Hoover Air Lite Corded Bagless Multi-Cyclonic Lightweight Upright Vacuum Cleaner, UH72460

I eyed this vacuum a week ago, wondering if it was as awesome as what the box describes it but what sold me is that it has a roller brush "on/off" button option which would be excellent for all of the hard to clean jute rugs that are in my home.SIMPLE CLEANING: First of all, this vacuum is very easy to assemble. No screws or screwdrivers needed. You simply push and snap into place the arm handle and the cleaning wind-tunnel tank. My first night of use I vacuumed both my first and 2nd floor. First floor is ceramic tile, stairs and 2nd floor is a very low pile carpet. Picked up things well on both surfaces with and without the roller brush on. It managed to pull freshen/fluffy the low pile carpet. With this vacuum there is no lever/setting for carpet pile height, it appears to maybe be self-adjusting? The smaller head and the roller ball like steering of technology enables you to get under places that are usually forbidden with a typical vacuum of its price/class range. I didn't have to completely move all the dining chairs around to vacuum under the table, etc. The roller ball like technology was a little awkward to get used to at first. I still don't think about using it in the multiple ways of twisting and turning that you can use it for to steer around rounded corners and edges unless I'm forced to. So I'm not sure its a needed technology, or maybe I've gotten used to it and taking it for granted.STAIRS: It is lighter weight than most vacuums of its class. So to vacuum the stairs I just opted to use the entire unit itself since I have adequate space for each landing of the steps and the narrow head enables for full cleaning. It cleaned very well. It doesn't come with a stair roller brush as an attachment tool so I was skeptical of cleaning the stairs with the attachment tools it comes with. However, my 2nd day of use I used the attachment tools to clean the corners of the steps and I was impressed. I even used the simple brush it comes with and it was a wonder in freshening up the carpet pile on the steps that I have. Not to mention it has a 30ft cord!!!!! Now I don't have to plug the vacuum on the top floor, unplug it when I'm mid way cleaning the stairs to go downstairs and plug the vacuum in again to continue cleaning!!!! Simply excited about that.ATTACHMENTS: There are only two attachments- a short wand of about 6 inches and a soft bristle brush. First take, I was like "What?!?!?!". What changed my "What?!?!?" to a "YES!" is because the hose is pretty long and flexible. Then later on I found out that the handle to the vacuum doubles as an extension wand so you can clean ceiling fans and the corners of your walls! I have 9ft ceilings so this is perfect. The soft bristle brush I thought was useless till I actually used it- its so effective at cleaning a lot of things without destroying fabrics. BTW this is the first bristle brush on a vac that I can easily clean windows with and get into the window tracks. Not to mention, the soft bristle brush cleans blinds sooooooo effectively because its able to get a good suction due to the brush not being so stiff. Also, the ends of the attachments are all at a flat angle.... or cut at a bias... so it makes getting into corners quite easy without losing suction and contact.SUCTION: I've never owned anything like a Shark or Dyson vac. But I've own Bissell and I love Bissell but this vac has now made me convert to a Hoover. Its like a well functioning utilitarian canister vac. The simple brush on this Hoover is effective on low pile carpets and fluffing them up but delicate enough that I actually have used it on all of my thickly woven jute rugs without turning off the roller bar. I had vacuumed previously with a 1 year old Bissell, and then followed it up with the Hoover, the Hoover managed to collect more stuff. Not significantly more, but yes noticeable more. I did the same by vacuuming with the Hoover first and then following up with the Bissell and the Bissell didn't pick up as much more as the Hoover did after following the Bissell. This could be that the Hoover is new and has great suction, but my Bissell is only one years old- so its not ready to hit the vacuum crematorium yet. The extra stuff could be from Bissell's aggressive rolls of brushes pulling up the pile of carpet. The hose gets great suction too, I accidentally got it too close to the wall with the brush attachment on and it stuck to the wall.RUGS: This thing is soooo awesome on rugs. I have flat fabric jute rugs, thick woven jute rugs, a semi-jute braided wool rug, your typical floor mat rugs, and the biggest challenge of them all- a wool noodle shag rug I just got a few days after purchasing the vacuum. I've had no problems using this vac with and without the roller brush (beater bar) on without having the rug getting sucked into the vacuum but at the same time I can see all of the lint and stuff get caught into the canister... so I know its picking up dirt. The attachment tool brought to life a vintage natted wool noodle shag rug and was for the most part able to pick up most of the dirt. Noodle rugs are notorious for being the hardest rugs to clean because it traps in dirt and lint like no other.CONS: I don't like the light colors of the unit because it doesn't hide dirt or marks, but that's a very superficial observation, canister volume is smaller than most but might be the physics behind its great suctioning powerPROS: Its lighterweight and makes cleaning upstairs and downstairs easier, attachment tools and wands are limited in numbers but still does the job needed in a superior manner, great suction, strong but delicate on rugs, designed and performs well for its price range/class

