I love my Miele.

I tried a lot of different vacuums and was never satisfied. None of them cleaned as well as an old canister vac with a brand new bag. Then I splurged and got a Dyson. OMG, my carpets are clean. I don't have to go back and forth over spots anymore. It cleans the rugs the first time. It's easy to use, easy to push around, and easy to empty. I don't dread vacuuming anymore. It also consistently cleans well, doesn't fade over time.

I have the same Dyson canister vac as in the top photo on this post. It was so worth the money. (Got it on W for a steal!) As pathetically domestic as this sounds, it is one of the best, most functional items I own.

There is such a thing as being too clean. Our society is increasingly paranoid about germs in the home. Something like a more efficient, powerful vacuum cleaner is great but some things are over the top.

I have that blue Dyson pictured in the main post, and I have to say it is a huge disappointment. Our beloved DC-10 broke after 8 years (that's the standard yellow upright Dyson). That thing rocked. But we moved to a house with three floors, and the upright Dysons are very heavy to carry up and down, so we replaced it with a Dyson canister. The dirt cup is MUCH smaller, and so has to be emptied more frequently. But the main problem is, it won't pick up on carpets. We have hardwood floors, but also a number of area rugs. The rugs are now a total pain to clean. The attachment doesn't suck up dog hair and surface lint on the rugs -- you can see it pushing that stuff around and not removing it. The attachment also gets clogged up easily with dog hair even on the hard floors and has to be cleaned out manually every time you use the machine.

Finally, the machine is not very compact and takes up a huge footprint to store.

On the plus side the compact head gets easily under furniture. Maybe this unit would work for someone with all hard floors and no pets, but it doesn't work well for us at all. I miss my old upright Dyson.

Love my older purple Dyson Animal. I vacuumed with the old vac then tested the Dyson on the "clean" carpet. It was shocking how much the Panasonic missed. (We kept the Dyson!!)

I wish I'd gotten the SteriPen before our trip to Egypt and Libya in 2005. (They had them, although this looks like an improved model.) I considered it and then passed, only to get "la tourista" after forgetting myself and drinking fresh lemonade with ice on the Nile Cruise. North American anatomy can have an adverse reaction to African microbes, it turns out. The pen could have been used in my lemonade (which I drank because I was weary of warm bottled water) and all would have been well. Nothing I'd use at home, but boy, if I ever again try international travel, I WILL have one!

I found (and painstakingly cleaned) a Dyson in a dumpster once. Who the hell throws away a Dyson? People who are too lazy to clean the brush head, that's who. I still own it five years later and it works just as well as a brand new one. I swear by that thing. Had I not found it I would never have gotten one as its a major splurge, but if it broke right now I know I'd go buy a brand new one.

This is a ridiculous collection. Yes, get a vacuum — sounds like everyone loves their Dyson. The rest of this stuff is either for traveling or hypochondriacs, not housekeeping. Do you really need so much purification in your life? I'm not a pro, but here's a tip: get sick once in a while. It's actually good for your immune system.

Love my Miele. Cost as much as a plane ticket to South America, but well worth the money.

I got a dyson, and I hate hate hate. I can't wait for it to break for reals so I can get something else. It is heavy, and I just can't stand the super rigid hose. In stead of extending, it just drags the vacuum along.

Never would I have thought that I would love a vacuum as much as I love our Miele. Lightweight, powerful, super easy to use.

Me too! I can't justify replacing it until it breaks (we bought a refurbished one from Woot and it was *still* 400 bucks), but it's a huge pain in the ass. Heavy, cumbersome to store and maneuver, unwieldy hose, and no retractable cord (really? $400 and I have to untangle and rewind that damn thing every time?). The "power head" attachment is a terrible joke that doesn't work. Next time, a Miele.

I also have the Dyson featured in the main photo, and I'm happy with it. It has amazing suction, and it does a good job on hard floors and our area rug. The best part is that it's so easy to empty the canister. The dirt just plops into the garbage. No disgusting dusty bag or filter to deal with each time. It's small so fills up quickly but in my mind that's a good thing because it means it's actually picking up dirt, hair, and dust!

We also have a Dyson and it's awful. It's possible that it's the same model that one of the posters wrote about above. It just doesn't pick up anything on carpet. You have to run it over the carpet over and over and over again.

