Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAfter 45 years of cleaning house, I have a vac that does its job.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2012
I have read the other reviews, and pointing out the negative comments made, I can really only agree with two of them. I do not like where the on off switch is either.... on the vac body, but I can get used to that issue. The other common complaint is the size of the vac bags. I have a mid-sized, two story, really, really dirty old farm house. Three humans, two dogs, and two cats inside, and outside there are free range chickens, horses, barn mud and hay that gets tracked in. So, (un)fortunately, I need to empty the bags more frequently than most normal home owners. Ehh? well, the clean that's left behind and the amount of time it takes to get there? I am over it already.
That being said, the shorter power cord? Maybe a little shorter than normal, but I have outlets in every room. Squeeky power head when pulled back? Haven't experienced that so far. Not having the body steer straight? Haven't experienced that either. The weight or stiffness of the power head handle and hose??? well, this vacuum seems to be much lighter to use and handle than my old Electrolux canister, and so far, using the handle with the power head has not bothered or caused my carpal tunnel syndrome to act up. If the power head is heavier, it doesn't seem to be because it pulls itself forward on it's own due to the power of the spin brush. I really don't have to push the power head forward! How cool is that?! Another comment was that it has no swivel for the hose at the base of the power head. With this in mind, you just have to think a little bit of your vacuuming direction as you go along. I would not even have brought that up because so far it hasn't really annoyed me yet. I think a lot of the complaints are just from using a new vacuum and adjusting to it. I did note if you have the power setting too high, the bag-full window appears that the bag is full when it's really not. Turn the power level down. Then it reads okay. Even with my level of dirt and dust, I have not really had to use the highest power setting. Miehl should take some of these comments in consideration when they design their next model, then they would have made the perfect vacuum. But considering these items of difficulty, even with the cost of the vacuum, I would not send it back simply because I get a much cleaner house (and air in the house) in less than half the time.
On the VERY UP SIDE..... This vacuum does not SMELL! With the dog hair, cat hair and dried mud and dust that this machine picks up, I have yet to experience that "vacuum dirt" smell. I would overlook every little nit-pick and the limitations of the smaller bags just for that feature. And, with one of my dogs being a short, straight haired Jack Russell (her fur manages to 'weave' itself into my area rugs and furniture), with the power this thing has set just on the 'normal' setting, not the highest, I get the rugs clean in one or two swipes. 2/3'ds of the time it took with my old vacuum, even when my old vacuum was new. I don't have to keep going over, and over and in different directions in the same area to get the hair out any more.
If you have little throw rugs, be warned. When it gets to the edges of the small rugs if you are using the spin brush in the main power head and it sucks up the edges of the rug, the power head will shut off. Most of the time you can just press the little button on the handle without turning off the vacuum to get the spin brush going again. But if the vacuum is really unhappy about it, you have to turn the whole vacuum off and turn it back on to restart the spin brush. On the upside, the spin brush is very easy to clean to get wound around hairs and what-nots off of it.
All in all, my point is, I can live with the little design flaws for three reasons. The job is done, and done better than any other style vac I have owned in less than half the time; there is no dirty vac bag smell in the house; and it seems to be built very solidly to last a very long time.
