Shark
I grew up in an all Electrolux household, everyone in the family had them, grandparents, Aunts Uncles, etc. now my Brother and Sister and I have them but we all also have Shark rocket stick vacs too and like them quite well over most anything else and about equally as the Electrolux though it is clear that the build quality of the Electrolux is stronger than the Shark for sure.
Shark listens to their customers, they have a place on the website where consumers can write in about what innovations and improvements they would like to see. I wrote in that I wanted a hard floor tool for the rocket instead of the weird suction nozzle/combo wiping pad thing they had and within a year voila! They had changed several models to include it instead of the combo suction and dusting as floor tool. People said they wanted a larger dust bin that is removable, and they did it on the deluxe pro models, people said they wanted self cleaning brush rolls and they did it.
This is what I like about this company, they are listening to their customers and developing the products constantly. Now we just need to get them to make a “more durable” model. Perhaps a commercial quality model that may cost more, but will last longer.
Aerus/Electrolux seemed to do the same over the years and develop the products to be easy to use, versatile and durable and in recent years, lighter weight. Yes they haven’t changed a whole lot in recent years except for whatever deal they have with Electrolux of Sweden to produce the current Guardian Platinum canister main canister unit for them. While it’s been discussed In other threads that Aerus is Focusing on other innovations than vacuums, they may have entered into this arrangement to still offer an advanced Top of the line vacuum cleaner product without having to have a “vacuum cleaner” Research and development group of their own. The one good thing is they do have an old design that lasts for decades and has proven itself and they haven’t scrapped it...thank God...in their most basic canister model...the Lux Classic. The entire hose and wand system dates to 1974 And other parts even older with some mild improvements, most notably the hose material. But one could easily use an entire set of attachments from a 1974 Golden Jubilee, including the power nozzle with the current Lux Classic canister and hose. And if you don’t need a power nozzle, you could even use wands and attachments from as far back as an XXX at least from the late 1930s. Aerus perfected the product over time, and sometimes it’s hard to improve upon something that’s already nearly perfect and it’s often not a good idea to change something when it’s pretty darn good and people like it.
There will always be people who want smething new and different for a change, just because....and vacuums, especially when cheap, have become one of those things. A lot of people tire of things, change them, then suddenly one day Wii’s they had kept something they liked if it wasn’t Broken and they got rid of it already.
My niece...a 32 year old...is very intrigued by my Electrolux’s...she’s seen my Silverado and my AF and asks if they are commercial vacuums and says they look like the types that were sold door to door “in the olden days”. She’s right on both accounts...while they weren’t commercial vacuums, they were built with that quality and often sold to businesses such as small stores that needed a decent vacuum because they had to clean almost daily and needed a good vacuum that wouldn’t fail.
We also live in a plastic world...it’s cheap to make plastic and its quality has been advancing to be more durable and flexible and less breakable. A lightweight alternative to metal which would dent, rust or bend. So the vacuum industry has gone plastic because it’s just flat out inexpensive to construct the machines out of. Soon if not already, our washing machines and refrigerators will be all plastic. Just recently I realized a Samsung Top loading washing machines entire outer top including the lid is plastic.
Jon