Well I listened to about 1/2 Mark's advice. I got a Red Devil, but I thought he recommended a canister vacum - my goof.
It was on sale at Home Depot today for like $60 - very light, 12 Amp, has a cup vs. bag. Is there a reason an upright is better? I haven't opened the box yet, and am debating whether to reurn it. Please guys - tell me if I goofed.
My thought about not having a brush on an upright, was it would not clog. Does this make sense?

Steven, lots of opinions on vacuum cleaners. Much depends on how much you'll spend. Know way would I want a canister. You need an upright. "I think" mininmum equipment would start with Panasonic vacs. They're a lot for the money and they work well for this business. You need the power brush roll and many Panasonics have a port on the rear to attach an optional 20' hose and attachments, so it does everything a canister does and then some. Yes, you'll need to clean out the power brush but that's just how it is. I like an upright with an over the top hose and a wand attached. You need to be able to clean those edges and corners easily. I won't use a vac without this feature usually.

I was referring to the Dirt Devil porta-vac, that I normally use for vacuuming stairs and upholstery.
It does happen to be red. Hope I didn't say "Red Devil" by mistake.

i dunno if your's is the type, but the only dirt-cup style DirtDevil's i have seen have a CRUMMY filter system in the dirt-cup.

i would return it and buy an upright with attachments / wand (which most do have).

the only 2 i'd buy :

- a refurbed Dyson (still expensive at around $200-$250, but still under 2 year limi warranty i believe).

- a Bissel CleanView (i didn't like their base model which was around $65 at Walmart. i preferred the Cleanview that was a few steps up from the base model. cost me around $110)

both have foam HEPA filter systems. foam is what you want because you can simply rinse it out under your faucet to clean it. whereas most other upright's filters are paper or something similar and they have to be thrown out and a new one has to be bought...not very practical for our line of work when we use our vac's so often.

thanx --- Derek