REVIEW – When you have five cats, a dog and a toddler, nothing is ever clean. We have a standard carpet vacuum and a small hand vacuum, but who actually wants to lean over and use the hand vacuum on the floor? I was looking for something with a longer handle to quick clean up the floors easily without bending over. The Eureka ReactiSense 400 Stick Vacuum is the answer to my prayers. The built in dirt sensor means that no matter how many crumbs are on the floor, they are quickly sucked up. The surface sensor allows me to easily switch from the hard floor to the carpet to pick up the stray dust bunny. If you are looking for a quick and easy stick vacuum, you have got to check out the Eureka ReactiSense 400 Stick Vacuum.
︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Eureka and Amazon
What is it?
The Eureka ReactiSense 400 Stick Vacuum is a stick vacuum that automatically adjusts the suction level and brush rotation speed based on the onboard dust and surface sensors.
What’s included?
- Eureka ReactiSense 440 Stick Vacuum
- Wand
- Motorized Floor Head
- Crevice tool
- Upholstery tool
- Battery
- Charger
- Wall Mount, Screws & Anchors
- Filters
- User Manual
- Quick Start Guide
Tech specs
Charging Input: 100-240V 50/60Hz
Charging Output: 25-29V 500mA
Charging Time: 4 – 6 hours
Power: 350W
Voltage: 25.9V
Vacuum: 25.8kPa
Size: 49.6″ x 10″ x 10″ (1260 x 255 x 257 mm)
Weight: 6.4 lbs with attachments,
Runtime: 15 minutes on High to 60 minutes on Low, Auto mode varies
Design and features
I love the fact that the battery is removable. This means it is possible to charge it separately from the actual vacuum itself rather than having to have the whole vacuum system plugged. It comes with a wall mount if you want to mount it on the wall and store the whole vacuum together and charge it at the same time. I personally have not installed the wall mount as we are reorganizing the house and I don’t quite know yet where I wish to mount it. But once things settle down I will definitely be using the wall mount for the convenience of both storing and charging at the same time. The only thing I wish the mount included was a place to store the extra attachments. As it is they have to be tossed on the floor.
The battery life is pretty short anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes depending on the mode and dirt level. While that doesn’t seem like a lot it is enough to easily vacuum all of my hard floors or one carpeted room. It does take four to six hours to fully charge so it definitely won’t replace a standard carpet vacuum but it’s super handy for a quick clean up.
Another really cool feature is all the filters are washable! I love that the whole dust bin is washable as well. The filters can be rinsed with water and then left out to completely dry before using them again. They are replaceable if you need to buy new ones, but the lifespan is greatly increased since they are washable.
The roller head is super flexible and makes reaching under low furniture super easy. I have yet for it to tangle which is pretty amazing as I have very long hair and there are random pieces of hay from the bunnies floating around the floor. It also has four LEDs built in to help illuminate exactly how dirty your floor is.
Another really nice feature of the roller head is you can actually completely remove the roller brush. You unlock it and you’re able to completely take it out and cut off any long hairs or yarn or string that manages to get wrapped around it and then you’re able to slide it back in.
The dust bin is easily emptied with the classic no touch feature. It’s a drop door so you press the button and the door drops open over the garbage can. Just shake it out and close it again without having to get any of the dust and dirt that you vacuumed up on your fingers. If things get caught around the inner tube you can remove the whole canister and pull out the inner tube to untangle any remaining junk.
The two other attachments included are a crevice tool (not pictured) and an upholstery tool. The latter tool is kind of a let down. It is extendable where you can either use the super soft bristles or just the hard plastic tube with a tiny red scrubbing patch. The bristles were too soft to actually scrub any dog hair off my furniture and when I tried to switch to the hard tube, the red scrubby immediately fell off and got sucked up into the vacuum. It may work well for a less dirty and messy house but for mine it just is a fail.
Operation of the vacuum is super easy. There are only two buttons, on/off and mode. There are three modes, low, auto and high. I personally left mine in auto as that is the mode that automatically boosts the suction when the dirt sensor deems necessary. The large number in the middle of the display is the battery percentage. The only time I selected a specific mode was to switch it to low to try to conserve battery.
The colored arch around the display is the dust sensor indicator. The upper left is low, lower right is middle while upper right shows high levels of dust and dirt. The lower right image also shows that boost mode is on which is triggered by either a harder to clean surface such as carpet or a super dirty area on the floor.
Two symbols which I didn’t show are the charging lightning bolt which will appear on the upper right side of the battery percentage when the battery is charging while still attached to the unit and the maintenance indicator which is an abbreviation of filter and will appear to the right of the percentage sign.
One funny thing to note is the extender piece gets easily scratched by anything. I accidentally scrapped it against a painted wooden chair and now there are streaks of the paint on the extender. I also bumped it on the underside of a stained cabinet and it left white marks all over. I could care less about the marks but they do not rub out and are now a quite obvious permanent part of the vacuum.
Performance
While the pictures of the drivers seat don’t make great before (left) and after (right) it does definitely show how well the vacuum sucks up gunk that isn’t actual stains. I can tell you it will suck up dried garbanzo beans, rabbit turds and hay easily. It has also handled the leftover crumbs that have already been half licked up by the dog without a problem. The tiny sandbox that was brought in in my toddler’s pockets didn’t phase it either.
Final thoughts
I absolutely love this vacuum. It has handled everything I have thrown at it and more, and I definitely put it through its paces. Dog slobbered crumbs, check! Dried beans, yup! Long pieces of hay, a minor struggle but got slurped up like spaghetti! This vacuum took it all in stride. If anyone is looking for a vacuum to abuse I can’t recommend the Eureka ReactiSense 400 Stick Vacuum enough. The washable filters and removable roller brush head mean that no matter what I do, I can easily keep up with the maintenance and keep it running smoothly no matter what gross stuff I make it suck up.
What I like about Eureka ReactiSense 440 stick vacuum
- Dust sensor
- Surface sensor
- Washable filters
What needs to be improved?
- Include a place to store attachments on the wall mount
- Upholstery attachment is useless
Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Eureka and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Eureka. Eureka did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
