Electrolux Jetmaxx Green Canister Vacuum, EL4040A

I've had this for just over a year and it's excellent. Size wise, it fits in the middle of canister vacs. It's well constructed and is somewhat lighter in weight so it’s easy to carry. It’s much quieter than my previous upright and has a nice tone. The output air smells clean. Does a wonderful job on solid surfaces with the floor brush. The power head is very effective as well. The bag change is easy and neat and the bags are available from a number of different manufacturers. This is true of the filter as well. I have a large low-pile area rug and find it's best to turn the power down because it suctions the power head to the rug a little too much. I turn down the power, and use the floor brush in a sweeping motion making it easy to vacuum the mats in my kitchen. It's very easy to pull and the hose is nice and flexible. The attachments are easy to use. I don't get how some have found it to flip over as they're using it. With the weight and center of gravity of the canister it just doesn't seem possible, unless it's standing up in the storage position. You definatley have to hold the cord as it rewinds because it whips in quick! The few minuses are that it could use a bumper because it pulls so easily, the upholstery brush does not have a holder and the other attachments can be somewhat easily dislodged from the handle. Otherwise this vac is pretty great!

I have two Electrolux EL7060A vacuums that I love. I need a third, but found the EL7060A is no longer manufactured. This Jetmaxx Green EL4040A looks nearly identical to the EL7060A, and most of the specs look identical. I was also sold on this model by the fact that it included a "Power@Hand Stair and Upholstery tool", a smaller version of the motorized power head that looks ideal for cleaning stairs. When the Jetmaxx showed up I carefully unpacked everything, there is NO "Power@Hand Stair and Upholstery tool" included. I went back to the Amazon listing to see if somehow I missed something. No, here is the Jetmaxx product description:"The Electrolux JetMaxx Green has powerful suction with motorized nozzle for deep cleaning all types of carpets. Large capacity S-bag® and HEPA filter for superior dust containment. The Power@Hand Stair and Upholstery tool, accessories on board, auto cordwinder, fingertip and foot controls minimize bending. This model is 55% post consumer recycled plastics"I've attached two photos to this review that were on the product listing. One shows a woman cleaning stairs with the Power@Hand Stair and Upholstery tool, and the other shows the provided tools and accessories for the EL4040A JetMaxx - including the Power@Hand Stair and Upholstery tool. But nope, not in the box, and no mention of it in the Owner's Guide! I searched Amazon and they DO sell this device separately for $59.95, search for "Electrolux-EL8BS".I was going to take this up with Amazon Customer Service, but there are other problems with this model. A major problem is that there is no carpet height selector (which the EL7060A has, and which looks nearly identical to the EL4040A). It doesn't say it in the Amazon description, but somewhere I read that the EL4040A has an "automatic carpet height selection". If it does, I don't see anything that provides this function on the power head. What I DO see is that the brushes just barely skim the top of the carpet, they don't dig in and really beat/clean the carpet. This makes it pretty useless for properly cleaning carpet.The final straw is that it is supposed to have a "swivel head", like the EL7060A. Now anyone that has ever used a canister vacuum knows this means as you twist the handle left or right the power head "swivels" left or right - an absolute must-have for getting into tight or obstructed areas. The head on the EL4040A does NOT swivel, at all, under any circumstance! Yes, you can turn the handle left and right, but it has NO effect on the angle of the power head, which will always be perpendicular to the handle (i.e. no "swivel").With all of these issues, there is no way I could possibly keep this. Read all of the reviews on this model, the most serious seems to be the power head (and/or possibly the motor) cutting out all the time. I didn't have this happen during the short 5 minute testing that I did, but that would also be a show-stopper IMO.

We ordered this canister vacuum because we wanted a canister type vac for versatility, a bagged as opposed to bagless, and a pet hair attachment. The Jetmaxx seemed to have a lot of good features and the build quality is pretty good, but ultimately it fell too short of expectations to be a keeper.After taking the Jetmaxx for a test drive against a Panasonic Optiflow, we noted the following positives and negatives:Pros:-Jetmaxx has a long 5-year warranty.-HEPA filtration and included filter is washable.-21' retractable cord.-Full bag indicator.-Fairly quiet operation, especially with canister running only. Power nozzle definitely ups the decibels, but still not as loud as the Eureka Boss upright we were replacing.-Good selection of included tools: wide, high quality bare floor brush, crevice tool, upholstery tool, and dusting brush.-"Crush-proof" 7' hose.-Quality filters.-Convenient dust bag basket.-Dust bags have a tab you can pull over the hole once the bag is full to seal the dust/dirt from blowing out when it's time to change to a new bag.-Slots for accessories, such as the bare floor brush.-Automatic height adjustment of power nozzle. Not totally sure how well this worked in terms of proper suction, but seemed kinda nice to not have to worry about what height you need to set the power nozzle to.-Compatible with EL8BS2 Electrolux One Pet Hand Powerbrush Accessory.Cons:-Dust bag is tiny @ 1.2 quarts. While the bag technically has a capacity of up to 2 quarts (the same bag is used on other models which have larger compartments), the basket this bag sits in constricts its full capacity to just the 1.2 quarts.-Dust bag quality is questionable. This vacuum comes with two bags and when we attempted to remove the first one from the basket for initial inspection, the cardboard tab easily separated from the bag.-While the hose may be crush-proof, it's also very stiff compared to a more traditional wire-reinforced hose. This means the hose gets in your way more and reduces the overall maneuverability of the vacuum when using the power nozzle.-Poor handle design/placement. The handle on this vacuum is placed in-line with the hose and wand. We found that vacuums with the handle placed above the hose/wand connections provided more leverage and increased overall maneuverability of the vacuum, and ultimately a more pleasant vacuuming experience. Each time my wife and I tested this vacuum, we noticed the Jetmaxx was more grueling to "drive" and couldn't imagine wanting to put up with it for the next several years.-Despite what is suggested by the photo here on Amazon, the EL8BS2 Electrolux One Pet Hand Powerbrush Accessory is *NOT* included when you buy this vacuum from Amazon. It is included on some other sites, but note the increase in price. Just be warned that if you buy it from Amazon, you'll have to buy this tool separately.-I think there was a slot to store one tool on the outside of the canister, but overall, there's no dedicated compartment for tool storage as there is on most other canister vacuums. However, the crevice tool and dusting brush do snap into the underside of the handle area.-Overall suction and amount of dirt and pet hair picked up by this vacuum seemed to just be so-so.At the end of the day, it became clear that although this vac seemed to have solid build quality and a good warranty, it would not be a keeper mainly due to the small dust bag size and because over the overall poor maneuverability. We ended up going with the hard-to-find Electrolux Ultrasilencer Delux, which has sealed HEPA filtration and a better designed handle. Our second best choice was the Panasonic "OptiFlow" Canister Vacuum Cleaner, Twight Green, MC-CG917, which I highly recommend if you have a smaller budget.