Can you recommend a good, light-weight vacuum cleaner?

[SmellsLikeTeenSweat]

I'm fed up with struggling to carry a heavy cleaner up the stairs. I want a small, but powerful one that doesn't use bags, that I can keep upstairs (carpets).

I bought one for £35 but it's crap. Not powerful enough (so is now a dedicated car-cleaning tool ).

I've been told that Bissell & Oreck are both good. What d'you think?

Oreck are good - light ,powerful ,easy to use .Mine is noisy - but older model bought from ebay .

Thanks, the kind of feedback I wanted! My Dyson sounds like a train so I won't worry about it being noisy.

Eek, I've just seen the price of the Orecks!

I thought they were 'refillable' or whatever it is when you don't use bags, but from the website it appears that you do have to buy bags. Also someone says that hers smells horrible (! her Oreck)
(Durr, obviously! Too long on that faux-lesbo AIBU )