I shall be on BBC Radio Leeds tomorrow from 8am

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turbo500

turbo500

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Hey everyone,

A very nice chap from BBC Radio Leeds managed to track me down via the wonderful internet. They're doing a piece on the recent EU legislation limiting the power of vacuum cleaners to save energy. They've asked me to go in and for a bit of a discussion regarding this and ask about the collection.

For those interested, I shall be on from 8am tomorrow morning.

wish me luck!

Chris
 
I will be at work when you're on, but I see from Radio Leeds website that it is possible to listen to the show at a later time.

I was on Radio York twice several years ago appearing with David Dunning, the collector who was featured on Noel's Addicts.

I noticed the vacuum wattage legislation was mentioned on BBC breakfast this morning, but I thought it was old news. I think that many of us will agree that the wattage of some cleaners is ridiculously high and realise that you don't need a lot of power to achieve good pick up efficiency. The Hoover Turbopower springs to mind as an example of an upright that performs as well as or better than some of these 2000 Watt cleaners.

I welcome the legislation myself. Although some manufacturers are claiming that performance will be compromised, I believe that it will force them into looking into ways to make their cleaners perform as well, or better while consuming less electricity.

Roger

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/new-eu-energy-rules-set-1920537
 
Hi Roger,

I completely agree. Look back over clean air vacuums like the Panasonic 40 series, Electrolux Contour and Hoover Turbopower 2 that were all under 900w and all had more than enough suction power. My 1150w Sebo has more suction than my Mums old 1800w Electrolux. Higher watts doesn't mean greater suction and, if asked, I will point this out.

I will also be sure to point out that a cleaner with more suction might not mean a cleaner carpet as there are plenty of other design factors to consider.
 
and also the Dyson DC24 is 600W and has more power than a DC01 full sized which is 1200w, and also picks up just as good as 2100W vacs, but manufacturers saythat the lower wattage may affect performance of the vacuum cleaners.


Anyways, All the best mate :)


Tayyab
 
That's a good point about the DC24, Tayyab. Just goes to show you, how much suction do you REALLY need to effectively clean a carpet? Chances are, most of the suction on such a powerful machine would be wasted anyway, because it really wouldn't take that much suction to effectively clean it in the first place. Dust mites are not sitting, seat belts at the ready for vacuum day.
 
I agree about the wattage on modern vacuums. For example, my 1980's 800W Henry seems more powerful than my Mum's 2008 1200W Henry. As many people have said before, wattage does NOT equal suction power.

All the best of luck to you Chris, I will be listening in :)

Joe
 
Whilst I cannot disagree with anything which has been said here, what is always overlooked these days is the fact that the principle job of any vacuum cleaner is to dry-clean floor surfaces of physical debris. That is all. A floor in any room is and always will be the dirtiest part of that room, and even in a room with a washable floor, if the floor was disinfected correctly it would soon begin to get dirty again and harbour germs as soon as people start walking across it.

A floor is for walking on, not sitting on, or preparing food on or anything else. It shouldn't be a concern if a vacuum cleaner doesn't get every last bit. Most people vacuum for presentation anyway. What we need to do is take a lesson from our grandmothers on the art of housekeeping, and rather than seek out appliances which promise the earth, consumers need to learn about pulling out furniture and having a sensible cleaning routine.
 
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<li id="main_0_maincontent_0_timeline_0_timelineRepeater_ctl07_timelineLI" class="line" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px 0px 30px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: url(https://www.dyson.co.uk/Styles/medialibrary/F1186C31620D4C52B4323A4085D17FE3.ashx); background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<h3 class="date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #000000; line-height: 1.1875em; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2008</h3>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5em; width: 360px;">The Dyson DC24 vacuum proves that you don't need big motors for good pick up performance. This machine uses 650 watts of power-saving energy.</p>
<p id="main_0_maincontent_0_timeline_0_timelineRepeater_ctl07_timelineP2" style="padding-left: 30px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5em; width: 360px;">Sustainability becomes a key criteria in the James Dyson Award for student design.</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5em; width: 360px;">Dyson's latest digital motor sees its first application in the Dyson DC31 handheld cleaner. Because of it, DC31 is smaller and over 20 per cent lighter than DC16</p>
</li>
</ul>

http://https//www.dyson.co.uk/environment.aspx
 
 By the way, when will the vacuum's have lower wattages? I wonder what carpets will be like in 10 years time! 
 
