Kenmore Pet Friendly Ultra Plush Canister Vacuum

Does not have the same tools as the previous Kenmore vacuum

I ordered the Kenmore 81714 Ultra Plush and it came in today. I gave it quite a workout as I’ve been vacuuming since it’s arrival. The kids and I named it Kenny. This thing is so fun. I started out on the hard floors and it handled it just fine. I wish there was a separate power head with a fluffy brush roll to dust the floors, but I do think the suction on this Kenmore is amazing enough to not need it. This is my first canister and I felt a bit clumsy and clanked it everywhere. I think there’s a bit of a learning curve to it, but Kenny followed me wherever I needed to go.
Then I switched out the power head for the powered pet brush for the stairs. I do not own pets, but I bought this vacuum specifically for this attachment. My old Shark couldn’t suck up the sand out of the carpet that the kids track it. I think the Kenmore handled it like a champ. It was a quite a workout using this attachment as I wanted the suction as high as it would go. There’s a place on the handle to adjust the suction level. This would make it easier to maneuver on the stairs, but I didn’t want to sacrifice suction. I needed a deep clean after using my Shark for years. Again I was a bit clumsy and knocked Kenny down the stairs, but he held on tightly. The hose took quite a yank, but didn’t break. The motor didn’t skip a beat. Kenny’s wheel popped off but it snapped right back on.
I decided to take him for a whirl on the upstairs carpet. We have medium pile carpet. I kept the height level on the lowest one to try to get deeper into the carpet. It didn’t make it difficult to push, but I could hear all the dirt and dust that my Shark was missing all these years. I took my time with him. I did have to clean hair, thread, and yarn out of the brush roll. This is not an anti-cutting brush roll like my Shark. I feel like if you take the time to clean out the roll each time you use it (we have 4 girls with long hair), then it won’t get too bad.
After running Kenny for HOURS on my hard floors, stairs, and carpet we needed a break. He was getting pretty hot. I never smelled anything burning or funny smells, but with how hot the unit was getting, I felt he needed to cool down a bit.
Finally, I took him around and used the different attachments for dusting. The machine dusted quite well. The suction on Kenny is AMAZING. I was able to use the dusting tool for the windows, wall, ceiling, baseboards, paneled doors, etc. Then I followed around the perimeter of the rooms with the crevice tool.

I’m highly impressed with this vacuum. I’m so glad I bought it. I just hope it lasts and doesn’t break on me. I bought the protection plan just in case because things just aren’t made like they used to be. At the end of the day, Kenny pulled up an ENTIRE bag of dirt, dust, and sand from deep in my carpets that my Shark was neglecting for the past 4.5 years even with daily vacuuming. Gross. Also, really cool to see that Kenny is performing like I had hoped.

I have 2 complaints.
#1 how hot Kenny got. I was a little worried for him. I understand it’s a 12 amp motor and will put out some heat, but it was hot to the touch and could burn skin. I worry about one of my kids touching or the motor overheating and catching fire or melting plastics. He started getting hot on the stairs so I hadn’t been running him that long before I noticed the heat. The hot air blowing from the vacuum made a spot on my leg red because I had to wedge him with my leg so he didn’t fall down the stairs again. He’s a champ, though.
#2 I wish the opening for the crevice tool was slightly larger. I had to keep going over the same areas where the baseboard meets the carpet. I may try to find a larger crevice tool to use instead.

I’ve purchased and used a lot of much cheaper machines from Walmart and other stores. All of them performed just okay when new but none of them lasted very long due to poor quality plastics and pieces breaking. I remembered my mom’s Kenmore WhisperTone that she has had for 25 years and it is still running great and looks great too. Here in Canada, Kenmore was available at Sears but there are no longer any Sears stores in Canada. I looked at the Kenmore site and found that I had to buy it on Amazon to avoid paying duty charges. I chose the Series 700 Ultra Plush for its features such as the HEPA bags and filter, the powerhead that steers and does carpets and hardfloors and has a LED light, the tools all fit inside the canister, it has a bag-full LED, an extending wand (that locks at 4″ increments), and it comes with the small powerhead that is good for stairs and car floors and it fits inside the canister too. The bare-floor tool and the small brush tool have horse-hair bristles, not plastic. The machine looks very classy with the shiny champagne color. It has tons of suction without being too loud. The rear wheels are big so the whole thing rolls pretty easily. A word about the hose, where it plugs into the canister, it has a nice swivel joint. If you see photos or videos of older machines, the joint often is seen having an elbow, like a 45 degree bend in it and you can tell that it swivels. The photos of this newer version show the joint is straight so I was concerned that it did not swivel which I thought would be stressful on the hose. I’m happy to report that there is still a swivel joint so the hose will not tangle if you walk around the machine. The entire machine and the tools are built well and I expect that this machine will last for many years. Thank you Kenmore!

This is my third consecutive Kenmore cannister vacuum spanning nearly 40 years and is living up to my expectations. Easy and effective to use. Love it!