Black & Decker Powerseries Extreme BHFEV182CP-XE

Great suction but a nightmare to empty and clean – This machine just about lifts the carpet with its powerful suction and motorised head However, the dirt canister has such a weird design that it is actually impossible to get all the dirt out of the convoluted channels. I have tried washing the canister with a hose jet and leaving it to dry for a day, but am unable to clean one dead end section. I am on the point of getting rid of it as I believe it is a health hazard for that reason.

I've only used it on carpets and rugs and it does a great job.

The battery life from full charge seems very short.

When will they ever get it right? – I have come to the conclusion that all cordless vacuum cleaners suck, and not in a good way. I was hoping from the reviews I saw that this would be perfect for a 2 bedroom unit for quick clean-ups. I've only had the vacuum cleaner for a week or so now, and have used it a handful of times with results that can only be described as very disappointing. The suction even when on the highest level has trouble picking up things heavier than a tooth pick or frozen pea, and after turning the vacuum off small bits of what you vacuumed fall out of the brush head that hasn't made it to the dust cylinder. Like a lot of other cordless vacuum cleaner reviews this does exactly the same useless thing by pushing bits of dirt away that your trying to vacuum. This is caused by either the vacuum head being too close to the floor or the suction is far too weak and the power brush kicks the dirt away. When dealing with hair I would say short about 70% efficient and long hair about 40% as even with a short vacuum I still needed to remove hair from the rollers manually. As for battery life I was vacuuming on the highest level for about 15 minutes and when hanging back on the charger it was showing 1 out of 3 bars left. I could have bought a cheap and nasty for a third of the price of this one and still get 80% of the same results. For a company that's been around for over 100 years you would think they'd get it right by now, but sadly not.