Our In-Depth Review
Design
The Electrolux Ergorapido Ultra+ vacuum cleaner is hard to categorize. It is both a lightweight stick vacuum and a handheld machine.
For most homes, this would act as an addition to a full sized vacuum. The Ergorapido EL1022A 2-in-1 stick vacuum cleans up small rooms easily, but has a short running time.
For a small studio apartment, or a mobile home, this would be the only type of vacuum you would need.
As a lightweight upright, it can clean low pile carpeting and hard floors effectively. It also has the 2 in 1 feature so you can snap off the handheld vacuum to clean up curtains and furniture.
Another nice design feature that made this very comfortable to use was the swivel head on the vacuum. It bends and twists up to 180-degrees allowing you to move across the flooring with ease.
You won’t have to go back and forth with the typical cleaning pattern. You can go right at a wall, and then turn on a dime to clean the entire edge against a wall with one pass.
During our tests, we really enjoyed the Ergorapido’s maneuverability and versatility. It cleaned well on low pile carpeting, and has a lower clearance giving it the ability to get underneath objects like beds, furniture, or kitchen cabinets.
It is also very nice to have the handheld vacuum right there with you every step of the way. If you are vacuuming the floor and see a spider web in the corner on the wall, you simply snap off the handheld vacuum, suck up the little critter and the webs in the corner, and then snap it back into place and continue cleaning.
The biggest problems with the Electrolux Ergorapido are it isn’t designed to clean up large areas or handle a lot of dirt, dust and debris.
It also has a power brush that spins at all times, so on hard flooring; it can kick away larger debris instead of sucking them up. The maintenance is a little messy, but the filters don’t ever have to be replaced.
Performance/Using the Electrolux Ergorapido Ultra+
We ran this vacuum under a series of tests on different surfaces. It performed well in most situations, but it does have some areas of concern.
Overall, we liked how it cleaned carpets and also enjoyed how it could get into tight spaces.
The things we didn’t think were up to par was it would grab and be hard to push on large area rugs, and on hard flooring, larger particles would sometimes get kicked away by the floor brush instead of being sucked up.
A few other areas of note include that even though it is small, the Electrolux Ergorapido still is not a quiet machine. When you start it up on hard flooring, it makes a rumbling noise that almost sounds like it is grinding your floor.
Also, the cyclone filtration system isn’t HEPA certified, so if you have allergies from dust, pollen, or pet dander, this vacuum might not be for you.
Performance on Carpets
To simulate fine particles, we poured white flour onto the carpeting. With only one pass, these particles were cleaned up nicely.
No dust was kicked up as we cleaned either. There also wasn’t any smell or powder cloud emitted from the exhaust of the vacuum either.
The next test involved crushing up some crackers and working them into the carpet fibers. Once again, the Electrolux Ergorapido Ultra+ did remarkably well cleaning up this mess.
It only took one pass, back and forth to clean up these larger pieces of debris. We also really liked how it was able to spin and twist to get to each area of the carpeting very easily.
We also used some dog hair and pressed it down onto the carpeting. When we looked at the video review of the cleaning of the pet hair, it appeared as if the Electrolux El1022A did a good job.
The next day though, we noticed some of the pet hair was still clinging to the carpeting.
It might take two or three passes to fully dislodge any pet hair that works its way into the carpeting. There isn’t a ton of suction power with this lightweight vacuum to expect it to clean pet hair in one pass.
Maneuverability for a lightweight vacuum is expected, but this machine is much better than the average stick vacuum. The 180-degree swivel neck coupled with the low clearance of the cleaning head makes cleaning tight spaces a breeze.
We could get under the edge of the bed, and run the cleaning head down the edge with one pass. Because you can twist the vacuum sideways at about a 45-degree angle, you can clean underneath furniture from the side as well as head on.
Performance on Rugs
Our first set of tests were done on a large area rug. We noticed that the Electrolux Ergorapido Ultra+ would grab and pull on the carpeting making it very difficult to push across the floor.
It was really awkward and it helped a little bit when we bent down a little while vacuuming.
It seemed the angle we were using wasn’t working with this vacuum on large area rugs so a little bit lower angle worked better.
On regular carpeting, we didn’t notice this as much. For smaller rugs, you might have to put your foot on the edge so the vacuum doesn’t push it forward or suck it up off the flooring.
Using a lightweight vacuum is a great way to clean those little rugs at an entryway that get dirty from time to time because of the debris you carry in from outside.
We also liked the 2 in 1 feature for cleaning rugs because if you want to get the edge of a rug, or lift it up and clean, it is easy with the handheld vacuum.
Performance on Hard Floors
If you don’t encounter any larger particles, the Electrolux Ergorapido stick vacuum does a nice job, but you can’t turn off the rotating brush. This causes some larger particles to get kicked away instead of sucked up.
We used the same two tests on the hard flooring. To start with, we tossed flour onto the hard flooring. It did a nice job cleaning up this with one pass on the hardwood floor.
We did use the handheld vacuum at the end of the flour test for some flour that was worked into the crevices on the molding.
When we tried to suck up the crushed crackers, we noticed some problems with the cleaning abilities of the Ergorapido. It didn’t suck up some of the larger pieces when we went over them the first time.
It did a better job sucking up the particles as we went backwards, but a number of the pieces got kicked across the floor, making a smaller area of mess spread out all over the hard flooring. Eventually, all the debris was cleaned up, but it definitely wasn’t an efficient process.
