Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My family has had one portable "Dust Buster" vacuum or another for as long as I can remember. And with the exception of the one that my cousin Tony gave us as a wedding present back in the 80s, they've all been horrible. (That first one was the only one that lasted very long and had any power.) So along comes this Bissell portable "stick" vacuum... This thing rocks! Why do I love it? Because it isn't a weak battery operated handheld vac. It has a beefy power cord and a lot of power. We've owned this vac for a week now and we've already used it nearly every day. It's great for picking up the dirt and dust bunnies that the dog tracks in. My kids use it to tidy up in the bathroom near the cats' boxes. I used it to clean out our ovens after I baked 30 loaves of bread for a bake sale. Using the little crevice attachment, I was able to get all of the built-up flour out of all of the nooks and crannies in our oven. It worked great!!! It doesn't bother me at all that I have to plug it in, because the rechargeable dust busters that we've owned for the past 20 years have all been horrible. But this one actually sucks!!! Hooray!!! That being said, I'm afraid the design is really lost on me. The notion of a dust buster on a stick with a fully functional rotating brush just doesn't make any sense. Is this supposed to be a miniature version of an upright vacuum? Well, it just isn't. There's no way you could vacuum your home with this. So in that regard, the design is a failure. But in reality, this is a very powerful corded handheld vacuum. For the small cleanups where you need a dust buster, this is fantastic. But leave the rest of the household vacuuming to a real vacuum. One other small complaint: The fit of the front piece and cup onto the body is really difficult. I had trouble with it and my teenage daughter gave herself a blood blister when she pinched her hand trying to reattach the pieces after emptying the cup. That's not good with a portable vac like this, because you pretty much have to empty it after every use. EDIT: I've owned this vacuum for six months now and still love it. And in a rare moment when Karma circles back on itself, I just bought another one of these as a wedding present for my cousin Tony's son.