Miele S7260 Cat & Dog review

If the name wasn’t enough of a clue, Miele’s upright S7260 vacuum cleaner is designed specifically for anyone with pets. It has a Turbo brush nozzle designed to achieve a deeper clean for animal owners, using rotating bristles that should cope well with pet hair.

The S7260 uses bags rather than a bagless design. This shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing, as bags help contain the dirt and are often cleaner to empty. You shouldn’t have to empty the bag too often, as each bag holds a whopping 6L. A refill pack, which includes four bags, a motor filter and an air clean filter, costs £10. You can expect to need a new pack around every six months.

A pack of bags also includes replacement filters

The bag is hidden behind the bright red plastic front; you can open the door and remove the self-sealing bag with one hand, but you won’t be able to shut it again until you fit a new bag. The plastic mechanism felt a little flimsy, so you may need to extend some care when opening and closing it.

The S7260 conveniently has storage for its smaller accessories, including the crevice nozzle, upholstery brush and dusting brush, built into the rear of the vacuum, so they don’t overhang and won’t get accidentally knocked when in use. You’ll need to completely unwind the 10m cable from around the top handle to get to the hose and actually use them, however. With the telescopic tube, it has a huge 14.5m of reach, which is better than all the other vacuum cleaners we’ve tested. The controls are conveniently places on the handle too, so you don’t have to reach down to turn the cleaner on or off.

Despite weighing 9.5kg when empty, the S7260 is still easy enough to carry around thanks to a sturdy handle on the rear. Of course you could wheel it about instead, but with two fixed wheels and two front castors it isn’t particularly adept at pivoting on the spot.

Miele rates the S7260 at 71dB(A) during general use, but it didn’t sound particularly annoying or intrusive while we were using it.

We measured suction at 29.5kPa with an empty bag, which gives the S7260 an above average suction rating, even compared to more compact cylinder vacuums. We had to completely fill the six litre bag before suction dropped slightly to 28kPa; anything less and it suction was just as powerful as with an empty bag.

Unlike some upright vacuums, the S7260 doesn’t vent at the front so you don’t need to worry about blowing dust away just as quickly as you suck it up. In our practical tests, it took quite a few sweeps to completely clean both our carpet and hard floor test areas, coming up short when we weighed the bag after four firm strokes. It has several power settings for different surfaces, but even on the highest setting we noticed some remaining grains of cat litter after our tests.

At £260, the S7260 is an expensive upright vacuum, especially as it also uses bags. The Panasonic MC-UL426 costs considerably less, yet has only slightly less suction and uses less power to boot. Unless an extra-long cable is a necessity or you insist on self-sealing bags rather than a potentially messier bin, the Panasonic is the better buy for most people.