You get what you pay for

We only have a few rugs that need cleaning so we didn’t bring the expensive Dyson upright cleaner we had in England. The little cleaner that I used for the car doesn’t seem to have the power that it used to have. So yesterday we bought a small vacuum cleaner from Carrefour. Now they had cleaners priced up to two hundred euros and I dare say the expensive models had features that the cheaper ones didn’t. With only a few rugs to clean though it didn’t make sense to pay a lot. On offer was one of Carrefour’s BlueSky brand cleaners complete with three tools and even a HEPA filter for 34,90€ (less than £24). It seemed like a good buy.

When we got it home though and unpacked it I couldn’t find the filter that protects the motor. A minor problem I thought. I plugged it in and switched it on. The first thing we noticed was that the lights in the lounge dimmed. That obviously meant that something was not right. Before I could switch it off though smoke started to come from inside the machine and within seconds it just died. The smell was awful. I had to put it outside until the smoke had cleared. The HEPA filter had almost melted and was covered with sticky black gunge. The following morning when I tipped the cleaner up this yellow liquid ran out of the place where the filter fits. It seems like like some plastic component has melted inside the cleaner.

Ah well – we will have to go back to Carrefour and perhaps buy a more expensive but more reliable model.