It's a good vacuum and not very loud. I've only had it up to medium suction. Never realized how much hair and fur two people and a cat produce, or how much our old vac was missing. Maneuverable and lightweight. The way the bottom drops out makes it easy to dump the contents into a trashcan. Really it's a 5 star vac; I took one off because the manual was misprinted and missing pages. BF was able to find it online,though, so assembly wasn't too bad. Love the wash-and-reuse filter. Also I bought it because it's a Bissell. We also have a Bissell carpet cleaner that works great, plus they help animals.