DU4399 Kenmore Bagless Upright Vacuum

My wife and I bought this vacuum in July 2023 (it is currently Feb 2025) after giving up on whatever budget brand (probably bissel 🤮) and deciding we needed a REAL vacuum. First off, BEST PURCHASE I have made in a very long time. For a little background, my wife and I take care and adopt sick cats. We currently have TEN CATS in our small three floor typical 1,200 sq ft mostly carpeted city house, so you know pet hair, dander, and litter is a major issue for us. This vacuum is quite small but very powerful. When we first got it, I vacuumed our whole house with the cheap piece of junk we had. I then went over it with the Kenmore, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The bin was full within one room and it just continued throughout the whole house. We vacuum about every 2-3 days and have a vacuum on each floor, and this Kenmore is the one I use once a week to go through the entire house to make sure everything is vacuumed properly.Why I love it:Lightweight - I am able to carry it up and down stairs with ease and can even use the entire unit to vacuum the stairs, though I admit it takes some effortSmall - For some people, this may be a con, but for us, it is a pro. I like having a small little lightweight vacuum that is a dust and hair monster. I'm able to fit it into narrow areas and it stores nicely. If you have a room that is 30'x40', sure, it will take a while to do with this vacuum, but it will get it done well. Honestly, the size is perfect for anyone who has a normal sized houseTwo Motors - Seriously, never buy a vacuum that does not have a motor for the suction and a separate motor for the brush. If it has a single motor, it is worthless. You are missing out on power for both the suction and the brush, but you are also straining that one motor to do everything, making it more likely to fail.Cleanability - there are three filters on this unit. A cone filter in the canister that separatea heavy items that may have accidentally been sucked up. It can be removed (kind of a pain, but I also wouldn't want it coming out easy) and easily cleaned with a toothbrush. Under the canister is a foam filter which does an amazing job. We used to use the baking soda carpet "refresher" and this vacuum would get all of it up out of the carpet and trap it forever. I pop out the foam, take it out back and smack it on the deck and fence a bunch, and pop it back in, no need to replace. Under the foam filter is a HEPA filter. Same deal, take it out back, smack the dust out of it, done. All of the parts are washable, just make sure they are DRYYYYY before they go back in to eliminate the possibility of mold growthErgonomics - Very simple and well set up. Power switch is an actual switch, not a pedal, and you can chose to have just suction for hard floors, or to run the brush and suction for carpet. Releasing the wand is my favourite! Single, satisfying click of a button next to the power switch on top of the canister and it pops right out and has another satisfying click when you replace it. No inconveniently placed push-fit hose that you don't know if it is on correctly. Super easy to use; very well designed. Also, NO PEDALS on the vacuum! Finally! Someone decided that putting a normal power switch on a unit AND it lets you release the main brush by pushing down with your foot anywhere on it. I lothe pedals on a vacuum. This one is very intuitive to use and I love that.Features - Headlights are a must on a vacuum at this point. Our old one did not have any, and I didn't know any different, but seriously, I find dirt and hair a ton of places that I normally would have just ignored. It also lets me see how well the vacuum is operating and if a clean-out is in my future. Speaking of which, on top of the main brush head is a large green/red light indicator. This turns read any time something majorly tanglea up in the brush (which is not often) or if there is a suction issue (again, a rare occasion). But I just love that it has something to say "Hey dude, something is wrong" so I can turn it off and not burn out the motors or belts. Also, when you stand the unit upright, the brush automatically stops, and when you push the brush down with your foot, the brush automatically starts. Such a simple way to save use hours on a motor and uneeded wear and tear on the brush. There is also swivel steering, which is just as good as any other unit claiming to be innovative with their "new steering technology" with tilting or a big ball at the back. This thing steers great and tilts any way you want it to. And the last thing it has, which I admit that I don't use often because the whole unit is pretty light, is the "lift-off" capability. Basically, you push a button and leave the brush head behind and carry the unit while using the wand. Pretty cool feature and some people may use it a lot. The reason I love it is because I know that if the brush motor has a major issue, I can just buy a whole new bush head instead of replacing the entire unit.Honestly, about once every six months I go through the unit, clean it out, cut off any long strands that get caught up in the brush, and go back to business. We used this vacuum HARD, and it has been a warrior 🪖. For the $120 we paid for it, we have been so happy, to the point where I am looking at upgrading our main unit to a Kenmore canister vacuum and using this on our upper floors. A few weeks ago when our Hoover shampooer died, we ended up with... You guessed it, a KENMORE. And once again, that has a bunch of little features and bunch of design differences that make it a new favourite of mine, but that's for another review. Don't waste your money on bull crap low end box store brands like Bissel, Dirt Devil, Eureka, etc. and there is no reason to pay HUNDREDS of dollars for the Sharks and Dysons of the world. Just be smart and keep it Kenmore.

I have never been more pleased by a vaccuum cleaner than I have been with this one. It gets the deeply embedded dirt. I vacuumed my entryway which is about 12 feet long by 3 1/2 feet wide. It is a wooden floor, it filled the tank half way. Dirt that wasn't visible to my eyes and that was clearly unreachable by broom was sucked into this vacuum cleaners tank and filled it halfway. I for the first time since living in this house (4 years now) I finally feel like I am able to get the floors clean. The air quality has improved. I vacuumed an area rug 12 x 8 and it completely filled the tank up. Every room in my house filled the tank up at least one time. It blew me away how much was just out of reach of my home depot brand shop vac and the horrible vacuum cleaner we had here. I FEEL LIKE I ROBBED THE BANK! I feel like I should have paid a lot more. The vacuum suction is so powerful that it pulls the vacuum forward. I grew up with hoover vacuums the ones the door to door people use to sell. Those are some pretty solid vacuums. I also have had orecks which are great vacuums too but the hunt for bags just became annoying. I have used dysons and all the dirt devils and sharks etc. Etc. I will say this vacuum is comparable to the quality of a Dyson. I beat the hell out of my vacuums. I have had the vacuum since the beginning of the year and use it around 2 to 3 times a week. I have a 3 year old who loves to tear stuff up and leave crumbs, paper, stickers and toddler goo balls all over. It gets all of it up. I also have two cats one who thinks he needs to catapult the cat litter all over the place. The vacuum sucks it all up with ease. Maybe even a little too good because I have had to dislodge clogs from being absent minded and sucking up a bottle cap, baggie, wrapper- something that typically clogs. It is easy to do.I will say that since I have long hair and my head hair does shed more than others that the one thing I had to do was cut the hair out of the brush- but so many years with a garbage vacuum cleaner, this vacuum was picking up years worth of deep dirt and hair. Another problem I had was when I used the wand which easily detaches from the base, the base tips over and becomes a really annoying nuisance and the reach is pretty pathetic. But i did notice that when it detaches the brush prop of the main vacuum stops, you have no idea how many vacuum companies overlook this. This vacuum is amazing. It isnt very wide and it can get in the tight and narrow spots. It is attractive. It is by far worth double what i paid for it. I will say there isnt a shadow of a doubt that it is on the same level as one of those dysons or the high end 290 dollar sharks. There is a total of one thing I didn't like and it is trivial.If you are looking for someone to help you decide between this one or some other brand go with this one. You will be happy. Its got high end premium functionality with a shoestring budget price. You will have some seriously clean carpets and flooring. Pick this one..