Seven years already, & going strong.
Written: Dec 26 '02
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Pros: Light, easy to maneuver, sturdy.
Cons: Full-bag indicator not always accurate.
The Bottom Line: Love my 7 year old White Star; wouldn't trade it in for anything but another Miele. Easy, portable, light. A dream!
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| lisandrea's Full Review: Miele S300 Bagged Canister Vacuum |
We received this sweet Miele vac as a wedding present from my in-laws in 1995. After 7 years it still behaves like a new vac (though it doesn't look so new, anymore, with marked-up bumper & body).
Here are some of the great features that make me recommend this vac:
*Adjustable metal wand makes ceiling corner cobweb vacuuming as easy as sweeping way under the back of the sofa. Quick & easy to lengthen or shorten as you need, with several adjustable lengths. Narrow hallways are a cinch, as are large open spaces.
*Swivel head works better than my own elbow. I can use smaller attachments to dust woodwork on our chair rails throughout the house in one quick walk-around, turning the head to adjust to different angles easily. I even turn it up to get under cabinets where floor dust accumulates. Full 360-degree swivel on small parts is great!
*All attachments are useful. The beater brush is the most used, for carpets throughout the house (two carpet-pile adjustments); second is the sweeper attachment, which easily cleans tile, vinyl & wood flooring before mopping, and is shallow enough to slide under cabinets & furniture. Dusting attachment is great on furniture, woodwork, picks up pet hair, cleans cobweb corners, catches dust-bunnies under harder-to-reach areas that the sweeper cannot reach (side of fridge, for example); long narrow attachment works perfectly in the tight areas where carpet meets the wall, but isn't bug on suction of larger things. Meant for the little stuff you cannot reach with bigger attachments. Fabric attachment is least used, but is good for quick chip-spills on the couch, etc., since the mouth is wider than the long, narrow piece.
*So lightweight & easy to maneuver that this 6-months-pregnant gal has no trouble running the vac for a quick pick-up or a full house run. The great thing about its weight is that it can be pulled out quickly in crisis without having to struggle to remove it from whatever storage area you use.
*Small size with big punch. We've always stored this vac in the coat closet. It fits easily under the short coats, and the extended wand with accordion tubing pops off the body simply, to hang to the side of the closet, on a hook.
*Casters roll without catching on Berber carpeting. Other than catching the whole canister on a room corner as I turn down the hall, I do not have trouble moving swiftly from room to room with my Miele. It rolls along behind me like a loyal pet! I am not afraid to give the hose a tug to pull it into the next room because it is thick & durable, and shows no sign of wear whatsoever.
*Heavy-duty retractable cord still fully retracts after seven years and weekly use. Just step lightly on the retract button and if the path is clear, watch the cord zip inside. I rarely have to retug & re-wind again. It's still operating on fully automatic retraction with no snags, and the cord is un-kinked as a result. Also pulls out easily, and is long enough to do several areas without a plug change.
*Easy on/off button opposite cord retraction makes a quick off no troubles when you've sucked up the fringe on your throw rug (see more details in "a few things that bug me").
*Adjustable suction levels allow vacuuming of throw rugs, bath mats, full-plush carpet & hard floors. Right at your thumb, accessible always, an easy adjust works with the two-pile height adjustment on beater to work on many carpet and floor types.
*Runs clean & clear. Never have a smell or any random dust in the air while vacuuming.
*Attractive! Not bulky like an upright. Works well on stairs, as it is so light you can vac with one hand on short wand, or without wand, and carry the body in the other hand one step at a time. A fast adjustment to an attachment will help you do walls, woodwork, carpeted stairs & handrail all at once. I place the beater brush @ the top of the stairs as I make my way up, then click it in to complete upstairs carpeted floors. Everything at your fingertips.
*Runs quiet. I can be vacuuming in one room while my husband's on the phone in another & I don't have to feel like I turned a tornado on in his ear. It is a vacuum, so there is noise, but it's not at all irritating.
*Opens & closes with a snap for access to Hepa filter changes, bag changes, or attachment changes.
*Easy to wipe-down to keep clean, with smooth surface.
*All-around bumper makes strolling down halls & around corners trouble-free most of the time (but don't do it too hard, or you may mar the wall with a black mark).
*Hepa filter. Gets black when it needs changing, but (see "a few things that bug me..." I like knowing there's a filter, just wish I knew how clean!
*Bags are easy in & easy out, with a neat pull-tab that closes the opening of a full-bag right away, so dust doesn't scatter as you remove the bag.
A *few* things that bug me:
*Bags are expensive, but worth it for filtering & easy install/removal. Since the vac is small the bags are also small, but we still find we only replace them a few times a year. They hold more than they look like they might, but are meant for regular cleaning, not heavy-duty shop vac use.
*Full-bag indicator will be red sometimes even when I've just put in a new bag. I have to re-open & adjust bag to assure indicator mechanism that the folds do not indicate less space in the bag. This is a common issue, but tolerable. Just trust your instincts. Also, it's easy enough to open the bag & peer in to see if the indicator is lying to you. (grin)
*On/Off switch is so accessible that I often hit it by accident after I've turned vac off & laid the wand down...wand knocks the power & the vac is back on. Whoops! This is the most frequent bother, but it's not a big deal-breaker.
*Common to all vacs, I'm sure, is the trouble with hair & string. The heavy-duty beater attachment (used most frequently) winds hair, string & lint up tight. I sit on the floor 2-3 times a year with a small pair of scissors and cut it out, literally. Wish there was a more manageable way to slip the beater out and clean, rather than the struggle of turning it over & over to clip the wound mess (or have to take it in for service). After I've made a messy pile of leftover gunk I use the wand with no attachment to suck it all up into the bag in one gulp.
*There is a notch on one side of the vac that was designed to hold one of the two floor attachments (sweeper or beater), and they both slide onto that notch without trouble, but it causes the attachments to stick out in the opposite way as the rest of the slim body, so that storing that way isn't really practical. I try to use the notch from room to room as I'm switching attachments, but it only works when you carry the main canister, as setting the vac down will unlatch the pieces. In other words, vac is vertical while you hold by handle, but floor attachments notch on horizontally beyond its overall breadth, so it makes the vac bulky when these are attached. Maybe you can store in a space where that won't matter, but in our house every inch counts when we put the cleaner in the closet. I tend to attach the floor sweeper, and twist it a bit to attempt to make it more vertical, then leave the beater on the wand as it hangs, or place the beater on the floor.
*All-around bumper is great for no scratching, but if you are not careful, you will leave black marks on your walls. Don't take the bumpers for granted, and just try to be conscientious in bumping walls - a good note, anyway, right?
*Though there is an indicator for full-bag, there is not one for the Hepa filter, so it's purely guesswork to know when to change it. It changes color (darker), obviously, as it fills with dusts and contaminants, but there's no color indicator, or anything. We just keep a spare & change it about once a year. BUT, we do not have cats, dogs, or children, yet, to fill it with more dander, etc. We have lap-held guinea pigs, so hair clean-up is light on the sofa... might need to change filter more often with a busier house...? Unclear.
I really, truly love my Miele and wouldn't give it up for any other vac. I feel it is friendly to my environment (we also use a Hepa air filter in the house to keep the air dust-"free") and such a dream to use. My model is 7 years old, so maybe they've made some improvements to some of these issues mentioned above, but I STILL recommend it because I think the "troubles" are minor irritants, not to stop you from purchasing this vac!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Gift
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Epinions.com ID:
lisandrea
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Location: Virginia
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
AP, NFP, WAHM/SAHM but NO SPAM (thank you, Ma'am)! :O)
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