The head is clean, the canister is empty, it's functional on hardwood but doesn't work on carpet, even just our rugs. I would never buy another Dyson. What a waste of money.

I love my iRobot by Roomba! Best purchase for the home!!! Highly recommend it!

Good housekeeping definitely does not include sterilizing water, unless your home includes someone whose immune system is very severely compromised for some reason. That being said, while I am not bubble boy, I am definitely going to look into that sterilizing water bottle to see if it is good for camping near wild water sources.

does anyone have the water system? i'm interested!

I had a Dyson animal. It was great for about 4 years, then it started falling apart. It was really heavy and difficult to move around the house, which resulted in banging it on stairs and doorways, which caused the plastic pieces to loosen enough so that dust was getting through the crack, and eventually some pieces snapped off. I switched to a Miele canister. It's lighter weight and easier to get into the corners, but I don't think it cleans the area rugs quite as well. Miele is much quieter and the material seems more durable.

Yeah, half this stuff is for travelling in the developing world, surely - not sitting around at home. Unless you live on a garbage dump in Cambodia, in which case you won't be reading this.

Nobody needs this level of purification and sterilization. It's just manufacturers cashing in on people's paranoia. :(

I have an iRobot Roomba. I thought it would be convenient, but it's pretty high-maintenance as far as a "robot" goes. It's loud, not as loud as a regular vacuum, but loud enough that it's hard to watch TV or read while you're in the same room. It never seems to get all of the dirt, either, with its erratic pattern system.

I would love to be able to "set it and forget it" before going to work or running errands, but it gets stuck on random things often enough that it's not really useful to leave it alone. It gets stuck on the horizontal feet of our love seat, and it sometimes backs itself into a corner under our couch. It also has this little spinner thing that grabs stuff and pulls it into the suction path, but it gets unbelievably clogged up with hair, so it stops and protests until you take off the spinner and remove the hair.

It has yelled at me several times.

I would rather sell it off and get one of these powerful uprights, but an old Roomba is not worth much on Craigslist :)

So:
Clean your water.
Clean your house.
Clean your house.
Clean your house.
Clean your water.
Clean your house.
Clean your water.
Clean your air.
Heat/move your air.
Clean your house.

*house = *floors!

I hate my Miele. It broke after 6 months and the dealer here did nothing -- plus he's nasty and makes it unpleasant to shop there. I should have followed up with the company -- but I was so angry that I bought an $80 small vacuum cleaner from Amazon and it is still running after 4 years.

I was about to buy a Dyson Animal durng the big Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Dyson sales. Then I started reading reviews that made me pass up several really really good deals. All across the interweb, the Dyson Animal's reviews are a mixed bag of loves and hates. The LG Pet Care line gets a thumbs up much more often, including from folks who have had Dysons. I'm saving my money foir the LG.

I'm not in the market, but I'd love to see some data on those purification wands! Wha-at?

Okay, now I'm REALLY curious about those UV purification wands! They're starting to sound a bit silly...

http://www.livestrong.com/article/290140-what-is-an-allergy-wand/

I bought it a DC25 Absolute which includes a bunch of tools (3 yrs ago), on a great sale even, when my previous Panasonic upright was still working great (still is today after 12 yrs). The Dyson has never proved to me why it's 3 times the price... It has never out-performed my Panasonic. And what little convenience may be had from the ball is done by sacrificing many other little conveniences. The suction is satisfactory but no better than my Panasonic. The carpet roller doesn't do edges any better nor does the carpet brush pick up any better. Beltless is nice, but not worth the extra money. The canister is no different than any other bagless vacuum out there now. The power cord is shorter.. OR you can pay even more for a longer one. The hose is shorter unless you pay even more. The attachments I have included in my Panasonic are extra with Dyson. The hose design (storage) is flawed. The motor is louder. The vacuum is heavier. My Panasonic in it's commercial form new today (more durable than the residential one I have) is half what my Dyson is today. Dyson is to vacuums... as apple is to Satan err I mean computers: it's all advertising and flash designed for the impressionable sheep.

Amen, JasmineIsDomestic! I've never really used all that antiseptic stuff, and the docs I've worked with in the past (I'm retired now) have agreed that all you wind up doing is breeding resistant organisms.

For what it's worth, I can't really remember the last time I was sick...