Good tools make a difference

It was a bit of an indulgence - you can get a vacuum cleaner for much less money. But I don't regret spending the extra. There's the beautiful blue colour of the tube, for a start!

It's cordless - between sessions, it sits in the broom cupboard and recharges itself - no more going upstairs and tripping on the cord on the way down with the machine.

It's light, and a flick of red switch opens a flap that empties out the dust - no more frantic search for a new dust bag.

The charge lasts for 20 minutes, they say - I've never had to stop because the power ran out - you keep your finger on the "trigger" only when actually using it. And how good is it that you know you'll not be spending longer than 20 minutes vacuuming!

The head will do carpets and bare floors without any need to fiddle with a switch to adjust it.

It's brilliant on stairs, light and manoeuvrable. With the number of stairs in my "flat", this was the main reason for choosing it.

There's no need to be unplugging and replugging the cord - we've named it Heineken because it reaches the bits that others don't reach.

Downside? Apart from the £££, I haven't found a downside yet.

Vacuuming was the job everyone hated. Now it gets done a lot.  (Shocking, the amount of dust that gets removed every time...)

Update, Dec 2015

Two months out of warranty, it quit working.

BUT that turned out to be because the plug of the recharging unit had been knocked loose, and it hadn't charged up again.

As with computers - turn it off, unplug at the wall, replug ...