Miele. First high end vacuum I tried and love it so much I actually want to vacuum my floors even when they might not need it. Great hepa-filter, very well made, light weight - good for my back, and it just makes my whole house sparkle after vacuuming. It has a very tight seal on all the parts. Super quiet too, which is great as I live in a row house in the city.

Love my Miele!

miele lovers --- canister or upright?

Canister!

canister

Absolutely love my Hoover Pure Power 2100W upright. On-board attachments and a very long extendable heavy duty hose, several settings to make short work of any floor covering including tile, hardwood, and vinyl, easily replaced belts and easy to clean brush-beater bar, bags easy to find anywhere and usually with extra filtration features on the bag to boost the Hepa on-board. And when the Hoovering is finished that lovely machine tucks up into the cupboard next to the broom, mop, bucket, etc.

It took years for me to fall in love with an upright but Hoover has my vacuuming heart forever with this bird!

PS-had a Dyson. Gave it to a charity shop because it was a bagless that spewed dust everywhere. Just my experience, I know people who love their Dysons and couldn't imagine having anything else.

thanks

Canister... the versatility is endless.

canister!

I love the Dyson. I've had several vacs and it's the best hands down.

Love my Miele. Still working great 13 years later.

I don't care about the vacuum as long as I am not the one pushing it. :)

Ditto! Belle Chaise, funny thing is I love to iron, LOL

I've had all different kinds, some a lot more expensive than others. The last one we bought was a Shark, so far it has cleaned my carpet the best. I was amazed at the amount of dirt/dust that will come out of the rug even after one day. My other vacuums never seemed to get that much dirt. We only have 2 rooms left with W/W carpet, the rest are wood floors with 3 rooms having various sizes of area rugs. It's light, easy to carry up stairs and has extra attachments. [houzz=]

Jolene Escalante, thanks for reminding me of the Kirby. We bought one 1987 for under $200. I think the door to door sales person was trying to sell it to us for $900 and told us we could finance it. WHAT!!! finance a vacuum cleaner? lol. It was heavy, expensive to replace the bags, and after a couple years, it started to rust in a couple areas since we bought the one that also shampooed rugs. I added it to the metal pile to drop off at our local metal recycling earlier this year and at least got money for recycling :)

I bought the dyson animal, it works awesome, BUT BEWARE, it will scratch the hell out of wood floors, and the floor attachment - the balls fall off of it!! I have put a strip of felt on it so it stops it from scratching, but it takes away from the sucking power now, works great on carpet, except the damn felt strip falls off..... It is NOT made for hardwood - you will be sorry!

Desirable Kitchens and Refacing did an awesome job transforming our kitchen cabinets. Jimmy and his crew were great to work with, very professional. We recommend this company and will use them again for Phase II.

Dyson- it has so many spots where you can take it apart if it gets clogged. But, I've used several of theirs and it seems that the more expensive models work a lot better, which is a bit frustrating and discouraging.

I love my Roomba, I won't live without it. It runs daily, never had a problem with it. I rarely have to dust now because it sucks up all the dust from the floor. I only use my miele canister about once a month to do areas that Roomba can't reach like behind my beds/nighstands, beside/under the refrigerator/dryer/washing machine and this only takes about 10 minutes. All other places my Roomba cleans, it cleans in places that I rarely vacuumed in the past like under things like the beds/sofas/dressers/cabinets/desks. It easily goes from hardwood, to tile, to throw rugs to carpets. It's very thorough and I love that my floors are always clean because it's programed to run every day. The Roomba saves me dozens of hours a month. I love my Roomba!

I use a Dyson DC 44 Animal on my wood floors. I have a few area rugs and use my 15year old Oreck on those. My husband is in the flooring business and says most carpet mills advise against using Dysons on carpet because the suction is so strong that it has been known to pull the tufts right out of the carpet!

My Dyson has an awesome power head for stairs, which I really love. It's really the best vacuum I've ever had as far as getting up all the finest dust and cat hair. But I have to give some credit to the Oreck for lasting 15 years and still going strong!

Shark professional navigator

We have a Miele canister vac, and a cordless Dyson dc59 animal. Both of them are great machines, and I would buy both of them again.

