Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

The 'Freedom' and 'Slalom' uprights, and the 'Xarion' cylinder cleaner. All employ 'Airvolution' technology.

You'll have to wander about the Argos site yourselves, as I can't be bothered battling with the silly formatting of pictures on this forum, and the website linking didn't work either.

Your welcome Venson.  I know what you mean, least you get to see how it operates to a degree and the sound of it!   Yes I noticed that about the Slalom but it has that air release valve not sure how much help that is to the floating effect!  It will be interesting to see how light this vacuum is compared to the Freedom!  Deep pile could be an issue, the brush bar wasn't much to shout about from the pictures!   As for carpeting preferences in the UK (Europe tends to be hard floors, like tiles with rugs!), back in the 90's and ealry 00's laminate floor was the 'in thing'!  Still is to a degree, with tiled flooring in kitchens and hallways etc..  People still have carpeting, in fact carpeting I believe in the UK is having a bit of a revival!  I would say most carpets in UK homes is of medium pile.  So the Slalom may cope ok!

I noticed the hose on the Freedom comes out from the front, can not see the vacuum moving with the hose very easily!   Simiular to one of the Vax Upright here in the UK (no longer available!)

DC18

Has anyone noticed the Hoover UK has become very 'dyson-ised' ?

The "agitator" is now described as a "brushbar" on the Hoover 'Slalom'.

Vax also has been guilty of calling it a brushbar. What happened to the term "brushroll"?

Trilobite wrote:

Hello Trilobite:

Interesting observation but let's go a step further.  HOOVER coined the terms 'agitator' and 'beater bars' for its brush rolls.  The latter being the metal bars on the agitator that performed the 'beats as it sweeps' part of the famous HOOVER slogan.

Dyson IMHO adapted [read copied] the generic industry term of brush roll with the HOOVER specific term of beater bar to come up with its own term 'brush bar.' 

As already discussed on here, TTI owns both HOOVER [USA] and VAX. 

Carmine D.

I still think "agitator" is the more elegant term.

"Brushbar" really grates on me!

Trilobite wrote:

Hello Trilobite:

I inferred from both posts that you are "agitated."   The best solution when vacuum manufacturers, either by their ego/lack of knowledge, skirt the vacuum vernacular in favor of their own less meaningful terms is to continue to use the accepted and long standing industry ones instead. 

I think 'agitator' has an iconic meaning in the vacuum industry.  Worthy to be kept alive and well forever. 

Carmine D.

The U.K. calls it a brush bar,the U.S.A, calls it a brush roll,or for the old guys a beater bar brush combination.

Shouldnt a vacuum cleaner really be called an electric sweeper?????????

MOLE

mole wrote:

Yes. If it is an Oreck.

mole wrote:

Hiya Mole,

From the very beginning, the vacuum cleaner was named erroneously. Why?  Because this machine actually only uses a partial vacuum to accomplish its work. Even in that case, if you're a stickler for words, it's probably still not rightly named because I have never set out to clean a partial vacuum with one of these machines.  Dust collector or something like that would probably be the more correct. 

The title "vacuum" I assume taken as we usually shortcut to a linguistically easy way out regarding reference to just about everything -- is like going from automobile, to auto, to car.  Imagine uisng a mouthful like, "Excuse me Joe, I have to go partial vacuum clean the living room rug," to get yourself off the phone.

The sweeper, the vacuum, the cleaner, "the machine" and any number of references to the vacuum, including "it," seem to depend a lot on what neck of the woods you're from and how you "gerundize" (please forgive me Daniel Webster) the name of an object  or its use.   "Sweep the rug," usually means get the vacuum cleaner and clean the rug -- not go for the broom.  "Sweep the floor," is a wide open field for interpretation  unless you have an understanding of the context of the command.  "Have the girl pass the machine in the hall," in Brooklyn's earlier days, meant have the cleaning woman vacuum the hall -- not walk by the vacuum. And so we sweep, clean, "go over" and vacuum.

Most interesting to me is how those in the UK came to use Hoover as noun and verb and whether there use of similar terminology in regard to other devices.  I'd be glad to learn how many brand names have been used here in the U.S. as a noun and verb.  The only example I have, which must have been more advertising influenced asI never heard it used by anyone, is Osterizer and Osterize.

Have a fun holiday.  Doing anything special?

Venson

HARDSELL wrote:
Hi H.S.

You know your probally correct in your assumption,I know of many dealers who just refer to oreck as just oreck,and not a vacuum cleaner,

Heres another one for you to ponder why is a steam cleaner called a steam cleaner,when it uses hot water injected into the carpet and does not create steam. Why is a rug shampooer called an rug cleaner?

Venson more than likely knows why.

Hi Venson ,were going racing this weekend,Hope we have enough money left for gasoline to get home.........

Take Care

MOLE

Venson wrote:
Hi Venson,

Not so much verbs, but I've heard brand names used as general nouns many times.  I've heard older generations refer to the refrigerator as the "Frigidaire" before.  Same with "Disposall" for garbage disposer and "Mixmaster" for mixer.  And, while not appliance related, there's of course the ever-popular "Kleenex" used as a general term for facial tissue. 

Ironically enough, I've also seen the phrase "Dyson Hoover" many times on websites across the pond (such as eBay UK).

-MH