Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

Everything about this vacuum is top quality to me. It is very user friendly, and comes with an array of attachments that should suit just about any situation. The vacuum handles height can be adjusted very easily by just pressing a button and allowing it to snap into place either lower or higher. And there are no hard to get out filters that you have to deal with. The filter that is in it can easily be snapped out and cleaned. When I first hooked it all up, (did it all without directions, its easy), I at first felt the hose coming out of the top instead of the front would tend to keep it off balance and see it tip over a lot. But instead it is very well thought out and easily follows you around with various tugs on the hose without seeing it topple. The cord on it is nice and long and easy to pull out, and the retractable feature is very nice. (You have to continuously press the retracter button on it to retrieve the cord. You can’t just press it once. But so far there has been no back lash of the cord snapping my knuckles like some older models with this feature.) It comes with both a rotating brush head and a floor brush, both good quality. By far this vacuums best feature is its multiple speed control. Back in the day you could only control a vacuums power by opening a vent on it to reduce the suction. This not only has plenty of speeds to suit any floor, carpet style, etc, but it also has the vent as well. When first started up you may feel this vacuum is not as powerful as you were expecting. But that is because it is rather quiet even in its most powerful mode. And the silent feature is excellent for times when you need it. Overall I find this vacuum to be an excellent piece of equipment that is built to last…

As for the negatives on it, there is only really one but its a sizable biggy to me. I don’t like the bags, and especially the cost of them. The bags are not made of paper but a cloth, and currently come in a package of 4 for over on Amazon. Despite all the hype about them being top quality cloth for the reason of cleanliness and efficiency, I can’t help but believe that most of its design is due to selling you some very expensive bags all along the way of this vacuums existence. If you are using this vacuum daily over a large area, you will be shelling out a lot of money for fresh bags continuously. (And if you don’t have all that much use for a high quality vacuum, you don’t need to spend the hefty price that this one goes for). One thing I was particularly miffed at with this was its arriving with just a single bag included. The one already installed in it and no extras. You will start out having to order bags with this thing as soon as you receive it. I think that it is terrible that one would spend the money they are asking for this and not see it come with at least one package of their 4 bags. Sorry, but to me that is downright cheap and inexcusable. And it does not come off well as to anything favorable in recommending something from this company. In conclusion, although this is a very powerful and user friendly quality piece in my opinion, I can only recommend it to those that both have a real need for 6 speeds on their vacuum, and who can also afford the bags that are very expensive, and will probably only get more expensive as time passes. Very nice vacuum, but a little rough for me to afford keeping going.. : )

Never say never. I said I’d never need a canister vacuum again now that I had an upright with tools, that are around here somewhere… so yeah, I decided to give this Meile a go after hearing good things from a friend. The epiphany for me was how many places I had not been cleaning because my upright, even with the tools simply didn’t reach without some contortions on my part. And confession: I prefer the vacuum to do most of the contortions and leave me out of it. The Miele is more than happy to oblige.

That’s not even to mention the powerful suction that has actually begun restoring some of the pile on my well used carpet… consider it mentioned. Great suction no matter which of two floor heads are used. One head has an added beater brush which works great- just make sure it’s adjusted to the type flooring being vacuumed. With a machine this powerful, the proper setting actually makes a difference. Or you can use the straight suction only head which I prefer on hard surfaces- it keeps the hard dirt from getting tossed around. It was also helpful on some of my throw rugs- kept the rug from being eaten by the beater brush. I mean, it’s a nice workout fighting a vacuum for your small rug but maybe not so good for the rug?

Of course if you insist on doing it the right way, there are plenty of hand tools of the small brush, crevice and upholstery tool variety to clean just about anything dusty, be it a side chair, a curtain, or a picture frame. And they ride side saddle on the generous hose assembly in a removeable plastic holder. So far it hasn’t gotten in my way but if you know you won’t need the tools it’s easy enough to pop off and leave it in the closet or what have you.

Granted, I was concerned about going back to vacuum bag duty but I’ve found the bags aren’t expensive even by my cheap/thrifty standards, and frankly, sometimes it’s nice not to have to dump a canister and clean the filter two or three times a week. Sometimes it’s nice to feel like you have made your domicile cleaner and healthier by packing that stuff up and tossing it once and for all.

