Another home appliance question... vacuums

Looking for some advice on vacuums. Store in town sells Miele, Sebo, Oreck, and David.

We've had Dysons for years. Probably been through six or seven of them in the 18 years we've owned a home. Three corded, four cordless. For the cordless ones, generally a battery lasts about a year, and (IIRC) is about $80 to replace. The current upright is nearly dead and the current stick/cordless only runs for about a minute.

I'm done with Dyson. I was done last time but we were in a pinch and needed one ASAP so I just went to the big box store and bought one.

Do all vacuums suck, or is there something better? I don't really like the cost of bags... but I also don't like the filth of bagless. Leaning toward switching to bags.

Upright vs canister? We have two floors, 3600 sf. Downstairs is hardwood with rugs and upstairs is all carpet. I don't mind spending money for quality.

Shark
https://www.sharkclean.com/products/...e-zidAZ329UPG1

Had one for 5 yrs after Dyson BS
Running strong on hardwood and rugs.
Easy filter to clean, and nice ergonomics, “it planes”!

Got a (relatively expensive) Sebo canister recently and we're thrilled with it. Not cheap, but inexpensive in the long run considering it will last forever, has serviceable and replaceable parts, and so forth. Over its lifetime I'd imagine one would go through multiple cheap vacuums, so that's a thing to consider as well.
You can tell when you use it that it's an order of magnitude above run-of-the-mill crap in terms of build quality. Everything else seems like cheap plastic toys now.

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Originally Posted by monadnocky

Got a (relatively expensive) Sebo canister recently and we're thrilled with it. Not cheap, but inexpensive in the long run considering it will last forever, has serviceable and replaceable parts, and so forth. Over its lifetime I'd imagine one would go through multiple cheap vacuums, so that's a thing to consider as well.
You can tell when you use it that it's an order of magnitude above run-of-the-mill crap in terms of build quality. Everything else seems like cheap plastic toys now.

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Did you switch from upright to canister? Or other thoughts on canister vs upright?

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Originally Posted by monadnocky

Got a (relatively expensive) Sebo canister recently and we're thrilled with it. Not cheap, but inexpensive in the long run considering it will last forever, has serviceable and replaceable parts, and so forth. Over its lifetime I'd imagine one would go through multiple cheap vacuums, so that's a thing to consider as well.
You can tell when you use it that it's an order of magnitude above run-of-the-mill crap in terms of build quality. Everything else seems like cheap plastic toys now.

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My wife bought the Sebo Airbelt 2 about a year ago and she’s a fan and a clean freak…good match and the Dyson has been relagted to the bench.

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Originally Posted by Drew

Did you switch from upright to canister? Or other thoughts on canister vs upright?

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I've always used canister (pretty much), so I don't really have much to compare. I like 'em plenty.

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Originally Posted by Drew

Looking for some advice on vacuums. Store in town sells Miele, Sebo, Oreck, and David.

We've had Dysons for years. Probably been through six or seven of them in the 18 years we've owned a home. Three corded, four cordless. For the cordless ones, generally a battery lasts about a year, and (IIRC) is about $80 to replace. The current upright is nearly dead and the current stick/cordless only runs for about a minute.

I'm done with Dyson. I was done last time but we were in a pinch and needed one ASAP so I just went to the big box store and bought one.

Do all vacuums suck, or is there something better? I don't really like the cost of bags... but I also don't like the filth of bagless. Leaning toward switching to bags.

Upright vs canister? We have two floors, 3600 sf. Downstairs is hardwood with rugs and upstairs is all carpet. I don't mind spending money for quality.

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Get a Miele canister vac. There is supposed to be an motor reliability difference between the Chinese-made models (C1, C2) versus the motors in the German-made model (C3) but we've owned a C1 and a C2 model for over 15 years each and nary a problem. I order refills on bags and filters in bulk direct from Miele and then I don't run into counterfeit issues at Amazon etc. That said, the C3 models are awfully nice. Better vacuum hoses, real HEPA filtration, power-head, longer retractable cords, etc. If the Chinese-made models we have ever die, we'll get one but it will be out of curiosity/vanity only as at this point the C1 and C2 have performed admirably.

