by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
On the daily cleaning front the broom, dustpan and brush, and carpet sweeper, outperform the Hoover for ease of use and convenience, as well as energy consumption, even if it is a sweeper with rechargeable batteries, such as the ones from Gtech.
Aside from having to lug about a Hoover with all its pipes, etc. a vacuum cleaner is also rather energy hungry and, which is more, wasteful. Most of the energy consumed by your vacuum cleaner is, actually, blown out of its backside, so to speak, as hot air. Bit like politicians they are.
When it comes to carpet sweepers we now have two types; the ones that rely on human power, that is on me or you pushing it back and forth and through that movement making the brushes sweep, such as the Bissel sweeper I reviewed some while ago, and those new ones that come with electric power, courtesy of rechargeable batteries, such as the ones made by Gtec (see review), where the brush rotates at rather a rate of knots.
Both, however, have their place, also in my home.
All too often we think that with the latest kind of Hoover, such as a Dyson (and no, hint hint at Dysons, I have not reviewed one of them as yet), or similar, we can complete the tasks much better and faster than with the old-fashioned manual carpet sweeper or its more modern rechargeable battery cousin. But, considering that any Hoover, bar a few, is “tied to the cable” in more than one sense and is not light, it is not always the best solution. In fact there are times when the dustpan and the brush are still the best tools followed by the carpet sweeper.
Technology is not always the answer and, as said, often the old-fashioned tools, with a modern twist as in the case of the Gtech Power Sweepers, are much better and much more (cost) effective a solution.
© 2012