If anyone missed the show and would like to hear it, you can find the podcast here. I was on at roughly 7:50, after the discussion with Nicola from the University of Leeds regarding the breakthrough in cervical cancer research.

Make sure to choose the show from 31/05. It should be up for streaming later today or tomorrow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p018kszx/Liz_Green_30_05_2013/
 
I would listen to it but I'm at the library and Flash player needs to be upgraded to play it, something I can't do that on the computer due to privelages - or lack of.
 
The trend for crazy high wattages is something that drives me absolutely bananas. It's all about one-upmanship amongst the manufacturers, and it doesn't hurt of course that the public has been well and truly conditioned into thinking more power is always better. Give them a choice of two identical cleaners, one with a 1200 watt motor and the other with 2000 watts, and guess which one they'll pick.

High revving motors are the reason we now have so many cleaners that run hot and make a dreadful high pitched noise while running. It's also the reason why brushrolls now have either very soft bristles in sparse tufts, or a dual belt drive to help reduce its speed. Cleaning tools have vents moulded into them, allegedly to set up air currents that assist in dirt pickup. Really it's to bleed off excess suction, so you can move the upholstery tool over your sofa cushions with at least a moderate degree of ease.

My daily driver Sebo D2 - which I absolutely adore - has a 2100 watt motor. At maximum speed it has way too much suction, which just makes every single job so much harder. Normally I set it anywhere between minimum and halfway as appropriate, and find this to be more than adequate for any job. Nice to have that flexibility, but to me, a 2100 watt motor that never gets run at full tilt does seem like a bit of a waste. Had the same cleaner been available with (for example) a 1200 watt motor, I'd have been right on it. I do realise, however, that such a thing would not sell to the general public when displayed next to something with enough power to create a black hole.
 
I totally see why this is happening, I mean, most 1600+ watt motors usually belong to crappy, poorly designed vacuums (except the sebo) such as VAX's power models, like the power 4 is 2,200watts- it's really not nescessary!
 
Well lets not forget Miele - they offer 2200 watts!

Im going to reiterate what I've said all along as well as add another point:

When I had hair, and lots of it I much preferred having a 1600 watt hair dryer to dry my hair than a 900 watt one - same applies for vacuums - we can moan as much as we like - but it didn't help that back in the day, with fantastic upright vacs like the Hoover Junior that was probably the UK favourite, suction through the hose was weak compared to the 700 to 900 watts of the cylinder vacs. Why else did Hoover add the two step motor to the Senior when the hose was attached - more power, more watts used - the availability of more suction through the increase of watts.

We're all moaning about motors NOW going into the 2000 and 3000 watt ratings and so forth but unless brands start to lower the energy and motor rating of other household appliances used daily compared to vacuum cleaners, there really is no point to pass a law to restrict the power rating on vacuums.

Also we've been conditioned into thinking that higher is better across lifestyle products from the very beginning - the Americans, the British etc; countries that set forth the idea of "adding premium status," came from "deluxe" badged products such as a cars with higher engines or dressing up the body work with add on spoilers etc to improve air flow and running costs counteracting against the higher engine fitted in the first place.

As for my SEBO D2 - I use it on occasion if I haven't vacuumed for weeks and like Spiraclean, i choose to use it in the lower bands of power as opposed to full. Ive been pressing SEBO UK to get their Eco 1600 watt version in as they have in other countries - their professional model without the added convenience of auto cord rewind has a 1200 watt motor - signs that things are quite possible to lower power rating.
 

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