Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We have a tendency to bring about the doom of many a vacuum. With three dogs that have coats which blow out massively twice a year, the brooms and vacuums we have often meet early deaths. So it's been an ongoing struggle to find vacuum that is affordable yet up to the task. Unfortunately, this one from Black+Decker is already a casualty. On the plus side, it was a cinch to assemble after receiving it from UPS. I think it took all of two minutes and it was ready to go. The vacuum is very light; not a hulking beast like most vacuums are. This combined with the swivel base make it quite easy to maneuver. The cord is 25' long which is longer than any other cord we've had on a vacuum, and I really wish they were all this long. It's nice to not have to keep switching plug locations while cleaning. The dirt canister is easy to empty. I really like the little crevice tool and how the end rotates to a 90 degree angle with the brush head. The pet hair tool is also pretty darn good. Most pet hair tools have bristles that go all the way around the cylinder and don't account for the plastic bars that are usually present on the underside of the cover that go over the brush and the bristles rub against these bars. The pet tool included with this vacuum is designed to have a space between the bristle bundles so that the bristles don't rub against those bars. This allows the brush to spin freely without that friction slowing it down so it does a better job of cleaning couches, chairs, etc. The suction power is pretty good, and it doesn't kick back dirt when vacuuming bare floors. However, the Pet Ultra Light Weight vacuum is an incredibly basic model so there aren't many features that most of us have come to think as standard on a vacuum. There is no cord retraction so you must ALWAYS be aware of where the cord is at. It's probably safe to say that most of us have run over a vacuum cord at some point, but thankfully the vacuum didn't cause any damage to the cord. Well, during the very first use I accidentally ran over the cord when I shooed one of our dogs out of the way, and this vacuum actually pulled the cord up into the brush housing. I immediately turned off the vacuum but the damage had already been done. The brush had word through the covering of the cord all the way down to the fabric sheath. I unplugged the cord and had my husband fix the damage, but wow... This was a first for me. As I said, I've run over cords before but there has never been any damage to the cord. There is also no height adjustment to account for long pile, short pile, looped carpet, or bare floors. The vacuum also doesn't have a reach attachment for the hose. This makes it really difficult to use it for anything that isn't located height-wise between your waist and shoulders. For someone with back issues, knee issues, problems lifting arms, etc., this makes the hose really hard to use. The crevice attachment is just a couple of inches long, so that doesn't really help. It's also unbelievably loud. We've had vacuums of every brand and model - upright, canister, cordless, lightweight, hand-held; Dyson, Oreck, Hoover, Kenmore. Bissell, Shark, Eureka - and this Black+Decker is the loudest of them all. It's sounded like a shop vac on steroids. And now we come to the belt. The belt that has caused a lot of issues for other reviewers. I don't know if it's something in the way the vacuum is designed, or if it's the material the belts are made of, or if it's because this vacuum heats up surprisingly fast, but there is a problem here. I was shocked at how much this vacuum heated up after running for about five minutes. The heat is centered around the swivel section, and the exhaust air that comes out was worryingly hot as well as the plastic housing around it. I have a suspicion that the belt breaks because the vacuum motor becomes so hot that the belt begins to melt, stretches, then snaps. This, along with the heating of the plastic housing, is also why the vacuum gave off the smell of burning plastic and rubber once it heated up. Both I and my husband checked everything on the vacuum (once it cooled down) to see if this was because of a pet hair clog or something stuck in the hose or around the brush, or if the filters were full or blocked, but there was nothing. So we let the vacuum sit for a couple of hours then turned it back on and went over the same clean bare floor area for a few minutes so we know that there wasn't anything to get stuck in any part of the vacuum. After a few minutes, the smell came back. We turned off the vacuum and once again the motor and exhaust area were super hot. Even after vacuuming the whole house we have never had a vacuum get this hot. I can get past the lack of bells and whistles on this vacuum, but I do have a problem with it being a possible fire hazard. This is one big, big problem for me that prevents me from recommending this vacuum.