Get What You Pay For

I am a guy who loves a good deal. Often I buy something merely because of pricing. This is not limited to new items, I love shopping for used stuff. Garage sales, eBay, Craigslist you name it. Don't take this as a statement indicating that I am a cheap skate! Just because I pride myself on finding the best Mexican taco stand, where you can fill up for under 10 bucks, doesn't mean I will not plunk down $30-$40 for a really good dinner. I understand that often you get what you pay for.

Now here is an example. When Dyson vacuums first came onto the seen a few years ago I was astonished. How could one justify paying over $400 dollars for a vacuum. Geez, I mean the one I had through college was maybe sixty dollars. This feeling was strengthened when I actually got to check out one firsthand at a shop. I felt it's construction was a little cheap, being made out of so much plastic (and those colors WTF?). I would say these feelings where strong, but guess what? I was all wrong.

My wife and I received a Dyson as a wedding gift. At first I just figured "Hey it must be better than my old college vac". When I finally broke open the packaging I was dumbstruck. It came with so many extras it was hard to believe. There where a lot of special attachments in the box. I'm not talking about just simple brush tools, crevice tools and whatnot. It came with 3 varieties of the aforementioned. It also came with 3 other, very fancy attachments for other things. What, I do not know yet, but they look pretty useful. It also came with a full on carpet care kit, included spot remover and carpet freshener.

So how does the thing work? Well it gets the job done much, much better than my old college vacuum did. I don't think I could ever go back now. It picks up everything, doesn't (seem) to lose suction, and moves around with a precision that my old vacuum just never had. It also is pretty sturdy in light of it's all plastic construction. I think I was wrong in holding it's plastic construction against it. The plastics used do seem pretty durable, save for the piece that at the bottom front of the machine. This piece has been rammed into a few walls, and has developed stretch marks that plastics often get when bent and such.

The engineering of this vacuum is also a point of interest to me. I find more and more cool features of this machine as I fiddle around with it. The material that is used in the hose of the vacuum is amazing. It stretches and shrinks back very naturally. No other vacuum I've seen uses this sort of material. The emptying of the debris sucked up by the vacuum is simple, and is much cleaner than any vacuum I have used. Every little part of the machine can be easily removed for cleaning, which makes me think the engineers put a lot of thought and time into it's design.

Well I've spent way to much time blabbing about a freaking household appliance. Like the title says you do get what you pay for. I would also like to say that sometimes maybe innovations go without being noticed because of held beliefs. If something costs an arm and a leg then maybe it deserves a closer look.