Miele S434i White Pearl Vacuum Cleaner: Review (In Retrospect)

My father always used to say that if we're lucky, we can learn from the mistakes of others, if we're not so lucky, we have to learn from our own mistakes, and some people never learn at all.

We all know that hindsight is 20-20. This review is about a product that we bought about 10 years ago, but it could play an important role in your purchase decision today.

About ten years ago we had a little extra money, so we decided to buy what we thought would be the ultimate vacuum cleaner, the vacuum that would last a lifetime.

I have an ASET ( Associate in Science in Electronics Technology ) and worked as an electronics R&D ( research and development ) technician for 27 years.

I knew not to fall for the "amps" scam that some manufacturers were foisting on the public at the time. They were advertising vacuums by the "amps" ratings of the motors, in other words, how much electrical current the motor draws.

This was nonsense to me at the time, and still is, if I see such claims.

A light bulb can draw amps ( current ) but it won't vacuum worth a hoot.

I was more interested in whether the vacuum I was interested in had the suction power to suck up a pop can ( being facetious here ), not in how many amps the motor drew.

So after looking at what was around at the time and some of the reviews, I decided that Miele looked like they made quality vacuums that would really last.

This was important to me, because I was about 48 years old at the time and had been through all kinds of the more common vacuums over my lifetime so far. They all lasted awhile, but didn't filter the air very well, and I got sick from vacuuming and had developed an aversion to cleaning because of it. And most of them didn't have very powerful suction, so they didn't clean very well.