I love our Dyson...but I love carpet too, so we have it everywhere. I have two large dogs, which means lots of hair, and the dyson doesn't balk at all, and no bags to buy!

It does work well on the laminate in my kitchen too, but kind of overkill for that. :-)

Miele cannister; I have a 15 year old that gets a workout and I love it. We have wood floor (old wide boards with deeper cracks) and oriental rugs and it goes from one to the other without a hitch. If I had w/w carpet I would change the brush attachment for the carpet one, but for antique orientals I really don't want that much oomph, anyway, so I just use the regular floor brush most of the time.

Relative to other canisters it's quieter, too. But the big difference is how well sealed it is. When you run it there is no "just vacuumed smell" because it's trapping the dust inside the vac with super-good bags and filters, etc. I can use it as a HEPA machine, but generally I run with the less expensive regular filters. Mieles can be very pricey and I think ours was an upper-middle range one when we bought it. Now they seem very costly to me, but I would still buy another since I am so pleased with it.

It's very good with pet hair (and with 10 indoor cats and two shedding bunnies) so that's big issue for me. Plus this is a farm so we track in all manner of stuff.

Molly~

I've got hardwood floors, braided rugs, one room with carpet and tile in the kitchen.

I love my electrolux canister. My in-laws love to buy the cheapest vacuum they can find and gifted us two of them when we got married. Oh sweet neptune!! You can't say LOUD as LOUD and obnoxious as those things were!!!! (I "gifted" them on to other places as soon as I got my new one. -Oh mom, they just quit working? I don't know why?)

My vacuum was saved for personally by me, I bought it outright (not on card) and I wouldn't even let anyone else use it for the first week or two LOL.

We have hardwood everywhere (including the kitchen), a variety of oriental and wool sisal rugs, and tile in the bathrooms. We bought a middle-of-the-range Miele canister a couple of years ago, and I love it (as much as I will ever love a vacuum cleaner).
Light, easy to maneuver, and quiet. Noise and weight do seem to be the biggest problems with cheaper ones. We have two black indoor cats, one long-haired, who love to sleep on all the palest upholstered furniture, and it does a good job on their leavings.

Another Dyson fan here. We have two rooms with wall-to-wall carpet, others with hardwood floors, and many area rugs. We also have dogs. The Dyson works great and, as jamie_mt pointed out, there are no bags to buy or fiddle with. We liked it so much we even bought the little hand-held one for upholstery, tight corners, and the stair runner.

Another Miele cannister vote. Middle of the line, 12 years old, and zero problems. Moves from hardwood to area rugs in the living spaces to carpeted stairs and bedrooms with ease. (3 cats, one dog, one child as old as the vacuum.) I've heard good things about Dyson's, but have never had one. The Miele was an excellent investment.

Bags run a bit high $$$, and aren't available at the local drugstore. They can be found cheaper online, and my vacuum dealer sends out coupons for buy-one-get-one for the multibag boxes about once a year, so I stock up. I've never liked the idea of the "bagless" types... just seems like the dust reenters the air when you pour the dirt into the trash? That said, I've never had one and am good at keeping bags around for my Miele workhorse.

Looks like it is the miele, dyson and then electrolux among people who love what they have. Of course these are the most expensive ones too. My DH would absolutely not want to buy one if it costs over a couple hundred dollars, so I am sure if I was to get one in the future it would have to be a self pay or chip in item. Sounds like it may be worth it though.
I wonder if any of them have really good sales sometime through the year. Anyone know? I sure would appreciate knowing!

I like my Dyson, too, but I bought a Sears Kenmore Progressive vacuum for my son and his girlfriend. They think it's great. I'll give you a link to a customer review.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kenmore Progressive review

Dyson here too. I have found no problems with it and I have wall to wall carpet everywhere.

Dyson here for me. I had an Electrolux upright that I THOUGHT was perfect, until I did "the test", by vacuuming our hardwood floors and carpet areas first with the Electrolux, and then again with a borrowed Dyson. I couldn't believe the dust balls, hair and dirt that the Dyson sucked up! It made me a convert immediately.

