I professionally clean houses for 18 years with power nozzle
Your Eureka Express canister depending on the model number would have come outfitted with a VGIII agitator brush. As far as power nozzle for carpeting the Express power head on this canister is very good for carpet cleaning. At the same time this unit has an uncomfortable hose handle, suction is good, but not great and bare floor brush was not included as an onboard tool, and I do not know of a mini electric power head to run on this unit.
Look for a canister that uses a universal fit hose end that you can fit other manufacturers attachments to. This will be most beneficial. Since no machine is perfect it's better to find the unit with suction, power nozzle, filtration, hose length and comfort that you want and then customize attachments otherwise. By doing so you'll truly end up with a vac capable of accomplishing all of your needs in the end. ***The Kenmore Progressive White, Blueberry and Red all have very comfortable hose grip but tool end is not universal and attachments for this machine other than powermate Jr. are quite unimpressive!!!
One thing you should think about and many others would recommend, is that it would work better to have a second set of wands strictly dedicated to your bare floor brush and keep your power nozzle continuously attached to the other set of wands. Quick release connections on canisters break easy, the wiring connections get burnt up and despite them being very convenient is not a good practice in the long term to be continuously changing off the power head for a bare floor brush.
Pet hair will stick to most any bristle on a bare floor brush. However it seems to stick the least on horsehair designed models, which also prove to be very gentle for most any surface while dusting the floors very efficiently and working well. The Kenmore/ Panasonic style bare floor brushes are very short harsh bristles and the tools themselves are only about 9" wide. I recommend looking to a universal fit bare floor brush from your local vac shop or online that's about 12" wide, horse hair bristles, and gaps or varied bristle length to allow for better ability of sucking dirt in and not pushing it away. Also try out the swivel necks some are much easier to swivel and more maneuverable than others. Many new bare floor brushes on the market have wheels. The brushes themselves work good, I recommend removing the wheels from them if you buy that style!!! You may also like the Miele Parquet tool--it uses felt pads to clean the floor-- intuitive.
The 2 main mini electric power heads for canisters that I can think of are the Electrolux Sidekick and Kenmore PowerMate Jr. The Electrolux Sidekick I have never been impressed with. The brush just doesn't do a good job for me and angling is awkward. The Powermate Jr. does a good job on low profile rugs and upholstery but on medium to deep pile carpets they're very hard to use. The front design of the current version has ridges to allow for airflow. These ridges on a surface without wheels, just makes it very hard to use on a carpeted step, it sinks into the pile and gets stuck rather than gliding and grooming over it. For this situation I would look towards an air turbine nozzle such as the Wessel Werk or Hoover Windtunnel turbine tool. Not all turbine tools are created equal, I have found these 2 to work the best. I have no problem whatsoever with my Hoover air turbine nozzle on either my Anniversary Windtunnel canister or original series Hoover Windtunnel canister.
Another option I think you should look at is getting a separate electric powered hand vac with rotating brush. The Hoover Sidewinder/ Twistnvac works well. Or its also very easy to find a Dirt Devil 103 or similar model. I use a snugger belt on my Hoover Sidewinder hand vac than Hoover original. It works much awesome, pulling out pet hair like a magnet and really lifting the pile! They're noisy but work good.
With all of that said the canister I recommend you getting is a Simplicity Verve, Riccar Pristine, Riccar Impeccable, Riccar 1700, or similar. I think you'd be very impressed by a Tacony product. Variable suction, powerful power heads, wide variety of attachments with universal fit hose to fit any manufacturers tools, very quiet, HEPA cloth bags, sealed systems, HEPA filtration, terrific warranties, well built, long lasting, durable, easy to buy parts that are reasonably priced. Another machine you may want to look at is the Royal Lexon SR30020.
Mieles are nice, I think you would enjoy one. Things to think about for this are: do you want a headlight? If so the SEB236 is their only power head with a light. The SEB217 is a very lightweight power head with small motor and very soft bristles. Most any other powerhead on the market will run circles around this. It is meant for throw and other light area rugs. Aerus machines are well built with terrific suction. Many vacuum shops have refurb models in store that you should look at and try out before buying one anywhere!! I find many of their power heads aren't as powerful and have softer bristles than others on the market. Your Express power nozzle is MUCH better over some Lux heads. But you need to try them all out as they vary. I do not like the upholstery nozzle on Aerus/ Lux, the plastic flap wings with no bristles, rubber fingers or otherwise have scratched up delicate upholstery while cleaning terribly. Also I hate the flip over reversible combo barefloor tool/ carpet tool. They are ugly, short, don't clean well in my mind. This attached to Lux wands and I have to arch my back to use this tool. Electrolux does not have telescoping wands that I know of, and I'm only 5'7" so that's saying something if I'm uncomfortable using it!!! Oh how I would love to be 5'10" or so!!
Machines I would definitely avoid: Kenmore Progressives with new style hose because they do not fit standard tools. Kenmore Intuition canister- built in bare floor brush is terrible, power head has many durability issues with connection and just a very bulky, "junky" system for cleaning carpet. Any Sebo canister-- very underpowered power nozzles, overpriced for parts, and in general, not user friendly machines.
I know I've probably listed too much info here for you to absorb in one sitting!!! I could talk for hours about power head canister vacs, they are my passion and joy. I have used countless numbers of them over the years. Feel free to private message or email me any questions or further advice. I've been professionally cleaning houses for 18 years with power head canister vacuums!!! I look for machines that perform to get a house truly clean while being user friendly and durable enough.
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING, or make sure you have a fair return window. Suction on most machines today is quite comparable. I think you're mostly shopping features, durability and power nozzle!!!
http://www.simplicityvacuum.com/products/canisters/mid-size/verve/
