Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaners

Major design flaw: the motor blows out directly in front which makes it scatter dust and light dirt out from in front of the vacuum - making it impossible to use on hardwood and tile. I loved the lightweight of it, but it's useless to me.

You can just feel the amount of air getting sucked through this thing. Although small, it's got a very effective 12amp motor, and still fits under a shelf in the closet with our board games. It's simple, sturdy and functional.

My wife and I were going to register for a Dyson, but when we played with one at Macy's it felt rickety. We were really surprised as we'd heard nothing but great things about them. But we decided we couldn't blow $400 on a big, plastic monstrosity. I'm sure they're really great, but our modest 900sq' just don't need the BMW of vacuums.

In particular I like the handle. Looks weird, but it's perfect. The hose only comes with two attachments; that's all you need, and the hose itself is just long enough. The brush height is automatically adjusting. The power switch is a simple three-position switch that goes: off / motor / motor and brush. And the dust catch and filter are easy enough to remove and empty.

A Dyson may very well last forever, but I could buy six of these, which would still be half the weight of the smallest Dyson and easier to hide away.

Happy housekeeping.