Bought this last month for our cottage that has a spiral staircase. This vacuum is so easy to use and I love how portable it is. It is very powerful and works great on both carpets and wood flooring. The stem releases easily from the base unit to reach high areas and corners (it is a bit heavy to hold up when using this way). The base swivels making it easy to get around furniture legs and corners. It also can lay flat to clean under furniture great plus! Only reason it didn't earn the extra star, the unit gets very hot when using even after a minute.