Just witnessed a very convincing salespitch/demonstration of the Miele line. Their machines are so tightly sealed that ALL the dust stays vacuumed ~ none of it escapes back out ~ and also the sucking velocity remains high even as the bag fills up. The Mieles seem to be in a class by itself, but of course are priced accordingly.

The salesman criticized Consumer Reports for failing to use their particulate-measurement equipment (stuff they routinely use when tesing automobile emissions) when rating vacuum cleaners. Seems that their "best buy" recommendations, like the Kenmore, spew a fair amount of dirt right back out.

We're looking at cleaning out a moderately mold-infested home, where we may expect spores and mites etc. to continue growing for a while before we can finally kill 'em all for good. So we may decide to spring for the extra quality HIPA filter vacuum.