Do Festool Vac's REALLY Work?

[Willy S]

I have an Oreck ("Top Of The Line") when I bought it about three years ago (we take it in for it's annual cleaning and inspection every year). It was our second Oreck, was never really impressed with them but they seemed to be the best bang for the buck.
Last summer I was visiting my son who bragged up a storm about his Dyson DC15 Ball Animal Vacuum, tested it out and was very impressed. I was set to buy one but did some research on the Miele and am I glad I did. The Miele blows them away or should I say sucks them away. Never saw the video on this thread until today, but everything that guy said is true. As stated earlier in the thread when you use the Miele you get no odor from the exhaust. Been using vacuum cleaners the better part of my adult life (>40 years) and the Miele is head and shoulders above the rest, it's the Festool of home vacuum cleaners.
Incidentally the vacuum we have supplies the 120 volts AC to the power head through the hose (wonder how they got that past UL?).
Nickao, do a search on Miele and look for Witbeck?s Site, they treated me good.

 

[semenza]

Dyson DC14 Animal for the house and CT22 for the shop. When it comes to vacuums in the house or the shop I dont care how much noise they make. I want it suck the hair straight on a chinaman's head on the other side of the planet.

Hi, roadking06  welcome to the forum

    The noise level of the vac is not an important issue for me either because I wear hearing protectors anyway. Quiter is nicer  but not a big factor for  me . I think other performance issues are more important.  I can see that the noise level might be important to others in the house though. Though if it is quiet enough I suppose the hearing protectors could be ditched for household use. In the shop I have another power tool running at the same time anyway 90% of the time.

Seth

Seth

 

[Cannuck]

Sorry for the anecdote, but I can't resist, this conversation is deja vu for me...

Some years after graduating from University, I was hanging out wish some of my university chums at the cottage, and we got to talking about this $800 Miele vacuum (this was a few years ago!) that one of my newleywedded buddies just bought - cleary 3-4 times more expensive than most of the others he and his wife had looked at.  The conversation meandered at length discussing vacuum cleaners, and other household appliances such as dishwashers, and eventually, I recall, ended on  thread-counts of bed and bath linens.

After, what seemed like a couple of hours of discussion, we realized we'd all finally reached "The Carlsberg Years" - and had a good chuckle. 

My, how far we'd come from our university days!!

All that to say, about 9 years later, my buddy still has his Miele vacuum and dishwasher and little complaints from him.  His wife on the other hand, would probably complain that the "novelty" has worn off for him, and her husband no longer wants to vacuum or load the dishes.

 

[Greg_R]

I went with one of the 500 series models with a powerhead.  Be careful with the lower-end Miele vacs... you will need to add the HEPA filters ($50 IIRC).  The vacuum is extremely quiet and definitely 'sucks'.  The main difference between their $500 and $1k models is the amount of electronics and type of power head.  They have some vacs that can be completely controlled from the handle.  I decided to save $150 and step on the power-on button on the vacuum.  I have used the Festool in the house before and the primary drawbacks are:
1) size (too big)
2) no powerhead (for carpet)
3) no cord retractor (sounds dumb but it's a nice feature)
4) rear wheels that don't spin 360&deg (hard to maneuver)

 

[Forrest Anderson]

I went with one of the 500 series models with a powerhead.  Be careful with the lower-end Miele vacs... you will need to add the HEPA filters ($50 IIRC).  The vacuum is extremely quiet and definitely 'sucks'.  The main difference between their $500 and $1k models is the amount of electronics and type of power head.  They have some vacs that can be completely controlled from the handle. 

From this and other posts, the price of Miele vacuums in the USA strikes me to be quite high when compared to the UK. I was in one shop the other day and noticed a Miele cylinder Vac for 100 GBP, which is about $197 at a straight exchange rate!

Model numbers in the two countries are not exactly the same, so it takes a bit of effort to compare similar machines, but here are typical prices from a electrical store:

MIELE S5260 CAT & DOG. Miele cylinder cleaner with turbo brush to aid hair and fibre pickup on carpets. 199.99 GBP
MIELE S381. Miele bagged cylinder cleaner with surface adjuster, variable power and telescopic suction tube. 99.99  GBP
MIELE S4211. Miele bagged cylinder cleaner with surface adjuster and Silent power feature to minimise noise disturbance. 139.99 GBP
MIELE S5210/S5211. Miele bagged cylinder cleaner with surface adjuster and hard floor tool PLUS a range of tools for cleaning every corner of your home. 139.99 GBP
MIELE S4211MAX. Miele bagged cylinder cleaner with turbo brush, surface adjuster and Silent power faeture to minimise noise disturbance. 179.99 GBP
MIELE S5260 CAT & DOG. Miele cylinder cleaner with turbo brush to aid hair and fibre pickup on carpets. 199.99 GBP
MIELE S5280/S5281. Miele bagged cycliner cleaner with HEPA filters, surface adjuster and floor head with hygiene sensor. 209.99 GBP
MIELE S5510/S5411. Miele cylinder cleaner with ergonomic handle ro reduce wrist strain and turbo brush tool for pet hair. 259.99 GBP

The UK/USA pricing structure of Miele vacuums seems to be the opposite of Festool! Or am I missing something...?

