My first try of a Miele Vacuum and other stuff

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petek

petek

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I stopped in at the Bay department store today, a rare event in my life and sauntered over the white goods to see what I could see. I was very surprised with all the new stuff they're carrying after centuries of the same old, same old.
First off though in washers they actually had the new GE frontloaders along with the Duets and the Frigidaires and the rebadged Bay Frigidaires. Not only that but some of the new Maytags as well as an Atlantis, some of that EuroTech stuff and when I looked around at the back of that,, lo and behold they had the Ariston washer and dryer..where are these things coming from all of a sudden? But even more to my surprise, sitting there was a Miele washer and dryer.
Soon the saleslady approached after seeing me looking at the Miele and immediately started gushing about it, telling me how she had just started working there 3 days ago and today they had the Miele Rep in showing them the guts of the machine and running it. We both cooed.. LOL.
They didn't have any Miele dishwashers though but she lit up once again and we skipped over to the vacuums where she absolutely bubbled in delight showing me a Miele Classic vac and offering to let me try it. I said no but she insisted, she wanted to practice her sales spiel so that was fine with me and we took it off the display and plugged it in.. She said she'd never known a vacuum with such strong suction I just had to try it, well I must say I was very impressed with it and had to agree with her, the power nozzle stuck to the carpet like glue and did a great job pulling up the pile. And it was pretty quiet as well, well built even though plastic, not cheap the way you think plastic is. Course it was expensive to boot, $1200 for that model with the power nozzle and electronic power settings, the cheaper white one is about $600 and lacks the power nozzle and has only one speed but is basicall the same machine. Was fun, I think the saleslady had just as much fun as I did.
 
Love Mine!

Hey Pete-

I absolutely LOVE my Miele. It, out of all of the machines in my collection, gets the most use. I vacuum all of the hardwood floors, stairs, and dust with it. It glides so nicely, it's all direct-connect, and it's just a well engineered machine. I'd buy another in a heartbeat. My powernozzle isn't right for the carpet I have, though--so I don't really vacuum the carpet with it. I do need to upgrade to a better powernozzle sometime.

Glad you had fun *cooing* over the Mieles!

Fred
 
Never had a chance to play with one...

A Miele that is...
Was talking with a friend the other day that I hadn't spoken to in a while. She'd previously asked about vacuums, and I had recommended a metal Royal. Instead she bought a Miele, which she did highly praise. The other day she told me she'd just bought a new Kirby to replace the Miele, as the Miele had died.
She'd used it for 2 years...I am kinda baffled, is that the quality of those machines?
 
Fred.. how do you mean the powernozzle isn't right for your carpets? The one I tried didn't have any pile adjustment on it and the carpet in the store was a flat industrial type carpeting sample.
 
Only 2 Years?

Wow! I'm surprised that it only lasted her 2 years. A Miele, I believe should have a 5 year motor warranty... she must be rough on her vacuums.. I give her 6 months til the Kirby needs a new fan.. lol.

I have a powernozzle that's comparable to the SEB213, on the Miele Website. It does a fine job on low-pile, medium-pile or berber carpet. But, most of my house has a denser plush carpeting, and I don't think it cleans it very effectively. It's also a bit hard to push. When my sister was living at home (she has long-ish hair) her hair wrapped itself around the small diameter brushroll in it. I really need to upgrade to the SEB236 powernozzle--which has a more aggressive brushroll, height adujstment, and a headlight. Fred N. has one of the nicer powernozzles on his Miele, and at a glance I was very impressed by it. But like anything Miele, it's not cheap~and me being a poor college student~I can wait to get one for a while and continue to use my Hoovers on the carpet.
 
I just grabbed the brochure I took for the one I tried, the Miele Classic S538, it comes with a SEB217-2 power nozzle. I could see it would be difficult to use on plush carpets, it was sticking to the flat carpet until you powered it down

It states for the canister a 7 year motor warranty, and only 2 years on the upright.
 
