Saturday 20 August, 2005

It sucks!

imuri.jpgFor years and years we've suffered from bad vacuum cleaners. Granted, we've always gone for the cheap models, and that's exactly what we've received. Especially in England, the land of the carpeted houses, poor vacuums make your life miserable. All dirt just gets sucked into these deep "luxurious" (their words, not mine) carpets, hair, dust, it's just a complete mess.

I don't know how common it is to have full carpets in Canada, but in our current apartment that's what we have. When we first moved in, one of the first things we bought was a vacuum. First time I used it, it good and I was happy - every single time since then it's gone downhill. Changing the bags, cleaning it up, changing settings, nothing helps. The truth is, we paid peanuts for the vacuum (because that's was what we had) and it was shit.

It seems weird to buy a new appliance if the old one still has a valid guarantee, but this time we agreed we wouldn't suffer no more. So this morning I had a look at some vacuums on the net, and was amazed to find out how much they can cost. Our previous one cost around $100, but it seems it's not difficult to buy something that costs seven or eight times that. It wasn't quite as much as I was thinking about spending, but determined to find a proper vacuum this time we set out to buy one.

Sears on Robson even has it's own department for vacuums, so that seemed like a good place to start. And immediately after wandering in a salesman came to help us. Bob seemed really knowledgeable and recommended us a $500 Kenmore - the fact that he didn't recommend the most expensive model was a plus - and even demoed it to us. Yes, they had little carpets and buckets of dirt so we could take the beast for a ride. I say beast, but it's actually quite cute little canister vacuum, red and quite elegant. After Dragon saw it in action he was ready to go for the kill and we made the deal. (It turned out that Bob was actually from Norway - he looked middle-eastern.)

And now the baby is home, and I took it for a little ride - just few trouble spots with lint and hair, and oh yes, we seem to have a winner. It's light as a feather, quiet as a hamster, and sucks beautifully, fulfilling all the promises Bob made. Suddenly I understand why people are so willing to pay so much for such simple appliaces. The user experience is totally different with this high end model, it's light and ergonomic and...

I'm lost for words. I'm in love.

Posted by kolibri at 20 August 18:48, 2005
Comments
# 1 - Gareth Lewin (on August 20, 2005 11:35 PM):

Wow $500 is a lot for a hoover :)

http://www.costco.ca/en-CA/Common/Category.aspx?whse=&topnav=&cat=4717&hierPath=103*&Browse=

We actually have two, a Dyson DC07 (http://www.dyson.com/range/feature_frame.asp?model=DC07-SY-HEPA) and another one we bought at Costco. The dyson is great, but unfortunately we bought it in the UK, so it uses 220v, and we don't have 220v downstairs.

Still, a DC costs less than $500.

I don't want to rain on your parade, I'm sure it's a very good appliance, but I'm a bit surprised at the price.


# 2 - Merten (on August 20, 2005 11:57 PM):

Hah! Obviously, it's time to found The Appreciation Society for Fine (and expensive) Vacuum Cleaners. Compared to our beast (which, if I haven't mentioned it before, has driving lights), you still got yours in quite affordable price.


# 3 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on August 21, 2005 07:05 AM):

This one has driving lights too, you can actually see it in the photo - and sign me up for ASFVC :) And yes, $500 (+ tax of course) is a lot for a vacuum, but we've got so fed up with bad ones we didn't want to take a chance anymore. And if it works like we want it to, it's all worth it.


# 4 - Mikki (on August 21, 2005 09:23 AM):

My old vacuum cleaner looks like it could be from the seventies. It's actually not all that bad at sucking in all the crap floating around -- guess they built those things to last back then -- but I've literally carried small blocks of concrete that were lighter, and to top it off, the miserably ugly piece of shit no longer has any wheels. It probably lost them sometime before the Wall fell.

Let's just say that when I changed roommates and a new hoover came with the roommate, I wasn't exactly depressed. As far as actual performance goes, I don't think it's as good as the old one, but at least it's smaller than your average farm animal and it follows you around fairly obediently without heavy lifting. I'd say it's an improvement.


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