Miele reverses stance, creates bagless vacuum poised to take on Dyson
Miele debuts the Blizzard CX1 at the IFA trade show in Berlin, its first bagless vacuum.
Miele stood to the side while other home appliance companies began to roll out bagless vacuums in the 1980s. The German manufacturer decided that vacuums with bags got homes cleaner, and, at the time, Markus Miele, one of its executive directors, said, "Bagless vacuum cleaning is not an option for our company."
Miele sucked it up Wednesday, with its announcement of the company's first bagless vacuum, the Blizzard CX1, at the IFA 2016 trade show here in Berlin. The Blizzard is a canister vacuum with an internal mono-cyclone design, which means it relies on one tornado-like tunnel of air to trap dirt and dust as it vacuums. The debris then goes through three stages of filtration so there's less fine dust flying out of the vacuum when you empty the canister.
At a press conference, Miele executives outlined advantages that the Blizzard's mono-cyclone design has over a multi-cyclone vacuum, such as less noise and more effective use of power. This appeared to be a shot at Dyson, the British manufacturer known for its line of high-end, multi-cyclone vacuums.
The Blizzard will begin selling in stores in October starting at €319 (about $355, £270 or AU$473). Miele has yet to announce a specific release date for the US -- and it will continue to sell vacuums with bags.