Electrolux=double life canisters

When our Dirt Devil Swivel Glide decided to try and run without its handle, we said,"That is it! Forget this, we are going to Lowe's!!!" at Lowe's we were getting tired of buying cheap pieces of plastic that only lasted anywhere from 3 weeks to 10 months.

We looked around for all of about 5 minutes and said,"Hey look at this. An orange/silver canister that weighs 20 pounds. Let's get it." That was about all the debate that it recieved.

The box it comes in is downright huge. about 2ft. wide x 2ft. tall x 3ft. deep and weighing about 30lbs in the box. Thankfully it's only 21lbs. itself.

The good things about it is that you can whisper louder than this thing operates.....untill you turn on the powerhead. Then it sounds a little like a dirt devil hand vac.

The suction it produces is amazing and only gets reduced if you either don't change that bag for about 8 months, or if you have about 10 pounds of dirt to pick up every time you vacuum. You can even suck up a men's large tube sock, and, if you're lucky, it will make it all the way to the bag.

The bags it uses may look a little small, but as bags go they are some well built things, if a bit on the overengineered side. When you take the bag out. you hold this tab in the center of the mounting bracket which causes a "trap door" to close, sealing the dirt inside. They don't hold huge amounts of dirt, but they do hold suprising amounts. When the change bag light comes on, if you want to wait that long, it's too late to change it with out the potential for lots of drama.

When the light comes on, that usually means that the bag is so full, there is stuff coming out the intake to the bag and now you are starting to fill up the hose with contaminates. When this happens I recommend holding the bag with both hands instead of only one when it gets past about 4 lbs. because the mounting bracket has a tendency to seperate from the bag itself, causing untold havoc and irrateness in a house. The efficency of these bags is second to none of the other vacs we've had. it takes almost 2 lbs. of flea powder to actually clog the bag completely.

There are three types of bags to choose from. The basic bag is called the S-Bag Classic and is a regular paper bag. The mid-level bag is called the S-Bag Clinic and is somewhat like Dirt Devil's Microfresh or Hoover's Allergen Bags. It filters most of the air with only a small amount bypassing it and goingto the motor filter. After that, the top-line bag is the relatively new S-Bag ANTI-ODOUR which reduces odors and allergens. Surprisingly the Clinics are the most expensive per package, but the Anti-odours are the most expensive per bag.

S-Bag Classic: $10/5 bags($2 a bag), S-Bag Clinic: $11/4 bags($2.75 a bag), S-bag ANTIODOUR: $9/3 bags($3 a bag)

The hose is very long and is perfect for trying to clean a ceiling fan 10 feet off the ground. The extension wands it came with are lockable, but the connectors are somewhat flimsy with a simple metal ball holding them together by thin plastic that they lock into. After about 6 months the fasteners on an extension wand started to deteriorate. when the fasteners deteriorated it caused the electrical connections to slide in and out of each other slightly. This caused electrical arcing in the connectors themselves, leading to the plastic and rubber shrouds surrounding the connectors to melt. When they melted, it made the powerhead stop working intermittently. Once we found which wand was faulty, we just stopped using it and used the other one only. This one started to give out 7 months later the same way. After both of them stopped working, we just used the powerhead on the end of the hose. Thankfully, the hose and wands have been redesigned for the Oxygen 3.

The other supplies for the vacuum are rather expensive. A HEPA H12 washable filter are $25 each and you can't really get them clean. All you can do is rinse it in water, but that does nothing to it. A nonwashable one can be had for $15 and lasts longer. Belts for the powerhead usually don't need to be changed. They are a toothed belt about 3.5 inches long and cost $10 for 2.

When we used it like this, we had to be on our hands and knees. It got so annoying for my mom that we went to Lowe's again and got a Hoover Windtunnel Bagless. We were going to get the bagged Supreme, but they didn't have any in stock.

Now we use the Electrolux to vacuum out the tower filter of the Hoover, dust the house, and clean out vehicles. It still has a use, but once the main motor goes out, we'll throw it out and probably get something like a Eureka The Boss canister.

One thing that made me chuckle, the main unit is made in Sweden (so that's why you can drop it down a flight of stairs and it comes out fine...-lol-) , the powerhead and hose is made in China, and it is all assembled in (correct me if I'm mistaken) the US.