Been married 12.5 years with 1 vacuum that still works great. I love my Oreck. It is not heavy, till the bag gets full. It is an upright, and we have the handheld that we use for stairs and cars. I will buy another when this one dies, even though they are expensive, this one has been a workhorse. We have dark carpet and I vacuum about 5 times a week. I've replaced a few belts and when I had post pregnancy hair loss, I would have to unclog it a time or two, but the design is so simple that I can do these maintanance things myself. I also replaced the beater bar, when I ruined it vacuuming up things I shouldn't have. eta: The reason I vacuum so often is that my carpet shows every bit of lint, string, or dirt. The vacuum cleans very well.
I have been through several vacuums and by far my fave one is Eureka "The Boss". HOWEVER...the bags were always hard to find, and the end of the hose always chipped and cracked. But it could pull anything out of the carpet. I had a kirby...yuck. I currently have a bagless Hoover windtunnel+cyclone and so far I really like it. I was a little leary about bagless because I bought a bissell bagless about 5 years ago and it worked great for the first 3 months and then it was a piece of junk. I realized later that I was supposed to replace all the filters and stuff every month...which was alot of $$$. So I threw it away. The one I have now, you can wash the filters and you shouldn't ever have to replace them. It does a great job.
I was Big Lots right now and they were selling Dysons from $250-$290s. They were the same as the ones I seen at Walmart. Walmart was selling theirs for much more.
We vacuum at least five days a week too. Our carpet is also dark and shows everything. When we bought the house, the carpet person told us not to go with dark colors but I picked a dark color anyways. Now I regret it. LOL Orecks are great! I have an Oreck steam cleaner and use every few months. Again, if anybody spills anything other than liquids on the dark carpet. it shows.
OMGosh! I thought it was just us! LOL We went though vacuums like underwear until hubby finally bought me a kirby. Yes, it was VERY expensive, but worth every penny to me. We financed it and made payments until we could pay it off (tax refund) I've had it 3 years now and just had to replace the belt a couple of days ago (it comes with one extra) Mine also has a carpet cleaner attachment (that I dont' know how to work! I always make hubby do that! LOL) But I LOVE the attachments for this thing. It vacuums the kitchen WONDERFULLY.
