Vacuum Shopping Sucks

Early this week, the plan for Sunday was to get with Tess* for many hours and talk about the first-draft of her novel. You all know me and the writing thing as well as me and the DLT thing…obviously I was looking forward to it and moved some tasks around so I could focus on it.

Well, that plan changed to a family gathering with Mary and the clan. Normally, if I wasn’t laden with stuff to do, I’d have jumped at it. Unfortunately, since I couldn’t figure out a good way to do that and talk about the novel, I had to beg off as I had that now-unscheduled block of novel-talk time still looming. How to fill the day now? With one of those pesky tasks on the list: vacuum shopping with Mom.

Our Hoover 593 works fine, just can't find belts that fit it well anymore.

The Carter household has long held to the practice of having two vacuums: one for normal use, and one as a backup for when the other needs maintenance. Both of the vacs my mom has are Hoovers, one 40-ish years old and built like a tank, and the other a considerably newer model that is self-propelled. With my mom’s stamina flagging as each year goes by, I can’t begin to describe her ecstasy over having a self-propelled vacuum.

Unfortunately, Hoovers aren’t built like they were 40 years ago. They break. A lot. I’ve given up the task of trying to keep the newer one in repair. And the older one? They don’t market a drive belt the correct size anymore. They now have a one-size-fits-whatever belt that simply doesn’t come close to fitting.

So, out of reasonable options, it was time to hie me forth to seek out a new vacuum. More to the point, seeking out an inexpensive vacuum (i.e. under $250…these are currently frugal times).

Obviously, even before stepping foot in a store, I did a lot of online research (I’m a geek…it’s our way). I can’t begin to tell you how depressing it all is. In this price category, there are a lot of gripes about just about all of the vacuums out there. The ones that don’t get griped about (or, more to the point, are raved about) are the few that you can’t find in stores–often commercial models.

As I mentioned, my mom has been spoiled with a self-propelled vacuum. Since she wants to be able to maintain her independence (the woman loves to vacuum), she wants a machine that she can handle that won’t exhaust her. On the plus side, once we got in the stores she surrendered the requirement that the vacuum use a bag. Frankly, they are few and far-between at this point, so that expanded the options considerably.

So…Sunday afternoon was spent in a myriad of stores with me lifting or bringing down vacuums from store shelves. (What’s with all the stores having them on shelves instead of, you know, on the floor? Vacuum-seller irony?) True, they aren’t that heavy at only 9-10 kg (20-22 lbs), but after about five hours of “Let me try that one,” “No, let me try that one,” “Let me try that one again,” “What’s that one like?”, the novelty wears off.

We left all the stores without purchasing a vacuum. First, of all the department stores, only Sears provided us actual plugged-in vacuums on actual carpet. That alone is worth tons. A lot of the cheaper models seemed, well, cheap. The quality of build definitely improved with the price tag.

In the end, though, there are all of those pesky reviews. I don’t want to buy a vacuum that my mom hasn’t had the opportunity to test. We discovered that the Eurekas were surprisingly difficult to push, even on a hard floor, which I hadn’t expected. Hoovers are out because their quality & service is considered to be crap at present. It pretty much leaves us with any of the various Bissell models. (Dysons are just too over-priced.)

I fear that we are about to jump on a treadmill of disposable vacuums. Even expensive vacuums have their complainants. I do know that if you go too inexpensive, you get doorstops. On the other hand, a good vacuum shouldn’t cost more than the down-payment on a car.

I’m vexed and confounded by this MBA attitude that if we cease making products durable we can ensure a continuing market and need for our products. Durability wins you loyalty and word of mouth. Crap earns you the ton of often-negative reviews I’ve been reading. I’m tired of handing over money for products that suck…even when that’s their designed purpose.

I have to buy a vacuum cleaner before the carpets get too ingrained with grime. I’m simply at a loss as the best course to take. Basically, I spent hours on a nice Sunday afternoon lifting vacuums for nothing.

And I thought finding a shop-vac was difficult. Who knew?

More to come as events unfold.