This is now my 5th vacuum since we started trying to find a replacement for my old "Sears Canister" with a steel hose self propelling model, that was so blooming heavy my poor back required a day off after using. I am not joking that model weight 27lbs that had to be dragged behind. Not a good idea if you have serious back pain. What we tried: I tried battery powered vacuums that were great on weight, horrible on battery life that needed 18 hour charge to clean half of a 1250 square foot house (the charge only lasted 20 minutes). It went back. I tried small cup vacuums that boasted easy cleaning, but literally having to dump the cup, which would drop all over the place when trying to empty requiring YOU to lift it out, carry it over to the garbage, etc. You get it. Messy and cleaned ONE room per dump. That went back. We have laminate flooring which is difficult at best and close to impossible to keep clean. It can't use beaters and even the wheels can cause floor scuffing. Don't get on me about getting the floors actually "clean" since you can't use water on them. If we had known, well hindsight is more 20/20 then prior. And when you have throw rugs down, even room size rugs are problematic because NO BEATERS can hit the flooring but required on the rugs to remove dirt, and my husband has severe eczema that runs in his family; he literally "snows" with skin. Outside of a Rainbow, I have yet had a found a vacuum that I truly Love. And if we could have gotten a Rainbow (again, problematic due to laminate flooring, any wet equals ruin) we would have even with the cost factor. However, weight again is a huge consideration and again, having to drag a canister behind, isn't what was needed. This vacuum (The Wind Tunnel) has met our severe needs! Why it works: --It can clean up little piddly dust off of laminate flooring which is difficult to do. This floor creates static cling which makes everything stick. And it also can pick up bigger chunks without sending them across the floor (another vacuum flaw we encountered at a vacuum store). It cleans edges well which most uprights don't do that well, but this one works well. And if you need your moulding clean, there's an attachment that does it well. --It has an "off" beater switch that you can turn off /on with your foot. The attachments actually work and make sense for your needs. They aren't cheaply built and the bristles on them also are strong enough to use on upholsteries to actually move and pick up hair and dust. And remember me saying about Moulding? It can "do an excellent job" on them as well. --The self winding cord is amazing. It's so much better than the ratcheted wind which sometimes work, but mostly what it did is crazily wind the cord and hit your feet, your legs in the process. The cord is more than sufficient for its length at 25 feet. It has a cord holder at the top of the back of the machine. It's a easy fix to a lifelong problem of having to wrap the cord around your neck or shoulders in the process of vacuuming! And not dragging, having to move the cord all over the place in order to vacuum helps when you have body pain and energy requirements. I emptied the barrel after 2 full vacuums. It was needed. It was one handed, after I removed the container. It was easy to do, and the no touch feature was okay. You still have to pull out any heavy pieces like hair, etc with your hands, but that's okay when you don't have to dump the whole thing trailing dust as you're doing it. What is missing: It does NOT have a light. It would have been nice for Hoover to at least include a LED light on the machine for dark areas. It's a personal pet peeve that many don't include lights, because it is a weakness. Outside of that point (and it's not that lightweight), it is less stress on the back and less hard to wrestle with the vacuum to use, making it ideal for us. I hope this review helps others making up their mind. The brands we have had tried included both Bissell, and Shark. The decision to buy this one wasn't because of its great price (which it is), but because it could do what we needed it to do which is vacuum the floor with less hassle and pain.
