Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted to write this review because there were some negative reviews which almost caused me not to buy it, but I bought it anyway. I decided to wait a few months (4), though, to make sure I really liked it. I do. The negative comments were: ********************* 1) short cord and owners manual says don't use an extension cord. 2) I have COPD, and somebody said emptying the canister raised a huge cloud of dust. 3) Others stated that the exhaust was on the front of the machine and would blow around the debris you were trying to pick up, especially on hardwood floors. *********************** 1) This sounded weird, so I got out my calculator. A 25 foot 14 gauge extension cord added to the 19 foot cord on the machine gives you a 44 foot cord - 88 feet of copper to complete the circuit. This gives you - with the 7 amp motor - a voltage drop of 1.9 volts, or 1.6%. In other words negligible. There is no reason not to use an extension cord. The only thing I can think of is maybe some time in the past, a contractor hooked a powerful generator to the vacuum using an 8 gauge extension cord and blew up the motor... so Dirt Devil said 'No extension cords'. Ridiculous. The first thing I did was buy an extension cord. It's even red and black, so it looks like it belongs with the unit. I roll up all the cord and let it hang on the hook the picture shows the hose hanging on, and let the hose hang lower. Works fine. 2) No cloud of dust. When the canister starts filling up, I unhook it, walk it out into the garage where I keep the garbage cans, unhook the clasp holding the canister closed, tap it a couple times inside the garbage can and I'm good to go. Believe me, I would know if it was dusty. It isn't. 3) Exhaust on the front. It's on the handle, people. When you tilt the handle back in order to push the vacuum around, the exhaust blows up in the air, not forward. To test this, I crumbled up a handful of styrofoam packing peanuts and tossed it onto a tile floor. Styrofoam crumbs. A baby's sneeze would have blown them into the next room. I fired up the dirt devil and started to vacuum. not a speck was blown anywhere, and it sucked up every crumb in a couple of seconds. The day before the Dirt Devil arrived I had vacuumed with my Sears vacuum. Pretty good vacuum, but weighs just a hair under a million pounds. Anyway, I vacuumed again with the Dirt Devil (new toy), not expecting to pick up much. Filled the canister twice! Clean up is simple. It's so simple I actually wash the canister and filter each time I use it. I don't really think you need to, but the first time I used it, I went ahead and did it, just to see what the process was like. Not knowing what I was doing, it took me almost 4 minutes. It's quicker now. Hah! Pretty long review, huh? I could have just said "This is a great product", and let it go at that, but I thought I should also tell you why. UPDATE 2/26/2014: Hi... It's been 2 1/2 years, and it still works fine. I've changed the filter about three times. The first time, the whole machine stopped, and it was really hot. I thought I burnt up the motor, but I let it cool down and changed the filter, and it started working fine again. Now, if I notice the container isn't filling up and swirling around - time for a filter change. Gotta say, I've been really pleased with this purchase.