Some new vacuums are impossibly cheap...

[stricklybojack]

With oil pushing all raw material costs way up, pushing transportation costs way up...well the numbers don't seem to add up for a new bagged vacuum (Bissell) at Walmart costing $42. I tore apart a green Windtunel 2 recently, ferrrgetaboutit! That thing has more pieces than a swiss watch & a million screws. Even slaves (the persumable folks who build these overseas) have to be fed & ships & trucks filled with fuel, seems it would have to sell for over $200 to break even, no wonder they're discontinued.
Not the usual topic here at vacuumland but this hobby of mine does coincide with a past life as financial markets watcher/ player on this point. Vacuums have lagged way behind like other consumer goods on price & this could change fast, or most every body moves to hard surface flooring & vacuums become the next butter churn. Or vacs go through another leg down in build costs through fundamental design changes. Otherwise, like gold at $275 per oz. folks, ain't gonna last imo & prices on new vacs will be going up or at least the now higher end prices will become more the norm.

 

[kirbysthebest]

Gold $275 oz.

I wish, Currently
Gold Bullion 1,559.20 1,582.80 37.30 1,604.90 1,604.90 1,579.80

I will take all you have off your hands right now at $275 oz.

 

[stricklybojack]

like i said...

"Ain't gonna last"...& it didn't did it? $275/oz for gold is now a distant memory never to be seen again, unless somebody finds a cheap way of converting lead to gold.

 

[luxman107]

Those 42 dollar vacs will leak more dust back into the air than they suck up and burn out in a year.

 

[stricklybojack]

true $42 buys a junk vacuum, but...

how do they offer it at even that price no matter how lousy it is? All those materials have to be mined from the earth, refined, transported, converted to raw components, assembled, packaged, shipped again (as a bulky item) warehoused, distributed, advertised etc...phew!

My guesses are the Chinese are dumping & it's a loss leader (sold at cost or less to drive traffic to the store) by Walmart.

The bigger picture sees Miele & Dyson ruling the roost by being able to sell vacs with actual profit margins. These brands are what most people buy after they have gone through a couple disposable vacs & believe they need to pay more for a real cleaning tool. Not going to have the usual Dyson arguement here, i'm just talking consumer perceptions. i see ads on craigslist by people specifically looking for a Dyson. I see people selling used Phantoms as Dyson designed (or is that the Amway ClearTrak, or both?)...& the prices for a used Dyson model, wow. I have averaged abought $30 each on buying Kirby G6 & G7's & $50 on Sentria's...sweet (though spa treatment ready) machines yes, but the used market tells me Kirby will always be a DTD vac.

 

[stricklybojack]

I should add,

Miele also has stellar resale value...Think of cars, resale value told use people wanted Hondas (Acura) & Toyotas (Lexus) & BMW's over GM & Chrysler way before those last two went under. I wasn't in this hobby when Hoover was sold, twice, but i imagine the writing was on the wall somewhere that should have kept folks from being too surprised.
Rainbow seems to be the best domestic brand at holding it's value & is as good as any vac out there on this point. but i think that it has to do with general scarcity as much as anything else. Kirby builds & sells far more units of its product i believe, & Dyson probably losses more vacs overboard en-route from China than Rainbow even builds.
That's my hip shootin' on the subject, i just saw a TOL tandem air unit from Simplicity in a shop serving a high income community here in southern calif. that carried the whole line as well the Sanitaire Blue-line, the Miele vacs & some higher end Electrolux canisters. Those TOL Tacony products really seem to have outstanding fit & finish, & they also hold their value well. May pick up a used Simplicity Series 7 soon if i can get to it before it sells...

 

[floor-a-matic]

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">That's why I don't waste my time with dept. store vacs!</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">My TriStars CXL & EXL will OUTLAST & OUTCLEAN anything made today.

  Both are American made.</span>

 

[gmerkt]

I think perhaps it all boils down to American society fully embracing the throw-away concept of such products. Most people aren't discerning enough to recognize the piece of crap that they are buying for $42 for what it is, and beyond that, are fully prepared to buy another one in two years or less.

People give up on and throw away much better machines than the $42 Walmart specials after only a few years of use. So they figure, "If I'm gonna be throwing a vacuum cleaner away in a few years, why buy a better one?" People throw machines away for want of a belt or because a dust clog has occurred in the hose. So if they're gonna throw it away for such a reason, might as well be a cheap one. Or so they reason consciously or come by unconsciously.

