I bought mine a couple of years back on sale at $179... good strong machine. Only issue I ever had with it, it quit running after about 10 months, when I check it and couldn't get it to start I called HF and complained that it quit after only 10 months and I thought the motor was out... they sent me a new motor.... when I started to install it, realized the new motor had no switch, thought to just change the switch off the old machine to the new motor... when I opened the switch, discovered it was fried... motor was still good. $13 for a new switch and it's run strong ever since. And I now have a spare 2 hp motor.
I would recommend that you change the bags... the ones that came with mine were a fairly coarse weave and did allow dust to seep through.. I've since changed to a tighter bag on top and put a 45 gal contractor's bag in the bottom and have much less dust in my DC closet.