I got suckerd into buying one of these. (Mainstream retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. would never sell these). It worked two times over a three week period and never worked again. Any major retailer would have simply given me a new one or refunded me but not Riccar. It took one month to be repaired but by then I had already moved on (I needed a vacuum cleaner, that's why I bought one in the first place!) and bought a new Shark, which is wonderful, for $350 at Walmart. The Riccar's are dinosaurs from the past, 1950's and 1960's technology. For example they are very heavy, do not swivel and still use a vacuum bag. Their pricing is a marketing ploy. They are priced three times what they are worth to give them an image of superior quality, which is simply a mirage!