Years ago saw prices for vacuum cleaners that were rated high for suction strength and they were all quite pricey. Because I work in a theatre where every shop and each stage always has a wet-dry shopvac as standard equipment, I was well aware of the massive suction power of that type of vacuum. They had suction stronger by exponential factors to any household vacuums and I discovered, that they were MUCH cheaper than those household brands. So I thought I would just think outside the box and for under a hundred bucks, I would get a shopvac instead. Not only would I get spectacular suction with a shopvac, but they also suck up liquids as well, something household vacs don't do. The wet pickup function meant that when I wash the kitchen floor, sucking up the dirty water would be a breeze. So I went with the unconventional and replaced our standard Hoover vacuum with a wet-dry shopvac. Well, after about 5 years, we realize that the cumbersome shop-vac was just to big and difficult to maneuver and it was time to admit it wasn't the best outside the box idea and so I bought this Sharp. I am happy to report, it was a good decision -- biggest plus is that the suction is excellent. Second biggest plus after lugging around a big clunky shopvac that took up an inordinate amount of space in the closet, The Sharp maneuverability is so much better than the shopvac as is its much smaller footprint. All in all, I am happy with the unit. I do see some cons that should be noted: CON 1: This unit comes with a measly 2 attachments. Attachments are the cheapest items of anything related to a vacuum cleaner system. Why Sharp is so stingy about the attachments is incomprehensible. And one of the most common and most needed of all types of attachment is the brush attachment -- no vacuum we have ever owned didn't come with a simple brush attachment. This one did not. You get a crevice tool (a tool that in all the years I have used vacuums, is a tool that I hardly EVER used) and what they call an "upholstery tool.". Give me a real BRUSH attachment with bristles (something I consider ESSENTIAL and should be standard with very vacuum package) and not make me have to BUY one as an after-purchase....ugh. 13 Sept 22 -- a bit more about these two attachments; they come with a holder that supposedly attaches to the unit. There is a place on the unit that says "ACCESSORY HOLDER." It even has an arrow pointing to a plastic protrusion. Problem is, no way does that accessory holder attach to that little plastic thing. So not only are the two attachments not the ones I want, but now I have no where to put them except to carry them around separately along with the useless holder that they go into...and not very snugly either, btw; they are always falling out of it. CON 2: The capacity of the dirt container is laughably small. I have a two room apartment and I can't get thru vacuuming all the rooms without needing to empty the dirt bin at least once, maybe twice. Now I know I have been spoiled by the massive dirt storage capacity of a shopvac -- you could go a whole year and never have to empty it -- and while I don't expect that kind of capacity from a home vacuum cleaner, even our regular Hoover or our Electrolux bag vacuums didn't require emptying the dirt bags after EACH room; usually the dirt bag only needed changing after maybe a month or two of use. And adding to that, I am not at all a fan of bagless vacuum systems like this Sharp. There is a reason why vacuums used throat-away bags to collect the dirt were so popular and were used for decades. The bag filled up, you took it out of the vacuum and you threw it away. No fuss; no DUST! With the bagless Sharp, every time you empty the dirt bin, there is a plume of dust rises out of the garbage pail you are emptying it into. I guess not a horrendous problem if you do that outside the house, but if you are an apartment dweller as we are, it means you empty the dirt bin inside your apartment. And inevitably at least some of the dust you just vacuumed up is now rising back into your environment. So all the HEPA filters in the world that are in the vacuum cleaner are for naught if dust plumes rise back into the room with every empty...and this vacuum requires LOTS of empties. For me, that is a pretty hefty negative for this unit. Last Con: Bought this a month ago and the extension tube that is supposed to detach from the body of the unit so it becomes wand -- that no longer detaches from the body. There is a red button that you push and it is supposed to unlock the tube, but this piece will no longer remove from the body of the unit. So now it can only be used as a floor vacuum. Was going to give this 3 stars, but now it only gets a 2. Let me live with it a few more months and it may go down to 1 star. If I lived in a house that had stairs and couldn't detach the wand to do the stairs, I know i would send this thing back. ----------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: March 2023 In a few months it will be a year since we purchased this. Magically last month the wand now does detach from the body so it can be use as intended, so I am chalking that up to something that is a one-off problem with my unit and not universal to this product. However, in the other realm of cons I mentioned previously, things have gotten WORSE. The small dirt capacity and emptying the dirt canister are even more annoying than I thought they would be at first. The canister is not a simple open container like I first thought -- no, it is multiple construction with a center cylinder piece that constrains the space. As dust and debris pile up in the container, solid clumps of dirt and debris get wedged in between the two plastic parts. To empty his thing, you would think, just open it and turn it over and gravity would just let all the dirt fall out. Oh contraire mon frère -- the big clumps of dirt won't just fall out, you have to get some kind of long tool (I use a long handle of a wooden spoon) to work in the canister to dislodge the jammed lumps of debris, while with every movement of that canister, plumes of dust are rising in your face. I can assure you, this is no cleaning day picnic...more like cleaning day hell. I really don't know how long I am going to stick with this product before I get so frustrated that I just give it away and get a vacuum that has a traditional disposable bag to catch the dirt. If you live in a place where you can empty the dirt canister outside, then you can keep this at two stars as this product may work for you and since we all have a supply of face masks nowadays, be sure to wear one along with a hat to cover your hair and old work cloths because dirt clouds are going to get all over you each time you need to empty the dirt canister...which will be MANY times. If you live in an apartment, then I drop this rating to one star and a "Not Recommended."