I bought a Shark Navigator a few months. Have used it numerous times. Each time it fills up, which is often, I look into what is there and find lots of carpet fibers as noted elsewhere. Both inexpensive and expensive carpets. Because you cannot control the height of the roller, it's too low and is very tough on the carpets. Sometimes the roller just stops, and then the small motor turning the brush burns out and you have to get a whole new bottom. Don't buy this.

All these comments were so helpful. I have a very old Electrolux. It was so great with wall to wall carpet that was all the rage when I purchased it. Now I have all hard surface with some oriental rugs. It still does well on the rugs, not so well on the hardwood.
I was set to buy a Roomba, but when I googled it all that came up were youtubes of cats riding and even switching on the roombas. That made me a little nervous with 2 crazy cats. I need to decide between a roomba and the miele. Anyone willing to weigh in on this decision?

We have a twelve year old Sebo. Our neglectful nature requires that we never service our vacuums. And fortunately the German in it keeps on chugging. This puppy is heavy. Great vacuum for carpets, but not so much for hardwoods. Spits out Cheerios. Perhaps Germans test the vacuum on Muesli, but not good old Honey Nut Cheerios. Even the dog doesn't eat those little circles of nutty wheatness. And forget the carpeted stairs. What a pain. I'd rather avert my eyes to the dirt than attempt that bohemoth up the stairs. Maybe it's time to look into one of those Miele canisters.

msmidnight, I have a Roomba and a Miele canister (all hardwood floors with some area rugs). The Miele is far superior. I only use the Roomba for in between definitive vacuumings with the Miele.

old post.

But the dysonsm and mieles are good.!

I have a Rainbow that's about 35 years old, or maybe older. Before that I had bought four or five vacuums that lasted a few months or a few years. The Rainbow was pricey (nothing compared to what it is now though) and it's not real handy but does a great cleaning job year after year after year. I'm hoping it outlasts me.

am I right the consensus is Miele ?

I'm a clean freak and have always had Hoover windtunnels. I was going splurge on a dyson, but now maybe not.

Is the Miele canister significantly better than the upright ? my most recent vac is a canister and I feel like when I'm in a hurry, I'm banging the canister into the furniture and new paint !

so I was going to get an upright again.

yes/no Miele upright?

rhetorical question, but who's hair-brain idea was a bag less vac ?? pun not intended, but seriously...

any other clean freaks hate bag less ??!!

I don't think there is any consensus here lol, but I doubt you would be unhappy with a Miele. I still think my Miele canister is a great vacuum. For me, a canister is better because 80% of my floors are hard surface. I would not want an upright for hard surfaces....personal preference.

35 years ago I worked for an electrical wholesaler, and employees were allowed to buy anything at cost. We had bought a 1915 Craftsman, were tearing apart a lot of the interior so putting holes in the wall for a central vacuum fit right in.

We bought a Nutone system, expanded it when we added on 2600 sq ft, and love it. The only problem we've had was 2 years ago we had to buy something that cost $200 for the motor, which my husband took care of.

We have a hose and attachments upstairs and down, so lugging it around is not an issue.

The whole package cost $600 back then. It ight have been expensive back then, but that thing has lasted.

The only thing, the noise is vented to the outside which means anyone outside knows how rarely I vacuum!

Cons Reports recommends these bagless - #1 Hoover WindTunnel T Series Rewind Bagless UH70120 $130 score 69 -- #2 Dyson Ball Multi Floor $400 score 65, Tie for #2 Dyson Cinetic Big Ball Animal $600 score 65 -- Tie for #2 Shark Rotator Profesional Lift Away NV501 $260 score also 65 -- Shark Navigator Lift-Away NV352 $200 Score 63 -- Shark Navigator Lift-Away NV351 (Walmart, similar to NV352) -- Panasonic MC-UL815 4200 SCORE 62 -- Shark Nav Pro L-Away NV356E. I would be tempted to try a shark for the price difference. They look like they have come a long way.

