Decision made!
I decided on a used Kenmore Whispertone upright. I really appreciate all the input from everyone on here, you all have been very helpful. I've been enjoying reading this forum, it's a lot of fun.
Bought this on ebay for $65 including shipping. Whether it's worth $65 I'm not sure, but it was worth that to me. I'm not a big fan of Craigslist and I don't have a lot of time to go thrifting. Ebay really works for me even if I have to pay a little more. And this seller had taken the time to clean it well, put a new bag, belt in it, throw in an extra hose. I got a good vibe from the seller, unlike other sellers on ebay who want a lot of money for something that looks like it's been in a dust storm.
I tried out a new Panasonic upright in a vacuum store, and liked it except there was no way to shut off the brush roll. So I found this one, which looks very similar to the Panasonic uprights, and it does have the brush roll shut off, so I can use it on bare floors.
The suction is better than our bagless Bissell upright. In hallways and wide open spaces I can clean along the edges and just watch it pull the dog hair away from the base boards. Cuts down on having to go back over with an attachment.
Overall, seems to do well on both carpets and hard floors, except for picking up the leaves the dogs drag in. For that I really like that it has a quick draw hose I can use. It is just great on pet hair.
When the self-propelled is turned on, there's some squeaking. This really feels like an old vacuum. I do wonder how long it's going to last. I just feel like something's going to break any minute. I need to add a good floor attachment. The dusting tool is nothing fancy, but the bristles work well on lampshades. I wouldn't dust any expensive antique furniture with it, but it works fine on our furniture. And that squeegee looking thing, not sure what that is. There are no bristles on it, maybe it's for upholstery, I don't know.
I'm really partial to uprights, but I just don't have enough carpet in the house to justify spending $300 on a brand new Panasonic. I grew up with uprights, I cannot ever remember my mom or myself vacuuming with a canister until I was well out of the house as an adult. I remember we had that burgundy striped Hoover Convertible, among other uprights.
Anyway, thanks again for your comments. I'm still trying to decide what I'd like for a canister. It definitely needs to have a power nozzle that will lay flat on the carpet and not lift up when it goes under furniture. I'm enjoying researching all this.