 

[blackheart]

$42 Bissell

Now i don't care too much for big box vacuums but those $42 bagged bissells are not nearly as horrid as the other bagless monstrosities big box stores sell. My friend has had his (with the none stretch hose) for 7-8 years.

I once picked one up to compare to other vacuums at the port on the back it could pull an 8 on the baird meter and about a 3 at the hose. If they put a smoother airpath for the nozzle and had a wooden brushroll vs the plastic one it could be a decent vacuum i know CWP does produce a brushroll that should fit according to their site.

 

[suckolux]

I rescued one from dumpster, a few years back, plug at the clear hose, full bag.Cleaned it up, gave it to a small business owner, its still going and sounds fine. Same situation on a bagless found before it, gave it to a friend with a big house and 2 dogs, showed how to clean the filters, he loves it, still going.I am not a fan of one, but they seem to last ok.

 

[sebo_fan]

You're all moaning about how cheap some vacuums are yet fail to spot that Bissell and Samsung combine their uprights together. Miele, Dyson don't have that option, that's WHY the cost prices are cheap. Likewise with Hoover, under the TTI umbrella - one reason alone to why prices in the UK for Vax appliances fall up and down like a whore's knickers.

But its not just vacuums that are cheap; if there's a market that has cheaper prices than ever before, its surely TFT/LCD televisions. At my local dump I've never seen so many being thrown out. Clearly they're not built to last - but very few things are these days.

 

[nycwriter]

We've become a society ...

... that embraces throwaways. Indeed.

Back in the '60s (and earlier), appliances were built to last. And they were expensive. And that's all that was available. And people budgeted accordingly.

This is why toasters, blenders, and vacuums were so popular as wedding gifts; they were a Big Deal to buy, and a Big Deal to receive as a gift.

My parents were given a shiny new Hoover Convertible (model 1060 to be exact) by my grandparents for their wedding. It retailed in 1968 for $89.00. That's $579.00 in today's dollars. My mother used it like a workhorse for the next 25 years, until she and my dad drank the Amway Kool-Aid and bought a $600 Clear-Track, buying into the whole new bagless mania (and the Amway-getting-rid-of-"negative"-products mania) and sold their trusty Hoover at a garage sale. My mother now misses the Hoover.

But back to my point. When the Hoover needed servicing, Mom took it in to the local sew-and-vac repair guy. Over the years he cleaned it, tuned it up, replaced the bag, the cord, etc. (these things do wear out when you use a vac the way Mom does). But that initial $89 investment ($579 in today's dollars) lasted for 25 years. And in the end, only ONE vac potentially in a landfill (instead of 6 or 7). And truth to tell, it's probably still going strong today (if not at least having been parceled out for parts).

They also received a shiny chrome 2-slice Sunbeam toaster with the automatic up-and-down mechanism. It retailed in 1968 for $35.00 ($228 in today's dollars). Can you imagine ANYONE paying $228 today for a 2-slice toaster, when you can get one at Walmart for $10??? But the Walmart cheapie will be in the trash within a year. My parents' Sunbeam is still gleaming and after nearly 17,000 breakfasts over the course of 45 years, is still working like the day it was taken out of its box, 10 months before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. It's been serviced ONCE -- back in 1983.

If people want to get serious about their "carbon footprint" on this planet, AND keeping jobs for Americans in America, we need to get back to the days of well-built (but expensive) appliances that last virtually forever, with periodic hands-on maintenance by local fix-it guys.

 

[electromatik]

Walmart is the store for the working class poor. It's merchandise is priced accordingly. It is enabling poorer people to obtain a living standard once unthinkable. Even the poor can now own a fan, a toaster, a coffee pot, and a vacuum to make thier lives somewhat better/easier than before. The high quality stuff is still made and sold, for example KitchenAid, Cuisinart, and Krups. You can't buy it at Walmart, though. Same with vacs; you can't buy the better ones at Walmart because they couldn't afford it. Rainbows, Kirbys, Aeruses, Mieles, etc. are still there, lasting years and years. In the old days appliances were new, and few made them, and they were high. Technology dissipates and spreads for everything. Now lots make them to cater to thier audience.It's kinda snobbish and wicked to want to deny the poor (who will always be with us) the ability to have anything. Walmarts merchandise may not last as long as some others, but at least it's affordable.

 

[nycwriter]

Sorry, electromatic ...

... but I don't entirely agree.

I grew up with plenty of poor people right in my own family back in the '70s ... many on "relief".

