Miele S 712 > Reviews (2)

I purchased one of these after the Dyson started to give up. It lasted well but the suck started to go, even after replacing the filters, and the plastic joints had started to snap. This led me to look for a replacement. After having a search round I decided that I fancied a change from the bizarre looking Dyson. The Hoovers, Panasonics and the Miele's were browsed through. Pound for pound however the Miele stood out as a front runner. The usual price of £200 would of discouraged me. But with an extra £40 off at Curry's it was not a bad deal at £159.99.

Mine is actually a 2000W (max) so I think the description on here is wrong. It is also a sleek metallic titanium colour and does not look bad at all. Much better than the blue in the picture.

Out of the box it looks fairly good. It all appears to be built sturdily with a good strong feel about the whole machine. It comes with a standard floor head, crevice nozzle, dusting brush and upholstery nozzle. There is also a 'Turbobrush' that has a rotating brush operated by the suction of the vacuum cleaner.

The Miele S712 operates at 300W Min to 2000W max. There is a easy to use adjustment dial on the top. Six symbols represent curtains, furniture, rugs, light daily use, fitted carpets and intensive cleaning.
The fitted carpets and intensive cleaning modes really does give extremely powerful suction. It can be quite hard to actually move the vacuum on the carpet. In all modes however the Miele S712 has an extremely quite operation.

It has all the features you would expect from a vacuum. Telescopic tubes, cord rewind, edge cleaning etc. It also has a handy bag full indicator and five filters. It does not have a HEPA filter, however the standard filter looks like it can be replaced with a HEPA version if needed.

The S712 has a park mode which is quite good. Although there appears to be a lot of weight on the plastic mechanism in park mode which I am not that fond of. It does however have an additional slot on the side to which the telescopic tube can be attached for storage or transporting. This is quite a neat feature and keeps things tidy.

Weighing in at 7.9kg it is not super light but again its not that heavy. I guess the 2000W output adds to its weight and you do carry all the accessories with you. Most people should cope but I would recommend checking the weight at a shop if your unsure.

It has taken a little while to sort out the best setting for a particular surface but the suction is really good and you know you can always turn it up a notch for stubborn dirt.

My recommendation would be to look further than the multi coloured Dysons at what the others are offering as they are definitely just as good if not better. The Miele S712 has proven to be a very good piece of equipment.

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UPDATE: 21 March 2007

I have at last had to change the bag after over 4 months of use. The bags are not reuseable which is a bit of a negative. But then they are made of a fine fabric that is full of dust etc. Which will in turn affect the overall suction of the machine if reused.

After searching high and low on the Web I found a great deal for vacuum bags. Most places will charge about £9 to £10 for a box of five original Miele bags (£2 each) that include a replacement dust filter and air filter. You can by alternative paper versions but I wanted to get the original item.
I found a site that I could get 5 boxes for £33 (inc postage) That worked out at a cost of £1.32 each and should easily last five years. A single box of 5 was £8 (inc postage).

The change itself was simple. Flip up the front panel and slide the old bag out. The bags have a plastic clip on them so all you need to do is slide the new one into the holder on the Miele and close the lid. Simple :)