I decided to get a second vac - tired of schlepping the one up and down stairs -- and I found one that passes the air through water, thus avoiding using a bag or dust cup.

I wonder if these are any good? It sounds tempting, air expelled by the machine is cleaner, they claim.

Has anyone tried them?

bab - I've used several different types of the purifying vacuum systems, such as Rainbow and Filter Queen.

The water system did work well, however, was just an awful inconvenience and very messy. Also, depending on how the machine exhausts, although the dirt is being filtered through the water, the exhaust often contains minute particles of the dirty water (which of course defeats the purpose )

The very best system I've investigated is the Filter Queen - At one time I was even a salesperson for the company. If I'm ever in a position to spend $1,000 on a cleaning system, the Filter Queen would be my first choice!

giz sez:

"... the exhaust often contains minute particles of the dirty water (which of course defeats the purpose)..."

Wow! Of course!

Yeah, it's a Filter Queen I have, and it's 23 years old and all I've ever had to do was change the filters.

So I'll back-bench that particular idea, and learn to love packing the FQ up and down stairs.

(I was feeling kind of guilty about a second vac anyhow: some day there'd be one extra thing in landfill. But then I rationalized and said, oh well, probably they'll never sell all of them and it'll end up in landfill anyhow.)

Thanks for the help!

I just got a new vacuum.

It's a Miele - and it's major cool! It's the most amazing vacuum I've owned. Then on the other hand, I've never paid more than 100 dollars for a vaccum before!