I needed a budget, lightweight vacuum with hepa and a sealed system that would do a thorough job on wool rugs, do wood and tile floors too, and be easy to use for above floor cleaning. I tried and returned the (lavender) Shark Navigator Lift Away, but am keeping this (red) Kenmore. It's not perfect, but it's strong and flexible, with a sealed system and hepa. I've been really pleasantly surprised at the difficult spaces I can get it into! It's to replace an old, beloved Dirt Devil Featherlite. Here's my take on the features that matter to me, with comparisons to the Navigator and old Dirt Devil. Hepa with a Sealed System. I have pets and allergies. My old Dirt Devil had hepa but wasn't sealed and left the house hazy. The Navigator was supposed to be sealed, and it did seem to keep the air pretty clean, but there was a ring of carpet fiber and pet hair where the hose meets the vac (my Dirt Devil gets a similar ring around the seam of the dirt cup). This Kenmore's seal seems perfect (!), so long as you don't inadvertently pull the hose out of the extender wand, which happened to me the first time I used the vacuum :-(, but hasn't happened again. Be sure those pieces are tightly fitted together when vacuuming. I'm pleased at how fresh the air feels after deep cleaning with this vacuum and I haven't needed my inhaler which is really great. Price. Hepa with a sealed system is hard to find in budget vacuums. But what's the point in vacuuming if the dirt goes back into the air? Might as well rake. This sealed hepa vacuum is about 50 bucks less than the Navigator. Longer Hose! But short Wand, unfortunately. I didn't realize the nice long hose on my Dirt Devil had spoiled me until I tried to clean above the floor with the Navigator. Although the wand on that is great, the hose is short, and since you grip the wand at its base, that hose is the whole distance you can move from the vacuum, so you have toy use the lift-away feature a lot. With the wand in one hand and the lifted away dirt cup in the other, I had no hand free to move or hold things. When I would try to use the wand without the lift away, that short hose would tip the Navigator over, constantly. Ugh. This Kenmore has more hose which really helps, but it has a less wonderful wand. The hose is 10 ft, but pulls the vacuum over if you walk 4-6 feet with it. Still, it's long enough to do 12 steps if you don't mind it tipping over. The wand is just a little short. If Kenmore could have added an extender attachment that would have been great. As it is, you can only reach about a foot and half, or two feet max maybe with attachment, beyond your reach. No Lift Away on this Kenmore. I thought I might like Lift away on the other vacuum, but I didn't, except for the stairs. It left me no free hand and gave me a back ache on the stairs. I think that has something to do with the handle on the wand of that other vacuum which seems to be at an odd angle. Personally, I prefer the longer hose to the lift away. This vacuum is light enough that carrying it upstairs isn't a problem for me. Strong Suction. Like crazy. But that's not all good. Both this and the Navigator seemed to me to suck up an awful lot of carpet fiber along with the dirt. My old Dirt Devil didn't do that. Still, we buy vacuums to suck and suck it does, with gusto. Attachments. The crevice tool is too short! That said, this has all the attachments I need, which is good because its wand end is kinda non standard and won't work with any of the Dirt Devil, Shop Vac, or other attachments I have around. I found all the attachments useful, but you can only store (any) one on the vacuum, so will need to keep the rest in a closet or something. Navigation. It's my favorite thing about this vacuum, which surprised me. It has kind of a big head compared to the Navigator, and it's an upright, so I expected clunky. The Navigator was my first experience with swivel steering and I liked it alright. When I first tried this Kenmore I thought it must be broken, the steering was so loose. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it. It just wanted to wiggle all over the place, it seemed, with such a steerable brush head and so much power in the rotating brush. Very much looser than the Navigator. But in a few minutes navigating the machine becomes intuitive (I'm an older lady with little upper body strength, so don't be intimidated), and once you learn how it's really nice. I have a very small house with too much furniture and odd angles and nooks, and this vacuum, in upright mode, not using the wand, got into most of them. The brush head is wide, but it's so swively you can turn a pretty tight half circle to get it into tight spaces. That is very helpful around here. Lightweight. Very important to me! I find this easy to maneuver and to lift. The super swivel and long hose reduce the need to lift the vacuum too. Looks. Okay, so it's ugly. Ugly vacuums need love too. I've had uglier. Brush head. Pretty good. It's not height adjustable, but it moves easily on my rugs and between my rugs and floors. There's suction control on the wand that can be used to reduce suction if needed for very plush carpet, but I didn't need that for my mid pile rugs. It has a switch to turn the beater brush off for wood and tile floors. It's larger than the Navigator brush head, and might be slightly larger than my old Dirt Devil head. I thought I wanted a small brush head for navigability, but this brush head is the most navigable of them all in my opinion because the swivel is so great. A bigger head saves passes too. Effectiveness. It got my house clean and kept the air clean too. Dust Cup. Much like the rest of them. They're a little messier than bags, but seem more cost effective and sustainable to me. My overall impression is that this is a darn good vacuum at the price. It's got hepa and a sealed system. It's got a long enough hose and plenty of attachments. It's powerful. It's truly lightweight and it gets into hard to reach spaces. I wish the hose, wand and crevice tool were longer. I wish the wand locked onto place on the hose so they couldn't pull apart inadvertently. All in all, I'm happy with this vacuum.
