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I broke my vacuum cleaner last week and it was unfixable.
Oh well, I hated that vacuum anyway. I bought it right after Garrett was born. The one we had (a Hoover V twin, which I loved) crapped out on us as we were deep cleaning the nursery to prepare for him coming home from NICU. What a fantastic time for it to break, lemme tell ya. The replacement was one of those rushed and poorly thought out purchases that made me rethink how I buy things. I am sick of buying cheap ‘disposable’ Wal-Mart vacuums every few years. I want something that will last for 20 years like they used to. I demand a lot of my appliances so I don’t mind spending a little more money to get a durable product.
In most households, a broken vac is not that big of a deal. But, with myself, 6 furry friends, 1 husband and two kids to make dirt, it is a HUGE DEAL. Depending upon my broom to tackle all that is like using a squirt gun on a forest fire. In the week we had to wait to get the $$$ to replace it, the tumblefur (the accumulated fur of all six critters-, dog, cat, and rabbit) accumulated to the point where it swirled at our feet when we walked. nice.
I needed a vacuum that can stand up to rabbit, dog and cat fur, hay, my looooong hair, phil’s metal shavings, 2 kids worth of crumbs, and anything else that I can throw at it.
Here are the criteria that I used in my search-
Gotta be an upright and I thought I wanted bag-less.
Weight is not an issue as long as it has a decent carry handle.
It needs to switch easily from brushhead to tools.
HEPA or other good filtration is a plus.
Needs to run well on hardwood, vinyl, tile and varying lengths of carpet.
Needs to be durable and be made of heavy duty, easily replaceable (preferrably DIY) parts.
Clogs need to be easy to clear.
The price needs to be right.
No, I’m not really a control freak, why do you ask, lol?
So, I am lured in by the Dyson ads. They are pretty and people seem to love them. They are spendy, but seem to be a worthwhile purchase because of the strong consumer following. So I launch into my obsessive research thinking that the Dyson Animal is the vacuum I want. The more research I do, the more I see that while consumers loooovve these vacuums, repair guys hate them. It seems that often repair shops will have many of these vacuums in the shop waiting for repair. The parts can apparently sometimes be hard to get, they are plastic so they can break easily and despite the claims that they never lose suction, they eventually do. This seems to be due to a design issue that allows dirt to seep into a void and stay there until it is cleaned out. For you Dyson owners, check for three torx screws on that cone shaped thingie. Remove them and clean out the dirt behind. I have never done this, just read that it is a common problem.
It is not necessarily a bad vacuum, but it is way overpriced for what you get. IMHO, a vacuum like that should be more in the $300 range instead of the $500 range. Dyson owners please feel free to throw things at me now. I know you love your vacuums and I hope they last you forever, but odds are they’ll be pretty jeweltone trash in three years. sorry.
Along the way I also learned that the whole idea of a bagless vacuum is flawed and a bagless will never have the same suction/filtration as a vacuum with a bag. Bigtime bummer for me because I like to use my vacuum for many things and hate spending money on bags. Guess I’ll get over it, they’re really not that expensive and the boost in performance is significant.
I’ve found too, that the whole ‘small companies making a quality product’ thing seems to have been left by the wayside in today’s disposable society. The focus now is on cheap, made in china crap that big manufacturers can pass off onto consumers who will gladly line up every few years to buy the latest *all-new* model because the manufacturer says it’s got *12.5% more cleaning power than the leading competitor* or comes in *new fashion colors*. Volume increase and profit maximization = moving production to another country where they don’t have to pay the workers a decent living wage or provide them with benefits. Several vacuum manufacturers (one rhymes with ‘oil’ – a classic brand that many depended on and the other one sounds like ‘hurt rebel’) have moved production to China recently and, apparently, the quality they used to have has suffered. There is also the issue of built in obsolescence. Some manufacturers will discontinue parts on items that have been out of production for a few years. They know they can because they know that you will try to replace a part eventually, be out of luck and getting stuck buying a brand new appliance. Think about what a toll that takes on our already overflowing landfills. It’s just unnecessary and bad business as far as I’m concerned. I prefer to give my business to companies who make solid products. Phil works too hard for me to spend our money on a cheap piece of crap.
So where do we go from here? I want a decent vacuum, Dysons are a no go. So I decide to look for others in that price range. I have about $600 to spend because Phil had a kick ass weekend on call. I don’t like Wal Mart and prefer to patronize small businesses if I can.
