Maybe so but my Miele is approaching 20 years and still shows no signs of age. It was expensive then ($400 USD) but that works out to $20/year + bags and filters.
I also have an electrolux LI battery powered upright with a removable hand vacuum. it was $15 at a thrift store. Needed emptying and charging and has been OK for 3 years so far. The Craftsman shop vac has also been a workhorse as has the commercial Oreck (another thrift store find for $25).
There is confusion between suction and air flow. Lots of suction is not useful if little air actually goes through the machine. A real commercial dust collector doesn't pull a high suction but moves a whole lot of air and sawdust. Similar issues are important for home vacuums. Look for CFM if any is listed. The HP ratings on shop vacs are a joke. My little shopvac claims 1.75 HP. Maybe for the first 100 mS. . .
One of the problems with a lot of stuff that is designed in the USA is that the PRIMARY design decisions are usually made by people with Marketing / Accounting and/or Legal backgrounds.
(NOT that the process is ENTIRELY "Bad" - they just should have SOME Input from Engineering in order to keep "One leg grounded in REALITY"...)
The Germans seem to VALUE their Engineers more-so than their US-counterparts who seem to view them as a necessary evil.
The Engineers are usually not "members of the boys club" here, and are usually brought-in only after a nearly impossible-to-realistically-achieve-for-the-target-price has been established by that collection of "geniuses"... (the compound it by the consumers with unrealistic expectations who want the Trifecta of Better / Cheaper / Faster and wonder why only the European customers get the "cool" options at a substantially higher price)
(NOT that the process is ENTIRELY "Bad" - they just should have SOME Input from Engineering in order to keep "One leg grounded in REALITY"...)
The Germans seem to VALUE their Engineers more-so than their US-counterparts who seem to view them as a necessary evil.
The Engineers are usually not "members of the boys club" here, and are usually brought-in only after a nearly impossible-to-realistically-achieve-for-the-target-price has been established by that collection of "geniuses"... (the compound it by the consumers with unrealistic expectations who want the Trifecta of Better / Cheaper / Faster and wonder why only the European customers get the "cool" options at a substantially higher price)
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The hope and dream of every german parent is that their child will go to uni and become an engineer. It is basically the most highly regarded profession although teachers are quite well regarded given that they train the next generation of engineers. 
We see accountants as non-productive but unfortunately necessary evils.
We see accountants as non-productive but unfortunately necessary evils.
The hope and dream of every german parent is that their child will go to uni and become an engineer. It is basically the most highly regarded profession although teachers are quite well regarded given that they train the next generation of engineers.
We see accountants as non-productive but unfortunately necessary evils.
For the American view on the topic -
Go to U-Toob and search for "Dilbert The Knack"
If you've never seen it - the geeks among us and family members will get a charge out of it
trust me ;-)
How accurate is this? I know a few people from Germany and they never mentioned such thing. There are many good engineers from Germany but being an interest of national scale is news to me.The hope and dream of every german parent is that their child will go to uni and become an engineer. It is basically the most highly regarded profession although teachers are quite well regarded given that they train the next generation of engineers.
OK, but what did James Brown say about his vacuum cleaner?
You got it, Galu!!
I was worried you meant this one!
Ha ha ha. We had a friend in school who's nickname was "Mr Hoover" but we won't go there on this forum.
It's national stereotyping. Don't get us started on the French. Or Americans!How accurate is this? I know a few people from Germany and they never mentioned such thing. There are many good engineers from Germany but being an interest of national scale is news to me.
My green Miele is around 30 years, powerfull, built like old Mercedes...but price of bags is like it was made with USD green paper... Like it so much as in CE vaccum cleaners were power limited for green whashing reasons.
Indeed, twice less powerfull means you need twice times for the same results...with all that sweat you also need a workshop vaccum cleaner for liquid... may vary with temperature... a nightmare in Florida but Germany is always cold....
It's national stereotyping. Don't get us started on the French. Or Americans!
Rumors say there are some vaccum cleaners hand made suited with L-V marked leather.... a must have... but a marketing disaster abroad as people whom can afford it have housekeepers without high heels.
How accurate is this? I know a few people from Germany and they never mentioned such thing. There are many good engineers from Germany but being an interest of national scale is news to me.
It is a generalization of course but as far as those go it is pretty accurate.
That is me saying that as a German and most of the parents of the kids I went to school with were hoping that their son would become an engineer.
Many did...
At some point they were desperate to get some business graduates but the course only really took of when they renamed it and gave graduates the title of 'Wirtschaftsingenieur' (lit. economic engineer).
The title Dipl. Ing. (equivalent to a Masters degree) is protected not by the state but by the Verband Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI = Union or Guild of German Engineers) which was founded in 1850 something.
There were some changes due to the Bologna process (EU-wide alignment of academic degrees) which officially replaced Dipl Ing with a masters degree although some unis refused to use that and still hand out Dipl Ings. A bachelors degree exists now, it used to be called 'pre-diploma'. It is still pretty useless in the german labour market though.
There are two academic levels above a Dipl Ing or Masters degree.
Hm.. my little Tiger has only 550W (add 150 for the brush) and it does the job. I think that with much more power it will suck tight onto the carpet and can not be moved anymore.
I recall having similar thoughts back in the late '70's / early '80's building high speed continuous jet ink printers for junk mail and possibly fabric printing. We made the print heads for the Admark industrial printers (low res... printed giant 6' rolls @ 15 - 20 mph , @ maybe 120 dpi) all that dot - matrix looking addressed mail we got back in the 1980's).
The senior management team decided to "participate" in the emerging commercial / personal inkjet market, and came to the conclusion that a $3,000 - $4,000 price range for monotonic 240 - 360 dpi machines was proper marketing. We were also building continuous color machine (code named "Midas" @ 360+ dpi) but it was problematic due to charge plate continuity issues and corrosion effects of spraying ink continuously thru thin metal skins with hundreds or thousands of .001" to .003" precision holes (+/- .000040" typical).
Needless to say, although the continuous injet model was fast and fairly reliable @ lower resolutions, HP, IBM, Canon, etc. develop demand driven print-heads that destroyed any commercial market for these high end priced products. One of the limited successes back then was the personal Diconix printer, but the print engine was OEM'd from I think Canon.