"Another thing..top exhausts..."
danemodsandy… what you described perfectly about the selling experience of the high cost Miele mirrors the same selling experience we got when we had a Kirby salesperson visit us back in the 1980's. He didn't get a sale sadly and the upright was far too big to wield around our narrow hallways - one of the very reasons to why we preferred our more basic Hoover Junior models. The Kirby looked and felt wonderful - but its £1000 cost price was far too expensive and when it struggled to get down our narrow hallway, no matter how much dust it picked up compared to our tiny little Junior, it made no sense as a purchase.
I will say this about Miele though - they may produce "selected models" in the U.S by putting names to them and then kitting out the machines with different accessories and attachments and then hiking up the price - but in the UK Miele were perhaps not as clever as they would like to think by offering the same accessories online. This means savvy UK buyers who may not be able to afford the "Cat and Dog" S5 vacuum could easily just buy a basic S5 and a second hand turbo brush with the Active Air Clean filter on board. Hey Presto you've probably saved yourself £40 to £50 in the making.
eurekaprince - Since Miele's 1970's block canisters, they have forever put the exhaust at the top - it is a total nightmare if you don't have the higher cost Active Air Clean or HEPA filter bought before hand to change the old one. I find the Super Clean micro filter useless for airborne dust capture. More noticeable I may add, when you have freshly painted walls and you're trying to vacuum up the carpet - next thing is airborne dust captured on the walls forever unless you add another coat of paint! Now that isn't going to happen EVERY DAY but it is more of a major pain when I don't like ingesting the motor each time I bend down to change the suction anyway as I already said. I also own two Bosch canister vacs - they mirror the Miele on design but the exhaust is also at the top but diffused down the way towards the cable - so when you bend down to change the suction dial setting, you don't get a face full of air. It's a simple design that I'd have thought "the masters of hygiene," Miele would have changed by now - they are after all, the only manufacturer who produce clinical grade cleaning systems - so you'd have thought that a company who pride themselves on containing bacteria would have changed the exhaust so that the owner doesn't get the machine air that pumps out.
I have had budget priced Hoover canisters (the Telios especially) where the exhaust is also located at the top - but it doesn't give you a face full of air either because the exhaust is diffused away from the suction slider.
The best exhaust system I've found so far is offered on the Sebo C, K and newer D series canisters - all contained at the sides within the air belt bumper. Such a handy idea that offers protection to the home, the vacuum and no way near the user! If you look at the pic below you'll see all the arrows of how the diffused air works from the compact K canister. The top arrows from the top filter (in green) indicate the motor air being diffused through the filter and inside the vacuum towards the sides through the Airbelt.
Now if Sebo, a company who have not been making vacs for that long can do that to improve life for the user, why can't Miele?
