I love all of these new expensive products where a $4 UV light bulb is supposed to kill all of this shit whizzing by it at 100mph.

Why settle for this vacuum-borne bulb when you could simply have the cool purple radiance installed directly into to your home air conditioner for a thousand bucks?

Better yet, just buy a truckload of UV CFL bulbs and replace every incandescent in your house! Don't worry, if it gets too dark in there just hang up a ton of psychedelic velvet posters, pour liquid Tide all over your carpet, and line your walls and doors with glow-tape. You'll be getting both groovy and tan without even having to bother with the vacuum again!

I'll wait for Halo 3.

I love all of these new expensive products where a $4 UV light bulb is supposed to kill all of this shit whizzing by it at 100mph.

No, it is supposed to kill all the stuff it leaves behind :-)

The stuff it vacuums up doesn't need to be killed. However, I'm also curious as to whether it really works. Without independent testing from someone like Consumer Reports it is hard to know if this really works.

Haha! You made a typo. You meant doubt and you typed don't

Won't prolonged exposure to UV light fade your carpet?

too bad it is only for xbox 360. i heard that they are going to port it to vista soon though.

Haha! Fitz was mistaken -- he meant that it should have read like this: "-granted, I don't know if anything can kill what's undoubtedly festering in my roommate's mattress."

No doubt about it!

While I certainly can't vouch for this product (which has a slim chance of working), I can say that UV light DOES kill bacteria, etc. Many offices and some homes now put a strong UV lamp in the main line of their AC system for this very reason (yes, while the air is moving quickly by). On the other hand, in answer to someone's question, yes, prolonged exposure does cause color fading. It also can cause skin cancer. So, IF this thing works as advertised, don't point it at yourself or others and don't leave it on one spot on the carpet. Otherwise, have fun!

@hnkelley
Or you could use it to get an incredibly unsafe tan. Make sure you don't look at it though.

nih:

Why shouldn't I look at it? Sounds like a good way to get an incredibly unsafe blinding.

If you have dogs, UV light is very useful for finding the hidden urine stains on the carpet.

mkant:

yeah, I learned that when I was looking to buy a "black light" for party atmosphere a few years ago. