A Vacuuming We Will Go

After doing some marginally intensive research, I finally narrowed down my vacuum choices to two: an Oreck or a Dyson. They're both in the same price range (which can be loosely described as "Yowzer!") and both come with guarantees that bring the per-year price down to about the same as (or less than) my old Bissell that lasted a whopping 18 months. Talking to Tim, he agreed that this made it slightly less worrysome about spending good money of the thing, and so we headed off to Target to view the Dyson.

The Dyson was lighter than the Bissell (16 pounds vs. 26) but still semi-heavy (cause when you throw in a 20ish pound toddler in one arm plus 16 pounds of vacuum in the other, your back does protest a bit). Still, it rolled nicely and it seemed good - until I looked at the canister. See, the Dyson is bagless. Our Bissell was bagless. I used to think this was a good thing, because really? Who likes cleaning out bags? But - the single point of failure on the Bissell was the canister. It had a push button to detach the canister from the main vacuum and then another button that opened a little hatch on the bottom and then you shook out the sucked up contents. It was this hatch that broke. It's held on by swiveling plastic pieces. The piece broke - well, shattered, really - and though gluing it back held for a little, it ultimately failed. And if you can't catch what you're vacuuming up, the whole exercise is relatively pointless. The Dyson canister worked the same exact way. Major points against.

So I looked at Tim, hesitating, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: "Can we go look at the Orecks?"
Tim: "The Orcs?"
Me: "Or-ECKS. That's another brand of vacuum."
Tim: "Do they have them here?"
Me: "No, but there's an Oreck store by the Chilis."
Tim (laughing): "Cool, an Orc store."

Of course on our way over there, the kiddo fell asleep in his seat, so I ran in while Tim sat in the car. I have to say, the Oreck is light. Super light. You can lift the thing with three fingers, easily. And it has really good suction. I was sold. So I ran back out to the car, sent Tim in, and he returned with our two vacuums (it came with not only the super light upright, but the reasonably light canister for stairs, cars, curtains, what have you - basically the upright has no hose with attachments, the canister is the hose with the attachments) and a free iron. I had to laugh at the free iron...but I guess at that price it's nice that they throw in something free. And really, I'm using the same $20 iron I bought in college, so it's probably time for a change.

On our way home, Tim asked what we were going to name it. A quick Google brought me to this list...and I'm thinking the most appropriate one on there is Snaga...my little slave Orc.