Miele Duoflex HX1 Cat & Dog Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review: perfect for pet owners

Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review in a sentence: A quality cordless cleaner that’s been neatly tailored towards pet owners.

There are some brands that ooze quality and Miele is right up there with the best of them when it comes to electrical appliances. And, while there are plenty of alternative options in our best cordless vacuum cleaner guide, I was super keen to try out the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. The model I’ve been using is a pet-centric special, which means that it comes with a bumper selection of cleaning heads and accessories. All are designed to help make the management of pet hair, pet food crumbs and more, much less of a faff.

While I’ve tried out some of the best vacuum cleaners, including the latest Dyson V15s Detect Submarine from the best Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners collection, this has been my first time with a Miele. And, one of the first things that struck me about it is just how predominantly plastic it feels. I know this helps keep the weight down, which is invaluable for a cordless vacuum, but I did expect it to feel a little more premium.

That aside, this is another model that might persuade you to skip the best robot vacuum models out there and keep doing the floors yourself. Here’s how I’ve been getting on with the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner.

Miele HX1 review: Price and availability

The Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner can be purchased right now and this model comes with a price tag between £369 and £499. How much you pay will largely depend on the model that you choose and there are five variants to pick from. The model I’ve been using is the pet hair edition, but there are five in all with a CarCare edition too, for any automotive fans who like to pamper their pride and joy using a dedicated appliance.

Miele has also created a range of seven colours, so you may even be able to match the machine to your décor or other electrical appliances. There’s even a Rose Gold model, which unsurprisingly is the model that comes with a hefty £499 price tag attached.

Miele HX1 review: What is it?

The Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is one of many cable-less models that are out there. In fact, there are so many options that choosing one can be a little bewildering. I was keen to try the Miele simply because I hadn’t ever used any of its machines, so expected the latest cordless model to be impressive. It does look the part, with clean lines and a lightweight design but somehow I’d expected it to feel a little more premium.

Nevertheless, the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner packs in a very decent specification, which you’d also expect from this brand. The design is quite clever in that the sections lock together using Miele’s new SpeedLock functionality. This works much better than some comparable models I have to say, allowing pipes and accessories to be locked, and unlocked with a satisfying clunk click movement.

Going back to the plastic feel that bugged me on my initial investigation though, I’m not a fan of the cleaner head wheels, that feel a little scratchy when they roll my wooden floors. To be fair, this is billed as an entry-level model so there’s bound to be a little compromise on the quality front. It’s got everything you need in the box though, from a good selection of cleaning heads through to a wall mount complete with screws plus power cable and adapter.

Miele HX1 review: Is it any good?

The Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner features a 210-Watt power unit, which Miele grandly calls a Digital Efficiency Motor, offers up to 55 minutes of runtime when fully charged. This is very respectable and makes it ideally suited to those middle-weight cleaning chores that require a bit more battery oomph than some lesser models. Expect up to 60m² of capacity at best.

While the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner might seem like a fairly generic cordless vacuum cleaner, it does have some features that give it a bit of a lift. The ComfortClean aspect is a neat touch. This means the body of the machine, where the motor is located, has a circular dial-type design at the top that allows the filter to be cleaned without the need for pulling it apart and washing the components. It’s handy if you’re reluctant to vacuum and even less keen on maintaining your cordless machine.

The Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner also comes with a cleaning tool for when you eventually get around to pulling it apart and giving the innards a once over. I quite like the easy access offered by the EasyOpen dust bin too, although it’s important to remember that at 0.3 kg capacity this is pretty small just like every other cable-less cleaner.

Miele HX1 review: Performance

As you would expect from a Miele, and despite my reservations about the slightly less premium quality of the components, this is a smart little cordless vacuum. The main thing it does is to detect the floor your cleaning and adjust performance accordingly. I’ve tried it moving from hard wood floors to carpet and rugs and the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner does indeed seem able to tweak the way it performs on the fly.

Better still, Miele claims that using the included Compact Electrobrush allows the appliance to offer a tad more performance on the Cat & Dog or TotalCare models. Miele also reckons that this little cordless is potent enough to be put up against its Miele Compact C3 cylinder vacuum cleaner when it comes to performance, although not owning one of those models I’m not able to confirm one way or another. The suction does feel surprisingly beefy though, for something so small.

My test model is the Cat & Dog edition, which has the benefit of a so-called Electro Compact handheld brush. This makes getting into the corners of stairs and sofas especially easy and, combined with the other array of attachments, means hair and fluff is easily tackled. 

During this sort of cleaning, I also felt the benefit of the 3.1 kg lightness of this machine, so wrist ache from holding it for too long is easily avoided. There’s a Total Care model that comes with what looks like all of the available attachments across the range, including the likes of a universal brush, an extendable extra-large nozzle and a flexible crevice nozzle.

Miele HX1 review: Verdict

I was initially left feeling a little underwhelmed by the look and feel of the Miele HX1 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. However, once I’d got it out of the box, snapped together the components and given it a full charge, the appliance proved its worth. The versatility of the cleaning accessories is impressive plus the smart suction works to good effect. It’s wonderfully lightweight and easy to hold too. Yup, there’s a pretty small rubbish bin, but that’s a given with a compact cordless. Other than that, this comes recommended.

Miele HX1 review: Alternatives to consider

As I hinted at earlier, cordless vacuum cleaner options are plentiful with lots of examples fitting the bill, like the H-Upright 300 Pets model or the more recent Hoover HF9 Cordless Vacuum. Of the other quality brands, there's the Tower VL100 Optimum Cordless 3-in-1 vacuum cleaner, which is very good as is the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute. Another goodie is the Gtech AirRAM Platinum premium stick solution.

As for the best of the rest, there's the Shark Anti Hair Wrap IZ202UK, which comes with Anti Hair Wrap tech. This uses a series of prongs to prevent long hair and threads from wrapping around the cleaning roller. It's well worth a look if picking up loose hair is a priority.