We were renting a fully carpeted house (beige carpet!!!!!!) and eventually settled on a Hoover windtunnel mach 4.7 upright cleaner. It seemed to cope pretty well at first but went through belts like nobody's business. Sniff, sniff, smells like burning rubber, ah yes, the hair has just tangled round the roller and is about to ruin yet another belt.
It comes with a little rotary hand power brush for doing things like stairs. Great! Well, if it didn't tangle up with hair I'm sure it would work quite well.
Now we've moved into our own house and installed pergo on the ground floor. The hoover only has to cope with the upstairs rooms and it's still burning rubber.
How I wish I could find a Philips Vision Canister vac here in Canada.
Wendy
Boris Beard Ottawa, Canada http://members.rogers.com/bernerboris/bernerbooks.html