The only Miele we had that died prematurely was one a plasterer used to suck up plaster debris out of a puddle of water. The vacuum repair guy got it running again, albeit with a crazy whine to the motor, but it lasted another 3 years before the motor melted down. So they are pretty tough.

We do supplement our Miele with a Dyson stick vac and a Roomba, which helps deal with the daily detritus from outside, but to get things truly clean, we use the Miele. And I can highly recommend the parquet floorhead attachment for hardwood or otherwise non-rug floors. That one came on our C2 vac (but is available separately) and it really spreads the suction over a wide surface area well for getting stuff out of the spaces between boards.

I had a Hoover upright which lasted 20 years. Something plastic broke but it still ran like a champ. Bought it based on
Consumer Reports ratings. Paid a mere $100.

I replaced it with my current upright, a Miele U1. Adjustable height. Stupid quiet. Stupid expensive, however. Extra long cord. Typical complex
German engineering. The attachments and hose are stored on the machine itself. The upright bag to lower section connection is like a ball and
socket joint so it makes real tight turns. You can run just suction or suction with a beater bar.
Available accessory attachment for capturing dog and cat hair-it's like a mini-beater bar which attaches to the hose.

My only quibble is, the cord wrap isn't quite capable of holding the long cord with ease.

Consumer Reports said uprights are typically more powerful than canister vacuums.

I use a Miele canister and purchase the matching bags and filters. It is fine and I’d be curious if anything is a ton better.

If I ever remodel my current house it’ll have far less carpet to vacuum and way more hard surfaces that are easier to clean. At the end of the day, carpet is pretty gross.

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Originally Posted by monadnocky

Got a (relatively expensive) Sebo canister recently and we're thrilled with it. Not cheap, but inexpensive in the long run considering it will last forever, has serviceable and replaceable parts, and so forth. Over its lifetime I'd imagine one would go through multiple cheap vacuums, so that's a thing to consider as well.
You can tell when you use it that it's an order of magnitude above run-of-the-mill crap in terms of build quality. Everything else seems like cheap plastic toys now.

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We got a intro-level Sebo upright (Felix I) that works well with carpets and hardwood floors. Probably 2x-3x the price of run-of-the-mill vacuum cleaners. The serviceable and replaceable parts are a big draw, as the previous machine is no longer usable due to one part.

We like it overall, but the only annoyance is the cable management.

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Originally Posted by j44ke

Get a Miele canister vac. There is supposed to be an motor reliability difference between the Chinese-made models (C1, C2) versus the motors in the German-made model (C3) but we've owned a C1 and a C2 model for over 15 years each and nary a problem. I order refills on bags and filters in bulk direct from Miele and then I don't run into counterfeit issues at Amazon etc. That said, the C3 models are awfully nice. Better vacuum hoses, real HEPA filtration, power-head, longer retractable cords, etc. If the Chinese-made models we have ever die, we'll get one but it will be out of curiosity/vanity only as at this point the C1 and C2 have performed admirably.

The only Miele we had that died prematurely was one a plasterer used to suck up plaster debris out of a puddle of water. The vacuum repair guy got it running again, albeit with a crazy whine to the motor, but it lasted another 3 years before the motor melted down. So they are pretty tough.

We do supplement our Miele with a Dyson stick vac and a Roomba, which helps deal with the daily detritus from outside, but to get things truly clean, we use the Miele. And I can highly recommend the parquet floorhead attachment for hardwood or otherwise non-rug floors. That one came on our C2 vac (but is available separately) and it really spreads the suction over a wide surface area well for getting stuff out of the spaces between boards.

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Thank you for the detailed response - very helpful!

Why Miele vs Sebo? Just started a Miele and stuck with it?

I ask because Sebo has some features that look helpful - clean out ports on the brush head, longer cord, and a couple hundo less. I’m not that worried about a couple hundo in the end, and both will be supported by the LVS… so service and parts with either should be fine.