My only little quibble and hopefully positive suggestion is to offer an add on grip for those of us with limited mobility, arthritis, or some other type of joint or grip challenge. I have severe carpal tunnel syndrome and osteoarthritis which is unfortunately worsening with age. If I had a softer grip, a handle of some sort, or more of a gripping surface it would be much more pleasant to use and I may even be able to vacuum the entire house without having to stop and rest my hands and wrists. If something exists already I hope to see it as I finish up the manual. Which reminds me- make sure you read the manual. It’s not long or difficult and you will learn all the extras and tips, for example, I like using the hose hook located on the bottom of the canister- it’s handy when you have nothing to lean the hose against at the moment. So if you’re ready to try the modern generation of the old tried and true canister vacuum, this is the one you want.

QUICK SUMMARY:

BACKGROUND: Our home has a range of flooring. We have area rugs, ceramic tile, and medium-pile carpeting. In general, the vacuum works great on hard floors and area rugs. The vacuum head, however, isn’t powered and is very difficult to move across the carpeting without power. It’s not really designed to be used for medium-pile carpeting, however, but if that’s what you’ve got in your home, this isn’t the vacuum for you; you’ll need a vacuum with a power vacuum head instead.

WHAT WE LIKED:

– It is a quiet machine. When you first turn it on, you aren’t sure it is even on until a second or two passes and the motor revs up to normal speed.
– Automatic cord rewind
– It is light! Everything is light, the motor, the heads , the wand. It makes it very easy to maneuver and carry.
– There are 6 different settings for various floor types.
– The suction on the maximum setting is good. There is a suction adjustment on the in addition to the different settings on the body of the vacuum. – – There is also a suction adjustment on the rotating brush head.
– The canister part moves easily over the floor on three castor wheels.
– The vacuum is small and can be stored in a vertical manner, taking up even less closet space.
– It has an indicator on the top to tell you when the bag is full (but the directions aren’t real clear about what it is supposed to look like when it is indicating “full”)
– The filter bag will capture more fine dust particles than our existing, filterless vacuum
– It is made in GERMANY, and not CHINA! I expect this vacuum to last a long time.

WHAT WE DID NOT LIKE:

– The cord is fairly short (approximately 17 feet). Don’t expect to do more than one room at a time before you have to stop and plug in to a closer outlet. Some brands of machines have a yellow line when you are getting to the end of the length of the cord to warn you that you are nearly at the end and to tell you to stop pulling. This one does not.
– The symbols on the top that tell you what floor setting you are on are not intuitive. You have to look at the manual to decipher them.
– The filter bag replacements are expensive!

NOTES:

– Attachments are connected on the base of the hose going into the canister so they may get knocked off
– The heads must be changed by hand (rather than have their differing capabilities built-in to a single head). They are easy to get on and off (you press a lever to remove them and twist and push them on), and stay securely on the wand, but you have to either bend down to do it or raise the head up to hand level to do it. The wand and heads are not heavy so that isn’t hard to do.
– The head is small. This is good and bad. The good part is that it maneuvers easily around chair legs and into small spaces. The bad part is that it only covers a small width of the floor so you have to go back and forth more. The head that is used on bare floor is about a foot wide. It has a brush on the bottom so it sweeps as it vacuums.
– The roller brush head works fine on very low pile carpet or on area rugs. It is not self-propelled. Instead, the brush rotates by air power. If the carpet pile is more than low, the brush will not roll, and it is difficult to move the vacuum back and forth across the carpet. The roller brush is less than one foot wide so doesn’t cover a lot of floor surface per sweep.
– The head doesn’t stand on its own unless you slip it into a little holder (one is located near the handle of the vacuum, and one is on the underside so the vacuum can be stored tipped up on its back side). It is a little tricky to slip it into the small little holder, but it does stay securely.
– This is an ideal vacuum for someone who has a medium to small home with hard flooring and area rugs. It would be great for an elderly person because it is light and easy to move around.

CONCLUSION: Because we have a lot of medium-pile carpeting, this vacuum will only be used in the part of our house with hard floors and area rugs. We went to the local Miele store to see if getting a power head was an option, but on this model, it isn’t an option. So, for us, this is only a 4-star vacuum but that’s just because of our home’s particular flooring. If we didn’t have medium-pile carpeting, this would be a 4.5 star product. Recommended!