Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Here’s a little bit of history with me and vacuum cleaners – I can tear one up pretty quickly. Or, more accurately, my 95 year old father and his tendency to drop floss all over the place can tear up a vacuum cleaner (his floss once cut a beater bar in half – that stuff is tough). So I don’t spend much. Sure, I had Dyson’s, Kirby’s and the odd Oreck or two, but they don’t last any longer than the $100 Amazon special. This unit looked unique mainly because of it’s style. Unlike other units that have an incredibly heavy top mated to a lightweight lower portion, this one seemed a little more balanced. And, it didn’t fail me there. If this thing weighs 5 pounds it’s only because I have a quarter pound of dirt in the cup and since it’s balanced the process of lugging it around the house is no longer a chore. As for vacuuming, you’ve got your choice of low, medium or high beater bar settings. Medium is probably the best, I get about 30 minutes of usable vacuum time before it dies. Which it does. Previous cordless units I’ve had get weak shortly before shutting down – it’s sort of an early warning system. This unit just shuts down (the charging lights are not visible in usage unless you tilt the handle to the left and look). As for the ability to put up dirt, I’ve got no problem there. In addition to floss, dad also drops peanuts, pretzels and who-knows-what-else on the floor (he doesn’t gain much weight because he keeps missing his mouth). Not a problem, this unit sucked them all up (in a curious note, the beater bar didn’t break a stick pretzel – it was sucked up whole). So, is this unit worth the price? Let me do a pro and con approach. Pro: * Clean design. The flat bottom cup design means you can actually balance this unit on a countertop edge. * Well built. Not a creak or crack anywhere. Lettering is crisp and applied to the casing instead of the usual “put a sticker on and hope nobody notices”. * Removable battery with replaceable lithium-ion innards (I checked at my local battery store). Don’t see that too often. * Surprisingly quiet. My old Red Devil unit could wake the neighbors, this one didn’t even both dad sleeping in the next room (and that’s on high or medium settings). * Easy to clean – embarrassingly easy. Put the bottom of the canister over your trash can and release the lever. That’s it. Since the cup is nothing more than a cylinder with no edges or obstructions, everything just falls out. * Need in-depth cleaning? Twist the canister a quarter turn and it pops off. No slamming or jamming the stupid thing back in. Simply remove the filter assembly (it’s marked “Open” and “Close” with turn arrows) and wash it. Wait to dry and reassembly. Since there are no odd protrusions or sharp cormers in the canister, nothing stays inside. * Comes with an extra filter. That’s a rarity. Con: * Never heard of this company? Join the crowd. I did an in-depth search and could find no Whall or Acuma on the internet except for this Amazon entry. Even sent an email to the company (aukmabywhall-us@outlook.com) asking for a website and got a response with an internet entry leading me right back to the Amazon site you’re currently looking at. Hmmm…… * Need parts? Read first con above. For the price, you probably can’t lose and with Amazon’s liberal return policy you can return it after trying it out.