Electrolux EL4335B Canister Vacuum

I am a spoiled owner of $500 Dyson. I had to give it away to a friend which is why I had to look for another vac. That friend who received my Dyson had to make do with one of those inferior brands that litter the shelves of all appliances stores, so I knew these are out of the question. I had my eyes firmly on bagless canister vacs and had narrowed my search to two models that promised to be a viable replacement for a Dyson (which by the way are horribly overpriced due to patent inflicted monopoly, death to patents!). It came down to this Electrolux and a German made Severin. I contemplated a Miele for a second or two, that is until I saw the price tag. It was a toss to be honest to decide between Severin and Electrolux, because feature wise they are pretty much on par. In the end I went for brand familiarity, even though Electrolux is a whole $100 more (but discounted by about $200 according to Amazon). Delivery was amazingly fast. Ordered it on Saturday, arrived on Monday. I couldn't behappier with the content of the package. First of all, I didn't even bother to look into the user manual for usage and assembly instructions. You don't have to. Everything is absurdly obvious! Parts fit unambigously and logically. A caveman who never ever saw a vacuum cleaner would probably benefit from taking a peek but most people will be able to start using it right away. First impressions: the spring that retracts the electric cable is very strong and winds up the cable effortlessly, you just have to make sure it's not tangled. The dirt canister attaches and detaches smoothly and naturally, same with the canister's bottom through which the content is emptied. Same goes for filter compartment and filter itself as well as the return air sponge like dirt barrier. Even though the filter is replaceable it seems to be perfectly possible to clean it under pressurized stream of water from your shower had (set to the fast and narrow water jet) and thus you can use your vac without (perhaps even ever) bothering to buy any consumables other than the electricity. Going on, wheels roll smoothly with no perceivable friction (compared to the inertia of the unit itself), same for the directional small wheel in the center that provides direction change and maneuverability. The flexible hose and the stiff telescopic part of it are VERY light, much lighter then in Dyson! Handle is ergonomic and when fully extended, the handle is at the right height and vacuuming can be done in perfectly straight, erected position, the way you normally walk. No back pains. Twisting the handle steers the dirt scooping intake attachment (haven't tried the powered sweeper since I don't have carpets, but it surely can aid cleaning the panel and tile floors by the scrubbing action of the rotating brushes). With the standard smooth floor attachment, remember that there's a dirt barrier along the rear edge, which means the air is sucked only from the front of the attachment. This outrageously simple trick doubles the suction force at any power setting compared to an attachment that sucks the air from all directions. Simply scoop the dirt by pushing forward (not by dragging backward, this will only shufle the dirt, or alternatively, lift the attachment from the floor by a fraction of an inch). And the best for last: the variable power knob. There's is some intelligent power electronics in this vac that's responsible for both starting the motor and power control which does its job by preventing power spikes that sometimes knock off the house circuit breakers. I can't be sure but it's possible that the vac uses a brushless motor (it's very quiet) which means it must be controlled electronically. This is my first vac with power regulation. I vacuumed entire home at the lowest setting. There was not a single speck of dirt it couldn't pick up (despite honest efforts of my two cats spewing their food all over the floor). I suppose on smooth panel flooring you will have to switch gears only when scooping very heavy things, like nails, screws, ball bearings. Higher power setting will however, I'm sure, become trully indispensable for carpets, especially for particulates that embed themselves in the carpet or things that entangle themselves with carpet fibers like, say, needles from a xmas tree. I can't really find anything wrong with this vac. If I really had to? OK, it's still requires that human monkey to operate, but that's because it's not a Roomba. Other than that it's perfect: right price for a very light package, aesthetically pleasing to the eye, trivially easy to operate and service, takes up minimum space in storage (stand it upright), suction force is variable and adequately powerful even at the lowest setting. It's quiet and doesn't scare the cats.