Miele has better filtration. And will probably get a Miele battery stick for random quick cleanups.

@j44ke - you mentioned plaster dust - check out the Festool system to deal with this. It has a “thumper” in the machine that shakes the dust off the filter. Really cool.

My experience with the Festool “dust extractors” is what’s driving me toward bags. I can vacuum up wood dust all day and the thing just works.

https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...pa-us#Overview

Our corded Panasonic upright has been stellar for more than a decade. We also have (for many years) a small, corded, bagless Bissel upright for small, quick jobs. Recently we got a cordless, bagless upright Bissel, kind of an in-between size with a beater bar for sorta small jobs. The Panasonic is the workhorse and in parallel I had my own Kirby which was powerful but I finally had to acknowledge that it was just too much of an archaic PITA design for anything but "the field"; tossed it and promptly fell in love the Panasonic which my spouse worshiped.

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Originally Posted by Drew

@j44ke - you mentioned plaster dust - check out the Festool system to deal with this. It has a “thumper” in the machine that shakes the dust off the filter. Really cool.

My experience with the Festool “dust extractors” is what’s driving me toward bags. I can vacuum up wood dust all day and the thing just works.

https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...pa-us#Overview

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Geez - it is like you are in my brain or something. Fortunately the culprit in the death of our Miele was not me. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to parlay that into a Festool purchase. The local hardware store where I linger frequently carries Festool. If the guys building our house had a Festool item, first one was that vac system. After that, the track saw.

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Originally Posted by Drew

Thank you for the detailed response - very helpful!

Why Miele vs Sebo? Just started a Miele and stuck with it?

I ask because Sebo has some features that look helpful - clean out ports on the brush head, longer cord, and a couple hundo less. I’m not that worried about a couple hundo in the end, and both will be supported by the LVS… so service and parts with either should be fine.

Miele has better filtration. And will probably get a Miele battery stick for random quick cleanups.

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Yes - good performance from the Miele and no bad experiences. But now I've been looking at the Sebo (never heard of them before) and thinking that looks pretty well thought out and nicely featured. So if the Miele finally dies, maybe I should consider Sebo too.

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Originally Posted by j44ke

Geez - it is like you are in my brain or something. Fortunately the culprit in the death of our Miele was not me. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to parlay that into a Festool purchase. The local hardware store where I linger frequently carries Festool. If the guys building our house had a Festool item, first one was that vac system. After that, the track saw.

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Ha! Yeah I have the track saw system from Festool. I don't have enough room to store a table saw, so I got the track saw system. I've built three sets of built-in cabinet walls in my house with it. Works great.

We bought one German made Miele canister model in 1998. We thought that it was about to die so got another German made Miele perhaps 10 years ago. When the Daughter got her own place, she took the older Miele with her, and it's refusing to die. The newer one is reliable as ever even though we have considerably more dog hair flying around the last 6 years.

We both have the cordless upright Dyson thingies to do lighter stuff like the staircase, but to be blunt, it's a bit shit.

I don't know if Henry is available in the US, but it gets consistently good reviews on this side of the pond. Not the sexiest looking things, but pros (including builders) rely on Henry.

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Originally Posted by Chik

We bought one German made Miele canister model in 1998. We thought that it was about to die so got another German made Miele perhaps 10 years ago. When the Daughter got her own place, she took the older Miele with her, and it's refusing to die. The newer one is reliable as ever even though we have considerably more dog hair flying around the last 6 years.

We both have the cordless upright Dyson thingies to do lighter stuff like the staircase, but to be blunt, it's a bit shit.

I don't know if Henry is available in the US, but it gets consistently good reviews on this side of the pond. Not the sexiest looking things, but pros (including builders) rely on Henry.

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Interesting you'd mention the Henry, as my wife somehow just read an article about the gentleman who started the company that makes Henry. I don't even know how she came across the article, as it's from more than two years ago, but suffice to say that I think we might have one had she known about it earlier.

And it is apparently available for purchase in the U.S., albeit at a very high mark-up, as the Henry currently retails for 130 GBP.

