Customer Reviews

Eureka EasyClean Hand-Held Vacuum, 71B

5 star:		(1,860)
4 star:		(619)
3 star:		(137)
2 star:		(77)
1 star:		(106)

 

 

Two cats and two fabric-covered couches, can you feel my pain? After a while, I was going nuts. I'd go broke buying the adhesive type lint rollers, the rubber ones (search for "sweepa") and the reusable brush type didn't do the job. All I'd heard about was dysons, dysons, dysons, so I started saving. But then I thought, hey, what I want is the little motorized roller brush attachment -- so I got online, started searching, and found this. I figured $40 as opposed to $500 was worth a try, especially with the good reviews.

and it *was*. It gets all the cat hair off my couch, and the nice thing is that the hose just tugs right out and you can also get the little cracks and crevices without missing a beat. The "riser visor" thing, I thought was kinda silly til I started using it -- and it's great. You can vacuum horizontally and vertically, and for furniture, stairs, etc--a great feature.

My only complaint is that it's just a *bit* heavy, especially for longer use. Wears that arm out, but that can be a good thing, too.

I'm still hoping to get a dyson eventually, but for the job I wanted to do, getting pet hair off my furniture -- this is *perfect*.

I'd planned to get the small Dyson, but the reviews of this vacuum persuaded me to give it a try. It's absolutely excellent. It's the best handheld vacuum I've ever tried, and I've thrown more of these things away than I can remember. Fortunately, I've always saved the attachments. Sometimes they fit another model, sometimes they don't. Since there's no fancy coupling required to attach tools to the hose end of this one, its just friction, most fit it.

This is a solid, powerful vacuum. The filter is heavy-duty and seems very durable. It's easily removed and reattached. I use those over-priced compressed air duster cans to blow all the dust and dog hair off of the filter. Between this and my full-size Dyson, there's probably more of the family dog outside the house than in by now. As for the weight of this machine, it is a little heavy, but then I only have to support its weight when doing vertical surfaces or carrying it around. When it's vacuuming stairs and furniture, I let the horizontal surfaces support most of the weight.

Everything about this machine suggests its maker really put a lot of thought and effort into making an absolutely excellent product. And, I commend them for packaging it in protective plastic that can be easily removed without knives, pliers, bolt cutters, or a chain saw. The engineering on this one was obviously thoughtful and thorough.

'Caveat emptor' should be a caution against not just unscrupulous sellers, but misguided buyers as well, a self-warning of sorts. To that end, I read all ~1600 reviews of the Eureka, paying special heed to the three percent or so that awarded it one star. Call this a meta review. My conclusion after a complex and detailed statistical and psychological analysis of the complaints is that the hand-held vacuum was being misused, abused in some cases. After a few months of use, I agree with all the positives: Eureka is powerful & easy to use, the brush enhances cleaning power, the canister is a snap to empty, and the filter creates a nice, tight seal. As for the complaints...

"Vacuum stopped working after X uses/N years." That was the predominant complaint, sparks and smoke and vacuum broke. Many of the reviewers who sent their Eurekas to the Great Vacuum too soon seemed to be using them as replacements for full-sized vacuum cleaners: three flights of stairs, several area rugs, hotel lobbies, etc. I planned to use mine to clean up the occasional kitchen spill and kitty-litter dusting--no sucking marathons, just little sprints here and there. Could there have been honestly defective units among these? Sure! I mean, the FDA allows for up to 60 insect fragments per 3.5 oz of chocolate, so a defect in three out of every 1000 Eurekas is nothing to get all huffy and litigious about.

"Vacuum is too heavy." Again, an easy-to-dismiss complaint for me. Step 1: read product specs and ascertain that product weighs 7 pounds. Step 2: lift a bag of potatoes to get a feel for what 7 pounds is like. Step 3: conclude that I can hold seven pounds for the thirty seconds or so it will take me to clean up the flour and popcorn that have peppered the kitchen floor. Step 4: be pleasantly surprised that the 7 pounds referred to the shipping weight, and that the Eureka sans box weighs (according to my bathroom scale) a featherlight 5.4 pounds. Step 5: determine that if the Eureka were a bar of chocolate, then the FDA would be OK if it contained up to 1500 insect fragments.

"Vacuum blows dust everywhere." This was perhaps the most serious of the warnings that I read. After all, vacuums need to exhaust all that air somewhere, and I have noticed this issue with some uprights, especially on hardwood & tile floors. I took solace in the overwhelmingly positive reviews, especially those that addressed the suck-and-blow issues. In particular, one reviewer noted that the vacuuming should be done by pushing the Eureka away from you and not towards you since the exhaust was stronger under the Eureka's belly. That's how I vacuum anyway--plus, I identified, since the exhaust is stronger under my belly as well--so I took a chance. So far, there has been no exhaust problem, no blowing stuff around.

"Power cord is hard to store." As I see it, there are four options for power cord management. Option one: get a cordless handheld vacuum, put up with weaker suction, leave unit constantly charging and sucking power, replace batteries every couple of years once they reach the end of their recharge cycle. Option two: get a short-corded handheld vacuum and plan to spill beans only near electrical outlets. Option three: get one of those internal-storage crank widgets that are a pain to operate or else spring-loaded with an angry and temperamental spring. Option four: to store, wrap the long cord around the base in the time that it takes you to say wrap wrap wrap wrap wrap wrap wrap wrap wrap.

