Up until just a few years ago, I was always a Eureka upright vacuum enthusiast. They were the same as the Sanitone machine featured earlier. They, along with earlier hoover uprights, cleaned carpet extremely well and the belts and bags were fairly easy to change. They are still excellent vacuums, but self propelled models were very difficult to come by and few were ever made for those models. So the self propelled Kirby vacuums are excellent choices, since they clean very well and are easy to use without struggling to push them. The bags are a little easier to replace, but the belts a little more difficult to replace. The belts don't break when they need to be replaced, they just loose tension and slow down the brushing and last longer. So it evens out for me anyway. I have never actually used the attachments to connect a hose for straight vacuum on a Kirby because it is a great deal of trouble. I have always had a canister vacuum too, which proves to be much easier. My canister vacuum of choice is Electrolux. The bags on those are incredibly easy to change and they have good suction and an automatic cord winder.
