Consumer Reports ratings for bagless uprights:
1. Hoover WindTunnel T-Series Rewind Bagless UH70120 $130.
Prices will vary and may have been replaced with newer models. We got the Hoover UH70120 on a BF sale last year from Walmart for <$100. My wife likes it. Only complaint is that it likes to eat belts.
Vacuums generally don't break. Usually something is just clogged.it was so loud and powerful sounding, it was like a new vacuum.
Since I removed the air filter it did initially spit out a giant cloud of dust, so I put that back in. So, my initial hunch here is that the filters are just completely saturated with shit (even though I cleaned them every so often) that it was messing with suction.