Now that I had convinced myself that I did not want to drink the Dyson Kool-Aid, I went looking for upright vacs in the 500-600 price range. I found a few brands, but one seems to stand out. Riccar. Why do they cost so much though? One Word. METAL. Metal bottom plate, Metal brush roller, Metal extension wand, Metal handle. You get what you pay for. Ya know, like those huge old beastly vacs that your grandmother used to have that lasted FOREVER, except upgraded to the modern version.
Look at your vacuum. Chances are that it’s plastic from top to bottom if you got it at a discount store. How long do you think it will last? How long do you think it SHOULD last? Once it’s bitten the dust (so to speak) how long will it last in the dump? Don’t get me wrong, plastics can be great for some things. They are a nessisary evil in todays world, but when there are better, stronger materials it’s kind of a no-brainer to me at least. Just something to think about that when you make your next appliance purchase.
But I digress…
Vacuum shop owners seem to love this brand. Most of them use them in their own homes. I should know, I called most of them in the Baltimore Metro area to find out who I wanted to buy from. Riccar makes durable, solidly constructed vacuums that are intelligently designed and have tremendous suction. Plus they are MADE IN AMERICA! Yes, you read that right, made in St. James, Missouri by actual Americans, albeit from globally sourced parts.Well, You can’t have it all.
I called a few shops and asked them questions like “What is your best seller? Which do you use in your own home?” This allowed me to screen out the people who led me in the direction of a Dyson. LOL, but true. I ended up at Hamilton Vacuum, about 15 minutes from my home. I spoke with one of the owners, Stephanie Marsiglia, who with her husband Rich have run their business in Hamilton for 17 years. She was very helpful on the phone and she basically verified that Dysons are overpriced pieces of shit (my words NOT hers) and there were much better vacuums available in that price range.
Enter the Riccar Brilliance Deluxe.
*cue angelic music*
metal bottom plate, brush roller, extension tube, handle and cord hook
HEPA or paper bags available, two charcoal filters on the vacuum itself
A super-neato very balanced carrying handle
Easy switch from tools to brushroller
Adjustable tool suction and brush roller height
Bag full and roller jammed lights
Auto shutoff and thermal reset for overheats
Lifetime (!) belt (yes, it’s Kevlar and Rich told me he has never had to replace one)
Bright – ass xenon headlights – they actually illuminate a huge area in front of the vacuum.
Amazing suction – we’re talking golf ball through a garden hose – hold onto your small pets – strong here. The dirt just gets scared shitless and jumps right into this thing. It’s the Chuck Norris of vacuum cleaners.
After much deliberation and research this is the vacuum I decided that I wanted. I got the vacuum I wanted at a price that we were comfortable with, considering the quality. Rich also gave us quite an education about vacuums in general while we were there. After that, I was even more confident that we were making the right choice. Oh yeah, that, and I brought my own dirt (consisting of the ubiquitous tumblefur, pure bunny fur, hay and some of my hair) to test drive the vacuums. Yeah, I’m a freak and I’m OK with that. Stephanie got a kick out of the fact that I brought my own dirt, although I am not the first to do so. I take such large expenditures very seriously. I need to know that this vacuum can stand up to what I will throw at it in the course of a normal day. That thing removed most of the ground in dirt, including the bunny fur, from the carpet *without the brush even being on*. With the brush on it got <all> of my dirt in two passes. Impressive. It performs just as well on hardwood. The tools are driven by a separate motor and are extremely powerful as well. It’s even strong enough to clean edges and corners with the brushroll alone.
I have now been using it in my home for two days and it is, without a doubt, the best vacuum I’ve ever used. I will report if my feelings change over time, but I don’t think that will happen.
So, I hope that when you are in the market for a vacuum, you will consider my research and experiences. Buy American products from a small business and you just may save somebody’s job. You get an outstanding product to boot.
SHINE ON!
So, apparently, I’ve been building readership for the last few months. (Thank you all very much for your support! – I never really expected one reader when I began this, much less a handful) Now that I have a handful of regular readers, it’s time for you to subscribe!
Now here’s the free stuff bit – To show my appreciation for my readers, everyone that subscribes to my blog between January 1st – 31st will be entered in a drawing to win a jar of my totally bitchin’ homemade strawberry lime jam!
If you are a local winner, I will deliver it or you can pick up. Long distance, I will figure out how to ship it. Sorry no international shipping since it is an agricultural product.
So subscribe today, the link is on the left side of my homepage, and win some jam!
Hope you all had a great holiday! I’m happy to be blogging again after the dishwasher disaster.
