KRM - 5/27/2012 08:34 We have a new bissel power force cannister type vacuum seems to do a good job. I'm curious, since this is our first cannister vacuum (we had a hoover bag type), are they all this hight maintenance? The commercials just show the dainty house wife dumping the cannister in the trash...pretty as a picture. The cleaning process on ours if pretty complicated...takes more effort than changing oil in your average lawn mower. Yeah you can just dump the cannister daily, but weekly or more often you have to clean the filter...then the filter has foam outer filter that is supposed to washed out and let dry...not to mention the other various plastic things that these filters are contained in. I usually take up to the shop and use an air compressor to blow filters out for the wife. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice vacuum and does a good job, and maybe i'm just complaining cause my workload has increased. Instead of changing the vacuum bag every 2 or 3 months, I'm servicing the new one 2 or 3 times a month. edit: I guess I want to know are all cannister types this way? Are there any that you just take and dump the dust cup after each time and thats it? I wouldn't think so...somehow the air will need to pass through a filter of some sort right?