In the interests of frugality, Miss E and I are somewhat restrained when it comes to online shopping so this delivery was an exciting event.
Our old Hoover Hero (which I had inherited from my Nana) went to Hoover Hero Heaven about two weeks ago. Her head broke first. I bought her a new head as I had decided that it would be more cost effective than buying a whole new vacuum cleaner. Sadly, on the very same day that I bought her a new head, her hose broke. I decided that she was trying to tell me that it was all over for her and embarked on the search for a new vac.
I contemplated buying an Aldi cheapie but decided that a higher quality vac would be a better investment.
And so commenced the product research.
If you have ever worried that your knowledge of vacuum cleaners is not all that it could be, check out this Whirlpool forum. It will blow your mind. There are a lot of people out there giving a lot of thought to their vacuum cleaners. Good on them. It helped me. After reading the thoughts of people on this forum, we bought a Miele S5211. I haven't read the original source document, but apparently, it placed second in an April 2010 Choice test of vacuum cleaners priced between $250 - $600 (only losing out to another Miele).
The very best price I could find was online at Billy Guyatts.
It was love at first sight for me and the Miele. It was this image on the box that got me:
Look at the woman, she is sleeping. Look at the man, he is vacuuming. How lovely.
NB: I do not mean to imply that I have never seen a man vacuum before. In fact, Mr. B vacuums our home far more regularly than I do. I do like to see a man vacuuming but, even more than that, I like to see a woman sleeping. Good on her.
I freed the Miele from her packaging and fired her up. Here are my three key points:
1. The Miele is beautiful. I have never owned such a beautiful vacuum cleaner. It only comes in one colour and that colour may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is mine. It has its own set of little brushes that it stores in its own little on-board compartment. When you pause in your vacuuming (maybe to admire your work), the hose stands up by itself rather than spreading itself all over the floor. Tidy.
2. The Miele is not as silent as I had hoped.The Miele website features a pic of a sleeping baby.
If you associate a product with a sleeping baby, you can pretty much guarantee that a new mum will buy it.
Sadly, the Miele did not put Miss E to sleep.
In fact, Miss E was asleep (in another room) when I decided to give the Miele a go. I carefully turned it to the so-called "silent" setting... and a few minutes later she was awake.
The Miele had broken my cardinal rule: never wake a sleeping baby.
However, I cannot blame the Miele. There is a correlation between the Miele and Miss E waking but I cannot prove causality. Sadly, correlation is enough for me to be too scared to conduct further testing.
3. Most importantly, the Miele sucks up everything that is a) not octopus strapped to the floor and b) will fit into its cylindrical belly. Note to self: must ensure Miss E is safely secured before vacuuming around her as fishing her out of Miele's belly would not be fun for either of us (Note to reader: please do not report me to child protection. I do not actually believe the Miele could vacuum up Miss E and, even so, will not even try to vacuum anywhere near Miss E - refer to point 2 above).
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