In trying the Mieles-thats the DISADVANTAGE when you have to power it back for floors and carpets--thats when you need MAX power.I tried the Miele "Red Velvet" at the dealer here in Greenville-and found you have to adjust the hieght of its SB236 powernozzle.If you set its height right you can use full motor speed for max airflow and do a better job.the nozzle is still easy to push.Mieles handle design on the wand is excellent.However--I feel for a DTD priced vacuum-the nozzle is just to "Plasticy" for my taste-even though it works well.It would push even better if Miele went back to the polished SS floor shoe on the SB236 carpet tool.I have an older Miele SB206 that has the metal shoe-it pushes very easy.And the older one has a metal brushroll with replaceable brush strips.If you are shopping for Mieles-you may want to go to a Riccar dealer and check out the Riccar 1700-1800 canisters.Those have powernozzles that are MUCH BETTER than the Miele.And you can adjust the height,and use full suction motor power with them. and the Riccar vac like the Miele uses Filtrete bags and a HEPA filter.I checked out the Riccar at the other delear here in Greenville.The Riccar may be a better value-the pricing is more flexible to the dealer.Miele has a less flexible pricing scheme for their machines.Almost like a DTD dealer.the Riccar powernozzles have the metal floorshoes and adjustable height. the 1800 one has a metal brushroll with replaceable strips-the dealer can even match them to your flooring or carpet! The Miele cannot do that.However both are very fine machines.
 
I have owned two Miele vacs, got both from the recycle centre for $5 each not working. One is an old Avocado green colour and I'd guess mid 80s. The other is much more recent, a red Cat and Dog 1300. Both had the same fault, the moulded plug was pulled from the flex so that it looked fine but the wires inside the plug had broken. I just had to cut off the plug and a few inches of wire, attach a new plug and voila! a flash Miele vac. I guess the wires aren't strong enough to cope with the sudden stop when the cord is rewound. Now I always hold the plug in my hand when rewinding, and feed it gently to the machine at the end.
I am very impressed with the Mieles, quiet and yet very powerful. I hate noisy appliances. We have been using the red one in the house we are building so it has had a pretty rough time, including my partner vacuuming up plaster dust till it choked and stopped. Fortunately it has a self-resetting overheat switch, so unlike most machines which would simply have burned out the motor, this one stopped and a red light came on, when cooled down it was fine. I gave the other half a good lecture about emptying the bag...
When we have finished building I will clean it up an it can become our household cleaner, we have given the other one away to my partners sister.
The thing I really like is that despite the strong suction, the nozzle glides easily over the floor as it has a roller and the nozzle has two parallel slots not just one, so the suction isn't too concentrated. I don't like vacs where the nozzle has to be forced over the carpet - it sells vacs as it suggests strong suction but in reality it is just poor design.

Chris.
 
My Friend and vacuums

I don't know that my friend is hard on vacuums or not, she has a 2500 sq ft house, and I believe just one kid left at home, as well as a couple of cats.
I do remember she got 15 or so years out of a Hoover Celebrity p/n. When she bought the Miele she told me she'd been through a string of plastic Sears and Wal Mart vacuums, and was very disappointed in the durability of the Miele.
She also told me she got a $500 trade in allowance on the Miele when buying the Kirby.
So far she seems to really like the Kirby
 
Person that is getting two years out of vacuums-sounds like she or he uses them more than once a day-probably the brush rolls are getting wrapped in cat and people hair.Hair will kill the brushroll bearings of ANY vacuum.The person needs to be instructed to clean ut the hair regularly with a scissors-or a knife.The vac tech in my area uses a folding "hook blade" knife to clean hair and string from brushrolls-works well and fast.I would be concerned with the person and her Kirby-with its plastic fan she will have to be careful what she picks up--no nails,coins,pea gravel,sand,etc.Those will break or wear plastic fans quickly.This Is where I wish Kirby would GO BACK to the metal fans.With their new fan design-the metal fans would actually last longer-but the plastic one is a "moneymaker" for Kirby and its dealers-they will charge you when they replace the fan.I have seen them charge up to $150 to replace a Kirby fan-and if that tech is good-he can do it in less than 20min.
 
Miele!

