Do you have a bag that has the original cloth fill tube to compare to the "Kirby" fill tube bag?This is a good idea to repair bag fill tubes that are worn.When I helped remodel my friends home years ago the cloth fill tube was torn up from nails,cable staples,romex strippings and even a piece of unstripped romex .Found these in the bag-at the time did not use a paper bag-just the cloth one.Had to go to Winchester,Va to get a replacement cloth bag and a pack of paper bags.My friend payed for them.Use a paper bag in the new cloth bag to clean out his fireplaces-worked well!!!Put the paper bag in the metal trash can in case of live ashes.Those can withstand trips thru a vacuum!!The NSS cloth fill tubes can't with stand hard stuff ingested by the fan.The new Grey bags have a different cloth fill tube.Would like to see NSS use rigid fill tubes-like the Kirbys.So-when a cloth fill tube goes in one of my NSS bags will try a Kirby fill tube.And you can use the bag alone without the paper bag if desired-good for heavy bulk pickup.The NSS did better than the mans Craftsman shop vacuum in picking up stuff.Also bought a power nozzle for the NSS from the Winchester VA place and my friend loved used the NSS(he calls it"THE BAG"! The powernozzle pulled up all kinds of stuff from the carpets.Paper bag was full!!Those can hold several gallons of debris.