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To make the Kirby's groom and deep clean, You need a 4 row brushroll. Adjust the beater bar to position 3 on the G-Series. Adjust the beater bar screws all the way down on the Pre G-Series. Adjust the carpet height to where you hear the brush contact the carpet and adjust one more click down. The Kirby's is now at the correct carpet height for excellent deep cleaning and excellent grooming.
 
I understand your doubts with Dyson, but it seems since you were so happily satisfied with your Fantom that the Dyson would well suit your needs with the wand/hose handle and bagless convience. Might I also recommend the Kenmore Intuition Crossover canister.

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A Good Used Eureka FG Upright that's in Good Condition. Also a new 1934B Eureka is great as well. Huge Bag Capacity and Great Suction, grooms the carpet very nicely and leaves nice marks on the carpet.

The Attachment Set for the Upright has decent suction as well but nowhere near as good as the Fantom. I would get Filteraire Bags for it as they are cleaner than normal FG bags.

A Hoover Decade 80 or Convertible isn't a bad choice either.
 
I actually think Ryan has hit on the correct solution: The Blue Kenmore Intuition power nozzle canister. It is very good at everything and comes with a nice long 8 foot hose and a nice long cord - longer than the cords and hoses provided on Miele canisters. The electrically powered mini power nozzle stores on board, and the hose and wands are standard diameters so you can attach any tool you want to buy from your local vac dealer. This has been Consumer Reports top rated canister vac for two years. It's also got a much larger cloth Hepa bag than the Mieles. Just don't abuse the machine and you'll be fine - follow the instructions and shut off the vac before disconnecting the electrified hose and wands to avoid burning the contacts.

The neat feature of this vac is that the floor brush stores right in the power nozzle. You just shut off the vac from the handle control, press a pedal to release the brush, switch the vac back on you are ready to go...

According to consumer surveys done by Consumer Reports, Kenmore canisters have a lower repair rate than Miele, Hoover, Eureka and Swedish Electrolux. The higher end Kenmores such as the Intuition are made by Panasonic.

Here is a summary of the results of tests done by Consumer Reports on this vac:
CARPET CLEANING: The Kenmore Intuition 28014 does a very good job of removing the embedded mixture of sand and powder from our soiled test carpets. This is a measure of how well a vacuum removes the dirt hidden deep in the carpet and not visible to the user's eye.

BARE FLOOR: The Kenmore does an excellent job of removing sand from our vinyl floor, leaving very little behind and not scattering sand across the floor.

PET HAIR: This model does an excellent job at picking up pet hair from carpets using its power head. The visual inspection of the test carpet following the pet hair test reveals no traces of pet hair left behind and very little pet hair caught in the brush roll.

USABILITY: This Kenmore is packed with many creature comforts, such as a nice telescopic wand, and nicely placed electronic controls on the handle for suction, and brush rotation. A dirt sensor is also conveniently placed on the handle. A unique feature is a quick release floor brush that is integrated into the main power head.
 
Miele hose/EurekaPrince

Brian,

I am not sure what is up with Miele and their hose lengths. I took my new Lux Guardian Platinum down to an old Lux buddy who sells Miele to show him the pre-production machine and do a side by side with some of his machines. The Earth hose is slightly longer by about a foot and a half over the Capricorn. The hose on the Silver Moon with 236 nozzle I had was short also. However, this additional length, due to the stiffness of the hose makes the Earth seem like a different machine over the Capricorn. Miele took the swivel off those machines and I prefer the Silver Moon design for its mobility. Those shorter hoses remind me of the old gimp, woven Lux Silverado Lawrence MFG. hose with the front of the machine hitting your ankles all the time. Perhaps it is related to the additional electronic innards of the Capricorn hose that they shorten the length for economic reasons.

The Simplicity/Riccar Full-size canisters still use the 7 foot hose like the previous S36/38 and 1700/1800 machines did. The same goes for the Sebo D4. Lots of hose( 7ft) there too. I don't care for the Cen-Tec power nozzle or any of the Sears Canisters in general even with 8 feet of hose or on a buy one get one free. Since they are closing a store here they were sold for peanuts. I hate that integrated floor bush as well. That's just me. Cleaning performance is good, durability no so.

As far as hoses go , the super light weight Tristar DXL electric hose is what I would like to see on the Miele and the Lux Guardian Platinum. Super flexible and super light. the Flexible Technologies hose on the Lux is really nice but requires more care in that the urethane will tear if you leave the power nozzle and wands attached for years during storage and the clear urethane turns yellow if stored on the porch in direct sunlight. Same is true with Kenmore, rainbow and Filter Queen urethane hoses.

Brian
 
Not so sure I'm keen on canisters. They take up twice the footprint of an upright in the closet and seem overly-fussy and clumsy while sweeping in rooms full of furniture.

I'd have to see a canister that clearly performs head and shoulders above the best upright before I'd consider one.
 
Hey Matt,

Don't eliminate power nozzle canisters from your search. Most Mieles and Kenmores have a slot on the main body from which you hang the power nozzle front edge down to minimize your storage footprint. These take up no more space than an upright.

If you had only wall to wall carpeting, I would not look at canisters (you have to clean forward into the room, which leaves you walking on your just cleaned carpets - with uprights you can clean easily while "backing out" of the room starting at the far corner).

But since you have bare floors with area rugs, a canister is a more flexible and easy to use solution. The large head on an upright will not easily get under and around your furniture and you'll end up using the onboard hose a lot anyhow.

If money is no option and you prefer uprights, go and get the white Miele Cat and Dog upright. Consumer Reports gave it high marks in all test categories (carpets, bare floors, suction thru the hose for tool use, noise reduction, emissions control) BTW, it looks like all the Miele uprights come with a generous 40 foot power cord.

If you want to really make your life easier, add the wonderful cordless Swiffer Vac to your arsenal! This $40 stick vac will clean and dust all your bare floors with ease in between vacuuming...and it hangs on a hook on the wall. My 85year old Mom swears by it! :-)
 
NYCWriter, I've heard stories about that Kenmore Intuition canister being plagued with electical problems... I think Durango mentioned that, but I've heard it elsewhere before too (maybe in reviews?)...

I also think that you would not be happy with a Dyson because part of the problem you have with the Fantom is that it is a mess to empty since it is bagless... you clearly stated that in your initial post! A Dyson wouldn't solve that problem. Many collectors and repairmen are evangalistic about telling people that bagged is better than bagless...

Canisters can be stored compactly as most Kenmore/Panasonic, and Miele have a parking system similar to this and if they have a telescoping handle, that really helps. I couldn't find a picture of a Kenmore or Panasonic stored like this, and it's not even in the manual... I cannot believe they woudln't advertise that! The Kenmores, however, only park with the canister sitting vertically on its end... they don't have the parking system in the back like the Miele pictured below does (so a Kenmore would store like the Miele in the picture on the right, but not like the picture on the left)...

That said, they can definitely be more fussy and clumsy than an upright!

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Thanks KirbyUltimateG.

I'm sure the Shark is an improved version of my Fantom, but I've already pretty much ruled out bagless, as I'm tired of all the dust collecting on the surface of my unit (and the mess in emptying it in my kitchen).
 

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