Worst experience
In the mid 80's I had some sort of nasty K-mart purchased canister. I can't remember if it was a cheap Hoover or a Bissell. However, it was a nice spring day, and I decided to vacuum out the winter grunge from the car.
I had it outside, on a rubber mat, plugged into a GFI outlet, and was merrily "vacuuming" away (actually, it got the grit, but I had to stuff the fluff into the nozzle for it to suction it,) when the machine stopped working. I got out of the car to investigate, and noticed my neighbor shouting and madly gesturing from her window: The cord had shorted out at the junction to the machine, and a small fire had started!
I managed to extinguish the fire with an old blanket from the trunk, and was going to throw the whole works into the trash, when Mr. Cheapskate (my husband) insisted on tearing down the machine and fixing it, even though my plan was to just go buy another cheap machine to replace it until I could afford a decent machine.
That took him four weeks, and plenty of nagging, to do. I had the piece of junk for another four years.
When our dog yakked on the carpet and I "dry-cleaned" the carpet it obviously developed nasty odors. The canister seal had long since dried up, and you could see puffs of dust when you used the machine. I'd like to say "vacuum," but it wasn't doing much of that: I still had to stuff dust bunnies into the wand tubes.
I was on the verge of moving home with mother unless we got something that actually worked, and told him to go ahead and live in the detritus of daily living if it didn't bother him. He finally capitulated and bought me a Fantom Fury as a replacement.
It was an improvement, but nothing special. It bit the dust after about three years. And I didn't like having to empty the dust cup. Unfortunately, it bit the dust on a Sunday, the only place that was open was a WalMart, and I ended up with a Bissell power force upright for $40. Even that cheap machine did a better job than the Fury, with the advantage that I didn't have to dump the dust cup.
I still have the Bissell (Mr. Cheapskate can't bear to toss anything that still remotely accomplishes its function,) but after slipping a disc and needing surgery, I was able to loudly proclaim that, according to the neurosurgeon, vacuuming was one of the most dangerous things I could do to my injured back, unless I got a very lightweight upright that I could use without twisting, horsing it around, or having to bend over to operate (or stuff dust bunnies into the tube.)
That's how I ended up with my new Riccar RS4. For the first time in my life, I actually like to vacuum. And even Mr. Cheapskate commented how it has made a noticeable difference in how the old wall-to-wall carpet looks.
