1. A bare floor hard plastic brush that's about 10" - 12" wide with soft bristles.

2. Turbo brush that features a spinning drum roller with harder bristles.

3. A power head brush that is similar to the turbo brush although it is powered by a separate motor.

Both the turbo brush and power head brush vacuums have a spinning drum roller with bristles that resemble that of an upright vacuum cleaner. While the brushes look and perform pretty much the same, the power head brush vacuum has a smaller separate motor that turns the brush on the bottom of it, therefore making it more powerful and much more aggressive than the turbo type brush that is turned by the flow of air being pulled past it.

These types of brushes will snap the fibres of the carpet and allow the air to get beneath the dirt particles. If you can't get air to go under these particles, then you won't be able to suck them out, regardless of how much suction power you are able to apply with a vacuum cleaner.

When you purchase a turbo or power head vacuum cleaner to be used primarily on carpet surfaces, you'll also receive a brush for bare floors as well that is perfect for areas without carpet.

The rule of thumb as to which model of vacuum cleaner you should choose is:

1. The bare floor model of canister vacuum cleaners is perfect for smooth surfaces with no expectation of having rugs or carpeting. The best choices for bare floor vacuum cleaners include Eureka Oxygen 6992 and the Miele Solaris Canister.

2. Turbo types of canister vacuum cleaners are best for scatter rugs and low pile wall to wall type carpeting. The best picks here are the EIO family vacuum cleaner, the Miele Solaris, and the Sebo Turbo canister vacuum cleaner.

3. The power head brush types of vacuum cleaners are great for wall to wall carpeting and very important if you deal with pet hair. The best picks here include the Sebo Canister 3.1, the Miele Silver Moon, and the Eureka Oxygen 6996.

Some of the other important features for canister vacuum cleaners include reliability, purchase price, HEPA filter and sealed unit, the cost of replacement filters and bags, weight, storage and quality of tools, control locations, noise, adjustable wand, retractable cord, ease of changing attachments, bag change indicator, filter change indicator, swivel hose, and other extra features such as dirt alerts.

Almost all canister vacuums are similar in size, offer similar radiuses of cleaning, and come with the same tool attachments.