The Dyson machines deserve admiration for their innovative design. They were a space age appliance when first released. And they work - just not as well as promised.
I help out at a charity shop and quite often we are given Dysons which surprised me until other helpers explained that Dyson vacuums can be a pain to empty and change filters etc. To the extent that people eventually give them away.
But if you are patient they do work and look like something out of the Jetsons.
I got a bagged Kenmore several years ago and I love it! I’ve got carpeting and a dog . I definitely prefer bagged to dumping out a cannister all the time.
Yes!
I never understood the whole bagless trend. The filters are expensive, they plug up, and it is messy emptying the container.
My Panasonic upright uses HEPA bags. The inside of the bag housing area is cleaner than the outside of the vacuum. Emptying it is simple and clean: pull off the hard plastic cover, remove the full bag, mount new bag, replace cover. All that nastiness is bagged for you neat and clean.
The bags are less than $1.00 each online. We use about 2 bags per year.
I can’t understand using a bag vacuum - the bags are expensive (I fill a canister with dog hair each time I vacuum). Bags break, especially when picking up hard objects, and then spread dust everywhere. My Dyson has a washable filter, and that only needs washing 2x/year (if that).
I like being able to see how much debris I am picking up, too.
Bags hold way more than canisters. I can vacuum like 6 times on a bag, maybe more. With a golden retriever in the house. I’ve never had a bag break.
Since the OP is looking for opinions, moved to IMHO (from MPSIMS).
The thing about the bagless is that if I need to empty the vaccuum and discover that I forgot to buy bags - the bagless vaccuum still works. I don’t have a stack of bags for it, and I don’t spend on bags (as for filters, mine are all washable, I think I’ve replaced the Meile filter once). And I don’t have money tied up in bags - which are one of those things a lot of people hate to spend money on - they are more expensive than you think they should be and they aren’t fun to spend money on - there are no sexy vaccuum bags (there are sexy cleaners - with scents in pretty bottles).
(I’d go nuts changing my vaccuum bag every six times - that’s twice a month - I have better things to spend money on than vaccuum bags. But I’m irrationally frugal).
I have both - so I have the money and space tied up in bags for the Miele and the Oreck and the Dirt Devil is bagless. When I vaccuum with the little Dirt Devil - I do the “little vaccuuming” (I just vaccuumed, but I’m being good about running the vaccuum daily or I need to do a little room quick), and I usually grab a paper bag to empty the bin into as I go. When I vaccuum the whole house, the Meile is far more efficient - but its a canister vaccuum as well - so its a pain to haul out of the closet and wrestle with the hose.
There are a lot of factors to consider when getting a vaccuum - for quick jobs, I like an upright, but it needs a hose. For me, it needs to be light - I don’t lift well any longer. The Dirt Devil’s cord is too short, but an extension cord fixes that problem (and it was $30 - you don’t get perfection for $30).
But if you have the type of vacuum cleaner that uses bags, you wouldn’t end up without a bag, because you wouldn’t take out the old one until you first get a new one out of the closet. And if you can’t find any new ones in the closet, you’d leave the old one in place and add vacuum bags to the grocery list. It’s not that hard to obtain and change the bag. And it’s not like the vacuum bags cost triple- or even double-digits. A three-pack of bags for my Hoover is $6.50 at Target, so they cost a little more than two bucks.
Mine aren’t available at Target - one of the disadvantages of the Meile is that you make a special trip to the appliance store for bags - or order over the internet. And they are more than $2 - though I did just get 50 bags for about $60 - I bought that many because that way they are around $2. Its still $60 I’d rather spend on something other than vaccuum bags, though. And I’m not that organized. Over the years (and I have been cleaning a house for over 30 years at this point) there have been times when I’ve needed to vaccuum and have forgotten to pick up bags. It is, I know, a failing on my end - which I compensate for by not only owning a bagless vac, but having multiple vaccuums in my house.
I still have carpet in my den. It gets a lot of traffic. I got a shark and thus far it seems to be the best vacuum I’ve owned. I did consider a dyson, but cringed at the price. The shark was between $100 - $150 dollars… can’t recall the exact amount. I’ve had it a couple years.
I refuse to spend a fortune on a vacuum when I plan to replace my flooring with laminate or tile, can’t decide which yet.
The shark sucks great, is easy to empty and has a hepa filter. I’m amazed that I vacuum every two or three days and get so much crap from the carpet. Not so much after I steam cleaned recently though.
We had a Dyson. Think it was a DC14 Animal. Finicky doesn’t begin to describe it. If you did anything it didn’t like, it voiced its displeasure by making a horrible grinding noise on top of the usual near ultrasonic whine. And, what’s the point of “HEPA” quality filtration and collection if at the end of the day you have to dump the dust into the trash can and get a face full of dust? The way the bottom of the bin opens, you have to hold up several inches, so the dirt plops out and goes poof. Achoo!
As new machines, Kirby vacs are wildly overpriced and sold via occasionally questionable door-to-door tactics, but they pop up on Craigslist fairly often from people who get tired of their immense weight. We had one, and I think it got the dirt out of the carpet by merely threatening the dirt with being steamrollered. We got rid of it only because we were moving cross-country and didn’t need it.
All things considered, I’d rather find an old vac for cheap and pay $45 to have it serviced. Our main vac now is a 1960s Electrolux Model G with a power nozzle, and it does better on carpet than the Hoover Platinum upright that we bought three years ago.
+1, Look for the model with the power head motor, not just one that spins because of air flow. Also, some have plastic tubes. Opt for the metal ones.
That was it exactly - the horrible grinding noise! Thank you, in my years of complaining about two Dysons that did that no one else ever seems to have had my issue. Except mine was always voicing its displeasure - it never worked without the horrible grinding noise.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Do you think that Fry’s or Best Buy or a big department store like Sears would have the models listed? I don’t really want to order something like this from online, I want to touch it, play with it, see how it feels…<don’t take that out of context 
I’ve had good luck just buying whatever’s cheapest at the local S-Mart. Even a cheapo vacuum is going to last several years and suck like a two-dollar whore. It’s possible that more expensive vacs are better at trapping particles that are too small to see. Not being allergic to anything, my attitude is that if the particles the vac doesn’t pick up are too small to see, my carpet will still look clean.
Oh, I think we have very clear context for that…
How do people feel knowing there’s 6 month old rubbish and food scraps in your bag?
Me too.
Personally, I want one with a power control on the handle itself. I might get one of the quiet models, just because they’re fancy.
Ha ha. 
Good one.
I have a Eureka canister from ca 1985 - I’ve replaced belts and still have the replacement brushes for the roller.
It’s been patched - probably have pushed it about 5-10 years past its reasonable live expectancy.
I paid Macy’s $350 for it - have no idea what I should have paid.
These super vacs being bandied about (incl. one that seems limited to the UK) are very nice, but if you want something to pick up cat hair and the usual crud, you owe it to yourself to look at Hoover and Eureka. There’s a reason they sell so many.
I bought a Hoover type H (ground-effect machine - cute!) in 1978. I had it for 30 years. Since I no longer have a basement, it got tossed - still ticking.