Better than a bagless. (Miele Cat and Dog)

Member Name: mrmojorisin04

Product:	Miele Cat and Dog
Date:	06/09/08 (756 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very powerful and quiet. Real feeling of quality.

Disadvantages: None of any note.

The Miele Cat & Dog is is a highly recommended vacuum cleaner. I bought one approximately six months ago to replace an ageing upright and have been extremely impressed.

I looked for a quite a while at the pros and cons of bagged/bagless and upright/cylinder and found that despite my expectations to the contrary the bagged cylinder really is the best option. The bagless needs frequently emptying into a bin, much more often than changing a bag, and despite the claims of no loss of suction, the bagless cleaners do lose suction when the filter needs changing. The cost of replacing the filter seems to pretty much equate to the cost of replacing bags.

So having decided on bagged cleaner, the one that seemed to get universally good reviews was the Miele Cat & Dog.

Performance:
Our previous cleaner used to leave hard to remove bits still stuck to the carpet and they'd have to be manually picked up, but the Miele is so powerful that nothing is left behind. We have cats, and the hairs are easily removed from the carpet. I do find that some are still left behind on the cats though, even on full power ;-).

Seriously though, it has a number of modes to control the power (including a quieter mode which is really useful) and works fantastically on both carpet and laminate flooring.

Features:
It comes with two heads; one without a brush that we use on the laminate floor and one with a turbo brush that's great for carpet. There's also a full compliment of accessories that are handily stowed away, and my personal favourite - a retracting power lead.
The pole is resized easily, and flaps can be opened to temporarily reduce the suction if required.

Ease of Use:
It's pretty light to carry - my wife can manage it comfortably - and it manoeuvres around very easily. The retractable power cord makes life easy, and the onboard accessories ensure that everything is close to hand.

The only problem I have found with it, and I guess this applies to all cylinders, is that it moves so easily on laminate floors that it often bashes into door frames, damaging the frame and potentially the cleaner.

Value for Money:
I paid £160 from John Lewis, including a voucher that was available at the time. I think they're commonly available around the £180 mark.

There are certainly cheaper models out there, but this price compares favourably with the other quality brands that it competes against. Assuming that it lasts the several years that I'm expecting then I consider this to be good value.

The bags are very strong synthetic and can be bought pretty reasonably from the Miele website (approx £8 for four bags). A word of warning - there are cheap paper bags around that claim to be compatible but I've heard that it's best to stick with the Miele synthetics.

Summary: A highly recommended cylinder cleaner.

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