Right before thanksgiving, my 3 year old dishwasher took a dump on me. Kaput. It gave me a few days worth of half ass cycles and drains in it’s death throes then bit the big one. I was desperate so I kept going downstairs to trip that breaker ~ which sort of worked for a while. Mind you, it wasn’t dead enough to stop blinking it’s little green ‘normal’ cycle light mockingly at me, but dead enough that the keypad wasn’t functional and it wouldn’t do shit.
Those of you who live without dishwashers should be laughing your asses off at me right now. I was a wreck. miserable. My hands were dry & splitting despite gloves and lotion (i hate both). The underside of my counter is flaking and my sticky floor tiles are starting to pop from the moisture. On the other hand, my counter and floor have never been cleaner. I have never lived in a house without a dishwasher. With the exception of times when the ones we owned were down, I rarely had to do dishes by hand. SPOILED ROTTEN.
We even bought our rowhome with dishwasher and air conditioning over another possible candidate – a single family home without. We really did not want a rowhome, but I guess we value amenities more than being stuck (only on one side though) to somebody else.
Anyway, I figured this whole experience would make a good post on my approach to basic appliance diagnosis and repair. This is one of my tools and I should know how to maintain and repair it within reason. I wouldn’t expect to do a really complicated repair, but easy stuff like cleaning filters should be withing my scope of understanding.
So far there haven’t been any problems we couldn’t fix on our own, except when the washer started leaking while I was 7 mo pregnant. I was not about to squeeze my fat ass behind that thing. Turns out the hoses weren’t tight enough and it cost us 112 bucks for the repair guy to tell me that. ouch!
I have had to pull this dishwasher apart before to clean the filter of a toothpick and other assorted gunk (eeewww) so I wasn’t too intimidated by having to do it to diagnose the problem. The keypad is dead, so that means, at the very least, a new keypad. Duh. I figured we’d replace that part first and then see if it worked. This is usually the first part to fail just because of the nature of the part and where it is located. Water and electronics don’t get along and eventually water wins.
So we replaced the keypad and cleaned the circuit boards with swabs and alcohol and she is back up and running! We only had to remove a few screws and the ribbon cable just needed to be plugged into the new board. Anybody could do it with the right tools and the right frame of mind. Seriously, it was really easy. You can sometimes even find service manuals like the ones the repair guys use which makes the jobs even easier. JUST REMEMBER TO TURN THE POWER OFF AT THE BREAKER BEFORE TINKERING WITH YOUR APPLIANCES! DON’T BLAME ME IF YOU GET DEAD BY CRACKING OPEN A LIVE APPLIANCE. DON’T FUCK WITH ELECTRICITY!
The one sorta specialty tool that you will need for basic appliance repair is a set of torx screwdrivers. Ya know, the star shaped ones. Totally worth the investment if you don’t already have a set. Hell of a lot cheaper than a service call.
Here’s a few websites with info on appliance repair. Sometimes just googling your product model number and the symptom (or the error code if it displays one) can bring you a whole bunch of info. I’ve diagnosed clogged filters in my washing machine and my dishwasher this way. Found some icky cloth wipes, a baby sock and a toothpick but saved a bunch of money. Sometimes you’ll even find you have a very common problem with an easy fix.
fixitnow is my favorite. It doesn’t always have what I need, but I usually start here to absorb some of the Appliance Samurai’s knowledge about the particular appliance that is giving me a hard time. The first step of diagnosis, grasshopper, is understanding the patient.
applianceguru is the forum for the Appliance Samurai
This guy’s motto is “If I can’t help you fix your appliance and make you 100% satisfied, I will come to your home and slice open my belly spilling my steaming entrails onto your floor” Gotta love that. All he wants is for you to donate to his beer fund.
fixya is the most comprehensive and well organized, but with none of the bizarre charm of the Appliance Guru.
repairclinic offers exploded views and you can order parts from them. The prices are competitive, but there are plenty of local parts warehouses you can go to.
We usually end up at Landers Appliance. They are close to home, have decent prices and the staff is helpful.
I usually attempt to diagnose and fix these things myself. I’m not very mechanically inclined, and I didn’t used to know a lot about appliances, but out of necessity, I’ve learned. Once you have a basic understanding, it’s really not hard or even intimidating anymore. You owe it to your budget to at least give it a shot. Who cares if you end up calling someone out? At least you tried! That’s what it’s all about!
Now go figure out what is wrong with that washer/dryer/fridge/dishwasher/oven/freezer/furnace/air conditioner condensate pump/ (fixed that one this summer!)/whathaveyou/thromdimbulator AND FIX IT! YOU CAN DO IT!
SHINE ON!
Sorry I haven’t posted lately, my dishwasher died and I have been spending a lot of my time doing dishes by hand.
