Hi, all...

we live in a teeeny weeeny apartment with no storage, wood floors, and a couple of rugs. We need a new vacuum cleaner for the rugs, and I was wondering if anyone has a Oreck, or knows anything about them.... is it any good???

We can't afford a really expensive machine, and we have to be mindful of space. Any suggestions would be helpful!

I do not have an Oreck. I have an Electrolux that I love. I do have a couple of frineds with the Oreck and they love it.

I've used one before and loved it. I definitely plan on buying one in the near future. Try ebay or even a vacuum repair shop (they often get them in and sell them for around $100)

We inherited an older Oreck years ago and it is still going strong.

THe only things I do not like (and this may be different on more current models) are:
-it doesn't do a great job of getting hair along baseboards (we have 2 cats and a dog). There are vacuums out there like the Dyson, etc. that have little projections that help pull the hair in toward the path of the vacuum. Not a huge deal, but a slight annoyance.

-No attachments or hose on ours. I never found a handheld vac that I liked for steps (again, lots of pet hair!) including borrowing my MIL's Oreck handheld. If I could have found a good handheld, not such a big deal.

We eventually opted to buy a Eureka vac that is rated pretty well by Consumer Reports. I still like the Oreck overall but the Eureka works better for us on steps and I like the attachments for furniture, etc. If you can find a handheld vac that works for your family, you could certainly get by w/ an Oreck only.

I do think they are excellent vacs though. We actuallly bought a Dyson and test drove it at home for a few days and returned it because I wasn't convinced the suction, etc. was any better than our Oreck, and that is a LOT of money to pay just for the attachments/hose, kwim?

I love my Oreck. My mom bought it for me a few years back. It is sooooo light. The only drawback I've found was mentioned by a pp, and that is the lack of attachments. Maybe newer ones are different? I don't have animals so I don't know how it does with pet hair, but overall I am very happy with it.

I love my Oreck XL, whatever it's called.lol I also got a small vaccuum that is handheld when I bought it, free, plus a car vac.