Thread Number: 16171
Is lower power ever an advantage? |
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Post# 172480 , Reply# 5   3/8/2012 at 11:31 (4,403 days old) by danemodsandy ()   |   | |
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In my previous post, I said that brushrolls have been available on canisters for "over sixty years." I meant over FIFTY years. Sorry 'bout that! |
Post# 172523 , Reply# 6   3/8/2012 at 17:37 (4,403 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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Here, here Trebor et al. I genuinely think its one reason alone to why the Hoover Portapower is so well known and liked - same with the Dirt Devil Handy = the difference with these of course is that they are not back pack vacuums, yet they are low powered enough to still serve a purpose.
The only exception IMHO and preference to "high power" comes down to the canister design and suction only floor heads. Higher power seems to be able to suck out dirt at a stronger rate - naturally. When it comes to uprights, it's lower power all the way. I've vacuumed with high power uprights above 1700 watts and carpet pile can easily be ripped out. Bear in mind though, that back pack vacuums sometimes either have motors located not necessarily at the bottom - but also at the top or to the sides and depending the bag layout where the dust goes - some backpack vacuums are lower powered because they don't need to be any higher - and also bigger motors also mean, added weight. |
Post# 172621 , Reply# 9   3/9/2012 at 10:22 (4,402 days old) by Sanifan ()   |   | |
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The articulation is cool. Here is what the Clarke looks like... |
Post# 172690 , Reply# 14   3/9/2012 at 18:21 (4,402 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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Post# 172691 , Reply# 15   3/9/2012 at 18:25 (4,402 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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Yes, well that is another matter altogther. There is only one thing which seems to trump high-wattage, and that is the name Dyson. You are quite right Sebo-fan. |
Post# 172706 , Reply# 18   3/9/2012 at 19:49 (4,402 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-HD4644-E... |
Post# 172756 , Reply# 24   3/10/2012 at 09:52 (4,401 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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In the early 1980's when Hoover UK were still chucking out metal based Hoover Junior and Senior models, America was on a tour de force with plastic-injection hard box bodied vacuums. Where was your environmental concern then?
Frankly the energy that you refer to of appliances being dragged across the Earth to meet the U.S is just absurd- what about the cars that you have imported to the U.S - and I don't mean the types that sit as family vehicles - the U.S can only have so many factories from other brands who don't always produce the vehicles that America demands - Porsche for example holds the U.S and Emirates as two of their largest buyers. You could argue that cars are not the same as appliances, but they fit very well because of lifestyle needs and desires. I think it's also absurd that you think green ratings should be withheld from appliances from other countries - as a nation, the UK are working well with the US for the moment, as are other countries who want to do their bit to save the environment - even though it's a little bit too late- so in effect you want to chuck water on fire, or do you seem to want to tar everything that comes from China? Or is it case you'll rubbish ANYTHING that comes from any other country because it isn't American? America is an inventive country, the Brits have learnt a lot from your country - yet you want to stop what we've learnt and low energy appliances we produce because America didn't think of it first?? IMHO, it was the U.S who gave UK buyers insight into vacuums with higher power - we certainly weren't alone in using the USP /"Ultra Selling Point," for extra-added power alone but America being the largest nation with the largest amount of need, influence and a strive for "everything must be automatic so we don't need to lift a finger" routine (e.g self-driven mechanisms, auto cord rewind on uprights) has influenced home appliances to the point that now, almost every large home in the UK has an American style fridge/freezer as standard (or geared to the future kitchen design) as opposed to a European brand that offers a smaller size and far less efficiency to run it! You can buy vacuums that last 20 years with maintenance and you can buy metal based bodies - but unsurprisingly - which country holds the biggest share of metal body, traditional upright vacuums? Can you guess? Is it obvious? The U.S! It is not the fault of manufacturers or their machines that their products don't last- but of the way consumers treat their products. We've become so accustomed to a chuck away disposable factor, buyers and owners tend to treat their machines with disdain -knowingly they can buy cheaper products again to replace them. Consumers have also become lazier in maintenance as a result and were it not for America, we'd still be eating out of tinned food if we hadn't have had the microwave meal. It is good that you as an owner have appliances that are vintage, a tried and tested formula. Sadly in the UK, although I have vintage appliances, the cost of getting spare parts is far more expensive when it goes wrong, and if the vintage appliance can be repaired, it is usually double the cost than a whole product from China is priced at. |
Post# 172762 , Reply# 25   3/10/2012 at 10:44 (4,401 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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Well Sebo fan, be fair, if all the above is the case, that's not the personal fault of any member on here. |
Post# 172783 , Reply# 27   3/10/2012 at 15:45 (4,401 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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But you didn't say "30 years ago" in your original post, so the implication is current.
