Three years ago my parents gave me a bagless Bissell vacuum they'd had for a year. The beater bar had broken on it and they didn't want to mess with fixing it. Dh bought a new beater bar for $26 and I thought "Wow, only $26 for an almost-new vacuum. I'll have this thing for years." About a year after I had it, the release knob that lowers the vacuum broke, so dh rigged it with a rubber band. No big deal -- it's still working. Well, a few weeks ago it started making a funny noise then it started smoking. Dh put a new belt on it and it was still making the horrible noise. It turns out that the beater bar was broken again! What the heck? It's not like I'm vacuuming up rocks. I did the math and realized that it would be better putting the $26 for a new beater bar towards a new vacuum since this Bissell only cost $60 brand new. I could see that this beater bar was going to be an endless issue plus other things seemed to break easily on it. So I rolled that vacuum up to the side of my driveway, put a sign on it that said "Free--needs new beater bar" and someone took it the next day. lol
Now I'm back to using my 17-year-old bagged Dirt Devil and you know what? This is a great vacuum. All I have to do to it is periodically change the bag (and Walmart still carries the bags). I don't have to empty out a canister every time I use it and I don't have to take apart the vacuum once every few weeks to clean it like I did my old Bissell. I think I'll just keep using this Dirt Devil until it dies.
Does anyone else still use a bagged vacuum or am I the only one?