"Hose suction is weak." Nope, it's strong. The same motor powers both the hose and the main unit. And the hose is ridiculously easy to use, requiring none of the attach/detach acrobatics of most vacuums.

"Vacuum requires screwdriver to turn on." This must have been written by Edward's younger brother, Johnny Screwdriverhands.

"Vacuum doesn't work in Australia." Well that settles it then: I'm not moving to Australia.

I have a cat. The cat has fur.

I bought the Eureka EZ-Kleen to get the fur off the furniture.

Did it ever.

I was slackjawed with amazement to see the sheer amount of cat hair the little machine got up off visually pristine sofas and carpets. While Kitty does not have the Olympic shedding capabilities of my late hound dog, she still produces about an inch of vacuum cleaner fill per day.

This is a great little machine and I will recommend it from the housetops.

We bought this hand vac after our hand held powerhead attachment broke on our Sears canister unit, and our Dirt Devil was relegated to auto use. The old DD was so loud that we used ear plugs, and was just okay in the power dept. We were fairly happy with the old DD, so we bought another. Mistake! We didn't realize that the brush roller was beltless...powered by the incoming air. Any pressure on the roller and it stopped. Returned it promptly to the store.

We did more research at Amazon and bought the Eureka. This one works well. We share our home with 4 cats and so far, this vac handles it well. My wife is not an occasional cleaner. She keeps the house spotless and goes thru poorly made vacs like water. The 71AV vac picks up cat hair well, even on course fabrics. It has impressive suction, even when compared to bigger vacs. Even so, it's much quieter than the Dirt Devil we had. The only thing that prevents a 5 star rating is the weight...5 lbs. Also, we have not proven the durability yet. Time will tell. Summary:

GOOD: Great suction, strong brush roller, convenient cord wrap, quiet.

NOT THAT GOOD: A little heavy, a little hard to clean around the filter, unproven durability (wife WILL test it!)

Update 4/2012: This vac suddenly became afflicted with the dreaded smell of roasted electrical parts, and while it's still working, had to be relegated to outside use because of the smell. We will probably get another just like it. Six and a half years is decent for a vacuum of this price.

I wish I could give "4 & 1/2" stars for this eureka hand-held, because it really is a great vacuum.

Great:

-has really strong & powerful suction

-long cord (25 feet!)

-super stretchy hose with convieniently located crevice tool attachment

-brushroll on/off control

-riser visor great for those akward places

-holds a good amount of dirt in it's bagless bin

-automatically shuts off if motor is too hot to avoid overheating, (hasn't happened with mine yet, only use it for about 10 minutes at a time.)

Trade-offs:

-pretty dang big and a little heavy for a hand-held vac, but its great power & suction make it an even trade-off.

-it isn't cordless, but most cordless vacs die in a year or two, not a problem with this guy!

Not as great:

-emptying is a bit messy, and you should use a bristle brush to clean off the filter as well as you can when empying.

-the prongs in the plug seem too small, it will fall out of an outlet with the weakest pull.

As you can see- I highly reccomend this Eureka 71AV hand-held vacuum!

We bought this vacuum after reading the rave reviews here. It has both good and bad points.

It works well on stairs. The visor flipping feature does a really good job at cleaning the risers.

We bought it primarily to clean the cars, and there, it's not that great. Most car seats are a little curved for comfort, and the head doesn't reach the parts that dip below it (it's fairly wide). If you use the hose, you will rapidly find it very short - you have to bring the vacuum to about 1' of the area you are cleaning. It does do well in flat areas, such as the trunk, but the nooks and crannies are hard to get with the large head, and a real chore with the short hose/tiny crevice tool combo.

Overall, I am not unhappy with its cleaning power. However, I find the noise level bordering on deafening if I use it for more than 10 or 15 minutes. The last time I cleaned the car, I found myself longing for some earplugs, and I think I'll use some next time. Since the hose is so short, you never can really get away from the noisy vacuum motor, so cleaning will definitely not be as therapeutic as you might wish!

I'm shocked at how well this little vacuum works. After vacuuming with my expensive German-made vacuum, I used this machine over the same area. I could not believe how much dog hair and dust this handheld unit picked up! I did one bedroom floor and had to empty the handheld canister four times.

Besides the suction power, the things I like best in this vacuum are the attached hose and clever storage for the crevice tool (inserted into the base of the vacuum). I also really like the flip up guard over the roller that lets you get the vertical rise on the stairs without having to do contortions.

The only thing I think could have been done better is the handle. A more ergonomic design would be more comfortable----especially since I am going a little nuts with it now on the entire house.

Wow! This thing REALLY works! I could not believe what nastiness this thing picked up immediately AFTER I vacuumed with my Dirt Devil Vacuum! There was so much dust/dirt that the Eureka picked up that I got on my hands and knees and "hand-vacuumed" my entire room! It was amazing! I am so impressed with this tiny guy that I'm buying one for my mom! This is great for the couch and dusty furniture!

And I love how it plugs in and doesn't "charge" on batteries. All of those rechargable vacuums use their power by one year. I love the long cord and the power this baby has! I love love love it!

I got this vacuum to clean my three flights of stairs that are always dirty. We have three kids and a dog. My 8 year old son started cleaning the stairs and he said, "Hey, Mom! This thing Rocks!!". He was right. My stairs finally look clean and we did them all in half the time it took with our upright cannister vacuum. I am very pleased. Whoever designed this thing should get a bonus check.