The Oreck Magnesium RS is a lightweight 2-speed bagged upright vacuum cleaner for both carpets and hard floors. It is a robust design originally developed for hotel use.
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click image to enlargeIt is black and grey in colour with the front panel of the outer bag which houses the disposable dust bag being in bright blue with the Oreck name boldly displayed in silver. The on/off and speed change switches are built into the handle and form, effectively, a remote control unit powered by a single CR2032 battery. They are comfortably within reach of one’s thumb so that it convenient to control the machine one-handed with the other being used to handle the long trailing flex and ensure that it kept out of the path of the machine.
The high speed setting is for carpets while the lower one is for hard floors. Even though there is also a clip-on hard floor attachment, I found that it was generally quite effective even without it.
Having a pair of large wheels it can easily be wheeled from room to room and, weighing 4kg (plus the weight of the cable), it can easily be carried up and down stairs. Although there is no specific carrying handle it is quite convenient just to grasp the cleaner’s main metal tube which is, by the way, marked “carry handle”. The “head” is a reasonable 30cm wide and has a swivel base so that one can easily steer it around furniture. In addition, as the head is only 27cm high, it will get under a great many items of furniture. There is a small headlight but it does not give enough light to be really useful.
The Magnesium RS has an “A” energy efficiency rating as well as “C” for dust readmission; “E” for carpet cleaning performance and “B” for hard floor performance. It has a 9metre (30ft) mains lead so one does not have to change from power point to power point as one moves around the house from room to room. Its 121cm handle is longer than normal and so gives one an extra amount of “reach” so that one can work quite rapidly.
It is a cleaner just for carpets and hard floors and so does not have the additional attachments that are usually supplied with a domestic vacuum cleaner to increase its versatility and enable it to be easily used on stairs, crevices or upholstery. Consequently, it is more suitable for places which have large expanses of floor rather than for use as one’s sole domestic vacuum cleaner.
It is available on Amazon for £287.99 and replacement bags can be found on the Oreck.co.uk web site priced at £12.99 for three. It is simple to use, comes with a long mains lead and the dust bags are easily replaced without dust getting spilled all over the place and so will meet the needs of a busy cleaner. Furthermore, having been based on a design developed for hotel use it appears to be robustly built and so should give years of service and so one should get a reasonable pay-back on its initial cost.
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