Kenmore 81414 Bagged Canister Vacuum Cleaning Tools, 400 Series + Telescoping Wand, Red

I’m nearly 50 and this is my first canister vacuum ever. I’ve owned upright vacuums made by Dyson, Oreck, Shark, and Hoover for the most part over the years. Dyson seems to put more money into marketing than performance these days. Shark is great until they lose suction which happens within a year or so for me. And Oreck is wonderful but overpriced.So, I did a lot of reading. I knew I wanted a canister to be more maneuverable than an upright. I knew I wanted a bagged vacuum because bagless, while convenient, ends up with a filthy machine and dirt flying when emptying it. I knew I wanted a power roller. And I knew I didn’t want to spend an absolute fortune. So, this Kenmore fit the bill.When I received it, I vacuumed with my existing Shark Rotator Professional. Then I put the Kenmore to action to see what it picked up. The Kenmore picked up about another half a bag of dust. For reference my house is a little under 1800 sq ft. As of yet I haven’t noticed any loss of power or suction as the bag fills up.I love that you can switch from hard floor to carpet/rugs with the slide of a button on the handle and also change the suction strength in the same spot. I have all sorts of flooring from tile to hardwood to deep shag rugs and it handled them all with ease. The hose length is plenty long enough to reach my ceilings and the onboard tools are easily accessible. The self-retracting cord is a nice feature too. I estimate that a bag should last me about a month and there are plenty of third party bags on Amazon that are far less expensive than the OEM ones.My one minor complaint is that the handle is top-heavy and has a tendency to fall over if you’re not very careful about how you store it. Otherwise I’m very happy with my purchase

This machine is so well-made, sturdy, yet lightweight. It isn’t loud, has amazing suction with its power head that’s adjustable for various heights of pile to wood/tile floors. It has a HEPA filter and the bag is good sized, which is much better than my old vacuum, so you don’t have to change it so often. I also love the button for easy rewinding of the cord. Almost makes it fun to vacuum!

There are so many disappointing design choices in this model, that I was already gearing up to write a negative review.Then it died. Total cumulative usage time was less than one hour. The friendly customer support rep agreed that the PowerMate head I'd received was defective. There don't have any stock on hand. And, if they had, it would take 10-15 business days to receive it. The rep suggested that my best course of action would be to return it to Amazon.I chose the Kenmore Elite 21814 Pet Friendly CrossOver to replace our 24 year-old Sears-Kenmore Progressive 20612 canister vacuum, which had served us well until a few weeks ago.Pros:* The new model is a little quieter.* The suction control actually changes the speed of the motor.* The customer support representative was friendly and honest about my options.Cons:* The canister is a little wider and taller, so it takes more space in the closet.* The lump on the bottom to hold the canister on the stairs is a workaround for the fact that the canister isn't well balanced. I used to just set the old canister on its tail a step or two below the one I was cleaning. It had rails to ensure that didn't block the exhaust vent or pinch the power cord. The new one seems prone to toppling in that orientation.* The hose comes straight up out of the canister, which puts more strain on the hose, effectively makes the cannister even taller, doesn't swivel nearly as well (resulting in more frequent widing of the less-flexible hose). Our old model had a 360-degree swivel connection with an angle that made it much easer to tow the canister along and made better use of the length of the hose.* The handle assembly is bulkier, which doesn't matter (much) when using the wand, but it limits manueverability when using attachments.* The attachments snap into the handle assembly instead of a friction fit over the nozzle beyond the assembly. So you can't mount them in arbitrary orientations. You also can't easily use the nozzle to clean the lint and pet fur stucks to the bristles of the attachments before putting them away. And it's not compatible with the older attachments.* The dusting attachment is smaller and has stiffer, more abbrasive bristles than the old ones.* There is no longer a simple floor attachment. The "crossover" gimmick is the floor brush that fits into the PowerMate head. That brush is bulker. In the short time I was able to use the vacuum, I found places I normally use a floor brush, but the new one won't fit. And it feels like it might be a bit rougher on the floor surface as well.* There is no longer a simple fabric brush. I guess you're expected to always use the Pet PowerMate. The Pet PowerMate, in conjunction with the bulkier handle assembly, won't reach into sections between cusions as deeply or easily as the simple fabric brush would. I almost never used the old PowerMate Jr. (which was a bit larger and a lot heavier than the Pet PowerMate) because it wasn't any better than a simple fabric brush. Heck, I even used the fabric brush for carpeted stairs.* The fan blade duster is probably fine, but I don't think it's useful enough to justify the space it takes up in the attachments compartment.* The crevice tool is substantially shorter, so there are places it cannot reach as effectively. And instead of residing in the attachment compartment, it clips onto the already-too-cumbersome handle assembly. And good luck putting it back there without checking the illustration in the users manual the first several times.* I'm not a fan of the swivel mechanism where the wand attaches to the combo floor brush and the PowerMate head. The worst problem is that it severely restricts how far down you can bring the wand (as does the handle). The old model allowed lowering the wand until it was all-but-parallel with the floor, allowing you extended reach under beds, sofas, dressers, etc.* The swivel mechanism makes it hard to vacuum in straight lines when you want to.* The pile height adjustment pedal took a lot of force, and it often wouldn't advance the mechanism quite enough for it to snap into the next level.* The little rollers on the back don't seem as effective as the corner-mounted wheels on the old PowerMate heads.* On forward strokes, the PowerMate head is very hard to push, as if the front of the head wants to nosedive into the carpet. On the back strokes, it's much easier to pull but it doesn't pick up well. This was especially true on area rugs, even with the suction at the lowest level and the pile height adjustment set to high.* Comparing the underside of the new and old PowerMate heads, there's no obvious difference between the edge-cleaning abilities. In practice, however, the edge cleaning with the new model seems ineffective within 1/2 to 3/4" of the baseboard.* The dirt sensor seems to have some lag. When vacuuming up crumbs or sand, you can here ticking noises as the bits hit the sides of the metal tube. But that feedback is almost entirely out of sync with the dirt sensor light. After going over sections of carpet several times from multiple angles, the dirt sensor will often indicate each time you change directions (e.g., push-to-pull). Either it was wrong, or the vacuum didn't do a good job on the first six-to-eight passes.Neutrals:* The telescoping wand is fine, but the old wands were the right height for me. I suppose if you were taller or shorter, you might appreciate the flexibility.* Putting a light on the wand makes some sense, because you can, in theory, use it with attachments other than the PowerMate head. But it's not great angle for seeing what's ahead of the attachment. And should I have to use "carpet mode"?* The prefilters are identical to the 25-year-old ones, so they are readily available and inexpensive. The exhaust filters are larger.