Customer Reviews

Dirt Devil 08200 Scorpion Corded Handheld Vacuum

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have been intrigued by the info-mercials for similar models, and decided to take a chance with this low-priced unit. Wow, did I do well! I have a heavily shedding dog, and was looking for something to help me clean without hauling out my big rig. The box states that it has "33% more suction than the Euro-Pro Shark-Vac" and I was sceptical. But when I turned the unit on, It had so much power that it literally twisted, hard, in my hand before it "stabilized". I love it! Picture a motor that to me seems roughly five times more powerful than a "blow dry" hair-dryer. The thing sounds like it's going to blast off, and it's only the size of a small loaf of bread! I bought it mostly so that I could do my stairs, and find that I am yanking out loose fibers in the corners, an OK thing for my older carpet, I've found. Forget about other units with rotary brushes which I've owned in the past, with this much power, you just don't need them. I do believe that this Dirt Devil is possibly mimicking a design of some other company but as far as I'm concerned, they may have the best one on the market.

Let me just say that this is really the most powerful hand vac that I have ever used. Have you ever owned a "Dustbuster" or other similiar hand vac? Ever feel like the motors spinning and making noise, but all you're doing is pushing the dust around?

Not with this monster. The motor is so powerful that if you hold your arm out straight out in front of you and twist your wrist while holding the vacuum, you can feel it "pushing" back against you! It's able to REALLY pick stuff up, unlike those old fashioned wimpy hand vacs.

This is a corded vac, but the cord is so long that I really don't mind. Plus, there is no way you can get this kind of power from a cordless vac. Ergonomically, the football shape/size and the shoulder strap make this very easy to carry around while using the 2 foot extension tube to get to those corners and edges. The brush attachment is perfect for my couch, little area rugs, and bath mats. No more hair in the bathroom!

The only downside is that you need to be careful which way you hold the vac if you're not using the extension tube. If you're not careful, you can inadvertantly direct the exhaust air (with your leg or body) towards the stuff you're trying to suck up.

This is a great small vac, lots of power, and a good machine. However, keep in mind that this is an inexpensive vacuum, it will not replace your upright.

It does, however, have a lot of pluses:

1. Suction power. This is really a big plus, and I never fail to be amazed that such a small lightweight machine can really have such strong suction.

2. This is very lightweight. I find myself using this machine constantly for small messes when I don't want to drag out my heavy upright. You do have to plug it in, but I haven't found a cordless yet that really works, so I am not comparing it to a cordless vac.

3. When using the crevice attachment, you can get really get in nooks and cranny that NO OTHER vacuum can reach.

Minuses:

1. The attachments are not enough - I find I can't really do my steps because it lacks the right attachment for that. (I can vacuum using the small attachment, but it takes a little too long)

2. It's a little hard to open the vac to empty the dirt compartment, you have to hold it down in just the right place, etc. I have finally figured out how to do it (you have to line it up exactly so), but I consider that a small price to pay for a really good cheap vac.

3. It IS corded (you have to plug it in), but you knew that.

Basically, I find myself using this vac all the time, I wish I can say the same for my big heavy upright. I even vacuumed my car more than once (using a grounded extension cord) and I was amazed how easy it was to use and how well it cleaned. One tip - I find that the key to maintaining really great suction is to constantly empty it - I kept forgetting as I watched whole pretzels disappearing inside with ease - that it's really a small vacuum.

I searched the web for an afternoon looking for just the right hand vac. After looking on several sites and reading others ratings on several of them, I was all set to buy the euro pro. I had still not made my final decision when I decided to go to our local discount "W" store to compare them in person. I ended up with the scorpion, as it seemed to give me the most power yet the most simplicity in a corded hand vac and a great price. It was exactly the same price at "W" as it is here, so if you can do some combining and couponing, you would have a great deal here.

NOW--what do I think of it? WOW!!!!! This little thing is powerful! It has great suction, is lightweight, 3 simple but useful attachments, and seems to be a well thought out design, except for the goofy shoulder strap which only gets in the way and which I immediately took off.

I did my 25 carpeted stairs, my lampshades, my sofa, the dusty top of my hutch, my heat registers, my lower floor blinds, and the interior of my car all in about 1 and 1/2 hours. That little thing just worked GREAT!!!!! This has alot of suction for a little machine! Easy to clean the filter too, just emptied in the kitchen wastebasket and rinsed it out.

Overall, the dust cup could be larger, but it might make it weigh too much. As it is, it weighs only 2.2 lbs and my slightly arthritic hands were fine! I heartily recommend this product. At 18 plus bucks, it is one of those things where you ask yourself, "now why didn't I get one of these sooner?" (because you had one of those crummy old dustbusters when they first came out-that's why!) (Believe me, these little hand vacs have come along way). Look for high watts/volts (read suction), easy maneuverability, ability to get in small spaces, light weight, and --personally I am biased to corded models. This one fits the bill for me as it has all the above and is under ... bucks!

