Vacuuman

My opinion, for what its worth.

No big box store machine is a true HEPA vacuum, you will only find these in the specialty stores, and on brands such as Simplicity and Miele.  The Simplicity Synergy has 2 levels of filtration, standard and plus.  For lead I wouuld suggest upgrading the model you are looking at to Plus if you choose that model.  The Hepa Plus filter with the sealed system gives the vacuum a rating of 100% (tested with the particle scanner thing) of all particles down to .3 microns.

But like some others here have said, you need to see if the Synergy is the right one for you.  It would be a great vacuum for a house with all carpet or mixed carpet, rugs, floors.  For all bare floors with a few areas of carpet you may want to consider something else, like a suction only HEPA canister, or a canister with a mini power head if you have larger area rugs, or 1-2 small rooms of carpet.  The best way to go is to go to the vacuum store and be specific, tell them you need HEPA and describe the house you will be cleaning, such as floor surfaces and other things like if you have pets, and let a experianced sales person help you decide what features you want/need.  And you can try them out while you are there.

In my opinion, M.D., Cyclovac, or Vacuflo.  Cyclovac makes various other brands like Riccar/Simplicity, Star Power, and a few others.  I personally have the largest of the Riccar units and love it, by far one of the best units on the market.

I just remembered that the new model also has a metal brushroll to go with the new belt.

Actually Carmin, Hoover could get the fans seperate from Tacony, just as we can as a Tacony dealer.  The Hoover store in Denver even has the fan is stock...

Since we seem to be a bit uninformed here as to the entire life story of the Hoover ULW, I'll let everyone here know it.  Back when Hoover introduced the ULW, the agreement with Tacony was that the ULW would only be sold in the  Hoover facotry stores, so as not to put a version of the Riccar and Simplicity lightweight machine in big box stores.  Tacony is known for its commitment to it's dealers and even for a large Hoover contract would not stab them in the back.  With the fact that the Hoover factory stores are dying out, Hoover needed a machine they could sell thru the BBS and it's other far from independant dealer outlets.  This fact combined with the fact that Hoover now has access to the TTI built lightweight which was much cheaper for them, as a part of TTI to get caused Hoover/TTI to dump the ULW for a machine they made themselves and could sell everywhere.

The Riccar uses a poly V belt (like the fan belt on a car) which is Kevlar reinforced. For belt protection it has a Hall sensor that measures the speed of the brush and stops the motor immediately if it gets jammed. This also has a steel brushroll. In my opinion this is a much better machine than the Oreck in pretty much every way.