Prolux Phantom Canister PET Vacuum

Very well. The Phantom PET pulls a surprising amount of dog hair and grit out of carpet and rugs that looked clean beforehand. The adjustable suction dial helps match the pull to each rug: lower for loose or thin rugs, higher for denser pile.

It's a weak point. The handle on the hose cracking or snapping off under normal use is a common complaint, with failures from about 1 to 9 months in. Handle it gently, don't pull the canister along by the hose, and check the warranty terms before you buy.

On thicker carpet, yes. The power head has no height setting, so it grips deep pile and takes real effort to push, and medium pile isn't cleaned well on low power. It's easiest on low-pile carpet, rugs and hard floors.

It's mixed. Some find it fairly quiet for a canister, while one unit had loud, screeching wheels. Prolux doesn't list a decibel figure for this model, so there's no maker number to go on.

Prolux lists a 25-foot cord plus a 6-foot hose, which covers a good-sized room per outlet. The canister weighs 12 lb, so it pulls along behind you without much effort on hard floors.

Yes, a 3.5 L bag, with an H12 HEPA filter on the exhaust. Bags are the ongoing cost to budget for.