There was a brand that worked by filling the tank with water and applying a vacuum to use the water as a filter. They weren’t amazing but they cost like $2k in 2001 money. My ex had one that her father had bought and I finally convinced her to get rid of it once it started shocking her.

really? we've had ours for 21 years or so, and it still works well. admittedly we use the dyson almost exclusively now

Actually, Kirby vacuums worked amazingly well and worked for years, if not decades. But they weighed a ton and could NOT handle pet hair.

Sounds like it really sucks.