I am looking to purchase a new vacumn cleaner. I do not care whether it is a bagless, upright or a canister. I am most concerned about how light it is. We l live in a split level house, and I am tired of dragging my Hoover upright up and down the stairs. I am prepared to spend a lot of money on one. I would like a very high performance vacumn.

Orick. You love its quality, dependability and light weight

Yep for weight and works good, a Orick is about the best.

I have a Dyson and I LOVE it! It's bagless, lightweight, and works really well. A friend borrowed mine once to "test it" in her house, and bought one the next day.

Thank you for the response. Do you happen to know the model number on it?

You want a real vacuum. These are totally nuts. Riccar : Vacuum Cleaners - Upright, Canister, 8-Pound, Central Vacuums (http://www.riccar.com). They will swallow a towel and won't break a belt.

Dyson's appear to be a little heavy. They have a new ball steering mechanism that supposedly has excellent manuverability.

I have the Dyson Upright for pets:

Explore the DC14 Telescope Reach™ product range and buy online (http://www.dyson.com/store/productmodel.asp?model=DC14)

It's the purple one.

I don't think it's heavy, but maybe that's compared to the last one I had... It has a handle at the top so you can grip it and the upright portion to carry it easier. You don't just have to lug it using the upright, or pull it up the steps. I can lift it with one hand, but it's not easy.

I have used almost every vacuum you can think of, and my opinion is Dyson has the best features, is lightweight, and talk about suction power, these will do the trick.

They have several models, I'm thinking about the new one with the big ball for steering instead of those little wheels that have never worked very well.

I should add, I have one complaint about the Dyson. When using the telescoping pole with attachments (like to clean the steps or hardwood floors) the attachments don't stay on very well. When doing my hardwood, if I knock into a table or the couch, or the attachments gets caught on something, it falls right off. Maybe I need to be gentler! :)