Edge Cleaning
The cleaning head of the Electrolux Ergorapido vacuum is 10.2 inches wide, but if you lift up the vacuum, the actual space underneath is 8.3 inches wide.
This means there is about an inch of space on both sides of the Ergorapido that can’t clean up debris.
If you try to clean up against the edge of the floor from the side, there will be a small gap that isn’t totally clean.
You can always snap off the handheld vacuum to do the edges if you see something that needs attention that the upright didn’t suck up.
On the hard flooring test, we pushed the flour all the way up against the edge. It didn’t get these particles with a head on approach, or with a sideways approach either. To do the most effective job on the floor edges, use the crevice tool for the handheld vacuum.
It is a bit more time consuming though because you will have to bend down and shuffle along as you clean the edges of your living space.
Attachments / Onboard Tools
The handheld vacuum is an attachment in itself with the Electrolux Ergorapido model. To make this machine even more effective, use either the crevice tool or the upholstery brush.
Both of these on board tools are conveniently stored on the charging dock.
The crevice tool isn’t very long, but it is quite narrow at its head. It does a good job getting into the tight spaces. The upholstery brush is in the shape of a triangle.
We liked this design, because with the triangle point, you can get into the edges of your sofa or chairs easily. Basically, you can get anywhere you please with the handheld vacuum, and the handheld is pretty light too.
Be quick with your cleaning though, because you only have about 12 minutes of cleaning time max with this battery-powered vacuum.
Ease of Use
This could be the biggest strength of the Electrolux Ergorapido stick vacuum. You simply pick it up off the charging dock and you are ready to clean.
We can’t overstate how nice it is not to have to plug the vacuum into an outlet. The only negative is this vacuum doesn’t stand up on its own unless it is snapped into place on the charging dock.
If you have to take a break from cleaning, you will have to lay the entire unit on the floor.
Getting Started
You will need a screwdriver to assemble this unit, but it is very easy to put together. When you take it out of the box, the handle isn’t attached.
There is a large silver screw that needs to be taken out, and then the handle can be slid into place. Then screw the handle on. Take the charging dock out and attach the plug input into the dock.
Plug the wire into an outlet and then set the Ergorapido onto the dock. Let it rest on the dock for up to 16 hours to ensure the batteries are fully charged.
There is a blue LED light on the handle of the Ergorapido that will go off when it is charged up to full power.
Maneuverability
Lightweights are inherently easy to maneuver, but this machine is one of the best in its field.
The addition of the swivel neck makes this lightweight vacuum, dare I say, fun to use for cleaning. Don’t forget that this unit is more than just a lightweight vacuum.
The handheld travels with you every step of the way. Snap it off and clean up upholstery as you go.
You don’t even have to turn the machine off to do this.
Leave it on as you detach the handheld and the power automatically goes to the handheld and the upright is deactivated.
Ease of Use on Stairs
This is a great tool for cleaning stairs. You have two options when cleaning a staircase with the 2 in 1 Ergorapido Ultra +.
The upright is great for cleaning the steps because it can swivel easily to clean the entire step, and it is light enough to carry up and down each step.
Then you can snap off the handheld vacuum to clean the sides and underneath each step for a completely clean staircase.
Noise
There are two settings for the Electrolux Ergorapido. On the high power setting, the vacuum registered just under 75 decibels. This is just below the normal range for a full sized upright vacuum, so don’t expect this to be a quiet machine.
On the lower setting, it was between 65 and 70 decibels, which is quieter, but it still is hard to talk over this noise level.
Maintenance
There are three different things you have to do to ensure your Electrolux Ergorapido vacuum cleaner runs properly. The first thing is you need to remember to charge it when not in use. Just set it on the charging dock.
The next item is to empty the quite small 0.4 quart bagless dustbin. This can be a messy job, and we recommend emptying this container after each use of the vacuum.
After you finish emptying the dustbin, clean out both of the filters. The mesh filter just needs to be tapped a few times to get clean.
The cloth filter is actually spring loaded. You grab the orange tab in the middle of the filter and pull back. Let go of the tab and the filter springs back into place and released a cloud of dust. Repeat this process five times.
Warning: This is a messy process you should go through each time you use the vacuum. The Owner’s Guide suggests that you wash out the filters with water after every five uses.
This was pretty easy to do. We just ran the filters under cold water in the sink and then set them out to dry overnight.
Filtration
We went over how to clean the filters, but how well do they work. With vacuums priced at around $100, you won’t find a perfect filtration system. The Electrolux Ergorapido EL1022A is no exception.
Using our airborne laser particle scanner, we noticed about double the amount of particles in the air coming out of the exhaust compared to the indoor air quality at the testing site.
One nice thing was there wasn’t any poor smell to the exhaust. It just wasn’t a tight HEPA seal, which is typical of lightweight and handheld vacuums.
Value For Money
We only recommend this vacuum as a stand-alone cleaning machine if you live in a small home or apartment with low pile carpeting. Some people may like this unit as another cleaning accessory in a larger home.
It shouldn’t replace your full sized upright or full sized canister vacuum. Use it to clean up those small messes, or just to tidy up around the house day to day.
Final Vacuum Verdict
The Electrolux Ergorapido Ultra+ vacuum has a lot of nice features. It maneuvers well on carpeting.
The handheld vacuum snaps off the main unit and is easy to use.
The negatives include that it didn’t perform well on hard flooring when sucking up larger particles.
It doesn’t have a long run time, and it was hard to push across rugs because it would grab the flooring making it difficult to maneuver.
It also is not very fun to clean up after every use. You will get a bit dirty dusting off the filters.
