I have been very happy with the Eureka 4870GZ. I does an excellent job cleaning carpet and the easy control to switch to the hose makes cleaning hard floors easy as well. The machine is quite heavy but I do not hind it a problem, might be tough for kids to use. I would not recommend if you have lots of hard floors. Get a canister!I had one small problem as I unpacked the vacuum. The hose extension pieces were stuck together and would not come apart, ultimately they broke trying.