Miele S5481 Earth Canister Vacuum Cleaner

You'll Enjoy Vacuuming! (Maybe.)


the evil of suction
Ten days in. Last week, my wife on the other end of the phone said "I don't like it, it's too hard to push on the carpet" (her first use). "What!" I thought, four figures lighter in my wallet and she doesn't like it. I got home after work and the machine was close by in the basement. I picked up the handle with the carpet head and tried it. The head glided over the carpet with no resistance, "it feels ok I said". "You have to turn it on", she said. I replied something like "ok, you mean because you now have a vacuum cleaner that actually sucks hard enough to give some resistance, you don't like it!" She must have though about this because lately she has commented on how quiet it is and how it does the furniture so well, she isn't going to give it up now.

Is it possible to give an unbiased view after spending over $1000 on a vacuum cleaner. Let's just say here's my 2 cents.
- the canister is a bit heavier than I thought but no different from the old Kenmore...

Quality build but over designed and awkward to use
I was able to acquire one of these vacuums for $700 and because of the deal I was getting I splurged past the original amount that I was going to pay for a new vacuum. I currently own and have been using a Hoover Wind Tunnel upright for 13 years. We are slowly getting rid of all the wall to wall carpet in our house, (only two small rooms left.) The Hoover works well on our berber carpet but poorly on wood floors and its marginal-mostly-plastic-construction is beginning to fail in many places on the unit. That is the back story of our needs.

I am a 6'2" - 45 year old male and a product designer by degree so my observations might be slightly skewed towards human factors but I am also the one in our house that does all of the cleaning so this review is from an end user. That's my story.
The Miele Earth Canister vacuum is a very well constructed product that appears will last for many many years. Its solidly built and every detail was considered during construction...

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