I have always hated vacuuming above all else. Dig the vacuum cleaner with its hoses and tubes out of the cleaning cupboard, and as a rule everything else in there comes crashing to the floor. So that the suffering should not end there, the power cord is always under your feet or caught on some corner, and as a parting torment it refuses to reel back into the machine. On top of that, hauling a vacuum cleaner along behind you by its hose is completely idiotic, since it bangs into the furniture or flips over when the hose pulls tight as you reach for the furthest corners.
The American-style vacuum cleaner familiar from films, with the nozzle, motor and dust bag all on the one shaft, cures many of these faults. It has a cord too, but there is no hose to haul behind you and nothing to put together. The invention is nearly a hundred years old, and I gather the patent went to a janitor in Ohio, who sold it to Hoover. Even so they have hardly been seen on the shop shelves in Finland, for the wholesalers do of course know far better than we do what is good for the consumer.
Issue 20/2005 of Tekniikan Maailma, the Finnish technology magazine, carried a quick test of the Electrolux Ergorapido under the headline "Two vacuum cleaners in one". Having read the article I knew at once that this was the machine for me. It is built like the American vacuum cleaner but has no cord at all. The Ergorapido is a cordless, battery-powered vacuum cleaner weighing a little over two kilos, with a hand-held one built in. The hand-held unit comes away at the press of a button and clicks back into place as if by itself. The floor nozzle has a motor-driven rotating brush, which steers the dirt and even somewhat heavier loose objects efficiently into the machine. The battery is easily enough for a two-room flat of 55 square metres at least. When the vacuum cleaner is not in use it sits neatly in its charging stand, always ready. The nickel-metal hydride batteries do not even need to be run flat before recharging.
Besides being handy, the Ergorapido, winner of a red dot design award in 2005, is as pretty as a piglet, as the Finnish saying goes. Mine is red. This time the vacuum cleaner did not have to be hidden awkwardly at the bottom of the cleaning cupboard, but was given a permanent place by the kitchen wall, where it is always within easy reach. The flour and crumbs that end up on the floor after baking can now be got rid of straight away, and the hand-held unit takes them off the worktop as well. For the photograph I stood it in front of the mirrored door, and my Red Sox cap had been left on the chest beside it. Vacuuming is no longer repulsive now, but downright pleasant.
When the magazine came out the Ergorapido was sold out for a long time, but now Gigantti at least had got in a new batch. When I added that Stockmann and Prisma were selling them for 119 euros, Gigantti promptly dropped its price from 129 euros to 115. The deal was done, naturally, and I can warmly recommend the machine to everyone else with a horror of cleaning.