I promised myself I would only do this blog if it did not interfere with my ability to keep up with things at home. Well, two extra hours out of my day for dishes means no time for blog. If I followed what my brain was telling me, I’d be blogging, unwashed dishes be damned! Sometimes I hate having to be all responsible and shit.
We plan on repairing it soon. Hopefully I will be able to get the parts this week. When it is up and running, and I have at least caught up with my chore backlog, I will be back once or twice a week like I planned.
On a side note, Thanks for reading, I am really enjoying documenting my experiences and helping others.
Please let me know if you have any ideas for posts you would like to see. I have probably 20 drafts waiting in the wings, but could always use more ideas.
Hope you Have Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
~homemaderachel
So glad you asked.
wiki – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homemaker
kinda dry, but concise. it’s a start.
To me, A Homemaker can be defined as someone whose occupation is caring for a household. Making a home. Simple.
I know some Homemakers who work outside of the home or work from home as well. They are still homemakers because their job is to make a comfortable, safe and healthy home for their family.
That is just scratching the surface. The number of responsibilities for today’s homemaker is astounding. Yeah, we don’t need to beat our clothes on rocks to clean ‘em anymore, or have to be able to butcher a deer (or squirrel – yikes), but the demands on our time have shifted elsewhere. Trying to get multiple kids to multiple sports while dealing with a screaming, snotty baby or even trying to leave the house in the morning without puking pets (always discovered barefoot), broken zippers or lost shoes breaking your stride is damn near impossible. Pioneer women could never have imagined…
My two are still young, but I see friends who struggle with these issues. So many activities, no downtime. No time for the kids to just be kids and play in the dirt or stare at clouds. I am still trying to figure out how I will be able to let them do activities and still be home for dinner at the table or have a weekend free to go camping or just do nothing.
So Homemaking includes juggling all that crap too. Sometimes it is like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, and in a way it is. My kids, or any of yours, may change the world someday and I need to give them a good foundation so they’re smart enough to do so.
I chose to stay home to raise my kids because I feel very strongly that i can raise them best by instilling values in these formative years. I am not comfortable passing off their care to somebody else. Maybe it’s the control freak in me. Maybe it’s the fact that there are so many screwed up kids out there and i feel the need to protect them as long as possible. It is what it is. Whatever it is it also gives me the chance to make as many of our meals from scratch as possible, or to do like we did today and build a fort. I neglected dishes to build that fort. because i can! I can go on field trips and volunteer more at school too.
On the other side of the coin (a huge coin, i might add), there is no disposable income. Every penny goes toward the household operating budget. Most kids will have the latest video games or tvs in their rooms, maybe go on yearly vacations or have fancy toys. We simply cannot do those things on one income. I wonder how that will affect them in the social arena. Will they get teased because they are not wearing $100 tennis shoes? Will they understand why I chose not to work outside the home? The area that we live in has a lot of materialistic, ‘keep up with the jonses’ type people who have big screen tvs that take up half the wall crammed into itty bitty rowhomes. Funny where some people’s priorities are. House is fallin’ apart, but as long as I got me some gold teef, a big screen tv and a fancy car with a boomin’ sound system, I’m happy. Oh, well, to each his own, i suppose, but like i said, I’m striving for simplicity here.
My amazing husband Phil, did not smack me on the head with a club and then drag me back to his cave by my hair to make babies (that might be fun tho 
). I told him, almost from the beginning of our relationship 15 years ago, that my goal was to be a homemaker. I had no desire to work outside the home until the kids were in school full-time, and even then I want Mommy hours. I want to send them off to school in the morning with a good breakfast in their bellies, a good lunch (like so good they lick it so nobody will want to trade) and completed homework in their backpacks. Then be there to greet them as they get home from school. Pipe dream? maybe, but a girl can dream can’t she? Phil has given me the chance to fulfill that dream and I am taking it very seriously.
If homemaking is defined as how clean the house is, I FAIL! My house is usually a mess. Not filthy, stinky, nasty, belongs on tv with those two spunky British ladies contaminated, But messy. comfortable, broken in, lived in, like a pair of old worn slippers.
If homemaking is defined as how well I keep up with chores, I FAIL! We sometimes live out of laundry baskets, I almost never get to fold anything, and my sink is usually full of dishes. My counters are almost always clean though because my brain will not allow me to empty the dishwasher onto the counter unless it is clear and clean. Plus I bake so much I really need all of the 3 square feet of my tiny counters to work on. And I cannot abide by toilet stains. The rest of the bathroom could be a disaster, but as long as the toilet is clean, I’m good.
