Vacuum cleaners: Miele vs Dyson

I have a family with a big house, two kids and a cat. We need a strong and flexible vacuum cleaner. A year ago we bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner (V10). Before we used a Miele (Black Pearl). Which one is better?

V10 and Black Pearl

The answer

This seems like a simple question, but actually it is impossible to answer. One thing is clear that both vacuum cleaners:

• Do their job well
• Are top-class (and expensive)

On the other hand they are completely different from each other. For years most vacuum cleaners looked like Miele’s. There wasn’t a lot of innovation in households goods. Vacuum cleaners, for example, looked and worked the same for decades. Dyson changed this by making vacuum cleaner cordless and bagless. Let’s start with pros and cons of the v10.

Dyson: V10

Pros

• Bagless and cordless
• One mode for different surfaces
• Suction power stays the same
• Good battery (1 hour cleaning)
• Easy to store with the wall system
• Easy to carry up and down the stairs
• Easy to clean your car (no cord)
• Easy to push across carpets
• Easy to turn on/off

Cons

• Cleaning filter
• The stick bar is stiff (More difficult to get under the couch, for example)
• Handle drive bar with care (you can not touch skin like Miele)
• Louder
• No sucking power with drive bar off
• Heavier to hold in your hand
• The tools and accessories are in the wall system (not at hand)

Miele: Black pearl

Now let’s return to our good old black pearl. Note that in Miele's current line up you can find comparable products as Dyson. But as Miele is a king in corded and bagged vacuums I would like to compare it with our traditional vacuum cleaner. What are the pros and cons of the black pearl…

Pros

• Different modes (Silent mode)
• Tend to have more suction power (Subjective)
• Easy to throw away bag
• Lighter to hold in your hand
• Very flexible to get under stuff
• Don’t need to hold your hand to keep it running
• The tools and accessories are placed in the cleaner

Cons

• Limit by the cord
• Standing in the way
• Need to change mode on drive bar when switching surface
• Harder carry up-and-down / Heavy to lift
• Harder to push across carpets
• The bags cost additional money

Conclusion

It’s interesting that Miele and Dyson had two very different engineering approaches. Somehow both end up in very good results, although they feel like opposites. The pros of the one are the cons of the other and the other way around. Still, I love both. Strange, but true.