Diferences in the landry culture throw the countries!

[MrX]

Also in terms of detergents:

Poweders or liquids : Oxygen based bleaching, never chlorine.
(You can also buy Oxygen based in wash boosters like Vanish etc)

or Colour detergents that are totally bleach free and do not fade colours.

woolens / silks need special detergents (woolite, dreft etc)

All are low foaming.

 

[oxydolfan1]

When I was there, both the equipment and washing powders seemed identical to the ones offered in England...is this still the case?

Also, I recall upright vacuum cleaners weren't very common in Ireland (although that was true of London as well)....has Dyson's popularity changed that?

 

[MrX]

Yup, they're identical. Only difference you might find is that promotional offers on the packs are occasionally localised for Ireland or the UK. E.g. P&G products were sold here with a "Eurosmart pack" discount.

We do use different currencies ( € Euro in Ireland, £ Pound Sterling in the UK)
And we don't share a common telephone system. So, toll free in Ireland is 1-800 xxx xxx and in the UK is 0800 xxx xxxx. However, recently many companies that operate across Europe are using the "European Freefone" 00-800-XXXX XXXX numbers which work right across the European Union.
All of that means that the packs either have to carry information for both the UK and Ireland (Which most do) or else, they have to be slightly different packs for each market.

Grocery products of that type are generally identical though in both countries and TV ads are also identical although oddly enough, some would be dubbed into Irish accents here.

Uprights are still very unpopular. They used to be quite common in the 1970s when wall-to-wall fitted heavy carpets were all the rage. There are far more hardwood floors thesedays. Also, the advent of very powerful canesters really consigned the uprights to a niche market. A powerful canester is just far more flexible and less complicated. Dyson hasn't really had a huge impact on that as the cylinder versions are probabally more popular than the uprights. The bias towards cylinder/canester vacuums has, if anything, increased as hardwood floors are becoming far more common place.

For some reason, Nilfisk (Danish Company) used to very much dominate the vacuum cleaner market here with their iconic canester vacuums. They were very much the dysons of the 1970s and 80s and lasted decades. (my grandmother's 1960s Nilfisk is still goig strong without ANY repairs and daily use)

I suspect that uprights remain popular in the US and Canada because your 110V 15A outlets can only provide about 1600W of power absolute max and most appliances have to be kept quite a bit below that upper limit. Using a beater brush/beater bar to sweep the floors usually means you can have a less powerful suction motor.

European 230V 13A (UK/Ireland) and 16A (everywhere else in EU) gives you at least 3000W of power from a normal outlet. It tends to mean we've more powerful portable appliances. So, a 1800W or even 2000W canester vacuum is quite doable.

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www.dyson.ie

 

[MrX]

On the dysons - not a fan

I am not at all a fan of Dyson. Unless things have changed in recent years, the versions I have used were extremely noisey.

I'm sticking with my 1800W Miele!

 

[tolivac]

The Nilfisk GM80-cleaning contractors and other commerical users love these in the US-sold by Advance co in the US.They build and sell janitorial equipment.The cleaning folks call the Nilfisk vac-"the Silver Bullet"A cleaning comapny out at my workplace had one-used it a time or two-very nice and powerful machine.hope they would "abandon" it here when another contractor took over-they came back and got it.
On universal motors-like those in vacuum cleaners-the amperage ratings can in a way be deceptive-the amp rating on the machine is what the motor pulls in a laboratory test stand-device for measuring horsepower and torque.the amp rating is the maximum the motor can withstand without overheating or damage.What the motor actually draws while in use could be a lot less.
The max for a 120V 15A circuit is 1800W and a 120V 20A circuit is 2400W.For home type cleaners and most commercial the rating is 12A I have a Tornado WD vacuum that is rated at 15A-works well off a 15A circuit without any problems.Again the motor is drawing less than 15A in the vacuum cleaner.I also have a Blendtec 20A blender that works fine off a 15A circuit.20A is its max load without damaging its motor.A brute of a blender though-have a small blender collection.Something interesting about "spin cookery!"

 

[tomturbomatic]

Many of our better detergents have enzymes in them. It is just that now not so much fuss is made about enzymes. One of the great advances that we experienced over here during the all too brief period when regular powders were reformulated as "ULTRA," were greatly condensed and were low sudsing, was the introduction of a new type of enzyme. Even formerly all liquid Wisk introduced an ULTRA powder with this new enzyme. Prior to this time, enzymes in detergents worked best on protein stains. These detergents managed to add an enzyme that worked on fats and oils. They were wonderful. I believe that the mix of enzymes is used today to give great cleaning since oil trapped in clothes is a big cleaning problem.

My Miele W1986, on the cottons cycle, goes into a 1000rpm spin after wash. It ramps up cautiously to avoid a sudslock, but with the right amount of powder Tide HE, there is no problem. It spins at 1000 after the first and second rinses also.
TT

 

[lavamat_jon]

In terms of sudslock I've had to say it relaly does depend on the detergent being used... I've found P&G stuff to be very prone to suds locks and the tabs especially always cause the wash spin to cut out on the AEG (the Miele will just carry on spinning slow until the suds have died down, or in extreme cases will stop spinning, pump for a minute then spin again), but with Persil I never seemt to have sudslock problems at all with their powders. However I've found the reverse is true with liquids... P&G liquids are great for rinsing out & not causing sudslocks but Unilever liquids can suds up for England! If anythign I wouldn't give up my wash spins for the world... I'm a huge believer in interim spins and they really do extract a lot of the detergent out before the rinse cycles even start.

Mrx... sorry to correct you there but most machines I've used have had a 30 minute quick wash. On my Miele at least, you can have a Quick (tap) cold-40*C wash (you don't hear the heater come on at all when cold is selected), with 2 rinses lasting 30 minutes or with 3 rinses lasting 37 minutes. This has a 1600rpm full spin at the end too unlike many other machines that just do a short spin at the end of a quick wash... so by the time you've had to respin the load you might as well have just selected a Cottons wash with the short option! I remember on the Hotpoint we had, the quick wash was a wash at household warm water (a joek really as by the time it entered the machine the water was cold to lukewarm), washed for about 5 minutes then did the synthetic rinses with a short spin at the end. Was great for half loads, or on lightly soiled loads - though I wouldn't wash everything on it like some people I've seen do!

Jon

 

[oxydolfan1]

I can't stand high-sudsing detergents that won't rinse clean...even in a top-loader it's annoying.

I remember reading that in Spain, they tend to use cooler wash temperatures than elsewhere in Europe.

What about France? They seem to be into their laundry, if the wide array of detergent products is any indication. I remember seeing a lot of h-axis top loaders there...

Do we have any members from France?