Miele S8330

This vacuum sucks. I bought it and it lasted 2 weeks before it stopped working. WTH!!!!

As a vacuum cleaner the S8830 machine works. It has powerful suction, is light and mobile.

As a Miele, it is poorly built.

In particular, the HEPA filter continually works loose. This is due to two very weak plastic clips which are supposed to hold the filter in place. However as soon as the filter gets even slightly blocked they are unable to hold the filter in the face of very high pressure from the cleaner. The result is that the filter pops out of place and the air finds its way around the filter, massively reducing the suction and creating a lot of noise. If these plastic clips break it looks like a new (plastic) chassis is needed... probably better is to get a new machine. This is a ridiculous loss of quality from a respected manufacturer.

Anyway, there are two solutions.. frequent changes of the HEPA filter (and the others)... this is expensive and time consuming.

Or, open the HEPA filter with a sharp knife around the edge and pour away the carbon contents. Replace the carbon with a piece of the standard Miele filter... this reduces the back-pressure and the whole machine works again. Of course you are not getting the HEPA filtering that you paid for but you are getting a working machine.

This is the first time that I have felt obliged to criticise the build-quality of a Miele product and I hope it is the last. All of my other equipment is Miele and it works well. However this is the newest item and I really hope that Miele are not following Bosch in building down to a poor level of quality.