1700

Here's a used Lindhaus Aria - https://ebay.us/m/FEuOUH And a Riccar 1700 - https://ebay.us/m/cXT1Q3

I would recommend the Kenmore 200, 400 or 600-series canisters, or if you can find one, a used Sebo, Riccar, Lindhaus or Miele canister with an electric power nozzle. Canisters generally are less tiring to use, in my experience - most of the weight is dragged on wheels behind you instead of being held in your hand. They also are far better for stairs, hard floors and above-floor cleaning. A tip - enter a room and vacuum your way out, instead of vacuuming your way in the way you might with an upright.

I have a high-end Riccar canister vac. Hate it! It’s powerful and effective. It’s also like dragging a boulder around! Unruly.

Yeah, when I moved to another state last year I left the $80 upright with my roommate because she has carpet and my new house doesn’t. And that meant I could justify buying a new Riccar canister. They’re both quiet and lightweight, easy to maneuver. And yes, the new canister was $$$.

We have a Riccar, which we got from the local vacuum shop. It’s a bagged model and it plugs in, but it’s fantastic. Best vacuum I’ve ever owned. It was between Riccar and Miele for us, and we preferred the Riccar. We also have a Shark stick that we use for spot cleaning. It’s definitely not as good.

Just bought a bagged Riccar. Never going back to bag less. Bag less systems throw SO MUCH dust back into your home. Filters replaced once a year. Bags last a month each.

Riccar. Boo to all canisters because they are clunky… cord, canister, hose. Ugh!

Dyson is very similar to brands like Bose. They are a premium mainstream brand and take advantage of the fact that higher-end options are typically not sold at common stores/retailers/distributors, so people think they are "top-of-the-line" and they charge top-of-the-line prices. They're not bad products per se, but they aren't as good as the masses think they are because the masses are completely unaware of better options. This is true of many if not most categories of products. If you want to find true high-end or professional products, you want to look at specialized retailers and distributors that specialize in the type of product you're looking for. Discovering this was a huge eye-opener for me and made it much easier to find high quality products for things I really cared about. These products are often not available from more common distributors like Amazon, big box hardware stores, general stores, etc. If they are available, they'll often be buried deep in the searches that you won't find them outside of specific searches. Getting back to vacuums, you don't find options like Miele, Sebo, Riccar, and other brands with significantly higher build quality and/or performance that Dyson at your local Home Depot. You'll find them at vacuum shops. You're totally right about maintenance! I do think that a lot of people confuse high quality or buy it for life with never having to do maintenance (be that repairs or actual preventative maintenance), and in the case of most products, that's just false. The difference is that the cost/effort of maintenance is worth it for these better products. Cheaper products are often difficult to work on and are less likely to offer spare parts. I think this is one of the few dangers of the masses buying professional products. Actual professionals will usually learn how to take care of their tools because they need to for work (broken tools can equal not making money by the definition of what a "professional" product is). Consumers often aren't given this education because they're just consumers.