I, like many men of a certain age these days, am occasionally confronted with new ideas.
One of the more outlandish of which, seems to be that men can, and should do housework!
In addition I once "served" perhaps "participated" would be a better term in a branch of the services known for being "keen to clean", so I have been long acquainted with these devices.
Since the 1960's when vacuum cleaners both looked like, and tried to emulate the sound of a jet engine, I've watched them improve, and generally I've found Electrolux to provide the best overall value and serviceability, but there again, I buy busted second hand and my first job is to clean and fix any "new" vaccuum cleaner I own. I once met a woman who could disassemble and repair her own vacuum cleaner but she was with someone else and I let her get away... I still think of her to the present day, but that's another story.
Forwards to the the present day and my mr's henry is too bulky and inconvenient to deploy in my opinion, and she sure doesn't find it easy, so the filth starts to build up. I want an electrolux upright, which I reckon is about the easiest and quickest vac to deploy and stow again, and my old one broke when it swallowed a woodscrew that perforated (O.K. destroyed the plastic bottom half). Imagine my surprise when one day a large box arrives with a new vacuum inside it! (I get to do all parcel opening, she doesn't like "sticky" things, and my steel watch strap will sever the stiffest of packing tapes)
MY heart sinks as I behold the horrible plasticky thing, in pieces nesting in it's copious packaging, but at least it's purple...
*the following will morph into an unabashed advert for our Shark HZ500UK, for which I'm not being paid, nor have I been asked to do, but as I will explain is simply a superb piece of vaccuum cleaner technology*
As I assemble it I realise it goes together like a gun. the stupidly small (so I thought) filth reservoir really does fit like a magazine, and since I was going for the cobwebs FIRST, by the time I had the extension and crevice nozzle on it, it looked like I was weilding the most blingy plasma cannon ever conceived!
I'm not going to lie, it was a good start, I liked the way it was put together, and it balanced real nice in my hand... After doing the cobwebs with ridiculous ease and at great speed, (it's got a really decent length of flex on it, which stows quickly and easily) I tried the powered head thingamabob, and it just magicked the cr&p out of our carpet. The thing is awesome!! After a considerable amount of time and a lot of area covered I realised I still hadn't had to empty the little chamber thing, but the vac had been worked hard for a while, was running quite warm, and I have mechanical sympathy, so I decided to try an empty.
Now we all know how lovely a job that can be, often ending up with a small or large cloud of dust in the area of the bin, THIS WAS DIFFERENT. somehow, it sorts the hair and genuine dust from the bits, into separate compartments, wrapping all the dusty hairy nastiness around a stainless steel cone, from whence on a good day it will slide off into the bin when aimed correctly or sometimes you might need to help it with a finger.
After a few months the filth magazine gets dusty itself and requires a thorough cleaning, so it's totally effort free, but OMIGOD this is a very well designed machine, that makes light work of the job and er, is as close to a plasma rifle as any of you lot are likely to get...
I've done a sizeable portion of the house with it, and every time I use it, I thank my G/F for getting us THIS vacuum.
Now if only I can find a source of decent and reasonably priced batteries for the Dyson DC31, for those times when I just need to do the cats bed...