I found one on sale when Bed, Bath and Beyond had their sale, and armed with a price match for less from Best Buy, went to Bed, Bath and Beyond with one of their 20% off coupons. Altogether, it saved me over $250 on the Dyson, so it was a great buy. We have two cats and two dogs, hardwood floors and carpeted areas, too, and it works great on all.

I have 2 dyson animal uprights, 1 dyson canister, and an upright from Italy; a Lindhaus Pro. (Good grief-also have a commercial wet-dry vac, an ash vac, and a leifheit carpet sweeper.) My seldom-used upstairs is all carpeting, and my newest dyson which I love lives up there. It is too difficult for me to carry vacs up and down stairs...I love the idea of bagless, and bought the Dyson canister for my main floor, mostly hardwood. The animal vac does a superior job on carpet, but is bulky and poorly suited to get under furniture. The canister performed poorly, and so is now relegated to the basement. My original Dyson upright lives in a finished basement room. Both are superb spider catchers. My overall favorite? The oldest, my 8 year-old Lindhaus Pro Hepa. It does almost but not quite as fabulous a job as the Dyson uprights on the carpets, and like the Dyson uprights is a rather heavy vac, but it is slender and more versatile, and manuvers much more easily in and around small spaces. I feel it does a superior job switching among and accomodating carpet, hard surfaces, and wand functions. (and the little Leifheit carpet sweeper is just the ticket for quick sprucing up small spots without having to plug something in or making any noise (like when there are a few crumbs and company may arrive any second, and you'd rather not be caught vacuuming!!) Penny

Will you accept an anti-recommendation? We have a similar mix of hardwood-with-area-rugs. I got a Bissell Revolution "Pet" vacuum; liking the idea of being able to turn off the beater bar, etc, and I had only ever had an upright.

It's an okay vacuum. The suction isn't great; if you have the beater bar turned off it won't pick up hardly ANYTHING off a rug. I usually end up using the dustmop on the hardwood anyway. It is sort of nice to be able to remove a smaller section of it to vacuum the stairs, but the end result - when the whole thing is together - is that the vacuum feels a little more ... unwieldy, somehow. The design (to allow the center part to be removable) also means that the vent blows directly on your leg or in your face if you're kneeling on the stairs.

The cleanout canister is easy enough to operate, but it definitely fills up fast with - get this - pet hair, hahaha.

My next vacuum will be a canister.

Dyson. It has been problem free since we purchased it 4 years ago. It even vacuumed small chunks of concrete up during our fireplace remodel. The suction is unbeatable. We bought the cheapest model, it vacuums up everything. We use it on floors as well. This vacuum is amazing.

I still love my old Kenmore Cannister vac (and it continues to be the top rated in its class in Consumer Reports.)

I have hardwood floors, ceramic tile kitchen/hallways, and a few small rugs in bedroom, plus an oriental area rug in LR. Kenmore handles it all.

I like having the various attachments on the machine back as I do my thing - bags are cheap, I don't mind the noise, and I also know and plan not to do the bedroom within 4 hours of going to bed. I guess it is all about what you get used to.

I would rather use my hard earned money for more special needs in my house than blow a bundle on a vacuum cleaner. I'm just a frugal Yankee......

Roomba iRobot - I love it! Have gained a few free hours after we bought the Roomba. It picks up dust very well from every nook and corner. Also cleans rugs very well. We are thinking of buying the mop version too. I also have a shark stick vac that is very light and does a decent job.

embees...I love to have anti recommendations also! That really helps me to know what not to get.

saruna...Is that the round vacuum that goes around by itself. I have only seen it on TV...what does it do when it hits a chair leg or some other obstacle? Does it have to stay on for hours? I would love to hear more about it. It is quite costly too, isn't it?
If you would like, start a new post on it or maybe I will.

