Found the perfect vacuum! And he broke it :(

[Babbs]

My difficult child is auditorily defensive and HATES being around when the vacuum is on, let alone having to help do the chore.

When he was a week old I bought a Hoover Wind Tunnel canister vac and it lasted almost 9 years, finally dying this spring. We bought a cheap Bissell from Walmart and by August you could tell was just not going to do the job with 3 cats and a young boy household (I'd walk along a carpet an hour after vacuuming it and could feel the bits under my feet).

So I did some research and found a company called Miele that makes highly rated vacs (by Consumer Reports). All their vacs have adjustable voltage so that you can control how much power you want to use which affects the noise level. The canister types are lightweight and small to be able to maneuver easier in small spaces (like our tiny apartment). They can be pricy, so I saved for two months for it!

So yesterday was the big day - had ordered a canister type, it got delivered, and I put it together. Was like a kid in a candy shop. difficult child loved it! We played around with the adjustable power, he didn't run screaming from the room like he normally does. This vac is QUIET! I had it on full power and my best friend couldn't hear it running on the telephone. My SO was sleeping in the next room and didn't get woken up. difficult child actually wanted to vacuum with it!

It's lightweight and a very low profile power roller brush head and he had no problem maneuvering it around the living room. It vacuumed beautifully! Then difficult child decided we needed to vacuum under the couch, he pushed the head under the couch and it got stuck. Next thing I knew he yanked hard (despite being told to wait I'd get it unstuck) and when the head popped back out from under the couch the plastic connector attaching the locking mechanism for the wand to attach to the turbo head was broken!

Had the $500 vac 30 minutes and ....

So now I get to spend time on the phone today with the company I purchased it from trying to get a replacement part.

After getting teary eyed I put the hard wood/low pile carpet attachment on the wand and was able to vacuum the rest of the apartment. It did an amazing job even without the power brush! I'm still in love with it

 

[TPaul]

Sorry for the vac getting beat up on its first trip home,

We go through vaccumes around here like sand through a sieve. One of my mail man friends about 6 months ago, made the following comment to me when he say me at the antique shop vaccuming.
"There you are with another vaccum, it seems like I see you coming out the salvation army very other week with a different vaccum." LOL LOL, we do go through a lot of them with both the wife and kids trying to vaccum things that where never meant to go through a vaccum hose!!

Hope you can get the part and good luck.
T. Paul

 

[Fran]

I get really upset when something I love gets broken because of difficult child's rough handling. I can understand the frustration.
Good luck with finding the parts.

 

[TerryJ2]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I am SO sorry! been there done that! My difficult child has broken so many things ... sometimes I wonder if I'm losing my mind ... I can't recall playing with-certain toys, can't find certain tools ... then I remember, oh, yeah, difficult child.
Sigh.
I feel for you. I really do.

 

[GoingNorth]

Just a warning about the Miele vacuums:

They are indeed very efficient at what they are supposed to do, BUT not only are the bags hard to find, but the parts are very fragile.

I had a Miele for many years when I ran the cattery and it did a great job on picking up pet hair and cat litter.

Unfortunately, it was in and out of the shop constantly.

 

[Babbs]

Luckily with the Internet, I don't think the bags will be that big of a problem. I've already observed the fragility of the parts. On the flip side, if it makes a horrendous chore much easier in the household then I'll put up with ordering replacement parts. difficult child has been known to tantrum for over an hour and run screaming at the top of his lungs when the other vacs were turned on, he's that auditorily defensive. Today he started to tantrum about having to sweep the kitchen floor - I suggested he use the bare floor fixture on the new vac (it was the power brush that broke) and he immediately turned off the tantrum and said "what a good idea Mom!" 5 minutes later the floor was spotless and he was in a good mood.