When I received the vacuum I was excited to test it and immediately opened it up and started vacuuming. Word of caution, the brush roll will not engage until you push vacuum down and engage it for use. Just turning it on will not start the brush roll. Even pushing the brush roll on/off switch will do nothing until you push the vac down and engage for use. (I thought I was going crazy until I figured it out.) Other than the brush roll feature confusion, a child could snap it together. Easy to assemble.Once I started using the vac, I was immediately disappointed in the suction. I just did not believe it was sucking as well as my 6 year-old Hoover Windtunnel, which I am replacing. My neighbor has the baseline Dyson so I borrowed it to do some comparison vacuuming. First, I vacuumed the entire house with my original Hoover Windtunnel to set the baseline and to see how well the Air Lite and Dyson picked up "deep dirt". Then, I vacuumed the entire house again with the Air Lite and the Dyson, comparing before and after as well as performing a test of 1/2 the room with one and 1/2 the room with the other. Here's what I found:Air Lite Pros: It lives up to its name--this vacuum is light! It is FAR lighter than the Dyson. It is also easy to carry and the hose is soft and easily extendable--no difference in my opinion to the Dyson. Apparently, it does have good suction. I could not tell a noticeable difference from the Dyson to the Air Lite. The Dyson "may" pick up more of the finer dust particles but it was difficult to tell as I believe the fine particles were being trapped further up in the dust cup on the Air Lite. Maneuverability with the Air Lite was very good--no real differences between the two there. The Air Lite and the Dyson did not appear to have any differences with handling hardwood floors.Air Lite Cons: it doesn't vacuum as quickly, meaning you'll get more square footage completed more quickly with the Dyson. The Dyson due it its weight also propels a bit better and "feels" more substantial due to the extra weight. The Dyson also brushes the carpet differently--I can't say it's necessarily "better" but it may be a bit more even. The attachments for the Air Lite are not suitable for stair cleaning which was almost a deal breaker for me. However, I've found that you can purchase an accessory kit for Air Lite for approximately $50, depending on the seller, with a ton of attachments including a stair cleaner.My final analysis is that it's just not worth the time to return the Air Lite or the extra money to spend on the Dyson. The Dyson model I used was at least an extra hundo more than the Air Lite. I just could not substantiate the spend. For that money, I could buy a quality handheld cordless to use on the stairs and/or purchase the accessory kit.I'm keeping the Air Lite. I like it--don't love it. If it came with a stair cleaner that had a brush roll in it--it would be a much better vaccum--and I might have given it 5 stars. However, due to the subpar accessories that come standard with the Air Lite, I just can't go there.One caveat, if you have a large house, say over 2,500 sq. feet--I wouldn't recommend the Air Lite due to the fact that I think it's going to take you much longer to vacuum the house with it than a larger vac. If you really like the feel and heft of a smooth ride when you're vacuuming, I might also recommend that you go with a different model, as the Air Lite is not as smooth as some (that's the tradeoff for less weight). However, if less weight is what you're looking for ad you need something that's both light and efficient, I think this is a solid choice.Now, I'm feeling pretty fantastic that I didn't shell out $300-$600 for a more expensive vac.

I wanted to love this vacuum so much! There are some great pros; the hose is flexible and bendy and doesn't knock the vacuum over when you are using it. The onboard tools are brilliantly thought out and easy to use. The vacuum itself is light and easy to push.BUT.It just doesn't pick up very well on my main floor carpet. I have a mix of area rugs and hardwood and my biggest area rug is a bit of a shag. This thing just doesn't pick up very well on it. Now it does pick up SOME STUFF as you'll see in the pictures, but just not EVERYTHING. Clearly it is picking up some dirt and hair but why it is leaving visible hairs laying on top of the carpet (not embedded), I can't imagine. And the photos are showing my carpet after I went over the whole thing three separate times. (Seriously wish I could love this vacuum!) I am not sure why the actual vacuum power is so wanting when the hose power seems very intense!The other big drawback for me, is that when you open the cannister to empty it, the hair has been wound into a nifty little ball. Except the ball is wound AROUND the center piece, requiring you to reach up and pull it out by hand, and it is messy and gross and who wants to do that?Finally, where the hose connects to the rollerbrush thing, the connection is weak; the hose is falling off constantly and I've only had this vacuum a week.So I can't recommend it, unless you maybe don't have pets/long hair that will get wound up requiring you to pull out all the dirt from the cannister, and if you have a small place with very low pile carpets... it may be fine for that.