Panasonic MC-E8003 Review

Overall Rating

Well made & designed main floor cleaning tool
Long power cable

Filters rapidly get blocked, causing loss of suction power
Needs frequent emptying & cleaning out
Poor accessory tools

Panasonic MC-E8003: Being one of her least favourite jobs, my wife occasionally delegates the vacuum cleaning to me. So, with some experience in hand, here's a man's review of that domestic utility, the vacuum cleaner.

We chose the Panasonic MC-E8003 partly because our previous cleaner had been a Panasonic and was very good, and partly because we thought a bagless system would be cheaper in the long run, as well as being environmentally friendlier.

This cleaner is physically compact, and at first seems very powerful. However, after vacuuming the carpets in 2 to 3 rooms the suction power diminishes to that of a tired newt. You might think that merely emptying the dust collector bin would rectify this - but no. To regain its original sucking power after emptying it, you have to dismantle the bin, remove its filters and then thoroughly wash all the parts under a tap. This requires copious quantities of water, so the environmental advantage of not using paper bags goes straight down the plug hole. It is also quite time consuming. One soon realises that the 'twin bin' feature is a gimmick as the cleaner gives up long before that's full.

The main floor cleaning tool provided is good and does an effective job at picking up our cat's fur. It also has a telescopic down pipe for height adjustment, which works well. The only other tools provided are a very short crevice tool and a brush which looks as if the manufacturers forgot to put all the bristles in.

On the top of the cleaner is a carrying handle which also doubles as the handle to lift the bin out. This is not a good design as I frequently find myself pulling the bin out when I really just want to lift the cleaner up.

Summing up, this vacuum cleaner is not a great success as the bagless system does not work well. I believe this model has been superseded by models MC-E8015 & MC-E8021.