A little background: My home is one-story, 1,000 sq. feet, mostly terrazzo, with some laminate wood flooring, and low-pile carpet mats at the entries. I have more cats than a normal person should have (one long-haired, two medium-haired, and three short-haired), and a retired husband who enjoys the beach. I vacuum twice a day. My vacuum requirements, non-negotiable: A long cord; this one is 30 feet. A large dust cup; this one is 1 liter. Goes under beds/furniture; check. My experience after using the Flash twice a day, 15 to 20 minutes each time, for two weeks: I have never owned a vacuum like this and did have to go through a learning curve the first time I used it. Some reviewers mention that the floor nozzle seems to lift up off of the floor. I too experienced that, but found that if I kept my arm almost straight, which keeps the handle low, and use long back and forth movements I did not have that problem. In smaller areas where you need more precise, short movements, I just bent my arm a little bit, which brings the handle up, and that did the trick for me. The floor nozzle is motorized, which helps propel it forward; I had no problems pulling it backwards. This is a very quiet vacuum, and does not scare the cats as much as my previous vacuum. The total weight is 7.4 pounds; I took it apart, weighing just the hand vacuum portion and it is 5 pounds. I am in my mid-50’s and for me the weight was not an issue. The on/off slide switch is conveniently located on the handle, and also controls the two speeds for the motorized brush roll (which cannot be deactivated); the 1st position/speed is for bare floors, and the 2nd position/speed is for carpet/rugs. It picked up everything in a single pass on the bare floors, with a couple passes needed on the carpet mats, which is typical in my experience. (My entry mats are adhered to the floors with carpet-tape because I was tired of re-positioning them whenever the cats and/or hubby moved them out of place. Not sure if there would have been an issue with the vacuum trying to suck them up if they weren’t adhered.) Some motorized brush rolls seem to throw back the litter/cat food instead of vacuuming it up, but that was not an issue for the Flash. I keep an eye on the brush roll in case anything gets stuck/wrapped in it, but it is easy to take care of if that happens. Since it has a 30 foot long cord (and I have a small home) I can vacuum my WFH office, bedroom, hall, bathroom and living room from one plug. One more plug gets the dining area, kitchen and bonus room. The 1 liter dust cup is very easy to empty; since there is a lot of dust when emptying I do that in the trash can in the garage. I empty it once a day, whether it needs it or not. Even though the Flash comes with a crevice tool and a 2-in-1 upholstery tool (which can be stored on the stand, not on the vacuum), I did not plan to use it for above the floor cleaning, such as drapes, blinds, furniture. In my past experience, stick-type vacuums were too awkward and inefficient to use for that type of cleaning. Since the Flash did such a great job on my floors, I decided to test it out with some above the floor cleaning. I quickly and easily removed the floor nozzle, attached the crevice tool to the wand, and used it to grab some cobwebs from a corner of the ceiling. The reach was the perfect length, there was no hose to mess with, and it was not heavy or awkward to use. The Flash also comes apart and back together in so many different ways, I think it will be able to clean any area of my home with no problems. It is important to know that the vacuum does not stand on its own, so if you are in the middle of cleaning and need to stop you could try leaning it against the wall or a piece of furniture. I didn’t want to take a chance that it might fall over so I just lay it flat and out of my way. The Flash comes with a storage stand, which holds the two tools and the vacuum. You will need to detach the hand vacuum portion from the wand/floor nozzle portion to put it on the stand, but it takes just the click of a button to separate the two sections. I have not dealt with the filters yet, but they are easy to access and the manual says that they are washable. I reached out to Eureka to find out where to buy another set or two so that I always have a clean, dry set, but was told that because this is a new vacuum that the filters are not yet available to purchase separately, from them or anyone else. They assured me that the filters would/should be available at some point, could not give me an ETA, and suggested I check back with them later. I will update my post as soon as I have any information about the filters.
