My mother took me to best buy hoping to make a final deciscion for my christmas list. The first one I tried was a "electrolux" oxygen upright. I thought it was OK. It had the hight control on the handle along with the brushrool shutoff. It had a cord retractor. I ook the dirt out of a dirtdevil and it had a ok time picking it up. I would give it a 7/10. The next was a orange windtunnel 2 with surface command. Took the dirt out of it and set it to its lowest position. It was to hard to push but picked up nice but the hose is hard and confusing to use. I give it a 6/10. The next was a dyson dc17 and i loved it! The tools were soooo easy to use and it has the complete package! ( sorb,TurboTool,lo reach tool) it picked up almost all of the dirt in one pass and feels self propeled. but, it pushes some of the dirt before it picks it up. Then I put the dirt on thier hardfloor and kept the brush on and I saw how it flung dirt everywhere. but on hardfloor setting, it works really well. But, i had some problems. the hose stopped sucking? i emptied it, hit it, vacuumed normaly, then pulled the hose out and magicly it works? tell me what to do when this happens I do not want trouble! it gets 9/10 The last i tried THE BALL. This was the model that pulled out fibres in our berber up at our place in nj. It was ok but had a hard time keeping straight. It gets 5/10.
ALSO ! WE THEN WENT TO BOSCOVS AND I WAS LOOKING AT ELECTROLUX PRONTOS AND TURNED AROUND AND SAW IT! IT WAS REALLY WELL BUILT! THEY WANTED $229 FOR IT. THEY HAD NO HEPA BAGS BUT THE REGULAR S BAGS? THEY HAD FILTERS? THEEY HAD NO TOOLS WITH IT JUST WAND. THEY HAD NO BOXES EITHER?
electrolux "Oxygen" machines---STAY AWAY!!!they may work good-but these machines break all of the time.Have seen several go thru the Vacuum Cleaner Hospital here where I live-the most common problems-wands break-wiring in the wands burns up.the machine and wands come from Sweden-and the vac place here is STILL waiting for parts on some of the machines he has in for service-and that was 6 mo ago.also the motors in the canister blow out-one has had its motor replaced TWICE under warranty.Fianlly the owner gave up and took the machine back to Lowes and got a refund.Also the circuit boards in these fail frequently.