Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom: Mother's Little Helper

Several months ago, we decided to get an Oreck air purifier to perhaps help with our environmental allergies. Well, it's a long story that I don't want to get into right now, but we ended up with Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom. And that little product has been worth every penny.

I have two little children who like to graze and snack all day long. We have a nice backyard full of grass that they run back and forth to, tracking in dry grass and leaves. We have a cute little turtle sandbox that both of them spend many happy minutes in, right before they track sand into the house.

As you might imagine, the crumbs, the grass, the sand, the dried leaves make my carpet a mess every single day. I have two choices: I can ignore the dirt, let it build up, and vacuum every two or three days; or I can vacuum a couple of times a day in the hot spots. Actually, I have three choices: I could really vacuum my house every single day, but that option is doubtful.

Enter the Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom. Once the kids have finished breakfast, and dry cereal crumbs adorn my floor, I grab the freshly recharged little vacuum and clean it up. If the carpet by the back door is so laden with grass that it looks green instead of tan, I whip out the little electric broom and zap it gone. I find that the Electrik Broom is equally effective on carpet or bare flooring, so I use it in the kitchen and bathroom, too.

Actually, it is so lightweight that I even ask my four year old to vacuum up a particular mess sometimes. The handle is adjustable, and I can shorten the handle just for her, so it helps to teach kids values, too.

One of the neatest things about the Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom is that it comes with a detachable hand held vac. This hand held vac detaches with the push of a button, and is great for hard to reach spots or when you just need to zap a couple of trouble spots.

Granted, it doesn't really clean down into the carpet. The real vacuum cleaner is still going to have to be hauled out a couple of times a week.

You can keep this cord free cleaner charged by plugging the included cord in each time you put the broom away. And the filter is easy to empty, too. You push a button on the hand held portion of the vacuum, remove the filter, dump the contents into your waste can, smack it against the sides of the waste can to remove dust, and insert back into the vacuum.

The Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom is also a handy tool to take out to your vehicle, especially if you have children who eat cheerios and other messy things while you drive. I take the hand held vac portion out to the van and clean up the worst of the crumbs about once a week. That allows me to wait about a month or two between commercial vacuuming.

There are a couple of things that aren't perfect about the Oreck Cord Free Electrik Broom. One is that the charge runs out very quickly if you are vacuuming carpet, and the suction power is lost. It is best used to just spot vacuum. And the other thing I'd like to see improved is the suction power on carpet. Sometimes it seems that using the hand held portion cleans better than the upright Electrik Broom.

But for right now, it's my favorite appliance in the house.