« previous: TED Talks: the Counterintuitive Psychology of Freedom, Choice, and Happiness; and Invisibility | next: Chicken Wings for Lazy People »

Who Designs This Crap?

This is the "tight corners" type attachment for our vacuum:

posted image

Notice anything strange?

posted image

Why are there 20 holes near the end that attaches to the hose?

Is it worse to think that they intentionally decreased the suction power, or that they failed to realize that’s what the holes would do?

(show full-size image viewer)

Posted by Anthony on Nov 14, 2009 | 11 replies
Filed under: Business, Stupidity

Comments:

01. Nov 16, 2009 at 12:15pm by Mom:

I’m sure the manufacturer knows that without the vents the suction would be impossible due to it’s severity, therefor requiring you to angle the attachment ’just so’ in order to pick things up.

Besides that, why are there two ’u’s in vacuum?

02. Nov 16, 2009 at 01:25pm by Anthony:

Quoting Mom:

without the vents the suction would be impossible due to it’s severity

Huh??

Quoting Mom:

requiring you to angle the attachment ’just so’ in order to pick things up

I think you might be saying that the attachment would get stuck against stuff, but the notch in the end prevents that.

Quoting Mom:

Besides that, why are there two ’u’s in vacuum?

I think the second U signals that it’s a long-U sound.  Without it, the natural pronunciation would be more like vac’m.

03. Nov 16, 2009 at 10:28pm by kaiser:

There is a possibility that without the holes there would be too much suction which could damage the fabrics which you might use it on (couch, carpet).  Engineers actually think about these things sometimes.  They run tests.  That’s how they come up with the number and size of the holes.  Crazy science stuff.

But if you want to ruin your fabrics you could get a Dyson.  That thing could create a singularity (ie black hole) if you look up the proper settings on a forum.  Don’t trust the settings from wikianswers though.  Those people are a bit slow...if you know what I mean.  If you don’t know what I mean, perhaps you should be posting some stuff on wikianswers.

04. Nov 16, 2009 at 11:01pm by Anthony:

We mainly use the vacuum to clean the carpets, not our origami collection.  The carpets seem to be holding up OK.  And until I covered those stupid holes with duct tape, that attachment was all but worthless.

05. Nov 17, 2009 at 07:19am by chuck:

Interesting stuff. Those holes are to give the illusion that a cheap vacuum with poor quality motor has a 2-stage bypass motor. a.k.a. Has the ability to run at 100% shut off without damage to motor. I suspect you clog the end and holes of that thing for 2-3 minutes and the motor will  be D.O.A. Some manufactures use this strategy to guarantee they make it past the warranty time.

06. Nov 17, 2009 at 09:36am by Anthony:

Hmm... some kind of motor-protection purpose would make sense.

07. Nov 17, 2009 at 10:40pm by kaiser:

Yeah see he has better engineering speak than I have.  That’s why I work for the government.  I can’t hack it with the smart guys like Chuck.

08. Nov 19, 2009 at 07:07pm by margie:

I find this interesting, too. What make/model is your vacuum?

09. Nov 20, 2009 at 03:25am by Anthony:

It’s a Bissell Cleanview Bagless Powertrak Plus.  Or at least, amongst the dozen labels plastered & etched all over the thing, shouting its various features at me in a pointless post-sale marketing effort, that is the one that seems most likely to represent a make and/or model.

10. Nov 22, 2009 at 02:18pm by margie:

We also have a Bissell. It’s the Healthy Home Vacuum and on the contrary to the shoddy tool they put on your model, I was instantly impressed with the tools that came with our model. I was frustrated trying to research the best vacuum to meet our needs of pet hair on area rugs and hard wood floors. At first I bought the pet hair eraser vacuum from Kohl’s, took it home thinking it was the one I wanted, then exchanged it when it was so loud I was afraid I’d damage my hearing when using it. Too many pieces of junk out there to sift through. Finding good cleaning supplies shouldn’t be that complicated! Maybe you can trade yours in.

11. Nov 22, 2009 at 04:16pm by Anthony:

Ours is extremely loud.  I can’t use it without wearing my drumming ear muffs (like these).  I think my ears are a little more sensitive than normal, though; Kim seems to do OK with the vacuum without ear protection.

I think our vacuum works OK though, despite its various annoying issues.  And I’m pretty sure it’s too old to trade in at this point.  I just can’t believe some of the stupid things it does, like having those holes on the attachment (but I guess the motor-protection theory is reasonable for that).

Reply to this message here:

Your name
Email
Website (optional)
Subject

[ Home – Create Post – Archives – Login – CMS by Encodable ]