If however, you take into consideration 30 years ago, or if indeed 40 years ago to be more precise and compare what you had in terms of brands, the UK had several British brands who sold products well into the 1970's with little than cosmetic changes - radios, televisions, stereo systems - meanwhile the Japanese come in with impeachable quality, better components, better sound quality - and not so expensive cost prices. Could I then say that Asian manufacturing was less energy efficient when at a time the features that British brands didn't sport seemed to glitter and whistle from the Asian end? Thus giving buyers the opportunity to sample products that were better built and better features. Therefore as a buyer I bought Japanese goods with pride because I knew I was buying quality, something a bit modern etc. I never once thought about the energy efficiency or how long it took to get to the UK. Frankly, I think your reasons for with holding energy info on more or less, "foreign" appliances is rather obtuse - perhaps even if it was to work in America's favour - honestly, the amount of energy a ship uses for transporting cars to the U.S is small meal compared to the amount of fuel it would take for "our" jetliners and your Boeing airplanes to fly long haul - and let's face it, on the basis that America has far more airports on account your country is so much bigger, I stake that other means of travel are wasting huge amounts of energy just to take advantage of it. You can't have it both ways. As the owner of a Volvo, I'm happy with what I drive - I'm even happier that the model I drive was made before Ford took over Volvo, and now looking at GM where they have shot off SAAB, it remains to be seen whether the "big three" in the U.S can survive, particularly when Chrysler now no longer part of MB, has just tied the knot with Fiat - an Italian company whose reliability in the U.S was patchy, to say the least. |
Post# 172841 , Reply# 29   3/11/2012 at 12:08 (4,400 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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Thread 127271 doesn't even mention 30 years ago - this is where your original response about green rating with held info starts!
I feel you're missing the point entirely where green ratings are concerned - it doesn't matter where a product is from - would I consider mango fruits from India to be green damaging because they've taken 12 hours to get to the UK? Or however about coffee from Brazil which goes direct to the U.S, churned, refined and sent back to Europe? C'mon now, how far are you going to go to tar everything that comes from a far away country as being unfriendly green because of the amount of travel it takes to get to the U.S?? You are clearly twinning quality AND "energy consumptive shipping," together - not entirely fair based on well made products in the U.S that are shipped out to the U.K. Could I then summize that the Kitchenaid mixers that we get in the UK shipped from the U.S are less energy efficient than our home grown Kenwood Chef models that have better energy efficiency? No - because the Kitchenaid U.S models have far lower motors, thus they are far less energy consuming. |
Post# 172847 , Reply# 30   3/11/2012 at 13:12 (4,400 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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Ok, I just lost the will to live. |
Post# 172854 , Reply# 31   3/11/2012 at 13:45 (4,400 days old) by danemodsandy ()   |   | |
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In the interest of getting back on topic, I'm bowing out of this discussion. |
Post# 172913 , Reply# 32   3/12/2012 at 06:15 (4,400 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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It kind of makes me wonder - if a product like the Vax Mach Air is designed in the U.K and owned by TTI in China - then the production of it is shifted to China and then redesigned slightly to be sold in the U.S as the Hoover Windtunnel Air. Does the original design still remain British, I wonder?
Or those plastic Panasonic uprights that Miele in Germany had sold for years in the U.S before their own S7 was built. Does that make those Miele models far less energy efficient because they are Japanese built? Or perhaps they were assembled in the U.S but the base techware comes from Japan. Clearly energy saving appliances do exist - but not in a literal sense. As VR pointed out (hope you're feeling better and stronger now) with the Philips kettle, there's a lot of marketing and a lot of hype. Just like reusable paper dust bags in vacuum cleaners where only, effectively one more use can be probably used before all the paper has clogged up to the point that it can't be reused over and over. |
Post# 172962 , Reply# 33   3/12/2012 at 15:01 (4,399 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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"Better and Stronger"? Well now it's calmed down, yes thank you. Gosh, you can be very powerful when you get going, Mr Sebo-fan. |
Post# 173031 , Reply# 34   3/13/2012 at 00:11 (4,399 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)   |   | |
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Post# 173048 , Reply# 35   3/13/2012 at 03:59 (4,399 days old) by vintagerepairer (England)   |   | |
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True :) |