Well, after reading this thread and have Greg try out my Miele S548 "Aluminium" w/Power Brush 236 I decided to drag it up and try it out again. I must say that it is a great vacuum. I guess I didn't appreciate it but on the plush carpeting, that 236 really works great. It's an older one without the Vortex motor but it works great nonetheless. Our own Miss Tania gave it the seal of approval on one of her visits so I will probably use it as a daily driver for a while. Lot's of great attachments including the long dusting brush and the parquet floor brush. I got the smaller 217 power brush with the machine, but the 236 is just the ticket for plush carpeting.
 
The 236...

How Fabulous, Fred...

When you've gotten the Miele bug out of your system, next time I visit, you should let me borrow that 236-to decide if I really should invest in one myself. :)

Such pretty machines!

Here's a picture of my Miele (I also have the parquet floor brush--somewhere) Below the word "Platinum", it says "Limited Edition" -- I wonder what the occasion was..?
 
Metal Fans...

About metal fans on vacuum cleaners:

My understanding is that a metal fan is no more durable than a plastic fan--in fact, the metal fans can have a tendency to be more brittle than plastic fans, should a dense object come into contact with it.

Depending on the plastic--some are more durable than others (not sure what Kirby fans are made of). I know the lexan fans on a Sanitaire will break pretty easily (I think we've all seen every blade on a fan broken off).

But compare that to a fan on a Hoover Concept or Conquest--made out of a nylon material--I have been told that when Hoover introduced the Concept, salesmen would vacuum up a roll of quarters. We get Conquests in for service that vacuum up coins, nails, screws, rocks... you name it. The fans are never broken--worn down, yes.

Anyone else have any input on the subject?
 
Miele!

OK Little Fred - You got it! The 236 is yours for a tryout. It looks like you've got the setup for a direct connect to the 236. I will get it back, however!!!

Ida
 
Of course!

Ida-

Of course you'd get it back! Need I remind you--you do know where I live. :)

However, fair is fair... I'd be willing to loan you, from my collection, a machine of your choosing--as collateral. How's that sound?

So, what'll it be? :)
 
Oh Baby!! A Machine From The Stachnik Collection

Let's see . . . All the green ones!!! Including that Constellation with the switch on the handle. Oh Fred! You have opened Pandora's Box!

Ida
 
OK Jeffrey!!!

Before or after I loan the 236 to little Fred you must try out this Miele!! They really are great machines. I can't believe that you haven't tried out one of these. While you are trying this one out and little Fred is checking out the 236, I will get a Blue Moon.

Ida
 
Kirby Fans

Kirby fans are now made out of Nylon, this started with the G6.
The older grey lexan fans were easily breakable, although I have sucked up pennies with my Heritage II and never broken the fan.
At least a Eureka fan will break one blade and keep going. With the black polycarbonate fans on the Hoover Convertibles they would shatter, sometimes cracking the motor housing, or even the base of the machine!
 
Miele, Miele, Miele...

I think the 87 Constellation could be arranged.. I need to find the rug nozzle I have for that, and clean and polish it up.

A Blue Moon? I think the Red Velvet machine is the way I'd go, if I were in the market for another Miele--it just rolls off of the tongue--Red Velvet. There are a few on eBay as we speak.

Ugh, I love Mieles!!
 