I'll admit being skeptical of this little unit, but for the price I went ahead anyway. Wow, was I surprised. Yes, it's really true that the vacuum it creates it powerful enough to hold its own weight (I proved it just to see). I used it to clean the grooved wooden floor in my kitchen and to worked wonderfully. Emptying the little compartment of dust/particles is a snap. This sure beats getting out the big wet/dry canister vacuum. I'm not sure how the neckstrap will work out, but the little flex-hose attachment, crevasse tool, and brush head tool are great. Those nice little includes push it up to 5 stars from me!

It is a powerful little machine, as most reviewers said, but also the drawbacks they stated.

Pros: It has a strong suction, inexpensive, small.

Cons: Hose is a little too short and has a tendency to fall out alot. No definable place to store the cord. I wish it had clips to store the atachments insatead of storing the entire thing in the box it came with.

Could be issues for you, but were not for me: It is very loud, also gets almost Hot. It has a small dust cup.

Oddly enough I would still recomend it. To me the price is worth the cons, and the cons are only a minor inconviece to me. It does a very good job for what I bought it for.

This thing has plenty of suction and is great for small cleanup jobs where you don't want to pull out a large vacuum. As others have noted, the exhaust is pretty forceful and the noise is sort of loud, but those seem like acceptable issues given what this thing gives you. Unfortunately it has two design problems that make it rather irritating. First, the extension hose does not stay in the unit very well. It needs a simple locking mechanism, which would be seemingly easy to add. Second, I dread having to put the unit back together after emptying it. Woe to the person who misses the alignment even a slight bit and ends up with the "female" part on top of (rather than completely over) the plastic "male" lock. It is a real pain to get it back open.

I'll never understand how companies so often get the hard part right - in this case, a powerful inexpensive vacuum - then mess up the simplest usability steps.

This little guy is truly powerful! It picks up best with the smallest extention tools, but using the hose can be cumbersome, e.g., it falls out while working unless you are vigilantly aware not to tug on it. The cord is extra long preventing the need to stop and switch outlets. It has a shoulder strap also but this can pose a problem as the vents blowing the air our are on either side and are blocked as the unit rests on you (causing the unit to get hot). Speaking of the vents, having cats and hardwood floors I found that the cat hair vanished (blew away) as I approached it with the vac...the only real penalty for all that power. Lastly, empty your unit frequently as it tends to fill up fast (really fast). If it isn't your primary tool and you need to get hard to pick up dirt from hard to reach places, this is for you.

The triangular nozzle and shoulder strap makes cleaning as pain-free as you could ever imagine. With 600 watts of power, the Scorpion competes with "As Seen On TV" items such as the Turbo Tiger at less than one-third the price. Weighing just 2.5 pounds, the vacuum can be taken to places people never think of cleaning. Emptying the unit of it's contents takes seconds with its easy-to-use release latch. Just pour the contents out, pop the collection cup back on and you're ready to go. With its ability to vacuum at hard to reach places, the Scorpion has been a spectacular buy for me. I LOVE IT!

I think this was one of my gold-box finds. In any case, when it was suggested to me on the Amazon site I thought it was a good price for a hand-held vac, and I figured I could always return it if I needed to.
Suffice it to say that I won't be returning this little puppy! This packs quite a lot of power into such a small vacuum. I have 3 cats and a dog, so frequent vacuuming is a must, but sometimes we just need to get the little areas of the house where fur collects and we don't have time to bring out the upright vacuum. This does the job and then some. Sometimes I do have to go over the same area a few times to get everything picked up, but you have to do that with even the best upright vacuums too, so I don't count this as a mark against the Scorpion.
This is ideal for cleaning your car as well. I vacuumed the interior of my car in a matter of about 3-5 minutes and was quite impressed to find that pretty much everything had been picked up.
This would be great for a small apartment too. But if you happen to have a lot of hardwood floors, be sure to use the extender hose to vacuum- the exhaust system does blow quite powerfully, so you'd end up pushing a lot of the dust/dirt around the room without actually vacuuming anything.
Another pleasant surprise is the holding capacity of the dust collector. I kept vacuuming a bunch of fur from the various corners of my house, without a hint of a problem of the container being too full.
I'm only giving this vacuum 4 stars because of what I think to be excessive exhaust "wind" and because it would help if there were an indicator light or something when the vacuum was full; but these are extremely minor grievances for such a small, powerful, extremely affordable vacuum! A great deal!