Dirt Devil Power Stick Bagless Vacuum ~ Barely Adequate

I needed a cheap vacuum quick, for very light duty apartment cleaning. I bought the cheapest one I could fine, the Dirt Devil Power Stick, for $39. It sorta works, but.....

~ Product Description

The Dirt Devil Power Stick Bagless Vacuum 84100 is a 12 amp vacuum with the "stick" design - you've seen 'em, very lightweight, no attachments. There are basically no features or bells and whistles on this model. You've got your "On" switch, located fairly low on the body of the vacuum, which requires you to bend down to turn it on or off, but that's not a huge deal.

The cord is, as you might expect, on the shorter side, and it winds around two cord holders for storage. One of those holds has a "quick release", which just means you twist it so the prong goes up and releases the wound-up cord. I guess that a little handier than unwinding.

This vacuum claims to be "ideal for bare floors and carpets." Note that there are no brushes on the vacuum head at all, nothing turns other than the two wheels, so nothing is brushing your carpet fibers or agitating to bring up the dust and debris. The vacuum head is about 11 inches wide, so that's your cleaning path.

The vacuum handle will stay upright pretty well. To angle the handle downward for vacuuming there is no release button, you just sort of pull it back. Oddly, this seems to work rather well.

The dust cup is clear so you can see how much debris has accumulated within. To empty, there is a simple release latch, and the cup pulls out without much effort. You need to remove the filter from the cup before you empty the debris. The first time the filter was hard to pull out, but after that first time it became easier. You need to tap the filter to loosen any accumulated dust. This is all relatively simple and not much of a hassle. The dust cup is big enough that for my small apartment anyway, I can vacuum many times before I have to empty it.

The Dirt Devil Power Stick is very lightweight and easy to push. It has a metal ring for hanging storage option. It's small though, and doesn't take up much storage space.

~ My Experience

My apartment is small, with carpeted and tile floors, so I did need something that would work on bare floors and carpets.

The first thing I noticed was that this vacuum is LOUD. For a little, lightweight vacuum, this thing drives me nuts with how loud it is. Perhaps the high decibel level was intentional to give you the impression of power (?)

I have a tiled kitchen floor, with grout lines that dust and dirt collect in. A broom sometimes is not very effective in getting the dirt out of the grout lines. The Dirt Devil Power Stick, I must admit, does a fine job on my tile floors - it sucks up the dust, dirt, debris very well, even from the grout lines. I'm very pleased with its performance on the bare floors.

The carpet is another story, however. it will pick up lightweight debris that is lying on top of the carpet, but anything heavier or stuck even lightly into the carpet it won't pick up. Remember, there is no brush agitating the carpet fibers - all you've got here is suction slightly above the carpet level. There is no height adjustment, by the way. Forget about edge cleaning - not gonna happen. You've got to hit the edges straight on and hope for the best. My carpet is a very low pile berber, incidentally. I'd have to say for vacuuming carpet, it is barely adequate.

Since this is a lightweight vacuum, it's easy to pull out and use, and it's easy to push. it is handy in that sense. You don't need to buy bags, because it's bagless. It's working okay for me right now, but I can see down the road I'm going to have to get something better.

~ Final Thoughts

The Dirt Devil Power Stick Bagless Vacuum 84100 is an inexpensive bagless stick vac that actually works well on bare floors. For carpets it is barely adequate, although it will pick up loose dust, dirt and debris that is sitting lightly on top of the carpet. This might be good for an upstairs room, studio apartments, with light duty needs. It is lightweight, small, and easy to use. Since it does just a poor job on carpets I'm not going to recommend it. But if you're desperate for a really cheap vacuum and you have lots of bare floors, it might be just right.