E Hoover Z Click photo for larger image.

Robert Paslowski's brother drives a Lexus. What's more, he is the kind of guy "who likes the best of everything."

So when Mr. Paslowski's brother, who is single, needed a new vacuum cleaner, Mr. Paslowski, who owns Jim's Sweeper Service in Lawrenceville, sold him a Miele.

For $1,100.

Nora Begandy of Whitehall makes no apologies about her $1,800 Kirby vacuum with its multi-purpose accessory system that shampoos carpets, waxes floors, converts to a hand-held version for stairs and does just about everything else except serve her breakfast in bed.

"I absolutely love them. I have two," she said. But, she hastened to add, she didn't buy her Kirby because she wanted to impress the neighbors. "Trust me, I'm not into status. I drive a 12-year-old Dodge Caravan."

Perhaps, but a lot of other people are starting to look at their vacuum cleaners the same way they look at their $5,000 Viking stoves or Sub-Zero refrigerators -- as a lifestyle statement rather than just an appliance. The White House uses Miele vacuums to clean the Oval Office. And on her television show, Martha Stewart raves about her $1,100 German-made Miele, which comes in gleaming colors of cobalt blue and taxicab yellow.

If you don't cotton to the Kirby or the Miele, you can always select a Riccar 1700 "Simplicity" for $1,000; an Aerus Lux "Guardian" for $1,500; or a Filter Queen Majestic 360 for a breathtaking $1,900. These are canister models, which tend to be more expensive, so if you prefer uprights at a somewhat lower price, there's Oreck's XL21-700 for $700 or a Dyson, with its much-vaunted centrifugal "cyclone" technology, for $500.

The Dyson DC 15 Click photo for larger image.

Or, you can read this month's edition of Consumer Reports, which has done its biggest vacuum cleaner survey ever and -- guess what? -- its top two rated uprights were $300 Kenmore models from Sears, followed by the Hoover Wind Tunnel for $280, and a Eureka "Boss" Smart Vac for $140.

"Consumers should not think that just because you're spending a lot of money you're getting the best vacuum cleaner," says Consumer Reports' Lauren Hackett.

Perhaps, but in recent years, upscale vacuum cleaners have boomed in popularity even if their suction or their noise levels don't score as well as some cheaper models. Last year, 24.8 million vacuum cleaners were sold, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

While Mrs. Begandy may rave about her Kirby, Cary Farmer of Ross Appliances in Monroeville is skeptical. "You know you're buying something a little too expensive when they have financing available," he said.

Eugene Carrieri, who sells Kirbys door to door and through word of mouth, bristles at that suggestion.

"Kirby is not just a vacuum cleaner; it's a whole home-care system," he says, noting that the company has built a loyal customer base since being founded 90 years ago by Jim Kirby (whose "goal in life was to reduce or eliminate drudgery wherever it existed," according to the company's Web site).

But Mr. Carrieri acknowledges that purchasing a Kirby isn't that different from buying a car, complete with some haggling over the price and trade-ins.

There is good news for cash-strapped consumers -- prices for basic, low-end models are falling -- as low as $60 for a Hoover Tempo Widepath model. But the Dyson, which ranges in price from $399 to $599, cornered 24.3 percent of the market in terms of dollar share in December, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm -- even though it gets only middling-to-low rankings in Consumer Reports tests. Perhaps its success can be traced to its inventor, James Dyson, whose dulcet British accent reverberates on video in Bed Bath & Beyond and other stores about his product's ability to maintain suction over time.

Not to be deterred by Dyson's success, Hoover -- which still sells more vacuums per unit than any other company -- and its long-time competitor Eureka are also going after high-end customers, those willing to pay more for sealed HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filtration, which removes 99.97 percent of particles in the air that are 0.3 microns and larger.

Electrolux, which owns the Eureka brand, recently rolled out its Oxygen3 line for $499 with plenty of bells and whistles, from the obligatory HEPA filter to a cord rewind to fingertip controls that allow you to control the height of the vacuum head as it moves from bare floors to carpet.

Eureka's "stick" vacuum, for smaller jobs, has been made to look so good from all angles that you won't want to put it away. "It's all about '360 design,' which is a more refined look," says Randall Sandlin, director of industrial design at Eureka.

For aging baby boomers, "lightweight vacuums are huge right now," added Mr. Sandlin, along with ergonomically correct round handles.

Hoover is going after the customer who wants everything in one package with the fully loaded bagless upright Hoover Z for $399 with a telescoping hose that can reach 20 feet. Aimed specifically at the SUV-owning, McMansion-residing neat-freak, it's marketed as "the world's first sports utility vacuum," designed to clean every type of surface. After all, the Hoover press release noted, the average American home has increased 137 percent since 1950, and 56 percent of U.S. adults "clean four or more different types of 'terrains,' or floor surfaces." in their home."Hoover doesn't just rely on demographics when designing its vacuums, says spokeswoman Jill Spiekerman. "We look at psychographics," she said, "how you think and how you feel about cleaning."

All of this churn in the vacuum market is keeping people like Mr. Paslowski very busy, since he makes his living fixing these products -- many of which break at about the same rate no matter what the price, he claims.

"But there's a lot of people out there who buy Rolls-Royces or Mercedes, so why not vacuum cleaners?"