Me and the vac techs in this area prefer the metal fans-for another reason-the dirt tracked in from outside is very fine and sandy and abrasive-swear you could glue the stuff to paper and make sandpaper out of it.It erodes any plastic fan quickly-esp Sanitaire fans-and the fan housing.Then both are weakened so if the fan does hit something hard the fan and housing breaks.Ditto with Oreck fans and housings.Some salesmen claim the blades of the plastic fan "flex" when they hit something-the metal does not.There may be something to that-was said by a Kirby salesman that used to work this area.I just haven't had the best of luck with the plastic-so I am careful as to what I let the machine pick up.The Riccar folks claim you can pick up drywall screws with the Radiance-haven't tried that-treat it like the Kirby-just careful as to what it picks up.So far the tech hasn't had to replace andy Radiance fans.In the Radiance the fan and housing are plastic-"composite" as Riccar calls it-reinforced with carbon fiber.In one Heritage Kirby I have-tried it with the carpet nozzle(was a trade in for a TriStar)and it was fine-then tried the hose--KAAAAWWWAAACK!!!the fan EXPLODED!Looked at the peices-was many cracks in the plastic-suffered from age.Metal doesn't have that problem-have a few 500 Kirbys and their fans are fine(metal)Same with a Dual 50 and a Dual 80.Looked like the plastic in the Heritage fan was some sort of reinforced plastic-found what looked like white fibers in it.I still remember the dramatic demo done by the Royal salesman a while back-the picking up of pennies with a Royal Classic and the fan only suffered a few nicks and one slightly bent blade.The pennies were bent and folded over.Wonder if a plastic fan would take that.
 
Well the Miele Aluminum must be good to get the Ms.T Seal of Approval. FredN. would you be talented enough to whip up a little number for her to wear made out of Reynolds Wrap with Saran accents so that she might model the Miele Aluminum for us?
 
Ms Tania and Reynolds Wrap!

Hmmm. If you knew Tania like we know Tania, you would know that a little Reynolds Wrap with saran accents is definitely not her. Maybe most of the the other vac crowd (especially after a few cocktails, as you have seen before!) I am sure that we can get her to pose for a Miele demonstration. She pointed out some dust that my dear departed housekeeper Geneva missed under the kick panels of the kitchen cabinets. If Geneva were still around and Tania pointed the dust out to her, Geneva would have said "Girl, if you find some dust, then you go and vacuum it up!!"

When Charlie was having some fun with Geneva by pointing out a fictitious spot that she missed while vacuuming, I grabbed him and pulled him out of harms way before Geneva got her hands on him. God rest her soul, my house has never been as clean as when Geneva lovingly took care of it. BTW, with all the vacuums in this house, Geneva stuck to the Electrolux Ultralux, and, at 76, carried it up and down the stairs, now that's commitment.
 
Oops - I almost forgot!

That Miele I have is an Aluminium - pronounced "A LU MIN E UM". Don't know where they came up with that one, but the machine just sparkles.
 
Red Velvet

Where do those Germans come up with those names?? The Red Velvet is essentially the same as my Aluminium with a 236 power nozzle. The Blue Moon is the BIG deluxe Miele. The Red Velvet is the mid-sized deluxe. Repeat after me Fred - "You don't need another vacuum, especially an expensive one!!" The Red Velvet may have the electronic power control on the handle . . .
 
Velvety Red...

The way it's set up on Miele's website, I thought the Red Velved is one notch above the Blue Moon (they both have the controls on the handle)~and the Red Velved comes with the 236; the Blue Moon is pictured as only coming with a parquet floor brush, and the 236 would be an add on.

Aww, whats the fun of collecting if you can't keep adding to the collection?? :)

I keep saying I don't need any more--that thought process usually goes out the window when I see a lonely Hoover sitting at a thrift store or Goodwill.
 
Blue Moon Vs Red Velvet

The two machines are similar except--the blue Moon has a larger canister body and therefore a larger bag.It uses the 6Qt Miele bags-same as the White Pearl.The Red Velvet uses a smaller 4.5Qt bag.Otherwise the motors and controls are the same.The Red Velvet has an interesting "Velvety" feel on the body finish-hence the name.This is from the Miele dealer in my area-He doesn't carry the Blue Moon-could order it if the customer wants it-he felt the body is too heavy.I have my White Pearl and it isn't too heavy for me-the performance of it is much better with the "Intensive Clean" Filtrete bags.The dealer commented he doesn't run into many prospects that want the larger machine.They prefer the mid size machines like the Solarius or Red Velvets.The Solarius sells briskly in this area says the dealer.Would be competitive with the Sears vacs.-but better quality.In comparisions-did like the Riccar 1700 vs the Red Velvet.Its the problem us vac collecters want BOTH.Most Miele canisters use their newer "Vortex" motor.It has a different fan design than other canister motors.
 

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