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Now that Sears is mostly gone, I'm not sure if this is good advice, but the Kenmore canister vacs are a great budget ($100 to $200 cheaper) alternative to Miele. I own two. The first is from 1998 and a friend borrowed it and her kid vacuumed up a bowl of dog water and then let the vacuum sit for a week, so it makes a weird noise now - but it still works great as a garage/car vac. The second I bought in 2015, and it is still great. Motorized beater for rugs and carpet, floor and brush and crevice attachments, HEPA filter bags, HEPA filter on the exhaust, very easy to find third-party bags and parts. Manufactured by Panasonic, who also sells vacuums under their own name.

Now that Sears is mostly gone, I'm not sure if this is good advice, but the Kenmore canister vacs are a great budget ($100 to $200 cheaper) alternative to Miele. I own two. The first is from 1998 and a friend borrowed it and her kid vacuumed up a bowl of dog water and then let the vacuum sit for a week, so it makes a weird noise now - but it still works great as a garage/car vac. The second I bought in 2015, and it is still great. Motorized beater for rugs and carpet, floor and brush and crevice attachments, HEPA filter bags, HEPA filter on the exhaust, very easy to find third-party bags and parts. Manufactured by Panasonic, who also sells vacuums under their own name.

For household cleaning, I prefer a canister vac. I have a Kenmore (Panasonic) with cloth HEPA filter bags and a pleated HEPA filter over the exhaust. It has a motorized carpet beater brush, but we got rid of most of our rugs, so that only comes out for entryway rug cleaning. With the long wand, it is easy to reach the ceiling. Vacuuming the tops of bookcases requires standing on something and getting the canister off of the floor, but that's nbd.

I love canister vacuums with filtered cloth bags and HEPA filtered exhaust. Panasonic makes Kenmore, and Meile is know to be great. My Kenmore has a motorized carpet attachment, and also floor and crevice and brush attachments. I'm pretty sneezy about dust and just cannot ever get a bagless vac again. I even empty our Roomba by sucking the dirt out of the Roomba's bin with the hose of the canister. I also vacuum the pre filters on our air filters/purifiers and window AC. Easy to get ceiling fan blades and tops of baseboards and under the bed. Also I've got two dogs and the canister isn't fazed by lots of hair like the bagless Shark was.

Kenmore canister with powerhead or Prolux Phantom with the Wessel Werk ebk360 powerhead. Learn how to vacuum with one, no offense. They excel.

Many have bag issues/user error with kenmore/miele/sebo which reflects in reviews. Have just changed 1 bag in a kenmore myself with no issues - thinking overfilling and not seating the bag correctly is whats causing 2 issues for many. Bag changing etc is not something to do carelessly in any vac but can prove to be too difficult of a task for many which is no suprise with how enept the population is with basics.

Everyone says Shark. I had many Shark vacuums. The filters suck. The canisters suck. The brush rolls suck. When they broke or died it was impossible to find anyone who was willing to repair them. I decided to switch to a bagged canister style vacuum. I started with a kenmore because I wasn’t sure I’d like the canister style and Kenmore vacuums are fairly inexpensive. I really liked it. Although it was super heavy. The bags are much cleaner and easier to deal with than the shark canisters. One bag lasts a week or more which means I’m not dumping the canister multiple times during one clean. Filters don’t get as dirty. The Kenmore died after a year but I was able to get it repaired for cheap enough (was a fuse or something). I saved up $ and bought a Miele bagged canister style vacuum and I love it so much. Superior suction. Superior filtration. Light weight. Will never go back to the crappy shark vacuums. I’m a Miele for life. And I can get it repaired or serviced at my local vacuum repair place. I probably spent as much on all the sharks I bought as I did on the Miele.

Unfortunately you’ve come to the realization that a lot of Kirby owners do. Unless you have wall to wall carpeting there not much use. I’ve had several dyson’s they’re ok. I have a strong preference for a bagged canister vacuum such as a Kenmore, especially for shag, the power head is light and won’t bog down. Some have adjustable suction as well. Meiles are really good and quiet just make sure you get a powered brush not a turbo or air driven.

I’ve had a bunch of vacuums over the years and I’m always happiest with a bagged canister. To me it seems like less work because your moving the canister maybe every 4 passes vs the whole thing every pass with an upright. I have a Kenmore that works really well that I got on marketplace for $40 5 years ago.