Strong suction is not this machine's strong point. It will not suck up a grain of rice (long-grain, white, uncooked), unless one pulls the head off and uses the tube end (which is quite easy to do, and one can do edges that way too). That being said, it does a pretty good job with the smaller stuff, and the dust cup (or dog hair cup in my case) is amazingly full when one finishes. The cord is long enough for my purposes, and the aforementioned dust cup is handy - beats buying bags, though I imagine the filter at its top will need to be replaced at some point. I wonder if there's a stick vac that actually has good suction . . .Get more detail about Hoover S2200 Flair Bagless Stick Cleaner.