Rowenta RS 920 /S Infinium

A TV programme about a vacuum cleaner? Who'd watch something like that? Well, me I'm afraid. And then I went out and bought the product too. You see, I couldn't help myself. They said it was well-designed. You know the old saying - 'invent a better hoover and the world will beat a path to your door'. Well they did, and I beat a path to Comet's door. I'm a sucker for a bit of design, and this is a well-designed sucker. It was featured on the Channel 4 programme 'Better by Design' - it's like Two Fat Ladies, but it's one fat designer and his posh-looking mate. They go around trying to get boring ... more

I've registered with Ciao specifically to provide this single opinion of the Infinium. We bought one shortly after launch, suckered in by the smart design and 2 year warranty. Sadly, our long term experience of it is that it is without doubt the worst vac we've ever owned. Its suction power degrades slowly over time, and it's been repaired twice to try to bring it back to life. The decrease in suck is offset by an increase in noise, a smell of burning dust, and if you're really lucky an ear-piercing whistle. The cable rewind doesn't, the front cover clip breaks regularly, the filter and motor ... more

I have had my infinium for a couple of years or so now, during which time I have had to buy a new triangular head, new telescopic tubes and a new connector to fit the tubes to my old hose. Also the bristles on the end of the hose really need replacing as they are going a bit bald. There is also the added problems that the carrying handle has now snapped away at one end and the electric cable slowly retracts into the vacuum during use. Other than that, I have had to have the on/off button fixed because it had a habit of permanently jamming on, and this again seems to be sticking so obviously ... more