pipe, the parts can be easily replaced by the consumer.

After vacuuming the carpet in the master bedroom and some of the living room, we already noticed a measurable level of dirt in the first bag, an indication of the dirt left behind by our aging Hoover Decade 80 upright. We expect bags in the future to last a tad longer.

If you expect to use the cleaner a lot, you can upgrade the disposable HEPA filter to a washable CleanStream HEPA filter. Details are at www.cleanstreamfilters.com.

Review: Eureka 4870DT Upright Vacuum Home-Cleaning System
I would have to say I have never bought or used such a nice Vacuum my whole life. This Vacuum is simply amazing. I had a Hoover Bagless lower end model for 6 months and will never buy a bagless again. The Hoover was too messy and didn't clean the floors. It also blew dust all over the place and couldn't find the filters anywhere. This Eureka 4870 is the Consumer Reports best pick for the dollar, It's compared to ...vacuums. I have to say its amazing. If you are in the market for a vacuum DO NOT PASS THIS ONE UP. I did lots of research on Upright vacuums and glad I picked this one. I did some research in my area (South Florida) and found some of the stores DID and DIDN'T carry the bags for this model (bag # RR), like Wal-Mart and Target. But some stores you wouldn't think about going to for vacuum bags like BrandsMart USA and Best Buy have them. Also a little info about the Eureka 4870, it comes with 1 year's supply of bags.
I read all the reviews and the only TRUE common disliked part of this vacuum is the foot release peddle, it is a little hard to press down on. But I found if you press forward on the handle while stepping on the release peddle, it is not hard to release the haddle.
I am glad that this vacuum lives up to its reviews. It's a TOP PICK and I give it highest honor, way to go EUREKA.

I have owned this vac for about six months now, and I am quite impressed! This is the third vacuum I have owned and let me tell you how it compares to the others I've owned:

My first vacuum was a Fantom Thunder (first generation). I was blown away by their infomercials and had to buy one! Initially I was pleased with the vacuum, but I soon tired of emptying the collection cup (as it's a bagless). Then one day I was vacuuming under the stove with the hose and I sucked up a toy cat mouse (we've all done that) and the vac clogged. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find the clog. I even took the vacuum apart! No luck, it was trashed. Be very careful in choosing a Fantom as the company has gone out of business.

My second vac was a Dirt Devil Swivel Guide. The Swivel Guide is a very poor quality vacuum...I don't recommend it to anyone, unless you are really short on cash. It was very loud and fell over very easily when I used the hose and attachments.

I finally decided that I had had enough with the Dirt Devil. I had read customer reviews and did some research online. I decided on the Eureka 4870 Smart Vac.

I took it out of the box and about three minutes later I was vacuuming! I was impressed with it quietness and it's effortless movement across carpeting. It doesn't fall over like the Dirt Devil when I use the hose. It doesn't even tip, it's very solid! The headlight was a disappointment though, it's not at all bright. The huge amount of power it has more than compensates for the dim headlight.
I have asthma and severe allergies, and I love cats, so a powerful vacuum is very important! I can actually feel the vacuum stick to the floor because of the powerful suction. Not only can I feel it stick to the floor, but I can feel it pull me along while I vacuum because of the powerful revolving brush. I have never seen a vacuum so powerful! I actually enjoy vacuuming, and now vacuum several times a week instead of waiting until I couldn't breath anymore!

Besides the headlight, the only other gripe I have is the Smart Vac is heavier than most vacs, especially when the bag gets full.

It's a very high quality, solid vacuum and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good vacuum at an affordable price. Oh, I forgot about a bonus, it's also pretty cool looking!

This new Eureka is replacing an upright that I bought in the early 80's. The parts to fix that one were no longer available, unfortunately.

The new vac has some features that I really like, and some that I wish were more like my old vac.

Plusses:

- Very strong suction. As stated in other reviews, it can lift many of the furniture grooves back to normal carpet level. I only have to do the really persistent ones with the kitty-brush. And it picked up a lot of dirt that had probably been in my carpets for months.

- Relatively easy to switch to bare floor, and cleans well there.

- Sturdy. Some vacs I compared it with had wibbly-wobbly handles. This one's very secure. Better than my old one.

- Easy to assemble.

- I like having the tools/hose. My old vac didn't have them, and I used to lift the whole THING up to do couches. Of course, without the attachments, my old vac was really light and *could* be lifted.

- It moves easily, no pushing when you're on carpet so my arms aren't as tired, and the wheels are larger than my old vac's so it easily rolls over uneaven floors both when running and when I'm pushing it to the closet for storage.

Minuses:

- The plastic foot pedal that you have to press to release the vac from its resting position to the vacuuming position is stiff. I sometimes have to press it multiple times. 'course I'm usually barefoot in the house. Still, my old Eureka was a lot easier.

