Oreck Commercial BB900DGR XL Pro 5 Super Compact Canister Vacuum, 30' Power Cord with 8 Genuine AK1BB8A Oreck Bags Bundle

Years ago I had one of these that came with my Oreck upright vacuum and I loved it but when I moved into my elderly mother's apartment to take care of her I got rid of both since she already had a vacuum. Well I got rid of her vacuum after so many years, I hate canister vacs, I bought a Shark Rocket, which I love, but it doesn't come with a hose or attachments to clean with. My mother already had a portable Black and Decker cordless vac but the battery would last 10 minutes maybe. Well it finally died so I replaced it with this Oreck. This is exactly like the white one I had before, does the same thing, has the same power, and I love how the cord has a spot to wrap around whereas my old one I had to wrap the cord around the whole vacuum. People have complained about the shoulder strap and said to reinforce it, as it comes apart, so I just stapled mine together at the weak spots to make it stays secure. One major complaint..the hose is too darn short. The hose on my white one was much longer and I could reach places more easily. I have two fans that I use to cool down the apartment and I have to clean it out often due to cat hair. The Oreck works great on it, but I have to put it on my lap just so I can clean them out, and it gets quite hot too. Over all , I'm happy with the vacuum.

I’ll start by saying I do like the power of this vacuum. However I am very disappointed in just about everything else. I was excited when it arrived and quickly assembled the few things that were required. I had a lot of trouble attaching the attachment caddy but finally with my husbands help got it. When I went to put the attachments in the caddy only one would fit. I found that unprofessional and cheap. I moved on and started vacuuming. I used the shoulder strap and placed the strap across my body and began. Within 5 minutes the strap came loose and the vacuum fell, hitting my ankle and leaving a bruise. I secured the strap the second time by tying it around the handle and proceeded to clean. A few minutes later the attachment I was using fell off, I thought I must not have pushed it on tight enough so I twisted it on the next time and that seemed to help however now that I have used this vacuum for a month I still have the attachments fall off regularly regardless of how hard I twist and push them on. My house is old and very spread out so the attachment caddy not actually holding the attachments is a big frustration for me. Overall I feel this vacuum is great on power and awful on everything else. The attachments should be able to click into place the strap should be sewn on or clipped on. And the caddy should actually hold the attachments.

Simple. Well built. Solid. Functional. No gimmicks. This is a great vacuum. We bought it to replace the one like it we had since 1995, and only replaced that one because the hoses and attachments were all worn out and old. We use this one for stairs, cars, but you could use if for your whole house if you wanted to because it has attachments that would work for floors.

Over all I am very happy with my purchase. The capability of a shoulder carried vacuum is amazing. Things I could only do previously with the greatest difficulty with my upright vacuum are now a breeze and even enjoyable. Anything I used to try to clean with the hose and wand connected to the upright I could only barely reach. Baseboards, for example. I could place the floor vac near the wall and clean three feet or so. Then the unit needed to be repositioned and the procedure repeated. Now instead I can just place the nozzle with a brush on the baseboard and unobstructedly walk along the entire length in one sweep. It is effortless and extremely fast. The same is even more true for things at eye level or higher.The above statements probably describe most shoulder carried vacuums so the remaining question is if the Oreck is the best choice. My only direct comparison is with the old one-hand, rechargeable battery powered vacuums that for example Black and Decker made. I would classify those as toys compared with the Oreck. They may have been adequate for getting a few crumbs off a table but not for house cleaning. It is not possible to store enough energy in a reasonably sized battery to power a vacuum motor for any reasonable amount of time. I looked at the Dyson handhelds but I cannot see that they are worth the substantially higher price. Even if their batteries were adequate today (and I doubt that other than for incidental spot cleaning), any battery will age and will not perform the same over time and will eventually need to be replaced. As far as I can see a cord is needed. The Oreck provides a very long heavy duty cord that works well. I have found that a long cord is very important since it maximizes the continuous work that can be done before the plug needs to be repositioned.The motor power is good. Without being able to do a side by side comparison it is impossible to say that this unit is the best, but it does not appear underpowered for the work one would typically use it for, which is as a complement to an upright floor vac. It might be possible to use a shoulder carried vacuum for all cleaning, but it would not be as efficient as having two dedicated machines.Finally the tools seem a little bit on the plastic side. The wand is prone to detaching from the hose. I noticed a Hoover model with metal tubing, which might possibly give a more solid feel but I have not had the opportunity to examine the rest of that machine. The attachment of the shoulder strap others have commented on and it is really poor. It has to be dealt with immediately. Mine came off almost right away but I was lucky to be able to hold on to the machine. When walking around with it, it could easily fall and damage a hardwood floor, a wooden table surface, etc. It is really the only thing that detracts, but it is poor enough that one might expect the manufacturer to send out a free upgrade.

There were a lot of negative reviews about, of all things, the strap. Don’t let this very simple issue fool you. Solved it by double securing it, through the cloth slot, then again on the D ring- works awesome (see photo)My mom only used Oreck, and this was the brand in our house. She still swears by these fine vacuums. What I wanted was a light, powerful hand tool that would get the job done and last longer than 20 minutes. This vacuum gets into crevices of tufted velvet sofas, corners of the baseboards, and is also gentle enough to take care of dust accumulation on paintings. It’s light, portable, and will run as long as you need. No need to worry about a battery running out. A very no nonsense simplistic design. Really, sometimes it pays to go back to the basics, reputation and years of proven efficiency. I’m keeping this little powerhouse. Thank you ORECK