I looked a good vacuum for hardwood floors, and after much research decided on the Hoover WindTunnel bagged vacuum cleaner. Having gone through a lot of vacuums over the years, we were really looking for a vacuum that was good on hardwood floors, and that didn't lose suction. I must say, the Hoover WindTunnel has an extreme amount of suction. We've had ours about a year or so, and the suction is still incredible. I actually have to be careful while using it, in order to make sure that there are no loose items lying around the floor that may be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. For instance, the vacuum shredded a sneaker lace when I vacuumed too close to a pair of sneakers. I also have to be careful with any floor-length drapery to be sure it does not get sucked up into the vacuum while vacuuming near it. It really works great on our old hardwood floors. We have space in between the planks of our flooring, and this vacuum actually sucks up various kinds of dirt and stuff that gets stuck in the spaces in between the floorboards. My only complaint about this particular model of vacuum cleaner is that it is too powerful for certain cleaning activities, such as vacuuming small area rugs with a sewn edge. It's great on large carpets, but we have shredded the edges of a couple of small area rugs with this vacuum, because the suction is so intense. Luckily the area rugs were inexpensive and easily replaced. It's possible this occurred because I had the cleaning level set on "low", and it may not shred area rug edges if I had it on the "high" or "deep carpet" setting. Hard to say. The vacuum is fairly light as far as upright, bagged vacuums go, and can be carried up and down stairs with relative ease if you are a person of average strength. On the websites where I researched this vacuum cleaner, one thing some people reported about it is that the vacuum sort of moves by itself ever so slightly, and they found this slightly disorienting at first. I actually kind of like this aspect to the vacuum, because it makes vacuuming easier for me. It also has a "dirt finder" feature that supposedly turns on a green light when the floor is clean, and a few people complained about this feature on the websites I researched, saying that they vacuumed the floor a million times and the green light still didn't go on. I usually just ignore the "dirt finder" feature; I can pretty much tell when the floor is clean enough to my liking based on how it feels and looks.

I can personally recommend the Miele Olympus Canister Vacuum. I did A LOT of research and finally decided on this vacuum and I'm so happy with it. It's not loud like the others I looked at, it has many suction options, works fantastic on wood floors, tile and large area rugs. Another great thing is that it is light only 13lbs, easy to maneuver and it cleans SO WELL, you will not be disappointed with this vacuum. Miele is a German company that has been tried and true. Here is a link that might be useful: Miele Olympus Canister Vacuum

You'll think I'm crazy but, I use a small Rigid shop vac. It has a cord that's longer than most regular vacuums, a convenient floor canister design with good rollers, loads of power and a long hose. I just use a hard surface floor attachment (a wide thing with short bristles on the bottom) and it works better than anything else I've used. The upfront cost was a lot less than a regular vacuum too - I think it came out to about $100. They're bagless and HEPA filters are optional (I think about $35?). I should add, it's lightweight and a 3 piece adapter made it possible to connect to all the brushes and other tools I already owned from another vac. This post was edited by schicksal on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 6:50

Central vac is the best, used with the hard floor tool of course (no wheels, no rotating brush, just soft bristles.) Swiffer sweeper does not have wheels. I have four of them that I keep plugged in, and that way no matter if it runs out of juice. I go over the floor sometimes afterwards with a moistened Quickie cotton mop (with removeable head htat can be washed in the machine). If someone is really a stickler about not using swiffer pads, is it possible to put a washable pad on there instead? -- a microfibre cloth? I currently have low end Miele. It works great on carpets with its rotating brush, but IMO the bare floor tool stinks. I'm also ticked that they made it a different size than normal USA attachments, so you're also stuck with their small brush, which also is not good. Either that, or use the attachment which allows you to go to the other size. Except this (a) keeps falling off, and (b) makes the transition between hose end and brush too long. I really miss my central vac, and that 30 foot hose is not hard once you learn how to handle it. Always sweep AHEAD of yourself, so you're not dragging dirt around with the hose, and you'll be just fine, no need to carry it.