On my last trip to Australia I brought home a special item. An item that has been coveted by my geek-slash-domesticated man for a long time: A Dyson vacuum. For those unfamiliar with the brand, they are this company that invent and sell innovative vacuum cleaners. The technology and design behind it is not your average Electrolux. Think of it as the BMW of vacuums. It’s a vacuum cleaner that people could have conversations (and blogposts) about.

I bought the hand-held, battery operated one. Took me almost an hour contemplating, trying, and thinking about buying this thing on Melbourne Bourke Street’s David Jones homewares floor. They don’t come cheap, but considering I live with three dogs that shed fur all the time, plus a generous Father’s Day discount, I finally uttered the words, “I’ll take it.” I got it back home and got all excited with the wife. “We’re gonna vacuum this house cleaner than an emergency room!” But oh wait, we still have to charge the thing, since it is battery operated only.

Then we noticed the print: “3.5 hours of charging for 15 minutes of usage time.”

Me and the wife suddenly felt dissapointed about our new supposedly perfect gizmo. I mean, fifteen minutes of use after a three and a half hours of charging? That’s like, stupid. I imagine myself vacuuming my bedroom, then I have to stop to charge it for another three hours before I can go on vacuuming the living areas, and then another three hours before I could clean the car. That’s kinda unexpected for, this ‘stupidity’. Why don’t they install a bigger battery? Why would they make a wrong design decision like that? But I told her, “Let’s just try it first.”

We tried our first full charge vacuuming the room, expecting the thing would suddenly spurt to death. But it kept going until we finished. Then we continued to our living room areas: it sucked the whole floor clean, and still have some power left. We left the thing unplugged and on the next day, I could stil vacuum the whole house spanking clean. I bet if I vacuumed the car then I can still finished it.

Turns out when I timed my vacuuming, the actual time of the machine turned on was just mere seconds. Pressing the gun-like trigger and going back and forth on a patch of floor only took like 15-20 seconds. I live in a small, apartment-like house (which the vacuum is designed for), and a couple of minutes of actual vacuuming is enough. More minutes are spent walking around, moving things, deciding which areas to vacuum.

The engineers and designers at Dyson already put so much effort in creating the ultimate vacuum, it just don’t quite add up if they made a mistake about the battery. Most likely they had their surveys and field tests before deciding that fifteen minutes *is* more than enough. Putting more battery will add more weight and bulkiness to the supposedly mobile, wireless vacuum. Or maybe, putting a more high-tech, more efficient battery will make the prices soar high even more. They decided on what they think it’s best, and what’s true to their vision. We just need to trust the Dyson name and reputation, and believe that they know what they are doing.

The fifteen minutes battery, turns out to be not stupid, but perfect.

A lot of things is going to change in Edward Suhadi Productions: the services and products we sell, the terms that comes with it, the kind of business that we want to pursue. Hard, unpopular decisions. We made these changes after a lot of meetings, studies, and deep talks about the course this ship we are in. We decided on what’s best for this company and its people. By staying true to its vision, we keep the company passionate, and what better can a customer have than a passionate company?

On the other hand, I know the changes will not be comfortable for some people, a lot like seeing the print ‘fifteen minutes of usage time’, but I ask of you to trust our name, experience and reputation, and believe that we know what we are doing.

Coming real soon.