Thanks so much for yours and all of the suggestions!

brugloverz9: yes, thats the one... it doesn't hit anything too hard, it bumps softly and changes direction. It also senses staircases and doesn't fall off. It goes around twice and they say does more rounds if it senses more dust. In one charge, it covers our living/dining/kitchen/entryway and takes about 1.5 hrs. It goes under the sectional sofa and ottoman too.
I bought the 570 model from www.mrvacandmrssew.com, no tax/shipping. Costco also sells some models. The base model, without scheduler is not too expensive. You just have to press the clean button with your toe, so the scheduler is not a necessity unless you can't stand the noise and would prefer to do it when you are not home. Or you could start it on your way out.
The only place it doesnt work on is the staircase, so I have to use a broom or the handvac for that.
HTH.

We've got 2000sf of new wood floors and three large area rugs. Our Kenmore cannister (only so-so performance) was dying, but our post-remodel budget was shot to *&*, too. I tried liking some of the moderately priced vacuums, and I ended up returning three. Too heavy, too loud, too cumbersome, mediocre performance.
I was fortunate enough to get a used Miele Red Star cannister from a local dealer. Lucky me! This thing zips around with me (no more lugging a heavy cannister!), quietly sucking everything up. It's a little powerhouse! I don't have to worry about scratches on the floor with the floor brush. I got a special hose attachment for stairs -- I can leave the cannister at the bottom of the stairs and just pull the hose with me all the way to the top!

I only paid $300 for a 4-year old machine with a year's warranty, so you might want to consider looking into a used vacuum. A new model of my Miele runs $600.

oofasis...sounds like what I am looking for! Good idea to try a used dealer. I saw some on Amazon reconditioned, I have had good luck with reconditioned equipment. That might also be a way to get a really good machine less costly.

I have a dyson. It was a special model offered to employees of Best Buy when our son worked there. He lived at home so we got his discount. I'd been wanting one and was thrilled to get it. That was four years ago and I still love it. I've always loved to vacuum, but then my Mom always had commercial grade vacuums and gave one of her old ones to me when I moved out. When it finally gave out instead of having it rebuilt (which my Mom had done once) we decided to try something smaller and went through a couple brands that were highly rated by Consumer Reports. Never again. That's when we bought our dyson.

We have hardwood, ceramic, marble, granite, wall to wall carpet and area rugs. I use my dyson on all of them and our upholstered furniture. I even dust with it because of allergies. Ithas a very long hose that allows me to do our stairs without dragging the upright up the stairs. It also has an attachement for doing hard floors like a canister vac, but I prefer to unengage the brush and use it that way. I highly recommend the dyson if you have pets because dog and cat hair isn't a challenge to this baby. If you want a vacuum that really sucks, get a dyson. You won't regret it.

Gee...it sounds like the owner of both dyson and miele are both very, very happy with their vacuums! Other than one person who liked their electrolux ane one who liked their robatic vacuums...no one else spoke highly of another vacuum. That is good! Gives me something to look for when I get a new vacuum!

A friend has a Dyson DC7 "Animal" and it does a wonderful job on rugs. IMHO it does a pretty mediocre job on solid surfaces. I have an Electolux Oxygen (the modern company, orange color) canister. It does a pretty decent job on rugs and a very good job on solid surfaces. My only quibble is that it has some kind of suction adjustment on the handle that doesn't always stay on "full power". The new models have a different design. The bag is a little small too.

The last I saw, Consumer Reports liked the Kenmore Progressive (it's made by Panasonic). I had one of those pre-divorce and it's a very nice vacuum and reasonably priced.

If you happen to do go with Electrolux I would highly recommend a reconditioned model from a company called CPO Electrolux. I got mine through Amazon but they have a website as well. $200+ discount over list price and free shipping. What's "reconditioned" about my vacuum? Heck if I can tell. It was in perfect condition and it shipped right away.

Mike, reconditioned is basically rebuilt. Like installing a new engine, hoses and belts in a car. The commercial vacuum my Mom gave me was one. I've heard them called remanufactured and refubished too. It's a great way to save money if you don't feel the "need" to have new. They often come with full manufacturer warrenties. Below is a website that sells just about anything refurbished....

Here is a link that might be useful: RefurbDepot