
I never understood why American vacuum cleaners have to be so bulky. Look at this beautiful, space-saving, stylish sucker from Japanese company Electrolux. It has the same cyclone system as a Dyson but it only weighs 5lbs. Plus it comes in pretty colors like magenta, diamond sand, and havana brown.

Electrolux is a Sweedish company.
Posted by: Cryptnotic | September 10, 2008 at 11:01 AM
"I never understood why American vacuum cleaners have to be so bulky."
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/posters2/usa04.jpg
Posted by: kups | September 10, 2008 at 11:37 AM
I feel like I'm piling on, but: http://smallappliances.electroluxusa.com/node35.asp?ProdID=27948
This vacuum cleaner is available in the United States as well. Maybe not in pink, which does look cuter.
I think the reason these kinds of vacuum cleaners are not so popular here is that they don't work very well. The two biggest components to any vacuum are the motor and the bag storage (or the dust canister, if there's no bag). So with a vacuum like this you get a little wimpy motor and a bag/canister that you need to empty every five minutes. You may as well just use a Dustbuster.
Dyson's been doing some good things trying to at least minimize the bulk while actually improving the usefulness of the appliance.
Posted by: Jeff | September 10, 2008 at 12:09 PM
I've actually got one of these in grey. They are good for smaller apartments. The center part is removable, and functions like a dustbuster. Best of all, it runs on a rechargable battery so no worrying about the bloody cable.
Posted by: Daemon | September 10, 2008 at 09:27 PM