A rather unusual Goblin Laser

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But I agree though, the build quality was nasty. The difference was back then that the price ticket reflected this. These days when one buys a cheap quality cleaner there is every chance they pay a fortune for it, if of course the manufacturer insists on so much alleged research and design. Mentioning no names.
 
And that, Jamie, is how it all works. To qualify for a higher price, something only has to be BETTER than the best available; it does not have to be the best it can be. Just the best available. Meile has a solid reputation on which it can sell anything. They are now drawing on this more so than ever, I feel. Years ago, if you bought a Meile appliance, you were buying the very best. Now, if you buy Meile, you are buying the best name, and the best available. That does not make it the best possible product, just the best on sale.

Sadly for Meile, some consumers have worked this out for themselves, and whilst they don't deny that Meile is the best available, they do question whether two cheaper products bought for half the price each would, in the course of a period of time, actually be better than one Miele product which may or may not last that length of time.
 
Miele's washing machines are amazing though. A friend of mine owns a big launderette in town. They have tons of commercial grade washers and two Miele ones in the back. Shame they're so expensive and I have yet to meet an owner who actually wires up their PC laptop to the machine in order to get the claimed upgrades that most Miele washing machines promise.

I do like Miele's trouser/clothing roller press. Steams/irons and flattens. Shame its so expensive though.

 
Miele washing machines...

I absolutely love my Miele washer. I got it 4 years ago on sale at £550, with the full 10 year guarantee. It's quiet, quick, well built and the results are excellent. Sadly, Miele prices have rocketed since then and it's certainly a shame about the quality of their vacs. Sebo are really kicking their butt at the moment.
 
Miele prices have rocketed

And this, gentlemen, is the problem. Price. Given that all white goods now have to meet ultra high standards of performance and efficiency in order for the consumer to give them a second look, the only thing left for Meile to compete on now is the build quality. When that quality is coming in at more than twice the price of an alternative, people will always question whether or not it is worth buying one expensive machine in the hope it will last a long time, or buy two or even more much cheaper alternatives over the course of a number of years, on the basis that if it is financially more sensible to do so, they may as well do such.

What this thinking does not allow for of course is whether a cheaper machine will work continually and then breakdown beyone economical repair after a few years, or whether it will be problematic from day one, requiring lots of TLC as time progresses. But then I think that is a problem with anything mechanical one buys; it is a game of chance. Fourtunatly some products from some brands stand out as being a bad choice, for example Indesit dishwashers and Whirlpool built in cooking appliances have has terrible reports. Sometimes it is whole brands, like Serivs as it was in latter years.
 
I agree, but the worst insult about Miele is the fact that you have to pay more money for selected models for their 10 year guarantee as opposed to the standard 1/2 years. Sometimes they give it away for free seasonally, but most of the time the 10 year guarantee on their vacuums is cost optional or factored into the cost on the higher top of the line models, or specific ones. SEBO give away a 5 year guarantee as standard, Bosch 2 years to 4 years, again cost added and Vax, who offer a 6 year warranty on their current Mach Air and selected models. None of their paper pleated filter models carry the extended guarantee though.
 
I did recently compare the cost of an 8KG capacity 1600rpm Miele washing machine against other brands. Even with the ten year guarantee I can't think it was worth the horrendous price tag it came with. It did not strike me as value at all. One could literally have bought four cheaper machines and still had some money left to pay for the installation.
 
It does make you wonder whether the so called "big brands" are really worth it when you compare them with a cheaper brand which has, granted, a shorter guarantee, but a lesser price tag and a "less to go wrong" assurance.

There is a large amount of "keeping up appearances" when it comes to those expensive brands I think.

Now I'm not saying that everybody who owns a Miele is trying to be better than others or match up to them (far from it), but I am saying that it is indeed a selling point for a lot of people.

Not that there is a problem with that, if I had more than two pennies to rub together I may do that to a certain extent, but I don't, so I make do and through doing that I have discovered that although better in theory, expensive products are not the be-all and end-all, so to speak.

Lets take an example from something that we all know about - vacuums.

I own a 1993 Philips U800 and a 1994 Hoover Turbopower 1000 Autosense.

The TP1000 would have been about £150 new and the U800 somewhere around £60 I'd imagine (Chris, I'm sure you can correct me if I'm wrong).

The Philips has a plastic hose, two tools, no "five stage filtration" or any lights or sounds.

It does however have an 800W motor which is incredibly powerful in terms of suction and the brush roll is the best I've known aside Hoover's Activator.

It is now 19 years old and everything works as intended, even the rather iffy height adjuster.

Take the Hoover, it has a hose which will practically do all your stairs with the vacuum at the bottom, three tools and two extension tubes (one of which is a long crevice tool), five stage filtration and has some nice Autosense lights and a bag check light.

The 1000W motor was incredibly powerful and the brush roll was amazing.

Why the past tense? Well the motor burnt out earlier this year despite being a TOL vacuum in its day and being a year younger than the BOL Philips.

Now I'm not saying all Hoovers are bad because they were expensive nor am I slagging them off but what I am saying is that cheap is not always bad.

Yes the Hoover was slightly better to use and it was made sturdier with a better array of tools however when the motor burns out, none of that matters.

My simple old U800 keeps on going with its no singing and no dancing design.

I'm not trying to irritate people who buy/have bought expensive products and are happy with them, but I am just stating that things aren't always as they seem...

With what is quite possibly my longest post on VL, I bid you goodnight.
 
Chris, I wasn't buying one at all, sorry. I was just looking. Here we have a laundry room with five large industrial Meile washing machines and dryers, which I use, but I would have to look at the model to know what they are. My cleaner / my angel Linda has just bought a new washing machine and she was saying that she was torn between a very cheap to use and wear out, or a very expensive one in the hope it would give long service. She had bought a Candy on the basis it was cheap and probably wouldn't last long, but in fact had given almost five years of trouble free service. In the event she bought a Hotpoint this time as she found one for a very reasonable price.
 
Proves my point Benny, even a poor make can last a fair while and work out cheaper to replace more regularly than an expensive one.
 
Cheap Is Not Always Bad

True, cheap products aren't always bad - but if you can't get spares for it, you're sunk. This is where the compromise must be made for owners who just need a reliable vacuum cleaner rather than collectors whose machines don't see much action. This is where the premium brands like Miele, Sebo and Bosch fight back because spares are made available for some of their oldest models.

For example, I had a cheap JMB 1000 watt bagged stick vac based on the Philips London stick vacuum many years ago. I bought it a year before Index catalogue shut down and cost me £39-99. Absolutely brilliant stick vacuum but it had to be used with generic dust bags as the original ones either by Philips or JMB went out of production. The secondary filters were also hard to find and eventually had to buy universal cut to fit Microfilters.

I eventually sold the vacuum for the same price I paid for it and included a few smaller cleaning tools because the original tools were never available to get other than the short crevice tool it came with. Again, if I hadn't had bought other "expensive" brand tools such as Hoover's spare tool kits or just a single purchase of a Hoover brush etc alone, I don't think I'd have been able to recoup the same price when it came to a sale.

Proof that yes, even if a machine is reliable, it can't always be trusted to be a good buy if spares aren't available - and if the brand name isn't an unknown source.

Even considering the major brands that Jamie owns - Hoover & Electrolux - spares are always available for most of their floor care ranges. But this is only because "back in the day," those were the popular and reliable brands.
 
Very true Ryan, to get bags for my JMB SC1056 is nigh on impossible these days despite the cleaner only being 4 years old.

In saying that though, it has been 100% reliable and never given me any problems but the lack of spares is definitely a major downfall.
 

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