12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Love it!!
Date of Review: Feb 29, 2008
The Bottom Line: Very worth it - BUY IT!
OK, I LOVE this vacuum. I really have tried to find faults with it, but there really is nothing too major.
The biggest problem in our house is cat hair, cat litter, and messy kids at the kitchen table. We have two long-haired cats whose litter box is in our laundry room (on linoleum) and the floor seems to be constantly covered with litter. Also have two kids who have the propensity to produce crumbs. I had a little hand held vac that I used to use to pick up small messes (until my kids lost some parts of it) so I needed something new.
I also have a big heavy upright vacuum and a canister vacuum, both which are corded, cumbersome to get out, plug in, use, unplug, wind the cord back up and put away, so I hate using them and rarely do so.
I use this vacuum almost everyday to do a quick sweep of our house and am always amazed at the amount of hair and dirt that it has picked up. As other people have mentioned, you do need to empty to canister every time you use the machine or it does seem to really affect the suction of the machine. I don't find this to be a big deal though as I keep the vacuum in it's nice little recharging stand in my laundry room right next to a small garbage can. All it takes to empty the canister is push up on a little button, take it out and empty it and click in back into place. The recharging stand was one reason I picked this machine over the less costly other Dirt Devil model. Also I was concerned about not having enough suction power to pick up cat litter.
This machine does a great job on the cat litter! It hasn't met a clump it can't pick up yet! It picks it up on the first swipe over. I also use a lot on the area rugs on my hardwood floor to get the dirt and sand that is tracked inside by my kids. It does a great job on those as well. I love using it on my stairs because it is so lightweight (and no cord to worry about) so I can turn it upside down to do the vertical part of the stairs as well. I use it on the hardwoods in my kitchen and it picks up surprising big chunks of stuff. It is very simple (just slide the little button forward) to switch the revolving brush off and on to go from hardwoods to carpet.
One thing it doesn't do great is edge well. It does well if you face the wall head-on though so I just edge that way and it picks up stuff that is right against the baseboards.
I have never worn the battery down and there are days that I quickly do my whole house (carpets, hardwoods, linoleum) and that's about 2400 sf.
I'm sure it doesn't get the dirt that is way down in the carpet, but I still have my big vacuum for that. The stuff I use it for is the stuff that lays on the surface. I probably wouldn't buy it as a main vacuum for carpeted areas, but would use it to replace a stick broom (and normal broom or swifter for that matter) for non-carpeted surfaces.
Overall, I think it is a great product and recommend it to everyone I know.
