How can you be in love with a vacuum?

The title says it all. I LOVE this thing.

We are the family that has never kept a vacuum running for more than a year. In fact, we have so conclusively proved that we kill them (long-haired dog, messy humans and general NOT vacuum-friendly folks) that we now only buy cheap ones because the expensive ones die as fast and we feel obligated to pay expensive repair bills on those. So our vacs tend to be low-end, large and nasty... but they do the job on the rugs as necessary.

We moved last year and found ourselves with a new problem, however: hardwood floors. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE hardwood floors, but I'd forgotten how hard they are to keep clean, especially with kids and dogs running in and out of the yard all the time. Dust and dirt EVERYWHERE. I was getting sick of dragging the big vacuum out every day just to clear up the bits of rubble, so when I saw that Electrolux had introduced a surprisingly affordable (by Electrolux standards) stick-vac I decided that I could justify the extra expense and just bought it on the spot.

What can I say? This thing ROCKS! It's light, it's maneouverable, it separates into a handheld and reasonably powerful dustbuster, it's amazingly quiet, it picks up EVERYTHING admirably (on hard floors - it's not designed for carpet, and doesn't perform so well on a rug). It's cordless, so I don't have to set it up or drag it out, I just pull it off the stand in the corner of the kitchen and go. It even manages to look more-than-functional - dare one say almost, er, "stylish"? - in a trendy bronze colour with blue neon charging light on the stable floor or wall-mountable stand.

My husband thinks I'm insane.... I rhapsodize over how wonderful it is to run the stick vac (from a woman who may be the worst housekeeper ever, this is quite a statement).

Since I found this at Lowe's for $99, I assume this is high-end Electrolux's move into the lower end consumer market (given that until recently you could only get their products in specialist stores and they were VERY expensive) but you can clearly see that this is still HIGH QUALITY product. It's light, but still feels really solid; the switch is seated properly and is easy to get at and use without bending or twisting, buttons which hold the handheld into place line up and have a nice firm "click" when they go back into place; everything feels solid and useable rather than cheap and flimsy.

The roller-brush is easy to get at and has an automatic, beltless drive which simply stops turning if it gets jammed. You unscrew the cover lift out the roller, clear whatever is blocking it or jamming it, easily replace the roller and then screw the small cover-latch into place. (Actually, that plastic screw that holds the cover-latch is about the only thing that feels less than top qualityon this unit - because it's a rather soft-plastic screw head, the slot on it is all too easy to strip if you use a too sharp or wrong-size screwdriver. However, once you realise how it works, it's easy enough to handle it appropriately).

Extra features include different ways of emptying the canister, including a "no touch" one for those who don't want to get dust on their hands.

All in all, a high quality, reliable, well-designed piece of cleaning equipment. For once, I think we're going to have one that lasts us for a while - I sure hope so, cause I LOVE this thing! It may cost more than the comparable Dustbuster, but it is worth every penny, in my opinion.