Forrest

 

[joraft]

The UK/USA pricing structure of Miele vacuums seems to be the opposite of Festool! Or am I missing something...?

Forrest, last year I paid $960.00 USD for the Miele Aquarius cannister vacuum, which comes with the smaller motorized power head. I added their largest motorized power head which was another $300.00. And I also purchased a special brush for ceilings and enough extension tubes to reach up to the 16' ceilings in my foyer and living room. I think that added another $100.00 or so.  (sounds a lot like buying Festool, doesn't it?)

I don't know if what I have matches any of the models on your list, but as you say, there seems to be quite a difference in price. I would have liked to pay less, but I still feel the performance I'm getting is worth the price.

John

 

[Joe Jensen]

The pricing structure is interesting.  When we were in Nice years ago, our Meile vac was 50% cheaper than in the US.  And this was in a shop on the ocean that supported the local yachting communicty..joe

 

[Martin Johnson]

Guten Morgen,

Don't know if this contributes to the conversation at all, but we just posted a very short piece on dust extraction.  Might be worth a read for some folks.  If your interested in the piece you can view it at www.festoolusa.com/CT.  By the way, I agree with the comments regarding the need to capture the dust and contain it.  I'm trying to work up a test that visibly demonstrates this concept.

Martin Johnson

 

[Fred West]

Martin, thank you for the link and write up. I would very much like to see the test on dust containment. When do you think this might happen? Fred

 

[Martin Johnson]

Fred,

We've been talking about it for a few months...I'm in the middle of moving my family up from Austin, TX; closing on a new house; and getting through the new product launches, so it might be a few months, but I don't want to promise anything yet.  What I can tell you is that I want to build a small acrylic (or see through) chamber (using dominoes of course  ) .  I have some ideas on how I could demonstrate it, but would want to work out the kinks before posting anything.  You don't have a small leak proof clear box about  48"x48" that your trying to get rid of do you ;D? 

Martin

 

[Fred West]

Martin, so sorry but I just through that exact box away.  No sorry nothing like that.

I am sorry to hear that you are leaving Austin. What a beautiful city. I have attended the South by Southwest music affair twice and I love the restaurant up in the hills, maybe the Oasis?? Fred

 

[Martin Johnson]

I guess timing is everything

Dont' remind me about Austin...your making me homesick :'(  Actually, I am flying back there on Friday, and will work from Austin for a week.  I have been in Indiana, since Novemeber....a long time to be away from the rug rats & wife....

I hear you with regard to SxSW...it is really fun...we also liked to go to the Austin City Limit (ACL) Festival in September (7 stages...3 full days of constant concerts down at Zilker park)...The Oasis is a great gig on the cliff overlooking the lake...it's really nice now, since the water levels have gotten closer to normal (Travis was down almost 40 feet a year ago.)

Talk with you soon.

Martin

 

[Fred West]

Martin, Since November? That is really rough. Enjoy your week. I can't believe I forgot about ACL, that is a great time. Well good luck with everything and please let me know when you test the one or more of the dust extractors. Fred

 

[Michael Kellough]

Some years after graduating from University, I was hanging out wish some of my university chums at the cottage, and we got to talking about this $800 Miele vacuum (this was a few years ago!) that one of my newleywedded buddies just bought - cleary 3-4 times more expensive than most of the others he and his wife had looked at.

All that to say, about 9 years later, my buddy still has his Miele vacuum and dishwasher and little complaints from him.  His wife on the other hand, would probably complain that the "novelty" has worn off for him, and her husband no longer wants to vacuum or load the dishes.

After two cheap vacs retired themselves in nearly as few years I bought a Miele vac. That was nearly thirty years ago and it's still going. In addition to better reliability a prime motivation was that they are quieter than other vacs (especially at that time). I have replaced the hose, power switch, and the swivel caster.

This vac has variable speed (which allows it to be even quieter) and was my first introduction to the value of adjusting suction to sanding speed and abrasive. Yes I took the Miele to the shop and connected it to my sanders.