This has to be one of the poorest performing vacuum cleaners I've ever used. I finally ponied up the money and bought a Dyson. What led to that was a small spill of shreds from my paper shredder onto a shag carpet in my home office. The Hoover picked up about half of it. The rest of the paper shreds it spread around, bury some shreds further into the shag. It doesn't help that the hose has barely any suction at all. That was the breaking point. Yes, I've tried every setting, went to the web for advice. It's just a bad product. I sold it off for $2 at my garage sale - I just couldn't pawn it off on someone as if it actually worked. The buyer said they thought they could make some modifications.