After years with a Dyson, I was getting frustrated with the fact that I couldn't go in small places (under a bed etc...) and decided to switch to a canister. So I decided to go all out and bought the Miele Capricorn...oh my! So that's what it's like to vacuum! The Dyson was no slouch but the Miele is in a different league all together. First, the quality of the material is first grade, much better plastics that the Dyson. The Capricorn allows you to change the power from the handle (6 settings if I recall) from full power, to quiet mode, to vacuuming your curtains without sucking them. It is pretty quiet even on full power, much more quiet than my Dyson. I personally prefer a canister because of its maneuverability. It's much lighter to pull and operate than an upright and can go behind tight spaces and under the bed (finally!) The only downside is you will need two different brushes for your floors (I have both too). On the upside, they're very easy to change, and you can control the brush for the carpet from the handle as well (on the capricorn anyway) so you can turn off the rotating brush without moving your hand when your reach the fringes of a rug for example. I do love those control buttons on the handle. A friend of mine just bought a capricorn as well and had the same reaction: I wish I would have bought this a long time ago! It's like vacuuming for the first time. And that's coming from a Dyson! Great quality, fantastic power, super quiet and very light. Expensive, but like every Miele product, you do get what you pay for.

I learned yrs ago from reading Don Aslett's book that canister vacs are a ball & chain. Since then I have only bought uprights & that was over 20 yrs ago. I too am looking for a new light weight full vacuum, but upright. I have a rechargable that I love for quick vacumming but for deep cleaning, I want a reg vac to replace my Panasonic which is now about 10+ yrs old. I live alone so don't want or need an expensive vacuum. just light weight. Thank you.

This issue is clouded by the fact that all vacuums tend to now be throw-aways that compete on price. Once it was clear who was the winner in each category. If you can get a good upright it will have a powerful brush rubbing and vibrating the fibers of a carpet while a good (not great) vacuum sucks up the dirt that is loosened. Canisters had very powerful vacuum power to collect as much dust as ome could loosen with the equipped attachments. Simple as that. Now Consumer Reports is contending with both the inherent properties of various models and the junk that is out there. Wwe have a whole house of carpets to contend with. So my wife has a Kirby that does the job. Not junk and very expensibe. It will never make a Consumer Reports best buy category, but it works like all good vacuums did in the old days. I have a small plug in hand held vac. that Consumer Reports said was very good and I use it for all small jubs around the house and cars. Hope you find what you are looking for.

I used to sell vacums at Sears way back in the 90s. At that time the best vac on the market for most of America was the Kenmore canister with the powerhead. It was a really good machine. Then, Sears, tried to sell the Miele vac alongside the Kenmore. The comparison put the Miele at a disadvantage. It did not have a powerhead with a rotating brush for carpet. It seemed so lame alongside the powerful Kenmore canister. If I am remembering wrong and you know differently, please feel free to correct me. But, I do remember it being the Miele vac. It has been some time ago. I know it was a European vac. At that time it was still popular to have wall to wall installed carpet. This was. just before the trend went to eliminating carpet and going to hard floors. In my mind it is one of the best hygienic things that America has done. That carpet is just so very dirty and unsanitary. If you had the hardloors this Meile may have been a good choice. But, it you still had old fashioned carpet, it was not of much use at all. From what I am seeing it appears that Miele now has a powered cleaning head. Back at that time there was no way that it was going to clean up carpet. It is that rotating power brush that lifts debris off of the surface of the carpet, not the suction. People would come in all the time looking for something with a strong suction to clean pet fur from carpet. Suction was not going to do it. It needs to be mechanically lifted from the surface before it can be sucked up into the bag. That is why you have to clean the rotating brush so often, because fibers get wrapped around it. I just use an inexpensive and multipurpose shop vac now for any cleaning need. I only wish that it had a more secure attachment to hold the hose and wands together. I have found that the blower end of the shop vac is immensely helpful when cleaning out the car and garage. You can blow debris from places more easily that you can suck it up and it gets into every small crevice. I will open the door and use it much like one would use a leaf blower to blow the dirt right out the door. I do this in the house, the porch, the car, anywhere where I can get a good aim to direct the debris in one direction. It is, by far, the best way to clean the interior of the car. I don't have any carpet and that makes it so easy to clean. Getting rid of the carpets is the best thing I have done in my house. I don't know anything about Kenmore vacs now. That was some time ago, but I do know that they were pretty darned good machines. I always had one and my daughter has one that is probably about 12 years old and doing just fine. They were/are very versitile