Do you own a 6000 dollar cleaner?

Ever wonder where all those disposable vacuums your buying from the big box stores end up? The land fill.....along with your hard earned cash. So lets talk about it for a second.

If you have been buying your vacuums from a big box store. How many vacuums have you owned in the last 10 years? If your like most people about 4. These vacuums last on average between 2 and 3 years. Ever wonder why they only have a 1 year limited warranty? Most of our customers come from people who are usually in their 30's and 40's and one day come to this realization. The then think about the vacuum their parents had which was made in the US and remember that that vacuum lasted for decades. So say on average those vacuums cost 200 dollars (although lots of people are buying the 400 and up disposable vacuums too). So in 10 years on average you would spend 800 dollars. In 25 years you would have spent 2000 dollars NOT accounting for inflation. If you accounted for inflation I guesstimate that number would be more like 3000 plus as a vacuum will cost more 10 years from now. These vacuums usually cost between 30 to 50 dollars in China are shipped over to the US marked up by a few different people and sold. They are cheap thats why the sell. But guess what they know you will be back in 2 years when it breaks. For another and another. Its a good gig and very profitable. Its not something in good conscience that I can believe in though.

Then consider a good US or German made vacuum. They usually cost about 400 dollars to make and are sold between 600 to 1000 dollars. I have seen lots of these brands that the vacuum is 40 years old and still working great. Think back to your parents vacuum or grandparents how long did it last? Where was it made? So our companies mission was to sell high end vacuums and cleaners thats life can be measured in decades. Bad news for repeat business and not very smart right? Wrong, We focus on doing the right thing and luckily as a result our customers are our best advertisers with referral's. Its kind of like bike's. Have you ever ridden a Huffy brand bike? They are not the worlds best bike. They are heavy and slow. Then you ride a high end brand and instantly you recognize the difference. Its lighter and faster and turns better and shifts smoother. Can you ever go back to the Huffy brand? No way once you have experiences the high end brands your ruined for good and could never go back. Its like that with vacuums once you have a high end vacuum you cant go back as you cant believe how much better they clean and how long they last continues to add to your pocket book vs. seeing it go to the landfill with your disposable vacuum.

My next question is which vacuum cleans better do you think? The one that cost 50 dollars to make or the one that cost 400 dollars to make? Which one do you think is more powerful? Which one will deep clean better? Which one will have sealed joints for improved filtration? Which one do you think will have a real hospital grade HEPA filter in it? Which one will last longer and work better?

So we already talked about how buying a disposable vacuum every few years could cost you about 2000 dollars more. But how much extra in carpet expense are you also paying for? Do you know what kills carpet? Sand and deep dirt that are deep in your carpet and cut the carpet fibers. As you will learn in a later chapter most disposable vacuums should be called sweepers instead of vacuums. As we will cover in a later chapter they are designed in such a way that they just clean the surface and grind much of the sand and dirt deep in your carpet where you cant see it. However most of the high end brands are very good deep cleaners. They are actually designed to pull the deep down dirt that damages your carpet and up and keep your carpet lasting longer. You ever notice that those carpet "trails" occur where everyone walks. Where you can never get the carpet to stand up like it should. What if there was sand deep in the carpet from people walking. What if the sand was cutting carpet fibers and each time you vacuumed they got vacuumed up. Do you think there is less carpet fibers per square foot right there? Is that why the carpet always falls over in those "trails". How many more years of life could you add to your carpet if you used a deep cleaner? How many thousands of dollars would we save on carpet if we used a deep cleaning vacuum to protect that investment? Also many high end vacuums come with carpet shampooers which is an additional savings.

STORY - One time I was showing a high end vacuum to this elderly couple. I walked into the room I was to vacuum and it was a huge room with white plush carpet-. For me showing them a new vacuum that was good news as very few vacuums are powerful enough to deep clean plush carpet. Then I asked what kind of vacuum they use. Hoover they said, even better news why this was practically a guaranteed sale :) Then she brought out the Hoover. It was ancient! Probably about 30 years. I rarely saw them 3 years old let alone 30 years. However this one was from back when they were made in the US. I thought oh easy its a Hoover (usually not deep cleaners) and started showing them the new vacuum. Usually when I just turned on the vacuum that I was showing them the filter would start to get dirty right away and I could tell she loved a clean house. So I turned on the new vacuum and nothing happened. I checked to make sure my deep cleaning vacuum was working right. It was....hmm thats weird. So I started vacuuming...still nothing. Usually I would vacuum a spot 8 x 8 but no dirt was coming up so I vacuumed the entire room (very large) and pulled out the dirty filter and showed it to her. 3 SPECS OF DIRT. She was not impressed (neither was I). I said "Whatever you do dont EVER get rid of that vacuum because they do not make them like they used to." Talk about Return on Investment she probably spent 80 dollars on that vacuum and it was going strong after 30 years.

Those are the kind of vacuums we believe in and sell. Most are made in the US and last 25 plus years and work much better.

Make sure you dont own a 6000 dollar vacuum and instead Buy quality, Buy Once and Buy Right and put the difference in your Kids college fund.

- Dustin Chaffin Manager, GreatVacs.com

SERVICE@GREATVACS.COM