Why does it seem like bissel has such a bad name in the states . well amoungs vac guys any how. 

I own a proheatx2 and am pretty impressed with its cleaning abilityI also own a healthy home and the lift off. 

The healthy home is a big big machine it works well, has a vet agressive brushroll . It doesn't filter aswell as they say it does so the hepa gets clogged fast and its non washable so you have to keep replacing them but for the price I thoughtit was not bad.

We are Bissel repair agents but only sell the carpet cleaners. 

What are your guys thoughts on them 

We have a tiny range here in SA, 3 upright vacuums 3 carpet washers and 3 canisters. lots of chemicals that are great.

We do not get the vax or hoover range in SA, just really poor made machines badged as hoover.

That is one annoying aspect of Bissell UK - they don't sell a bagged upright version of the Powerforce. I didn't like the Easy Vac at all either, the bin was always difficult to remove and put back (and I agree about the filter removal too) but not only that, it wasn't so easy to push unless you remove the squeegee strip on the underside by the roller brush. A few people I know who have had Powerforce bagless uprights tend to have hose breakages early on, but the points made by Sensotronic & Vinvac are spot on - many buyers who buy the bagless vacs seldom look at the after care or maintenance and more so if they have pets, they may well tidy up the mini turbo brush, but not the main roller brush - but that can be applied to any brand who offer a cheaply priced bagless vacuum. 

Oh trust me I know all about cheap bagless vacuums. I have tons of them in my back rooms , I always tell customers if you want bagless get the best one, dyson in my opinion if you can't afford it then stick to a bagged vacuum. We do sell the Electrolux powerglide and airspeed , while not perfect they seem to not clog up as easily as other cheap bagless vacuums

VR - so true! The UK once had a lot of bagged uprights and if you visit www.argos.co.uk... you'll see there's more bagged cylinder vacs than uprights, but far more bagless. I fear that Argos may well limit bagged uprights to just their value range and then the Miele vacs before long. 

Unless you are choising a Miele sebo or vorwerk there are no bagged upright vacuums in SA anymore. those Electrolux powerglides are actually very good, customers rave about them even after a year or two of ownership. Most people come in and buy a new filter once a year, and they cost less than one pack of bags that would only last you half the year. 

Bags are also hard to find, most stores don't stock them any more and theer are very few vacuum repair shops here these days, people prefer to just buy a new vacuum, its less hassle , no waiting for a repair and easier too. 

In fact the only reason we sell sebo's is my commercial trade, home owners here do not want bags at all. 

Yes they were, but they seem to appear seasonally at Comet, Currys et al. Panasonic haven't really updated them, only putting new colours and then raising the "watts" 100 at a time and their later one now is 2000 watts I think. Last one I tried was a 1700 watt but they're too over priced for what you're getting. They're okay for what they do but I'm not a fan of Panasonic's bagged uprights now - the tools are really poor quality, the noise level is too high, too much hot air out the front, hose isn't protected at the back and the 2 drive belt principle is too old fashioned. Single belt drive would be simpler. I had a few of the bagless uprights during the 1990s, like the Twin Bin ones. Panasonic could really do with bringing back the on/off brush roll feature that their older bagged uprights had. The Electrolux Powerlite is another good upright but it too suffers from poor plastic. Brands are obviously happier to do the bagless route using better quality plastics in some cases compared to the not-so-durable plastic on offer for the older bagged models.

Effectively then what the brands are doing is moving away from bagged uprights, pushing buyers to sway to other brands with products at higher prices like the Miele S7, Sebo X1.1/X4 or consider the bagged cylinder route - and I don't think that's necessarily a good idea.

A few years ago I did buy the Argos bagged upright vacuum - they're basically Vax machines under the Argos label - and I found it to be pretty good on performance, not bad on the noise level and simple to push but obviously very plasticky. Really annoyed that it didn't come with a dusting brush but soon found a Dyson round upholstery brush could be stuffed at the top of the crevice tool for storage and use whenever required.

The downside to this model apart from looking like a toy is that there's a lot more assembly that you just wouldn't believe (you have to screw in 4 screws into the dust chamber together to the main body, then both that to the motor head, then the handle to the machine, then a single clip to hold part of the hose at the back in as well as a clip for the single extension nozzle !) The other major downside of course being Argos Value is that the bags can only be purchased from Argos. It would be good if Vax had their own version out like Bush have done which is the same model but with a H filter, different colour and mini turbo brush.