Vacuum Cleaners Tips

Eureka 426A Upright Vacuum Review A Decent Inexpensive Vacuum The Eureka Model 426A is similar to the 421A reviewed elsewhere on Epinions, but with the additional feature of a motorized brush roller. ...

Eureka 426A Upright Vacuum Product MPNMPN:426A Key FeatureDesign:Upright MotorAmperage:12 Amp. ConvenienceCord reach:20 ft....

The time had come for my beautiful fiance to move in with me. Alas, companionship, love and friendship would be mine all the time. That and a hand with the chores.

Trouble is, my poor fiance couldn’t lift my 24lb Eureka 5892AVZ — aka — Big Yellow (see my review of it titled “Whoa does this thing suck!”). Yup, the manly yellow Eureka is a monster when it comes to dirt, powerful and versatile. But even I have trouble taking it up the steps in my 3-level townhouse. And come to think of it, for my tile and wood floors, and the kitchen, it’s really clumsy to move about, even if you can turn the brush roll off.

More Power!

Enter the Eureka 426A Optima Stick Vacuum. Basically, it’s the same 12-amp motor, housed in about 1/3 of the vacuum. It dosen’t take a genius to figure out what this means — less vacuum same power = killer suction. And boy does it — no problem at all maneuvering this 10lb beauty around my kitchen, hallways or even stairs thanks to its small but switchable brush roll.

The footprint of this vacuum, although here on Epinions it’s listed as an “Upright,” is really of the stick variety, and it shares its chassis with other vacuums in Eureka’s Optima family. It’s very small, has a telescoping handle, and very easy to maneuver thanks to its smallish footprint and lightweight. The fiance is in vacuuming heaven.

Dust, Dirt, small animals…watch out!

Now on hard floors, it does a bang-up job, literally sucking the dirt right up within an inch of the cleaner. Dust bunnies are atomized, crumbs are siphoned away, and even rice doesn’t stand a chance against this red devil. Suction is not a problem with this cleaner, and it’s not in any way shape of form just a dustbuster with a long handle as with some of it’s competition. The motorized brush roll is nice for carpet and stairs, though don’t expect the deep cleaning that a full size cleaner will afford, unless your home has only hard floors and the occasional area rug. This is not really a carpet machine. There’s also no onboard tools either, which for me was great since I’ve got the ‘426A’s big yellow brother for that.

All is not Perfect, Though

Although the ‘426A is perfect for all hard floors, and will have you forgetting all those horror stories of stick vacuums that couldn’t even suck up the smallest crumb, it is not without flaws. This thing is almost too powerful - think Chevy Cavalier with a Corvette engine. Sound good in theory, but in practice all that air from its intense suction has to go somewhere. And that’s out the front exhaust. Trouble is, there’s so much air exhausting through such a small space that it actually creates a stiff breeze near walls; in small rooms, it’s enough to blow you away! Literally, in my bathrooms it was blowing the towels and toilet paper off the rack/roll. Makes it tough to suck up dirt when it’s flying through the air…

You can lower the cleaner while you use it, so that the front air exhaust exits in more of an upright pattern, but that takes its toll on your back and is just plain silly. The net result is that in small rooms, or near walls, you’ll need to compensate for this design flaw. More or less a trade off — lesser cleaners will not have intense suction, but they will probably not create wind storms either. You choose based on your task at hand.

Is it the one for you? Maybe.

Overall, this baby Eureka is a solid cleaner, and well made. I generally prefer Eureka’s especially given my positive experiences with their other cleaners. But this like many others has a few drawbacks inherent in its design. The cord is also very short, only 15 feet, which can be a real pain. You do the math — if you have a big room, you’re going to be switching outlets quite a bit. I’m not dead set on keeping this little red Eureka yet, but so far, it’s the best thing out there given its features, price and power.

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