Advantages: Consideration of all features will make the search easier.
Disadvantages: Vacuuming is still a useless and horrible task, regardless of what you buy.

...One of my most least favorite household chores is vacuuming. It’s such a waste of time and effort. I mean, think about it; what are your floors for, anyway? To walk on, right? With your dirty, muddy, dusty footwear, right? (With apologies to the Japanese, who are enlightened enough to remove said footwear at the front door.) So regardless of your efforts, as soon as you finish cleaning the floors, they’ll get dirty again, right? Right. OK, so now we’ve established one Fundamental Truth about floor care: It’s a Sisyphean task. Here’s another: If you don’t take care of your floors, the crud will build up more and more until you’ll be kicking up clouds of dust and dirt with every step, your feet with stick to the floor, your kids won’t want to bring their friends home, your friends will all cluck in scandal... Read review

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Advantages: Fast Paced read.
Disadvantages: None.

...The Stainless Steel Rat joins the Circus. Author - Harry Harrison. The Hero or Anti Hero of the series of stainless steel rat books is Jim DiGriz. He was born or rather created in 1961 and has appeared on book shelves ever since. The richest man in the galaxy, Imperitrix Von Kaiser Czarski, Hires Jim and his wife Angelina to investigate and if possible to catch the criminals behind several bank robberies. Jim, his wife and their son, James, find a common link to each robbery in that every time a bank has been robbed a Circus has been very near by. Jim hires a retired magician, 'The Great Grissini' to teach him some tricks and then joins the circus pretending to be a magician! As is the ilk with the 'rat' stories, there then follows some odd, fast paced and improbable adventures where Jim faces death, is conned, double... Read review

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Advantages: lighter to use, will last a lifetime if looked after well.
Disadvantages: none

...About 8 months ago we had a fire in our garden shed, we had been burning garden rubbish and thought that we had been very careful in dousing the fire. We were wrong and the fire completely detroyed our garden shed,and all the tools that were in it,30 years of collecting old tools,things that you cant buy to-day. We were devastated at our loss,but something good did come out of it,we decided to buy stainless steel tools, and a rake was part of our important buys. I cant tell you what a great difference it has made to us, it is lighter to use,not so heavy on the wrists,the work seems to be lighter,it can be used for heavy work or light,I have a lot of clearing to do on a small allotment and the stainless steel rake is a must. provided you clean the stainless steel when you have finished the garden work your steel tools should last... Read review

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Advantages: Exactly like the big version
Disadvantages: Expensive

...My daughter had a toy vacuum cleaner and it broke and she was pretty upset as she loved playing it. Well along comes Christmas and my daughter is opening her presents when she gets to the one from my aunt and it was a vacuum cleaner, but not any vacuum cleaner but a Henry vacuum cleaner. My aunt then explained that she was buying a vacuum cleaner for herself, a Henry of course and as she left she spotted this little version in the window so rushed back in and asked if it was for sale. The sales assistant explained it was a toy and not a mini version, she informed in she knew it was and just wanted to know if they sold them, which they did. You guessed it she brought it so that was why my little girl got one. What do you get? A Henry vacuum cleaner, the obvious item, which looks exactly like the proper Henry. Inside you get... Read review

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Advantages: Good for role play
Disadvantages: Some pieces cant be removed

...and opposites. Musical fun: There are four fun songs to sing along to. There are also a variety of sound, sure to make your child smile. Imagination: Push the vacuum along for great role-playing fun. It makes a realistic vacuuming noise, which is great fun. There is a volume switch to adjust the sound levels-very useful! OTHER DETAILS This little vacuum is bright yellow with two large purple wheels on the back, while the handle is blue. The upright section of the vacuum has a drum that spins when the vacuum is pushed on the floor -the drum features lots of small pictures that are shown as the toy is pushed along. The back of the upright features moldings of a hose and accessories but nothing that is removable-this is quite frustrating for children when they discover that they cant remove it. On one side the vacuum has an on/off switch... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Useless on carpets.

...Bought this as a quick replacement for a broken upright vacuum cleaner. Knew that cylinder vacuums weren't ideally suited for large carpet areas, but not too bothered as I only vacuum about twice a month. I have used many different vacuum cleaners over the years, and I can honestly say this is the least effective vacuum cleaner I have ever used. Am puzzled by one of the earlier reviewers praising it and then describing spending 30 minutes vacuuming one room and building up a sweat. I have had the same experience - spending ages and hard effort to vacuum a carpet and it not looking much cleaner at the end. Unlike them, I feel this defeats the purpose of vacuuming. The build quality looks fine, and the loud motor certainly sounds as if it's halfway decent, but there's virtually no suction. When it does suck up some fluff... Read review

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Advantages: Nice product if you dont use it
Disadvantages: Scratches badly

...After spending a considerable amount of money on a new kitchen (£15K) we purchased this sink thinking it would be a good investment, £400, and within a week the stainless steel scratched terribly. We consider the quality of this sink to be poor, and dont believe it should scratch so quickly. We wrote to Franke, who wrote back saying they couldnt even consider any complaint unless we filled in a complaint form, which would not necessarily get us any further. We couldnt believe the attitude of these so called customer service people at Franke.... Read review

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Advantages: Great looking fast boiler & reasonable cost
Disadvantages: Noisy!

...Every 24 to 30 months I have to replace my kettle, why I know not but they only seem to last a month longer than the warranty! With this in mind one of my priorities is that I dont over spend knowing it will be replaced within 2 years or so. Had to be brushed stainless steel to fit my decor & it makes it easier to keep looking new as opposed to shiny S/Steel! Efficient in boiling & easy to refill & clean as I have teenagers who are reluctant to do any of these! Also a safety feature to prevent boiling dry a common mis-use by said teens. Those were MY specs.......................my parents had just bought one of these & are usually good in their research & value for money , they did tell me it is noisy............I went ahead & bought one & am very pleased with its performance but as always parents are right & it is noisy! but I... Read review

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Advantages: Picks up brilliantly, even on wood and tile flooring, good value for money, easy to use.
Disadvantages: A little heavy, hose is too short for stairs

...I always buy very cheap vacuum cleaners, so its no surprise really that they seem to give up after about 6 months! I bought this vacuum from a discount website, and it was still less than £90 with postage! It came to me with very simple instructions, and I had it together within 15 minutes. I had been without a vacuum for about 4 days (a long time in the world of pets and children!) so tried it out immediately. Being 1700w, I had expected it to be quite loud, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was no louder than my old cleaner, which was only about 1400w! It picked up everything effortlessly, and the crevice nozzle took care of the skirtings, under the sofa and between the cushions with no problems at all. I found it to be a little less effective on ceramic tiles, but not terribly so, and it was still much better than other... Read review

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Advantages: No bags to empty, motor to pull or push along. lightweight. efficient. Lasts a lifetime.
Disadvantages: best fitted whilst building your house. fairly expensive.

...I lived in America a few years back, for a couple of years. Certain things rubbed of on me! Kids said I had become Americanised. Mainly from the accent, but it does tend to rub off., they also have some very good ideas. ! So, when the opportunity arrived for us to build our own house, the ideas came tumbling out. What a chance for me to express my newly discovered ideas. Early in the project we visted an Ideal Home exhibition locally. It wasn't a very big exhibition, but Wow! there in front of my eyes was the very thing. Lets do it!, we said. We did it! and we don't regret it. The built in vacuum cleaner. Expensive, yes! but we bargained with the salesman until we had a good reduction on the price. You can do that at shows!. Salesmen often get good commission there, they also would rather not take the demo goods home... Read review

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