My Journey with Various Cordless Cleaners as a Corded Replacement

[mixman]

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I have posted here last. I have occasionally lurked off and on however.

Just as some background, I own many of the major corded players, C3 Complete, Felix Simplicity Moxie upgraded, Miele U1 x 2 and I just recently sold my Kirby Avalir.
Even with all of those fine vacuums I just found myself vacuuming less and less. Now that my allergies as back in full bloom I am now paying more attention to my vacuuming habits.

I decided my place has too much stuff for a canister. I am constantly pulling, tugging on them and have even tripped over them several times....I know, I am a klutz. With my corded uprights I just get tired of looking for a spare outlet and again potentially tripping over the cord.

So this brings me to the topic of the post, my search for my corded vacuum replacements.......for the most part.......by a cordless or several cordless vacuums. I decided to buy several of the top contenders. I got a Dyson V11 Outsize, a Miele Triflex Cat and Dog and a Tineco S12. I bought them with the intention of returning one or maybe two of them. It just so happens with my duplex apt I can see a use case for having all three.

Just so you know, I got all at a substantially reduced rate, with the Tineco being less than half from Amazon warehouse. It just took a lot of bargaining to get the V11 and Triflex at a reduced cost.

Rather than bore everyone I will just summarize my impressions as this:

The V11 Outsize is the Andre the Giant of cordless cleaners. It is big, heavy and powerful, This is not a vacuum for grandma, It's use case if you have mostly carpet in your house.....lots of it and you want to get the job done quickly and without stopping. The dirt container is large and you can swap batteries quickly. It easily deep cleans better than some uprights and my old Sebo K3 canister. This is the mostly corded replacement sold. Just don't have high pile carpets of this vacuum is a no go. Look at a V10 or V8 instead.

The Tineco S12 has the best tech for operation a vacuum ever seen. It is also relatively quiet and comes with lots of tools and an extra battery. If this thing had more suction, it would be the only cordless necessary. I would get this as a light cleaner to go along with your corded cleaners. Not quite a corded replacement.

The Miele TriFlex Cat and Dog is the lowest tech of the bunch, just a simple battery indicator. It has the least suction and probably least airflow of the bunch. It is however very quiet at least in the lowest and mid setting. It is flexible and very sturdy, maybe too much so in that in handheld form is rather heavy. Miele obviously made this to supplement their corded vacuums and in no way is marketing this as a corded replacement. It is strictly a light cleaner at best, but I do like it for what it is. This vacuum however is the most overpriced of the bunch and only buy it at a reduced price......in other words either bargain with your local salesman or wait for them to go on sale, which knowing Miele will be on rare occasion.

I have decided with these three here so far to put my U1 and Simplicity in storage and will only keep my C3 and Felix for quarterly deep cleanings only. The cordless vacs will be for daily use.

If you have any questions about these vacuums and want me to go into more depth about them let me know.

 

[ocscott3085]

I have the Dyson V11 Torque Drive and am very happy with its performance one year later. When the V11 Outsize first came out I was definitely interested in purchasing one. I have a pretty large house and love the idea of swapping out batteries. However, looking at the machine in various demos I can't imagine using it to do anything but floors. I use my V11 Torque Drive on the floors, sofa, to dust, etc. The pickup is excellent on all floor surfaces that I have used it on. I only use my central vac about once a week now.

I've also owned the V8 and the only issue I had with it was the battery began losing power just before the end of its two year warranty. Thankfully Dyson just sent me a new battery since the vacuum was still under warranty. I preferred the size and weight of the V8 over the V11 but the Torque Drive is definitely more powerful and has a much longer battery life.

 

[mixman]

Yes the Dyson is easily the best performer, not necessarily the best in all areas, but it can be a whole house solution.

After the Outsize not sure where Dyson can/will take it from here. The Outsize is already........Oversized and almost too bulky and heavy for many, so I doubt they will be making them any larger and the suction is right at the edge for most people in that on high pile carpet, even at the lowest setting can barely be moved. I see in the Asian markets that Dyson has released a slim version on the V11, which is smaller and lighter. This may be the way the V12 goes as it can't get any bigger and be called a portable stick vacuum. Tech will probably be the way with better sensors, better air flow and better brush roll technology.

 

[mixman]

LG Kompressor

For labor day I decided to pick up the LG A9 Kompressor to see how good it was compared to the other cordless sticks I bought. Off hand, while not a bad vacuum. At it's price again it is still not as powerful as I thought it would be and not a whole lot of features either.

The main problem I have with it is I noticed, as in a recent review, the power on low is just.......too low. that along with the fact that the LG does not have the best agitation and I could barely tell where the vacuum had been on my rug. The power doesn't really start to show up until the medium setting and you can start telling that this can be a somewhat powerful vacuum on the high setting. By that time it is loud and shrill and you feel the need to want to turn it down, plus battery life goes quickly too. The Kompressor feature of compressing the dirt, is cool but really not enough to justify my keeping this cordless stick vacuum priced on sale at $599. If you must have it, wait till it goes on a bigtime sale. Otherwise the V11 and the Tineco S12 are better deals and better all around vacuums.