Craftsman  NEXTEC 12.0 VOLT Vacuum

Barely strong enough to vac, okay for touch ups but not real cleaning. nice to have all the tools handy though if a little sronger to make them effective. Needs to be 18/20volt.

I use this vacuum for my automobiles it does a good job I'm thinking about buying another one.

The vacuum has insufficient power to clean almost anything.

This vac works OK but really is lacking in power from what I expected. I do not feel it should have the power of a shop vac but except for the smallest, most loose particles, it just has trouble doing the job. Other nextec products are certainly better.

I bought this Vac only to find out when I got home that it was going to cost me almost twice as much as I paid for the vac to buy a battery and charger so that it would work!

The hose is maybe 12 inches, NOT 4 ft. The suction is so poor it won't even suck up the brown beetles that die inside my glass sliding door each night.

For a battery powered vacuum, this is the best I've ever used. It's not going to replace any corded vacuum any time soon, but for quick portable vacuuming of lighter materials, this is perfect. Good for cleaning sawdust, car carpets, etc. The battery life is excellent compared to other battery vacuums I've had and has more vacuum power. Sure the larger attachments don't work well and for that I knock down one star, but you need to remember this is a battery powered vacuum and should be rated as such.

To start with, I was forced to select one star. Please don't waste your time and money on this toy. It has absolutely no usuable suction in addition to being annoyingly noisy. This product should never have left the drawing board, let alone put on the market. A total failure.

I purchased this vacuum primarily to avoid using the coin operated machines to clean the footwells of my car.  For this one purpose, the ??Craftsman NEXTEC 12.0V vacuum works acceptably well.  There are a few things to note.

- Larger particles and pebbles are not easily lifted by the vacuum and require you to press the hose down against the carpet for maximum suction.

- There is little to no suction while the brush head is attached.  The best method for removing loose dirt is to agitate the carpet with the brush using one hand, and following with the hose in the other.

Aside from vacuuming my car, this vacuum is next to useless due to the lack of suction.  The main contributing factor to the low suction is the poor design around the filter frame.  The filter can be most accurately described as being shaped like a shower cap, and attached to a frame inside the dust bin.  The frame that the filter attaches to offers little suporrt for the filter element.  This allows the filter to collapse on itself under pressue thereby reducing the surface area through which air can move to about 1/4 of the total filter size.  With low suction moving air through such a small effective opening, the performance of the vacuum is not surprising.

I am keeping this product because it does what I purchased it to do, but unfortunately I am unable to use it for much else.  The ability to switch to a blower mode might make it handy as an inflator for air mattresses or pool toys.  Since the Craftsman NEXTEC 12.0 VOLT vacuum does not perform its primary function well, and offers no other functionality, I cannot give it more than 2 stars.

Let me say that so far I have been very happy with other tools in the nextec line.  The drill, impact driver, angle driver, and flashlights have performed well.  The driving tools are probably 80% as powerful as my Milwaukee 14.4v set that is being replaced by the nextec.  For the price and weight savings these tools have been a great deal.  All the driving tools will easily and repeatedly drive 3" screws into aged wood.  What more do you really need from a cordless tool?  Only time will tell how the batteries hold up.  Pricing on the nextec batteries is 1/3 less than the batteries for my other tools.  If I can get a couple of years out of them then I will be happy.  So far I would rate these tools in the 4-5 star range depending on how long the batteries hold up.

Needless to say I was immediately disappointed with the performance of the vacuum.  I wasn't expecting the power of a shop vac, but this thing doesn't even have the power to use all the attachments.  Only by using the attachment with the smallest opening was I able to pick up anything with the vacuum.  Any kind of splinters seemed to get lodged in the hose, which is very short.  I couldn't imagine trying to vacuum a car with this thing.  I got si9gnificantly less than five minutes of use out of it with a fully charged battery and it took forever to do anything with it.  It would have been faster to get out the shop vac than to do any cleaning with this thing.

Maybe if you used it with the sanding tools it might be of some value, but as a dust buster replacement this tool falls short.  I will be taking it back.  I ordered it online and had it shipped to the store, I hope that doesn't cause any issues with the return.