Oreck Magnesium Review

Introduction

Oreck's hotel vacuum heritage is on plain display here: under nine pounds, a 32 foot cord, and no extensions or attachments. That's great for picking up beach sand from anodyne berber carpeting at an oceanfront Hilton, but not the best choice for a household with multiple flooring types, upholstery and carpet.

Design & Usability

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Though it lacks flexibility, it handles well and is very light.

The Oreck Magnesium moves effortlessly across hardwood, short pile, and high pile when moving straight. It may not do as well on corners as some other vacuums with swiveling capabilities that we’ve reviewed, but it gets the job done. Plus, it's only 8.78 pounds—one of the lightest we've ever tested.

There is only one control on the Oreck Magnesium: the silver power button on its backside that also lets you choose between low and high power settings. A massive, HEPA-filtering dirt bag that serves as its filter and can be pulled out in seconds; maintaining and replacing the bag is no problem at all for users.

The Oreck Magnesium’s power cord is 32 feet long, so vacuuming across large rooms shouldn’t be an issue for most users. What will be a problem is cleaning in corners and crevices, with no attachments to make getting cobwebs off the ceiling or cat fur off the couch any easier.

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Features & Performance

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Solid suction across multiple flooring types.

Customers will find a balance in cleaning performance across hardwood, short carpet, and long carpet surfaces with the Oreck Magnesium. Its strength is high carpet, though we bet it would've done better on short carpet if the brushroll height were adjustable. As is, it glides over short pile instead of agitating dirt out of it. Unfortunately, there's no way to stop the brushroll for wood floor cleaning: Though it didn't really scatter much dirt, the friction from moving brushes can damage a glossy finish on a softer wood floor such as pine.

Unavoidable brushroll aside, the Magnesium tends to tread lightly. It maintains a low power consumption rate and emits noise that shouldn't bother the neighbors if you decide to do some late-night cleaning.

Conclusion

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Inflexible and pricey, but great for a hotelier.

You might get some sticker shock when you first see the Oreck Magnesium’s hefty price tag ($500 MSRP), but you would also get generally solid cleaning performance on all floor types from a vacuum that weighs less than 10 pounds. It may also draw customers who emphasize aesthetics, as its thin frame and shiny blue dirt holder makes it look like something right out of a Sci Fi movie.

However, if you’re concerned about more than just basic cleaning performance, requiring flexibility and on-board tools, the Oreck Magnesium may not be your best fit. Its lack of a pet brush tool or the ability to vacuum under their couch or radiator may be a turn off to some. If you spend $500 for the Magnesium, you won’t get ripped off based on performance, but make sure you understand its limitations. There are other vacuums—the Oreck XL Element, for example—that perform about as well for half the price.

Science Introduction

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We put the Oreck Magnesium through the same tests we give all our vacuums. It proved a solid performer, but that's only useful information if you've already got a solution for cleaning upholstery, softer hardwoods and hard-to-reach areas.

Dirt and Debris Cleaning

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Solid across the board.

Though the Oreck Magnesium sucked up less than half of the dirt on high pile at 47.5%, that is actually a very solid number in comparison to many other high-profile vacuums. For instance, the similarly-priced Dyson DC41 only pulled in about 20% of dirt on long carpet. It did OK on pet hair, too, despite not having a designated tool for the task. Though some hair got caught in the power brush, it picked up pretty much all of it off our carpet, leaving only a little residue left behind.

If you have short carpet around your home, the Oreck Magnesium is a sensible purchase: It pulled in 89.9% of dirt during our short pile test, gliding along the carpet with ease. There was little drop-off with hardwood performance, as it raked in just a little more than 80% of the dirt during our test. Our only complaint was that the brushroll wouldn't turn off, which could result in some damage for softer hardwoods.

You can count on the Oreck Magnesium to grab a large amount of debris from your carpet or hardwood, specifically 98% of the test rice and noodles we used. But keep in mind that the Magnesium only sucked up about 35% of pennies and dimes during our tests and there were often coins stuck in the machine’s air tunnel. Don’t plan on picking up heavy objects with any regularity, or you risk having to clean its intakes more often than not.

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Noise and Energy

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Efficient and relatively quiet.

At 76.48 decibels, the Oreck Magnesium is just above average when it comes to noise. The sounds it makes aren't too much of an annoyance. It's much more energy efficient than larger vacuums, too, as its consumption totals only 486 watts.

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Meet the tester

Patrick Ouellette

Staff Writer

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Patrick Ouellette is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.

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