- The accessories *are* hard to get into the holders and *do* fall out, especially the upholstery attachment that goes at the top middle of the cord storage area. I have yet to wind or unwind the cord and not have that attachment fall off.

- It was louder than I figured it would be after reading the rave reviews. Louder than my old Eureka was before it went bust (bushings wore out or something).

- It doesn't fit under the furniture that my old vac fit under. My old upright went much flatter. This one... I can maybe get 8 inches under a chair before the canister part hits the bottom edge of the chair, and it's much worse with dressers. I had to use the attachments to clean under furniture. This is a bit of a pain... it requires more fiddling than I was used to (get attachment stuff out, fit it together, put attachments on, switch to hose, get on hands and knees, vac under things, switch to floor, remove attachments, try to get them to stay in their holders again).

So the vac gets a four, because it really does clean well but is awkward to use in certain circumstances.

--Louise

The Eureka 4870 has proven to be an excellent choice. It does all its cleaning chores easily and effectively and costs half as much as some competing cleaners with similar features or capability. There are a few gripes, but they are minor.

The 4870 comes in a box with the handle disassembled. Assembly is an easy matter of attaching the handle onto the unit with screws. The included user's manual is well illustrated with numbered step-by-step instructions. The hose, tools and wands store on the back of the vacuum. A bag and filters are already installed.

The long cord will allow you to clean one or more rooms without having to unplug. When you are done, you store the cord on the back of the cleaner. Though the instructions show the cord wound in a circle around the hooks on the back of the unit, I recommend winding it around the hooks in a figure 8 pattern to keep from twisting the cord. I did have a problem with the plug coming out of the wall outlet too easily. I solved this by using a small screwdriver to spread the flat sections of each plug prong to make them fatter.

I find the shape of the handle to be comfortable in my hand. I would have liked the power switch to be mounted up on the handle rather than on the unit to make it easier to reach while using the vacuum. I also would prefer having the cord hook higher on the handle to reduce the tendency of running over the cord when you pull the unit backwards. The handle curves back and down into a closed loop making it easy to pull the cleaner. This is good since this is not a self-propelled model. Though the spinning brush makes pushing the cleaner quite easy, it does take a bit more force to pull the cleaner back. The curved handle, as well as a built-in grip on the back of the unit, is helpful when you have to pick up and carry the 22-pound cleaner. Another grip on the front, just below the HEPA filter, can be used to lift the cleaner up stairs.

The first thing you notice when you use the 4870 is that it is relatively quiet. The motor and suction make a low rushing sound and the beater brush makes a moderate hum. You can carry on a conversation while vacuuming. Carpet cleaning is first-rate and, according to consumer magazine tests, as good as, or better than, any other vacuum cleaner. Pushing the vacuum over plush carpeting will leave some slight lines in the pile, while pulling it leaves a nice smooth finish. So, I end each stroke with pulling. From the base of the unit the dirt runs up through a clear plastic tube that can be easily removed to clear a clog.

To vacuum a hard floor, you flip a small lever to turn off the beater brush, then set the cleaning height to the hard floor setting. In a surprising departure from good design, the lever to turn off the brush takes about 10 pounds of force to move to the hard floor setting. I thought the unit was defective at first, but it just takes more force than you would expect to move the lever. Another lever that is hard to push is the footswitch that releases the handle from the upright position. If you aren't wearing shoes, you will have to use your heel to push the lever.

The 15-inch wide cleaning width speeds up the vacuuming chore, but prevents you from getting between spaces that a narrower cleaner would fit. Though I didn't find a specific reference to it in the instructions, continuing to press the handle release footswitch while lowering the handle will allow you to drop the unit to totally horizontal, which allows the cleaner to roll under areas as low as nine inches high. That really helps in floor cleaning under furniture.

In addition to floor cleaning, you can easily switch the suction to the onboard hose and use the tools to clean any surface. The suction from the hose is very strong. Unlike many other vacuum cleaners, when the 4870's handle is placed in the upright position, the beater brush turns off. This feature allows you to use the hose while the unit stays in one place without worrying about a spinning brush abrading the floor under the unit. An onboard set of nested wands can be assembled and placed on the end of the hose, though the symbols to assist you in proper wand assembly are hard to see. I recommend buying the 15-ft extension hose from the Eureka web site. With it, you can place the cleaner in the center of a large room, or at the bottom of stairs, and reach a long distance.

Though the cord, hose, wands, crevice tool and dusting brush can all be easily removed from and replaced in their mountings, the upholstery tool cannot. In another departure from good design, the upholstery tool takes a lot of positioning and pressing to get it to click into place and it can pop off it not set exactly right. Eureka needs to redesign the clips.

