Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

http://www.chicagoinjuryattorneyblog.com/2010/04/libertyville_woman_files_cook.html

When FOX news first reported this, I couldn't help but think of the Kirby hair/head and pet massage tool which has always come standard with new Kirby vacuums.  The Kirby user claims she was under the bed vacuuming with the hose attached and the hose/wand came 'broke" apart and sucked off about 1/3 of her hair from her scalp.  A picture of the vacuum shows the lady's hair embbeded around and in the fan/shaft well of the Kirby.

Believe it or not.

Carmine D.

Hi Venson, et. al. :

Originally, the FOX news report lead viewers to believe that the hose coupling breakage caused the lady's hair to be sucked into the fan shaft well opening.  Saying she was vacuuming under the bed when the hose/coupling broke off.  That obviously is not where she lost her hair as in under the bed.  Why?  The vacuum could not have been physically located under the bed while she was vacuuming.  Maybe close by.  Especially if she were using the light of the Kirby to see under the bed.  She may have been under the bed with the hose and wand attachments but when the hose and wands broke off, she came out from under or near the bed to see what happened to the vacuum.  Most persons' natural reaction after the hose coupling breakage is to shut off the vacuum.  She did not.  She investigated the break and got close enough to allow her hair to get sucked into the fan shaft opening.  Stupidity?  Product liability?  Both?  What percent for each?  If the lady's stupidity is more than 50 percent of the cause of the problem, by not shutting off the Kirby, she's entitled to nothing except a new hose and coupling if the Kirby is still under warranty.  If Kirby is more than 50 percent liable for a defect/design flaw due to the break, then Kirby is liable.  Will the lady's lawyer argue that this break in the coupling is to fault?  Either because of the break, or the inability of this break to shut off the vacuum, or both.  Most likely.  Will the lady's lawyer also argue that Kirby should have a clear written warning label on the Kirby machine to shut the power off if the hose coupling breaks/malfunctions.  Most likely.  So what have we got?   Out of court settlement?  That's my feeling. 

Carmine D.

No.  There are often great deals for new Kirby and Aerus vacs on eBay and elsewhere but, per their web sites, both companies state that they will not recognize warranty in regard to new machines sold by unauthorized vendors.  This is their way of corraling buyers I guess.

To that I say, so what.  However, if warranty coverage is a big issue there's little you can do but go with the flow for the best price you can wangle.  What that is I do not know.  I recently made mention of having learned of being able to get a Lux Guardian at under the $1,000 mark to a Manhattan Aerus dealer and he nearly swore by all that's holy that that was impossible.  I didn't see the worth in arguing but there's a salesman I'd never trust farther than I could throw him..

Venson

Hi Carmine

Who knows how or why people do the things they do with their vacuums.......sometimes....the less we know the better off we are.

Only in America....sad but true.

turtle

Common sense is very uncommon.

Carmine D.

Common sense, manners, kindness, charity and the need for prayer get best results when taught at home.  Yet, sometimes it unfortunately takes a bad experience or two to get people to awaken as it were.  Example . . .

I was about eight or may a little beyond nine and my grandad was out on the tractor working in one of the back fields.  However, he'd put a pot of beans on the stove to cook slow, not uncommon, and be ready by dinner time.  He may not have set the burner on our electric stove quite low enough because in a while smoke started coming out of the pot. 

Mind you, I was a very bright country kid who was pretty good in school, loved to read and who knew how to do all kinds of practical stuff.  BUT I guess my thoughts could grow so lofty that sometimes the obvious could easily escape me.  I'd no problem realizing that something needed to be done and my snap decision was that, gee, I'd better tell my grandfather about this pronto.  I ran like a race horse all the way down to the field to get the old man but by the time we'd got back to the house the contents of the pot had caught fire.

Grandpa handled everything very methodically.  First, he turned off the stove, doused the stuff burining in the pot and then set it aside to let it soak to make cleaning out the charred beans easier.  Next, he came looking for me.  I got my behind blistered.  Why? Failure to exercise plain old common sense.  All I had to do was turn off the stove when the pot had first begun to smoke and there would have been no problem whatsoever.  The moral to the story is that sometimes it takes all that to make us do something very simple -- think.  Yes, I got the message but it didn't quite sink in.

School was out for the summer and I was home.  My grandfather had to drive into town but before he left the house he specifically told me that I was not to turn the TV on.  Well, I was bored and not at all pleased with the idea. "What the heck," I cleverly thought, "I'll just turn the thing on and then turn it off when I hear the car come up the driveway." 

As expected, about an hour later I heard the car, I jumped up, turned off the TV and sat down in our kitchen making a best attempt at looking innocent.  Who knew that the first thing Grandpa would do was walk into the living room and place his hand on the top of our tubed TV to see if it was warm?  Needless to say, things turned out for me exactly the same as they had over the bean incident.

Common sense says there are some things that there's just no getting round.  Thus, the woman with the Kirby had to learn the same the hard way as also a most unfortunate young man I read of who set himself alight while using a vacuum cleaner to draw gasoline from a motor vehicle.

Venson

Carmine D.