One key difference between a pro and an amateur is that the performance of an amateur heavily relies on the quality of equipment, while a pro only uses equipment as a mere aid. So, you shouldn’t buy a portable car vacuum that will do all the work for you. You should instead buy a portable device that can help you vacuum your car – that’s a huge difference.
Here’s how to buy like a pro:
Manufacturers Don’t Always Know What Their Products Can Do
If you’re trying to find portable vacuums that manufacturers state can do every single thing you need, you might never buy anything. Instead, what you need to do is find one that offers some key features and add on some creativity to make it work in those unconventional situations.
For instance, the limits of a vacuum are particularly evident when trying to clean out those tight crevices within your car’s interior. Fortunately, you can still get at such tough spaces by turning your vacuum into a blower. You can do this by connecting the hose to the vacuum outlet.
After dislodging the debris, you can then vacuum it.
In this process, some dust may get airborne, which can be dealt with using an air purifier. Alternatively, you may use a mist spray which will trap airborne particles and cause them to settle back down. This works much like the industrial air scrubber described in TeachEngineering.
Fewer Features Might Be Better
New products are coming up with many additional features. Although such extras may offer some benefits, you might actually be better off buying a product that only possesses the rudimentary aspects.
Here are a few reasons why:
- According to the Harvard Business Review, instead of increasing usability, extra features might actually make your product much harder to use.
- A portable unit already has limited space to fit in the core feature – a motor – wouldn’t you end up with less power if it was made smaller just to fit in other gadgets.
- Additional features are sure to raise the price tag or require higher maintenance costs.
- Some extras might actually reduce the effectiveness of your device to perform certain tasks – you might not even need a brush attachment and can instead use just a simply hand-held brush.
The Perfect Portable Vacuum Doesn’t Exist
You’ll be terribly disappointed searching for a product that’s small and powerful, portable and rugged, compact and high capacity, or long-lasting and dirt cheap. It just doesn’t happen in the real world.
Checking through online customer reviews, you’ll notice a common trend: many satisfied buyers usually praise a product for fulfilling one or two key functions. This is particularly so with the miniature version of a typical house vacuum: you can only fit so much into a tiny, portable device.
Bottom line: focus on what is really important in your situation and consider anything else as an additional benefit.
Don’t Just Buy for Now – Buy For The Future
Have you ever spent a tone of cash on some product you desperately wanted; only to dump it in some neglected corner of your house after just a few weeks of use, simply because you no longer needed it?
No need to beat yourself up for your impulse buying, although it really isn’t impulse buying. It’s more appropriately a result of (warning: technical stuff ahead) unfulfilled dynamic performance expectations as defined by Qualtrics. In simpler terms, you expect your product to adapt to the changes in your future needs, but it doesn’t.
To avoid wasting money on something that you’ll throw away after using only a few times, you should carefully consider the changes that are likely to occur in future. All you might need today is a battery-powered vacuum; but you might go on a long camping trip on your vacation, making a 12V, corded vacuum the better option.
From these tips, you can clearly see that the benefit you derive from your vacuum is largely dependent on how you use it. Hence, such pro buying tips won’t work well for amateurs. You need to first polish up on your vacuuming know-how.
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