I just bought and started using a Miele upright stick vac. I have some sort of bug infestation so it had to be a vacuum with bags. It's great. I bought lots of attachments to go with it. It works great on my hard wood floors. It has a setting to protect the hard wood floors. The only thing is, 12 pounds is a lot heavier than it sounds especially when I want to use the crevice tool in the cracks of the base boards. You can buy a hose though and attach it and convert it into a canister. It would be great if it had wheels but that's really nit that necessary for my tiny studio. I had light weight black and decker stick vacs before the Miele, the Miele is much more powerful and gets the floors so clean I really don't need a Swiifer any more. Also all the attachments are probably going to help with dusting, apolstry, cleaning curtains, etc.. It has a low aetting for curtains.

If I had a larger home, the canister would be better than a stick vac because it's so heavy.

In the market for a vacuum and would love for this post to come back to life to see if all these Miele lovers are still Miele lovers :)

Absolutely. Vacuum dealers sell an upright called the Salsa that works great. I have it and a canister. I have a Riccar now too and prefer the Miele models.

Thanks Momzanurs! Good to know.

Several years later and still happy with our Miele canister.

Dyson cordless Animal or Miele. Nothing out there is better based on my own experience, my parents and friends.

Yes - 10 years and going strong...

My husband says I'm the vacuum queen. When he retired he bought a Roomba which he sets when I'm not around to vac. I had a Kirby for my house with wall to wall carpet. heavy. Just gave it to a coworker. She got a deal. I've had a Dyson roller ball which I loved until I bought the cordless Dyson. Now I can clean both floors & whip up and down the stairs in just minutes. My house has never been so dust and pet hair free. Love it!! Ps my house is all tile and hardwood with area rugs

My Miele white star, still going strong.

Yes, I still love my Meile but I love my Roomba more, it's hard not to love something that vacuums for you everyday, :). If Meile made a robot vacuum, I'd buy two, one for each floor.

If you have real hardwood floors, you should consider a Miele version with the Parquet Twister head. No plastic or metal comes in contact with the floor via the cleaning head under regular use. I think the wheels on the canister are also rubber. Many vacuums that say they are for hardwood floors have agitators and or small wheels or rails that run on the wood. They tend to scratch the floors, especially if you drag them back and forth. The Miele head mentioned above has only brushes that float the head above the floor. Very light design and no friction.

http://mielestore.com/default/vacuum-cleaners/sbb400-3-parquet-twister-xl-1251.html

A few have already mentioned central vacs- I'm huge fan! Suction power can't be beat, they don't "stink" (pet hair), maintenance is low, the attachments go under/over anything you want and are varied.

I've had two in two houses, and will never go back to the built-in planned obsolescence of most vacuums. Most existing homes can be retrofitted (fairly easily) for between $1500-$3000. Sounds like a lot, until you understand that you're going to be buying vacuums over and over for the rest of the life your house.

I agree with cynamonc. We got a Roomba 6 months ago and love it so much! I read this review before finally settling on the 870. Lots of good tips and info.

Our Royal upright has rocked for 19 years. Built like a tank - lots of metal/shiny chrome - and I do get a bit of a workout cleaning carpeted steps, but she is very powerful and has only used replacement belts (which I easily swap out myself about annually). Would absolutely purchase another. We've had as many as three dogs at once (including two Bassets) and have cleaned wall-to-wall carpet, Persian rugs, sheet vinyl, solid maple, and LVT all with great success

Phew got my 22 year old Nilfisk GM90 back working,found another one at a recycling centre ( some idiot threw it out because the hose and handle were broken motor perfect)
Gave the Dyson away,I spent more cleaning the dyson than I was cleaning floor.

I think the dysons are by far the best looking vac, but the Shark Rockets performs better and are a third of the price.

@Ev - I can't disagree more. The dyson stick vacuums pick up the finest dust that the Shark vacuums never do.

I still have my Shark- we use it once in a while for large clean-ups, but I still go over the area with my dyson, and am always amazed how much is left after the Shark.

Recently purchased a Dyson v8 cordless. I used nothing but Kenmore canisters in the past which I loved. But I must say I am in LOVE with the Dyson. Picks up way more dirt and dust. I was shocked. The cordless feature has changed my life! It's only been about a month so we'll see if it holds up.