Kenmore 81214 200 Series Pet Friendly Lightweight Bagged Canister Vacuum with HEPA 2 Motor System and 3 Cleaning

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 Read more

This a very good vacuum cleaner, this is my first canister. Far more powerful than the upright, I you decide on a canister make sure you choose a motorized vacuum head that makes a world of difference regarding the cleaning performance. I made a mistake purchasing a canister vacuum with an air turbo cleaning head, the performance was poor. I retuned the vacuum, Miele C1. This Kenmore cost less than the Miele and the performance far exceeded the Miele. If you decide on the Miele get the C3 with the power head but be prepared to spend a lot more money. In short buy the Kenmore series 400 it is an excellent vacuum. Read more

Every time I use this thing I tell myself I'm going to go back on Amazon and write a bad review. Today is the day. The ONLY redeeming quality of this vacuum is that it sucks and sucks with a lot of force. Everything else about it is horrible. The "convenient" silly trick way of connecting the floor tool on the go works maybe 30% of the time. The hose exits the canister vertically which leads to the thing not wanting to follow you. Instead when you tug it it flips onto its side. The tube part is made from paper thin aluminum and lots of plastic reinforcement, not the chrome plated metal you may be used to. This means you have huge cumbersome connections for your tools. They are really big too. Always loved being able to shove your vacuum between your fridge and cabinets? Forget it!! There is no way to bleed off suction like you may be used to either. Nope, instead, you slow the motor down with a slide switch, so you can bet you will still suck up and jam on those bathroom carpets! As a bonus, it is located right where you will constantly rub against it when you don't want to. You cannot leave the vacuum standing upright like ALL the Kenmores used to do. Nope, the hose is either too heavy or the friction at the knuckle joint too light. It crashes to the floor every time. You need to stand it up against something. The knuckle, which would always rotate 180 degrees now does NOT. 100 degrees maybe. I lost my ability to roll the vacuum under the bottom shelf in my linen closet, rotate the handle and shut the door. I had been doing that since 1994. The connection of the tube for the knuckle is enormous. When you have (manually, because you got frustrated) attached the floor tool to it, it hits every thing. I used to be able to slide the floor tool behind my cat's dishes and the wall gracefully. Now the huge plastic monstrosity swipes against the dishes, sending food and water spilling out. When trying to swipe along the toe-kick under your cabinets, you now scrape along the bottom of all the cabinet doors as you go along. All in all this is the worst experience I have had with a canister vacuum in my life. There is so much bad engineering in this thing that it makes an already mundane chore positively nauseating. Read more