If homemaking is defined as how my yard looks, I DOUBLE FAIL! Wow, This one is so loaded I don’t even know where to start. Maybe the 35-year-old fence that the dog keeps escaping from, or the ‘shed’ that the previous owner built with sheathing, velcro and snot that is in danger of collapsing (well, not really, but i keep telling myself that, it is that bad) Sad part is that it fits with the rest of the neighborhood. Except the incredibly rednecky clothes lines strung out back. Nasty looking, yes, but I have only seen like two people in my neighborhood hang out clothes to dry, so no one seems to know what they are for. Add the scattering of children’s toys and the occasional missed dog turd, and the Middle River ambiance is undeniable!
If homemaking is defined as loving my family fiercely and doing everything in my power to ensure their success, I PASS!!! Like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, I get an A+++++++++++++++++! Even if it does mean letting them fail occasionally.
How do you define Homemaking? Comment me with your ideas.
Shine on with your bad self on this nasty rainy day!
Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy. ~Author Unknown
I have no freaking clue what I am doing so bear with me here.
The first issue I will address is the issue of my job title and some preliminary stuff you will need to know if you are planning on following my recipes.
I am not a housewife. They sit on their asses and eat bonbons while their staff does things for them.
I am not a SAHM. That implies that my only duty is being a Mommy. I used to call myself that, but I realized how limiting it is.
I AM A HOMEMAKER. Yes, it is an old fashioned term, some believe it to be steeped in sexism, but I do believe it fits me best. I (try to) make a happy, loving home for my family. This entails Mommy duties, but so much more. I make the home for my family. I get to teach everything I know to my kids. It’s the most important and rewarding job in the world. Hubby calls me supermom, but that’s not what I’m aiming for.
Sure, we have the house, but it’s only a building. We have the people, but they are just people. We have the stuff, but it’s just stuff. When I get my hands on those things and mix them up, we become a home, a family.
Home and family are simple things really. The satisfaction of having a hot meal on the table when hubby comes home from a long day at work (which really does not happen as often as i would like) and enjoying it together, without TV, at the table with our kids. Getting my four year old to knead dough with me or dancing with my 17 month old. At the heart of it all is living simply with the home and family. No bling, no keeping up with the Joneses. No Bullshit.
In these hard economic times, I have felt a need to strip as many excesses from my life as possible so those simple things can stand out even more. It isn’t always easy, but it’s always better.
There is definitely a sense of pride when doing anything yourself. Not to mention the money saved which is a real motivator these days. That is part of the reason that I started doing almost everything myself. The other part of it is that there are so many unnecessary ingredients in the food we eat. Additives, preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors. We just don’t need them. I also feel that there is a connection between these food additives (and all kinds of other pollutants too) and the ridiculous behavior that kids are exhibiting these days. Bleached flour, white sugar and too much sodium are all too common in processed packaged foods and I felt the need to cut them out as much as possible. That being said, I am not the health food Nazi. My kids do eat candy, junkfood and drink soda occasionally, but it is not a staple in the house. We eat out of packages at least weekly. And I have a serious love for Doritos. I do believe they have crack in them.
I have created most of my recipes using weight, not volume, so if you will be baking with me go out and get yourself a good kitchen scale. Target and Wal Mart both carry them, but i’ve had both and they are crap. I spent like $40 for a salter digital. i think i got mine at williams sonoma. so worth it.
Make sure it can toggle between oz/gm without having to turn it off first and that it has a capacity of at least 5 lbs. This is the difference between good bakers and great ones. Plus – no measuring cups to wash. A cup of flour should weigh 4.5 oz. A few years ago, I was horrified to find that my apparently level ‘scoop and sweep method’ cups were measuring about 6 oz. No wonder my baked goods were not that good.
A heavy duty stand mixer will be helpful for cakes and yeast dough, but not completely necessary. I never mix muffins or other quick bread type things (pancakes, waffles, cornbread etc.) with any kind of mixer. it makes them very tough and flat. Trust me on this one, I’ll explain when we come to those recipes.
Take a look at these sites for some really good info.
King Arthur Flour makes great, high quality products. If you are home baking, you are saving enough money to get the better quality flour instead of the grocery store stuff. You’ll still save money, and your results will be better.
Their website is chock full of great info.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008/tips.html
This one is really good too.
http://www.baking911.com/howto/how_baking_works.htm
Also anything from Alton Brown of Good Eats. This guy taught me most of what I know about cooking and baking. I now understand the science behind it and that’s why I can play around with recipes and usually get decent results.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats/index.html
So study up, and I will be throwing some recipes your way soon.
Shine On.
And remember ~ The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world!
