M.V.
I jut recently bought the Shark for myself. We put in an upstairs and I am not lugging around a vac up and down the stairs. It has really long attachments for the stairs which I thought was perfect. Then I vacummed. The canister filled up halfway when I did half the house. I was amazed. I didn't know something could have so much sucking power. It is rated against the Dyson Animal as being the equivalent. So now I know my old vac really doesn't suck anymore! (no pun intended). It has two different settings, one with the brushes ON and one with the brushes OFF, so it makes it nice to pick up the crumbs on the hardwood floor with out the brushes rolling and shooting stuff everywhere. I ended up having my MIL use it (b/c she HAS a Dyson) and she likes mine better than hers. Not only for the suction power but the ease in using the tools. I gave it to my mother too who said her higher pile carpet was almost getting stuck it was suctioning so hard (but then again, she's got some REALLY plush carpet in her frontroom....) and she said my father enjoyed vacumming with it immensely. I am really happy with this purchase and once the construction is completely over I will be purchasing ANOTHER for the downstairs to replace the one that apparently doesn't work anymore.....