Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/20/yes-get-a-high-end-vacuum-cle.html
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Fortunately, ages ago my brother in law worked for Miele, so we have one. Also found a local company that refurbishes vacuums: something you can do with a nice vac that you can’t/can’t justify with a cheap one.
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I concur. In my (I admit: limited) experience Dyson is exceptionally good at sucking money from your pockets. But not so good at sucking pet hairs from your carpet.
And my one broke a lot. I admit the dyson customer service repaired it each time with no questions asked, but after the 3d breakdown for no apparent reason I was done lugging it to some shop in a far away industrial zone and getting it sent to dyson.
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I shall pass this along to the servants.
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We enjoyed a Dyson for years and years - got so used to plugging up my ears using it when it finally gave up the ghost in a way I could not repair we got a bag less Philips for 150€ and I wish I had done this sooner lol…
Much quieter, easier to empty out, the handle is much nicer to hold and extends to a length suitable for tall people - the dyson made me stoop over, cringe at the noise and emptying it out was always a mess… On top of all of that the Philips uses a quarter of the energy ^^
No need to spend a ton…
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When I was a kid, probably around 1985 or so, two Kirby salesmen came to our door and sold my parents on a vacuum setup that was probably close to $1000. For my parents to shell out that much is shocking. Whatever those guys said to them was some goddamn magic. Probably the last two door-to-door salesmen in America.
I honestly can’t say if it was a worthwhile investment. I got away with being pretty lazy.
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Total piece of crap.
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Careful Rob, your bourgeois is showing.
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I have a Kirby and love it. Very effective, very easy to keep clean and working.
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Good to know. I may inherit one someday!
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Kirby still uses the salesman model, but it’s feels like MLM (and it may be, I’m not sure). The do have a pretty good pitch: They dump baking soda on your carpet, clean it up with your old vac, then show you how much was left behind by using theirs. They’ll also vac your mattress to show you a horrific volume of skin flakes.
A new one is way out of my price range though.
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My parents also fell for the Kirby sales pitch lol…
That thing lived for about 3 years till it got left sitting in the garage and my mother took it upon herself to buy something lighter less noisy and easier to use - which in the end kept the house much tidier
Also my father once or twice cleaned up after some woodworking and it just died…
the cheap vac they had before and after took lots more abuse before it gave up the ghost ^^
That and the fact our two dogs really loved to go at it when the Kirby was in use made it end up in the for sale section of the local rag…
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We have had a Miele for years, it is silent, problem free and rids our rugs from dog hair. Highly recommended.
I have never understood the anglo-saxon stand up variety of vacuum cleaners. They seem clumsy to me. How do you vacuum under furniture with those big things?
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You have your footmen lift the chesterfield up so the maid can hoover underneath.
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We have a kirby and it’s… OK. It’s almost cool in a retro sort of way. The deal is that it has the suck of the very cheapest modern vacuums but is indestructable. So it’s the “buy it for life” pick when “it” is “mediocrity”. It’s also a giant hunk of metal. It just sits on the top floor so we don’t have to haul the main vacuum up there.
It’s sort of like when you buy an old house and there’s a 100 year old cast iron gas heater that weighs 80 pounds and you’re like “this is worth something? is it cool? I can’t get rid of this? if I drop it on my foot maybe I will die?”
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Magic is correct, but in a different sense. The Kirby salesman who came to my door vacuumed a tiny piece of my carpet and captured what it picked up on a sort of paper filter. He put the clean filter in, vacuumed for about three seconds, and pulled out a filter covered in soot. Magic, I tell you. Magic.
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I worked for Kerby for a while back in the 90s when I could not find another job. Didn’t sell a single one… But is was not MLM, just regular sales.
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