I've always been partial to the Rainbow "tank" vacuums, except fpr their price which is upwards of $ 1700. If you can find the company that carries their paper, i.e. provides their credit for the sale of these cleaners, you can usually get a nearly new cleaner with all of the attachments for less than $ 250 by bidding on their repossessed cleaners. A year or so ago I did this very thing when I discovered that a local lending firm had six "repoed" cleaners in their back room, which they had to sell at auction, by sealed bids. A little persuasion gave me the approximate sales price for these machines, so I bid $ 100 and was awarded one for that price.

The advantage to me, aside from the price, is that Rainbow uses water as athe filtering agent so it humidifies the air when used during the winter, and can be used for "wet pickup," vacuuming up spills in the house, or quick removal of liquids spilled on carpeting, as well as spot cleaning the area afterwards. If you aren't concerned with appearance, you can buy a new Sears Wet or Dry Shop Vac for a bit more and you don't have to bid and wait for the results.

   Dave