North America Miele History Lesson Please!

[funvacfan]

Does anyone have information regarding the history of the imports from miele (vacuum cleaners, of course!)? I recently acquired an s138 i. Looks much older than any I've ever seen.

So who knows their miele history? When did they start making 110v vacuums for our market. What were the early models like?

Guy

 

[funvacfan]

Anyone?

 

[lux1521]

While you are waiting for someone with more knowledge...

...I'll tell you what I can. Since my local vac shop is a Miele dealer I have a very basic history. It started out in the US around the early 80s (or so I've been told) with the white/tan boxy cansiters. They later evolved to the colorful streamlined machines that we have today. The machines produced before sometime around 2003(?) had lamb motors. They tell me that it was easier to use a lamb motor to pass the various american electrical regulations than an adaptation of their own design. Newer models use a Miele built motor. It is a single stage motor with a specialy designed fan, heat resistent plastic, and the electrical components are in a different order on the motor shaft to help with cooling.
I hope this is a good enough temporary answer for you and might give you a basic idea of what happened. Hopefully someone around here will give you a more detailed answer. Someone who lived through the 80s and experienced this stuff themselves could help you out far more than I could.

 

[funvacfan]

Thanks!

I recently got an Air Clean s 238i and it looks kinda old. It's burgandy in colour and has the on/off, speed control on the handle of the hose. Different than the newer ones.

Guy

 

[lux1521]

Burgandy, speed control in the handle, this could be interesting. The number sounds like it could be an older one, but I could be wrong. I'd love to see a picture or two and I might be able to tell you more about it. The speed control in the handel is something I have never seen on a Miele and burgandy is a favorite color of mine so I'd be very interested in seeing a picture of it.

 

[compactc9]

About the motors...

Lamb motors were used in the models sold up into the mid/late 90s, when the higher end models switch to using a Domel built motor that is similar to the lamb, but better built. The latest models, even the low end Plus (which was the last to use the Lamb motor) now use the Domel built Vortex motor.

 

[lux1521]

Domel Motor

Was the Vortex motor was designed by Miele and just built by Domel, or did Domel design it on their own? Oh, and by the way thanks for the date correction on the motor change over.

 

[compactc9]

I don't know for sure who came up with the design, but I do know that the Vortex motor is pictured on the Domel site

http://www.domel.com/default.asp?lpage=1&p=suho&lang=en

 

[seamusuk]

According to this link..

The Vortex motor in the 5000 series is made by Miele- Obviously things with the motors are different in the US to UK/Euro versions as we had it drummed into us on our product courses that Miele were the only vacuum maker that made all their own electrical components!.

Personally I prefer the design of the earlier models against the 5000 series- they look fine but just dont feel as well made in my opinion . Has anyone else got thoughts on this??

Seamus

 

[andy]

Reggie,

Miele makes their own motors. Where did you hear/see that they were made by Domel?