I have a Sears/Kenmore that I purchased new in 1996 and still works very well. The only issue is it is getting harder to find bags.

I have no idea if they are still made as well as they once were:
https://www.sears.com/appliances-vac...lterList=Brand

M'gawd we are predictable ;) Another longtime Miele owner. I'm particularly sensitive to airborne (anything). Their HEPA filter for exhaust is fabulous.

I think I looked at Miele after searching here. Ended up with a C2 Compact and power head. 3 dogs, 1 cat...it's holding up well. Also, there's a vacuum shop about 5mi from my house that swears by Miele. Bought from there, as they're a service center. The lady talked about vacuums the same way I talked about bikes. That was my sign.

I bought my second Miele in 20 years about 7 years ago. The dealer, also a Dyson dealer and a vacuum repair shop, showed me a broken Dyson that needed repair: There were about a hundred and fifty small plastic parts laid out in rows on his shop bench. He said they were a nightmare to work on, and if it were a Miele, there would be less than ten parts laid out in front of me. The downside of a Miele is having to buy the bags, but I'd need a very good reason to go with another brand at this point.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

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Originally Posted by echappist

Interesting you'd mention the Henry, as my wife somehow just read an article about the gentleman who started the company that makes Henry. I don't even know how she came across the article, as it's from more than two years ago, but suffice to say that I think we might have one had she known about it earlier.

And it is apparently available for purchase in the U.S., albeit at a very high mark-up, as the Henry currently retails for 130 GBP.

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The US price is surprising even after giving them some wiggle room for having to fit whatever's necessary for it to work with half the voltage in the US.

But yeah, in the UK, it's more than likely that you will see Henry hard at work in office buildings and hotels, and that the builders will arrive at your place with Henry to clean up after they're done with their job. These are people for whom Henry is an essential tool, so that speaks volumes.

I purchased a Miele canister in 2001. I replaced it in 2018. Come 2035, I’ll get another Miele canister.

CR rates the Miele C3 as the best by a fairly wide margin. We have a Dyson that my wife says is great but I disagree. Also have an older Electrolux canister that has broken down a number of times but was easy to fix.

FWIW, Wirecutter has their picks:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...acuum-cleaner/

IMO the best vac would be a cordless upright that uses bags. I HATE filters. Such a huge pita to deal with.

They have some of those at work, but when I looked into getting one they were $800. I decided to pass.

Edit: Why are so many vacuums these days so f'g UGLY? Did the design teams go to the same steampunk training class?

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Originally Posted by Mabouya

[snip]

Edit: Why are so many vacuums these days so f'g UGLY? Did the design teams go to the same steampunk training class?

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Bring back the elegance, Lurelle Guild's Electrolux model 30.

Attachment 124795
https://collections.artsmia.org/art/...-arsdale-guild

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Originally Posted by Scott G.

Bring back the elegance, Lurelle Guild's Electrolux model 30.

Attachment 124795
https://collections.artsmia.org/art/...-arsdale-guild

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I had one of those. Possibly even that model. Mine had the same chrome and lettering and attachments. Horsehair brush. I inherited it from my grandmother. It was amazingly good at cleaning. The hose covering was this beautiful woven pattern. Died of old age and burned up the motor. I couldn't find anyone to rebuild it. Had there been an internet then, I could have find someone in a small shop on the other side of the planet who offered same day service.

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Originally Posted by Mabouya

IMO the best vac would be a cordless upright that uses bags. I HATE filters. Such a huge pita to deal with.

They have some of those at work, but when I looked into getting one they were $800. I decided to pass.

Edit: Why are so many vacuums these days so f'g UGLY? Did the design teams go to the same steampunk training class?

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Closer to $900

https://shop.davidproducts.com/produ...upright-vacuum

Promising, but at that price I would probably stick with corded.

Only HEPA for me. Miele upright, corded, bought eight years ago and works like new. Plus a Festool for the shop and car, but I sometimes use the Festool around the house for the occasional doorframes, windowsill, and lampshade duty 'cause it has a longer hose. Both are quiet, efficient, HEPA, and would suck the fur off a bear.