I would also go with a Dyson!! I received one for Christmas and was so excited. Since I have a cat and a dog, I have to vacuum about everyday and the Dyson is always ready to clean! My dog and husband made a horrible dirt path through the living room traveling from the garage to the kitchen and back.... well, I used the cleaning solution that came with my Dyson and that path vanished. Make sure there is some good ventilation in the room though... it doesn't seem like that are a lot of fumes but when I got up to let it do it's work for 30 minutes, my throat hurt and had a headache. So, have ventilation!!
Simplicity all the way. I have very long hair, and was going through a vaccuum a year becasue my hair would get tangled up in the roller if I didnt stay totally on it and seizethe bearing that spins the brush. I got a Simplicity and it had a solid bearing, had it for 5 years. i got a new one last year and I love it
Personal preference aside, bagless vacs are notoriously expensive to own. There are usually 2-3 filters that can set you back $40+ anually, and don't forget, THEY ARE ALWAYS DUSTY. My favorite is a Panasonic, bagged, HEPA quality vacuum. It goes for about $200 and it has a great feature: motor by-pass. This means the motor is not IN the path of the debris you are sucking up, but the motor is behind the bag. Say goodbye to motor clogs and worse, jammed/seized/broken motor fan assemblies! Dysan is good out the box, but it is impossible to get parts down the road, so they are becoming 'disposable'... and at $400+ that is not good. In addition to Panasonic, my customers have have nothing but great reviews on Fuller (yes, the Fuller Brush Man!) and Sanitaire.
I'm a Vac Tech. Listen to the Simplicity person. That's a good vac. One of the best on the market. The Riccar is a sister company, both of which are manufactured in St. James Missouri. American made. The Riccar has a 5 year warranty and service plan though. The 8955 model is the best buy. Probably the best buy on any vacuum. The other Top brands are gonna be Miele and Sebo. Both German Manufactured. You really can't go wrong with any of them. Piece of advice, stay away from the hype. Most of those are toys and don't hold up. You can dump a lot of money into something at a department store that isn't worth much. You can't go yell at the 17 year old kid that recommended the Dyson to you at Walmart, but if you buy off of an independent dealer you can. Those dealers realize this and want to keep you happy, so they usually want sell you junk. Besides all those manufactures I listed will bend over backwards to make sure you get taken care of, if the dealer doesn't.
The Dyson is a real powerhouse but for the $400 price tag it had better be. I've never used a more user-friendly machine and the thing gets the job DONE. The other nice thing about the Dyson is that you don't have to bother with filters. I'm also a huge fan of my Dirt Devil. It doesn't seem to clog, it works fast and thouroghly, and the manuverability is way better than the Dyson. The downsides to the Dirt Devil include the filter. It makes emptying the canister really annoying because you have to pull the dirty thing out of the canister, shake it off which invariably makes for a huge dust cloud, and you have to replace them every few months. In addition, on my model, the attachments aren't positioned well. They're always falling out while I'm vacuming and the attachment hose tends to get tangled in the cord and come loose. For more manuverability, Swiffer now makes a vaccuum cleaner which is really effective for small jobs and low pyle carpeting. It's really lightweight and versatile, but it's not very powerful. Then there's always a central vac system, in which a professionally installed unit in the basement is connected to holes positioned all over the house. When you want to vacuum, you plug a sweeper via hose into the holes in the wall. You don't have to worry about an electric cord or changing the bag. The downside is that you could buy a car for the amount of money you'd spend on it and it's not THAT much more convenient. If money were no object, I'd personally buy the Dyson.
