I use this vacuum exclusively for cleaning my truck, and at no time do I doubt my purchase; I'm consistently amazed at the amount of dust and dirt that I empty out of the dust cup, even after going over carpet that appears to be clean.

Some of the other reviewers are noting that the vacuum is a bit heavy, and I'll admit that after two hours of cleaning (I'm extremely meticulous) it does begin to make the arms tired. When I switch it on, the torque of the motors (there are two!) activating cause it to jolt in my hand. And I can definitely feel the power as the crevice tool will really yank any junk out of whatever it's cleaning, in addition to the fantastic sucking power of the main brush.

The only real problems I have with the vacuum are that (1) After a while, it can get very warm and sometimes too hot to touch. NOTE that this has never caused a problem with the vacuum itself; I just shut it down for a minute, then continue. (2) Twice, the suction hose has started sliding out of it's slot (I don't mean the slot you're supposed to pull it out of to clean with the crevice tool; I mean the slot that it's meant to be continually connected to, which leads into the dust cup), although I simply push it back in, and no worries. (3) The suction hose length itself is a little on the short side. (4) This is specific to me, as I doubt everybody will experience this: After cleaning my truck, I notice that a very large amount of the junk in the dust cup is actually carpet from my truck, which has lead me to believe that the vacuum may be a little TOO powerful for some jobs. FYI, my truck is a 1990 Suburban, and while the 18 year old carpet has been treated very gently, there's so doubt that it is starting to fall apart; hence my explaining that the vacuum pulling out carpet probably won't be experienced by most of the people buying it.

PROS/CONS:

PROS
-Two motors to handle the load
-Massive sucking power, for that really dug-in junk
-Very good at picking up EVERYTHING on the first pass
-Great power cord length
-Easy to empty the dust cup
-Riser-Visor

CONS
-Suction hose has nearly come out of socket twice
-Suction hose COULD be longer
-Can be a little rough with [fragile/old] carpet
-Over-heating

SUMMARY
Despite minor issues I've had with, I nevertheless recommend it to anybody who has something they want clean. Great value for the money; it completely sucks!

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Love my vacuum, so I love the bags. Wish they came in a larger amount.

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I purched this because our house is 85% tile and 15% carpet. We have three very young kids so the floors are always a mess. This works well. It is bit heavy but it does replace the broom and dust pan. IT is easy to go from floors to carpet. Consumer reports rated one of the best buys. I would agree for the money.

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Seems to suck up dirt very well. A bit heavy and the mechanism used to disengage the vacuum from an upright position is very stiff and difficult to work.

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I had an electric broom for years to pick up dust and dog hair from the hardwood floors. I bought this one to replace it after it died a noble death and it just doesn't work as well. I have A LOT of dog hair in my house and I have to basically hand feed the clumps into the bottom of the machine. Apparently it picks up dust motes but not a whole lot more. My friend has one of those electric Swiffers from the grocery store that seems to do a better job.

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What can one say about a belt; it either works or it doesn't.

I've noticed complaints about the belt breaking frequently on the Eureka 4870. I think that is due in large part to the manual operation of the height adjustment.

The height should be adjusted to the highest level that actually works on the carpet being vacuumed. If it is adjusted too low, the resistance from the carpet versus the powerful motor on the 4870 stresses the belt too much and it breaks.

I've used the same belt on my 4870 for well over two years and it seems to be as good as new. I have a fairly thick carpet and adjust the height to the next to the highest position for most of the carpeted areas of the house. We have some rugs and other carpeted areas where I need to drop the height down, but usually the third level down from the highest works well on those. Properly adjusted the 4870 cleans very well, fluffs up the carpet, and extends the belt life.

The bottom line on this is if you don't stress the belt by adjusting the height too low for the carpet; the belt can last for years.

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These vacuum bags allow good airflow while filtering out fine dust. Just one caveat. Style MM is not the same as style C. I've had to do a bit of cutting and taping to make them fit my Eureka style C mighty mite.

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I bought this item about a year ago from amazon. We have a two bedroom-two bathroom carpeted apartment for which we wanted a relatively light but effective vacuum with no hassles. It worked well initially picking up fine particulate dust, small bits of paper, dry food matter and hair. It gradually lost its suction power over a year that we continued to use it. Although its motor still hums and the bagless container still accumulates dust it fails to pick up hair, visible fine particulate matter like food, cereal, paper etc. I cannot say that it does not work because technically it's still 'alive'. I had initially given it more stars but after using it for a year I beg to differ.

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First of all, I love my vacuum cleaner. It is a Eureka Optima. It is small and compact. I have had it for at least 3 years. The only problem is that it does not have a self-propelled feature, so it can get a little difficult to push back and forth. But I view it more like an exercise. My old filter is smelly. I rinse it every so often, but it does smelll. This new filter works great! It fits perfectly. The item arrived on time. Everything is cool. Now that I know this works, I will change my filter more often in the future.

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12 LB is still a little bit heavy, but it's very powerful in small body.
It's very nice for my small apt.

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