What sets the 4870 apart from many other cleaners is the fact that it has a fully-sealed "True HEPA" vacuum system which means allergy causing dust particles are not recirculated back into the room. The replaceable HEPA filter that comes with the unit should be replaced every six bag changes.

Filters, belts and bags are not readily found at local department stores, but you can order them from online vacuum retailers or directly from Eureka.

Let me start by saying please don't buy bagless or you will be sorry especially if you have allergies. They are very messy and more of a pain than you would think. Read my review on the hoover 5750 I got rid of after 5 months and then found this great vacuum.

I am really impressed with this vacuum, its got great suction on the floor as well as the attachments. You will really see a difference in your carpets.

This vacuums features are True sealed hepa filtration (you can actually smell the difference in the air expelled). It also has a 30 foot cord, 9 different height adjustments, a roller brush that you can switch off when doing hard floors, bags are easy to change, a long reach see thru hose which by the way does not stay in place very well, a crevice tool, dusting brush, furniture tool and also has an anti tip design so the vacuum doesn't tip over easily when using the attachments.

The only problems are the hose hangs loosely when you vacuum. This does not affect performance, it is however a little annoying. The foot lever is a little hard to push and the vacuum is a little heavy. Every thing else works great and is easy to operate. Assembly took five minutes, 4 screws to put the handle on and I was done.

I can't really speak for durability as I have only owned this for 6 weeks but so far so good. It really seems like a very sturdy vacuum.

This is easily the best vacuum I have ever owned at the best price I've ever paid.

Maybe my old vacuum was just really bad, but I am thoroughly impressed with this one!! At first glance, it may seem a bit intimidating, with so many features and buttons, etc. But the first time you use it, you know you made a smart purchase. It is very quiet (for a vacuum,) and the see-through hoses and brush covers let you know what is being picked up. The spinning brush stops automatically when the handle is fully upright, which means that a) it is much more quiet, and b) you can use the hose without eating up one spot on the floor. This is also a nice feature when you want to do a "quick sweep" of a bare floor.

Consumer Reports rated this vacuum very high, and after having used it, I must concur.

I am quite amused when I read other comments for this vacuum cleaner. It is a very good strong vacuum cleaner but you must use common sense as with any item you purchase.

1. Attachments/Belts: I have had it for 6 months and I vacuum about 2000 square feet 1-2 times a week. I have never had a belt break and the attachments NEVER fall off. The hose never falls off. Maybe some of these people have an older model. It took me a few minutes to figure out how the attachments fit all on the vacuum but once you have them in the right place I guarantee you they will not fall off. Each one kind of snaps in to place so take some time to figure it out and you should not have a problem. Also, belts don't usually break until they are worn out or if you suck something into the vacuum that doesn't belong. I usually move everything out of the way before I vacuum so this doesn't happen.

2. Noise: For a vacuum cleaner, the noise is quite reasonable. I had an older vacuum and it was much louder. I was quite relieved when I turned this was on. But realize, anything with the power of this thing is going to be loud. However, I can still carry on a conversation with my children in the same room as the vacuum without yelling.

3. Heavy: It is a heavy vacuum -- anything with this much power suspended above ground is going to be heavy. However, I have used the pull around kind of vacuum before and they are just as heavy. If you are strength-impaired I would not recommend this style of vacuum because you are carrying the weight of the canister. However, if you are the average person (which I am), you will do fine. My 4-yr old and 2-yr old can both push it because they like to take turns with me when we're vacuuming.

4. GREAT CLEANING MACHINE: if you can handle an average weight vacuum then you will love this cleaner. It has a wide path and it cleans fabulously. After a week of foot traffic my carpet gets mashed down and kind of yucky looking. After using this vacuum, the carpet stands up and looks new again and stays that way for at least a few days.

I give it 4 stars -- because after all, I still have to push it around :-)

First may I say that no manufacturer makes the perfect vacuum. Previously, I owned Hoover vacuums but they, too, had their weaknesses. Over all this Eureka 4870DT is a pretty good vacuum. Listed below are the good and bad features.
The good: It does an excellent job of cleaning carpets and has good suction. It has 7 height adjustment settings, a carpet/hard floor switch which turns off the roller brush when set to hard floor, a hose/floor selector which also shuts off the roller brush when set to hose, an HEPA filter and a motor filter. It has the appearance of a quality made vacuum which was not true of some Eureka vacuums I have owned in the past.
The Bad: It is heavy (but so are most Hoovers), the on/off switch could be more conveniently located, it is rather cumbersome to maneuver in small bathrooms and closets. The foot pedal that releases the handle is rather stiff and awkward but it gets easier with use. I have not had the vacuum long enough to judge its durability.

Personally, I prefer a 13 inch vacuum because they are much easier to use in tight spots and small rooms, but every manufacturer has gone to the 15 inch vacuum in their more deluxe models. In my opinion, there are more features to like than to dislike about this vacuum.