Asymmetrical Information

Iron Shmiron - how about a vacuum cleaner that stands up to the rigors of family life with pets? Our freaking ORECK started smoking yesterday when Mrs. Offering plugged it in.

Re:
Vacuums. The new bagless vortex powered vacuums are great. I like the Eureka.

Who uses irons anymore? That's what dry cleaners are for. Megan,unfortunately, isn't thinking about all the Chinese laundries she is helping to put out of business when she makes such a post. To offset her oversight, let me suggest everyone throw their irons away. They are fire hazards and burn careless children once every thirteen seconds. Do it for the children!

According to my sister, the Dyson is the only vacuum worth considering for pet hair, even at it's steep price.

The DYSON's are great...but for the money you could hire a van full of illegal aliens to come in and clean the floor with tweezers for 37.4 years.

Err...not liek I've done that or anything.

$109 for a freaking iron???? And that's after the $65 discount?

If you add up all the money I paid for what I'm wearing right now, it would add up to about $65.

Except for my gun, that is. That cost $450. But I'm probably not going to try and iron that.

James

What, you paid $65 for a penguin costume?

They cheapest iron is one you don't buy at all. I just put my clothes on the hanger as soon as the dryer buzzes. I walk aroung wrinkle free with half the effort.

Jane - Are you recommending this as a Valentine's Day gift? Seems awfully un-romantic to me.

Megan,

You'll have to let us know how it works out. Some of the reviews on Amazon were perfectly dreadfull!

As a guy who irons his own shirts (and actually enjoys it) this is something I'd seriously consider. People spend more money on a golf club. A lot more.

Are you recommending this as a Valentine's Day gift? Seems awfully un-romantic to me.

Well, either she's the type who will like receiving a nice new appliance, or she'll have something in-hand to send flying out the door behind you. It's win-win!

What does a $100 iron do that a $15 one won't? Seriously.

Re vacuums, I got a Roomba for Christmas, and I love the little critter. It can't actually get all the way into a corner, being circular, and it'd be useless on stairs, but it does damn near everything else. Also, you don't have to push it; and it's cute, and clever.

Then again, I don't have pets, so I don't know how it'd deal with pet hair. But Eugene Volokh tested his by dropping 4 pounds of baking soda (!) over his study and setting it loose, and he said it did a creditable job.

What, you paid $65 for a penguin costume?

Nah, the penguin costume I got free from rolling a nun who was drunk and passed out in a gutter.

Seriously, though. I'm with ron on this one. What exactly are you paying for when you spend more than 10 times what a baseline appliance costs?

You can't expect the fancy-dancy model to last more than two or three times longer than the cheapo brand, so you're spending a great deal more than you would have to if you just kept buying bargain irons when the old one wore out.

Ergonomic design, maybe? The handle attached to the expensive iron feels better than the oen from Wal-Mart? If you're that sensitive and your comfort is that important to you, then I figure you should be living in a bubble anyway and ironing would be a waste of time.

As far as the observation from Slartibartfast is concerned, it's certainly true that people spend more money on a golf club than they do on this overpriced iron. But the main reason they do that is so they can gain bragging rights about the cost of their equipment while on the links, not because the more expensive laser-cut titanium shaft marvels help them play a better game.

So I'm wondering if Slarti might just have ironing parties at his house. Then there's actually be a reason to spend this sort of cash on an appliance that the rest of us only use when there isn't anyone else around.

James

Heh, as Instapundit would say. I'm still using the iron I bought for $17.95 several years ago, which is now missing a bunch of its plastic housing owing to its having fallen off the ironing board onto the kitchen floor. Seems to work more or less the same ;-)

But I can't diss expensive domestic appliances right after talking up the Roomba. Jane/Megan, please tell me it irons all your clothes for you, and all you have to do is stand back and watch.

Sheesh, I must be an appliance junkie... I have a Roomba AND a FloorMate, in addition to a regular old vacuum (and a miniature wet/dry for the garage and Dustbuster we got as a gift). My iron, though, is cheap. It's my ironing board that I paid through the nose for: one of those extra-wide "Euro" models with the iron rack on the end and a sleeve board I never use that flips up from underneath.

I'm a sheet-ironing atavism, so the bigger board does significantly reduce my ironing time. The iron rack actually hampers my sheet-ironing quite a bit, though.

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