Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Hello Vacmanuk:

Let's agree to disagree in part on some of the issues.  On the above statement, let me further clarify.   Every home needs [must have] a vacuum.  Every home does not need [must have] a handheld.  Handhelds are a convenience cleaning appliance that complements the repertoire of cleaning products already in a home.  By convenience you should read quick and easy to use in a hurry to do "ad hoc" clean ups rather than pulling out the big vacuum.  The primary benefit of handhelds are a time and effort saver around the home. 

The benefits [conveniences] have to gat weighed against the costs.  How much are typical average consumers willing to pay for the convenience of not pulling out the big home vacuum?  $100, $150, maybe?  $220-$270, whoa!  Let's rethink this convenience cost.  I have a perfectly good big vacuum with tools.  I'll pull out the big vacuum and forego the convenience of a handheld if it costs me $250.   Or better still, my big vacuum has some age on it, perhaps for the price of a DC31, $220-$270, I'll upgrade to a new big size vacuum rather than a handheld.  Keep and use the old one as a spare, or in the garage.  Rather than buy a convenient handheld for the garage and car cleaning.  Hope that assists with clarifying my thinking on the pricing of handhelds.

Carmine D.

In the 50's, Vacmanuk, when paper bags were intro'ed they were usually an addition to an already cloth bag vacuum.  The premium was the cost of the bags, not the product using them.  To mention several brands of vacuums that were cloth and upgraded with paper bag inserts [fit inside the cloth]:  GE swivel top canns, Lux XXX tanks, EUREKA canns, and Compact canns.  Uprights like HOOVER were still offered in both venues [cloth and paper] in the early 50's and for a short time HOOVER offered 2 upright models with the reusable paper bags.  Not until the mid to late 50's with the HOOVER upright Convertibles and Lux 60/Auto E, were cloth bags no longer available as OEM and paper was the standard.  The prices for the products with only paper bags were comparable with the prices for vacuum products equipped with the cloth bags.  No price premium for paper except for the cost of bags.  The benefit of the paper bags was their convenience over the cloths.  The cost for the paper bag products was the additional time, effort and cost to buy the bags.

Carmine D.

PS:  As a comparison, vacuums that were already using a paper bags vice cloths in the 50's, like the Lewyt canns, EUREKA and SINGER uprights, and the HOOVER Constellations [model 81] sold for the same prices if not less than the brands/models with cloth bags and cloth-paper bags.  Essentially no premium prices for products with paper bags over the cloths. 

I opine then that the next question you may have is what technology in the vacuum industry rated premium prices over the conventional selling vacuums.  I'll leave that discussion for another time. 

Hello Vacmanuk:

As a door to door seller, with financing available from KIRBY thru GE Credit, comparing an all metal KIRBY made in the USA with a plastic foreign made big box retail selling vacuum has limited similarities [at least in the USA].   Why?  Selling venues are very different.  KIRBY has authorized KIRBY dealers who repair.  Not independents authorized by KIRBY, tho many indies work on and sell KIRBY parts.  Keep in the mind the KIRBY reconditioning contract too.  Basically restores [reconditions] the original KIRBY to like new condition for a fixed fee set at the time of purchase.  AN insurance policy if you will that regardless of what fate befalls your KIRBY, you can have it redone to original specs and condition for a fixed fee.  Talk to loyal KIRBY customers and inevitably this is a feature they have used and liked.

Carmine D.

Carmine D. 

No dyson hand helds.  None.  Not carried. 

Carmine D.