jamrock; With your situation, I would suggest that you purchase a canister vacuum cleaner. You have a lot of hard flooring to vacuum. You say that you have area rugs. If they are room sized and thick, I probably would suggest a canister with a power nozzle. If it is something like an oriental rug, you could do fine with a turbo brush attached to the end of a suction only canister. I do not know what size home you have, but the small canister vacuum cleaners, like the Simplicity Jill and Riccar Sunburst have bags which may fill up quickly if you have a lot of dirt to pick up. Not every Tacony(Riccar & Simplicity) canister vacuum cleaner is made in the USA. The Simplicity Jill(Riccar Sunburst) is made in China. I would suggest that if you like this canister, but do not want to spend the money, I can suggest the same vacuum cleaner under a different brand. With the cost of it, you could purchase three of them. Recently, Big Lots was selling the Oreck Quest refurbished canister @$99. That is a "so-so" price, but Oreck's regular retail price is too high for what you are getting. Bissell also markets a small canister with an electric power nozzle, which could fit your needs. It is called the CleanAlong. Look at canister/canister with power nozzles under the Riccar/Simplicity nameplate, for small to large canisters. Also, take a look at Miele's more affordable S2 series or the higher priced S6, then the TOL S5 series. Each series will have what you need. BTW, what vacuum cleaner are you using now? Are you happy with it?

Thought I would report back here. I ended up ordering the Shark Rotator Pro From the TV commercial, And got a free Shark Steam Mop with it. I also ended up springing for the extra attachments. So far I love it! And because I am who I am, I felt the need to justify spending the money. I vacuumed a section of my bedroom carpet, running the Hoover over and over it Until the light turned green, Then went over it a few more times. So it should have been clean, right? WRONG! I went over it with the Shark, And was amazed, shocked and embarrassed at the amount of 'stuff' that it picked up. For years, I have used things like Pet Fresh carpet deodorizer, etc, because I usually have at least one, Sometimes two dogs. I have carefully followed the directions, Leaving it for a bit, then vacuuming it up. I thought. But from what this Shark picked up, I guess the Hoover picked up very little of it. And while the Hoover is self-propelled, it is heavy enough to be hard and awkward to handle. The Shark is amazingly easier! So, so far, I am thrilled with my purchase! It hasn't tipped over yet when I'm using the hose. (Using the hose on the Hoover meant constant tip-overs). And I love the attachments! Haven't tried the steam mop yet, Maybe later today. Of course it remains to be seen how long it lasts, But the 5 year warranty puts my mind at ease. Rusty PS, Again, I thank y'all for your input, I appreciate it a lot. This post was edited by therustyone on Wed, Nov 27, 13 at 13:38

Hey guys.... I don't check the forum like I used to... I remember the days when I'd check it multiple times a day even from my phone and work computer.... I'm working two jobs now and I just don't have the time and energy to participate or cook like I used to.... but it feels like a part of my life is missing so I thought I'd check in and see how everyone was doing and make sure everyone was still alive :o) Now you know the way to bring me out of hiding is to bring up vacuum cleaners! Claire, You've gotten some excellent advice that I can only echo.... you guys didn't even need me for this :o) If you an afford it, Miele hands down! They are quiet and have great filtration and all the wheels on the canister body swivel so it makes backing out of a tight corner very easy.... you can just kick the machine whichever direction you want it to go and it will readily submit.... it can cost between 700 and 1000 dollars for a Miele, so if that's not in your budget, the alternative as others have mention is Panasonic/Kenmore. Panasonic still makes most of the higher end Kenmores, but there are a few that are now made by TTI (the parent company of Dirt Devil/Hoover/Royal) and they (TTI) are an awful company and they make incredibly low quality products... vacuum people around the world mourned the day they bought Hoover.... of course they closed the North Canton Ohio factory and put all the workers out of a job and moved all production to China.... Panasonic/Kenmore canisters will resemble the one in the link below and can be had for around 2 or 3 hundred dollars. Things to look for in an canister would include a fingertip switch (who wants to go back to the machine to step on a pedal?), brushroll off feature for quick cleaning on bare floors, dedicated bare floor tool for detailed cleaning in tight spaces, dedicated dusting brush, upholstery tool, and crevice tool (many manufacturers are trying to combine all those functions into one tool and their attempts result in a piece of trash that doesn't perform any of the tasks well), direct connect wands and hose (you should not be able to see a cord or wire on the outside of the hose.... it will get tangled and you will throw the machine in a bonfire), rubber coated wheels (just scratch the wheels of the model you are testing to figure out if it has this, it will be obvious), and a quick release wand.... a quick release wand is very nice.... there is a pedal at the bottom that if you step on will release the power nozzle with just one press... this makes getting the wand off very easy for snatching a quick cob web or doing baseboards or something that is just too big to go through the power nozzle... Another thing to look for is a manual height adjustment pedal on the power nozzle, many canisters lack a height adjustment and it's important to have one because everyone has different kinds of carpet. Telescopic wands are nice too. Something that I like (more common on Miele than Panasonic) is a swivel neck on the power nozzle.... then you get "power steering" and it makes it more maneuverable than a machine that you just have to push back and forth. LG has a new canister out that is called the "Follow ME"... it has motorized wheels and will literally follow the user around (look it up on youtube if your'e curious.... it's fascinating really) but I don't think that's necessary. The only real problems with the Panasonic/Kenmore machines are that sometimes the wheels or pedals on the power nozzle can break off, they are of course cheap plastic. If you insist on supporting an American company, Simplicity/Riccars are good machines, but for the money, I'd go with the German Miele.... still can't beat Panasonic/Kenmore for value for money. I'd recommend not to go bagless.... the only company that makes a decent bagless is Dyson, but their canisters tend to be bulky and not well reviewed.... the power nozzle motors are whiny, they lack a height adjust and a quick release wand and a fingertip switch and you get that bagless mess every time you empty the silly thing... though it's fun to see the dirt in the cup, the dust poof when you empty the thing makes it not much fun. Another thing to look for is a 360 degree swivel hose.... like the one in the link below, the hose swivels 360 degrees where it comes out of the machine. The alternative is that the hose would be fixed and typically come out of the front of the machine and you have to turn/pivot the entire machine every time you move.... I wish you luck in deciding and hope you'll let us know when you finally settle on a machine :o) Here is a link that might be useful: Panasonic canister on Amazon

Well, we've had two cats for 22 years as well as wood floors and I just used the small sized shop vac from Lowes which easily did the trick. I have a 300.00 upright Riccar upstairs for the carpet and it's been nothing but trouble. I learned the hard way, more expensive does not necessarily mean better. Storing it wasn't the easiest, so when my 38.00 shop vac finally started to fritz out, I decided to find something a little smaller in scale. I chose the Eureka Professional style Sanitaire and it's worked out perfectly. It's light weight and smaller in scale, hepa ready and works great on wood floors. It has a few different attachments and a telescoping feature which makes it easy to reach in high places. Best of all it didn't break the bank cost wise. This is the one I got but there are several different models/price ranges you can choose from. The suction on them is not as strong as the shop vac but it certainly gets the job done. Here is a link that might be useful: Sanitaire by Eureka