Help/ Advice

[paulc]

Hi guys, I am not a member of Vacuumland but I know some of you are.

I have a Miele 4211 and I bought an Accu Nova SAB110-3 rechargable floor head to use with it. The 1st one only worked well for one day then the battery low light came on constantly and the brush revolved when it felt like it. I was a bit pissed off but give Miele their due they promised to send a new battery free of charge. After the third time of them promising a battery which never appeared I wrote an e-mail expressing my dissapointment in Miele and stating it had shaken my confidence in the company. Anyway they sent a new floorhead, battery and charger which arrived THE NEXT DAY!!!

So....all was well, 3 weeks went by of me merrily vacuuming then the day before yesterday the new floorhead started acting up! I had put in the battery ( just been fully charged )but after a few seconds the battery low light came on and the brushes stopped. I switched the floorhead on and off again ( a well known cure for all things electrical ) it worked for a minute or so and stopped again. I tried the other battery I had and that worked for 5 minutes. I charge the battery per instruction.....its says let it run down completely every six months but Ive only had it weeks. Today I got about 30 seconds before the battry low light came on and an about 3 minutes before the brushes stopped. I tried lowering the suction but that made no differance and really having to vacuum with reduced suction defetes the purpose. I am really hacked off, when I works it does a great job on the carpet but I really feel like I have wasted my £89.00

What do you guys think? Iam I doing something wrong? My carpets are short cut pile which is what the floorhead is designed for. I kinda wish I'd bought the turbo head instead and saved £40.00. I noticed last month that the ACCU NOVA is no longer on the Miele website.

Sorry for such a long winded post guys. Any help or advice would be gratfully received.

 

[panthera]

Paul

One of our Miele vacuums has intermittent problems with the contacts - batteries don't get charged yet the high resistance of the poor contact for some reason is enough for the charger to "think" it is doing its job.

The result is either a shortened battery life or an occasionally perfectly charged battery.

Drives the university cleaning team crazy.

Since its obviously not just you, have you tried checking internet forums or talking to customer service directly?

The Miele Turbo head is great, but no better in results than the less expensive generic ones from Wolfe, for instance. I've got both - the Wolfe here and the Miele at my honey's in the 'States.

The Miele costs nearly three times as much, but, both get up the cat and dog hair brilliantly.

 

[paulc]

Thanks panthera

Its funny because one batteries contacts are very hot when I remove it from the floorhead, but the other battery seems to be fine. I am going to contact Miele again. I had a Miele Turbo brush years ago but it didnt really lift the pile well and you do get reduced suction with them. They newer ones may be better, failing that I will vacuum with the ordinary floor head then use my upright ( Electrolux Intensity ) to lift the pile. Time consuming but I do like a nicely vacuumed carpet!!! lol!

 

[panthera]

Ah, well, then

Yes, that sounds very like the problem here.

I wouldn't normally know about it, but I am interested in vacuums so talk to the cleaning folks when they do their afternoon rounds.

I notice that my Miele with 1400 Watts drives the turbo head so well the waste gate "dumps" constantly. My last Miele which had "1100" didn't, so maybe there is a clue - anyway both teh Wolfe and the Miele do a great job, especially since cat and dog hair are a major problem.

I would absolutely not leave the unit to charge unattended, by the by. Those contacts should get warm but not hot. Something is truly not right.

 

[paulc]

The contacts get hot in the floorhead. They are warmish when removed from the charger.