Do you know what? They all had vacuums, toasters, blenders, and television sets.

The GOOD stuff too.

It's called buying USED.

It's what the "working poor" did, once upon a time.

Unless they were homeless, very few poor people ever went without modern conveniences like these.

These days, though, everyone right down to the working poor feel they're entitled to brand-spanking *new* everything.

 

[stricklybojack]

The numbers are astounding...

Look at this bullet point from an Oxford Economics paper:
"As a result, the share of China in world industrial production should rise from 17.5% in 2012 to 20.0% by 2016 and expand to 23.2% by 2021."

by 2016 1 in 5 things in the world will be made in China, by 2021 almost 1 in 4 things in the world will be made in China. This is a top down strategy to become a world economic power...dumping goods at cost in the most important consumer goods market in the world (N. America) is a small price to pay in the scheme of things. Sebo-fan i think this dwarfs the fact that Samsung sells under multiple nameplates, although consolidation too has helped reduce costs no doubt. Your right it's not just vacuums but any market China is a significant player in. Whereas airplanes, cars, houses, food, mediacal care in short all the stuff not completely made in China are the goods that fit my thought.

These shifts tend to shock, remember the 70's (US) oil crisis? Don't know when but i don't think China is acting out of the goodness of it's heart, but rather it own self interest like ever other country on the planet. & when that interest is no longer served by dumping goods here then the "fit hits the shans" & the cost of vacuums will adjust accordingly like everthing else. Actually this is already happening as Shark is moving up the food chain, some Dysons are selling for around $500 etc.

I just gave the Amvets 3 CRT monitors i had previously been saving for my currently very young kids to use. Now they'll eventually be getting my flat panel & ipad & i'll get something else by then.

Yes NYCwriter my family has that same Hoover story, parents were dreppression era kids so we always made things last, part of why i love this hobby, keeping some of these gems out of the landfill!

 

[durango159]

$42 Bissell Bagged PowerForce is good

The $42 Bissell PowerForce bagged upright really isn't bad!! It has an exhaust filter, the bag door has a fairly decent seal. Agitation isn't bad, and suction is good. It's also very lightweight. I would say its not much heavier than many Oreck 9 pound uprights, and it cleans better, is a clean air design and has onboard tools. Our house actually has 2 of them. We like them for quick pick ups as they are lightweight and easy to maneuver yet clean TREMENDOUSLY better than any advertised lightweight stick vac on the market and they're cheaper.

In contrary a $70 Eureka Maxima bagged or bagless in my experience are awful. The airflow feels ok, but obnoxious noise, lack of cleaning power, bulkiness, durability, and general Pain, we are not friends at all. I guess that's my nice way of expressing my relationship when I see those Maximas.

Bissell website isn't loading right now, but the PowerForce is on the last pages when searching all of their uprights. I'd rather give you the Bissell page than the Wolly World page.

 

[gmerkt]

However great the $42 Walmart (et al) specials are, to keep them great takes maintenance and cleaning perhaps to a degree that most poverty-stricken consumers don't want to participate in. Ergo, they will still go into the landfill in 2-3 years. Here's another way to look at consumerism. When goods are better made and therefore more precious, people tend to take care of them better. The operative word being tend, so this isn't a hard-bound rule.

One ugly by-product of advanced consumerism is that it fosters laziness.

NYCWriter's earlier comment re. consumerism working against the ethic of ecological conservation is a dead-on bull's eye.

Yes, when I was growing up in the 1950's my family didn't often have "new stuff." Often we bought second hand. Another ugly by-product of advanced consumerism is that it has imbued people with higher, unrealistic expectations of what they are "due."

 

[sebo_fan]

Buying Secondhand Hasn't Died.

Yes, but you can still buy secondhand goods if you want to - after all look at us all buying stuff off EBAY! You can't buy something any more that is built to last without paying through the nose for it. Also, there are the same pay monthly options as my parents had in their young generation/ Hire purchase.

If there is ONE sign of plastic clogging up the earth more than vacuums, its those awful disposable cameras. Yet one of those "awful disposable cameras" came in handy for my neighbour last week who didn't have her iPhone with her as it was charging and she had a rear shunt accident on a motorway.

 

[tolivac]

plastic clogging the earth

The most used and discarded plastic item is the familiar plastic "T" shirt grocery bag!It is the most manufactured plastic item----PLASTIC or PAPER???Hate the things.Yet--they are EVERYWHERE!!!