Emer USA Compacto Canister Vacuum Cleaner

Finding the right vacuum has made me feel a lot like Goldilocks. I have hardwood floors with fringed area rugs. I also have two cats, a child, and lupus, which comes with arthritis all the time, chronic fatigue and pain, and a clog every vacuum known to man case of hair fall out every time I get a flare.

I have a Roomba, which I love, but between my hair fall and the fringe on my rugs, I spend a lot of time responding to "uh-oh, Beep Beep!" and often have to take the thing apart with a screwdriver to unwrap my hair from its brushes. Did I mention that it hates the fringe on my rugs? Love it otherwise, though, even if it takes two hours to do the house.

I have a 12 year old Fantom Fury bagless, which sucks the nap right out of my rugs no kidding. It, too, can be brought to its knees by my hair. The above-the-floor cleaning wand is too short. The thing weighs a ton. It's not great on the floors (it rumbles so hard that the dirt runs away), and it's hard to get around and under furniture and into corners.

I have a little bagless Shark thing, which is pretty good on the floors, but it doesn't get under furniture and does nothing on the rugs. It does well at above-the-ground cleaning, but you have to lift the whole vacuum to reach anything.

My Emer Compacto does everything I need it to do, and it takes me very little time to vacuum the whole house top to bottom. The canister itself is not super light, but I do not need to lift it except to take it out of the utility closet or take it halfway down the stairs. The cord is nice and long, and the wheels roll along very easily. The telescoping wand easily reaches the corners of my relatively high (old victorian house) ceilings, and the floor / carpet head is engineered to go right under beds, couches, whatever kind of furniture you'd rather not move. I was dubious about the lack of a powered brush head, but the floor / carpet head gets my rugs very clean with no need to stop and untangle brushes.

The air filter works well enough that I don't need to dust after vacuuming. And the motor is very quiet for a vacuum.

The only thing I wish is that it had more tools. It comes with the floor / carpet head and a crevice tool. Something for upholstery would have been nice. I absolutely would buy this again, though.