Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The purpose of this review is to talk about keeping this little vacuum running like new. Quick and dirty, the lack of a battery lock allows the batteries to vibrate and spark, building up corrosion on the terminals. If performance drops of, try cleaning the battery contacts, and it just might start running like new again. Now let me tell my story. First let me say this is a great little vac in the context or what it is. It is not a full power, whole house vacuum cleaner and not what one should buy if that's what you want. Also, it doesn't cost $300+ so there may be better cordless vacuums. But for for 40 dollars or less, it would be hard to do better. I have a more powerful cordless Dirt Devil that doesn't perform as well. Because of it's direct air flow design, this littel gem is actually better. We have a Dyson ball, but find this is a great little companion. As the name implies, it's designed for quick pickups and excells at this. We bought one many years ago when the batteries were internal. We used it almost daily for quick pickups for maybe 10+ years before it finally wore out. The replacement I bought through Amazon maybe 4 years ago. Many of the reviews said the batteries just didn't last but we had been really pleased with the last one so took a chance. Great shipping and service by the way. We bought the one with two batteries. After a couple of years performance dropped of and I bought a new battery. That one didn't give good performance for even a year. We were getting ready to throw it away thinking the motor was worn out or there was a bad connection. I couldn't believe the battery was actually bad. I'm pretty handy so decided to take a look at it first. Took it appart and found it to be fine and well enough designed so that connections wouldn't fail because vibration. Brushes looked good. Often we overlook the most simple and obvious. When everything looked good inside, I went back to the battery. What I found was corrosion on the battery contacts. Unlike a cordless drill, flashlight, or the old model where the battery was soldered in, there is no latch or spring to hold the battery tightly against the vacuum contacts. The resulting vibration caused spark erosion on the battery terminals. The black carbon build-up acted as insulation between the battery and the vacuun which was the problem. Spark plugs use platnum to prevent spark erosion, but typically batteries don't because they are locked in. The terminals are thinly plated but what do you expect. The corrosion also affects charging. Anyway, scraping with a screwdriver was all that was needed and even the old batteries run like new. So before you buy a new battery, throw away, or rate poorly, see if this tip won't return your performance and keep you satisfied. We continue to be.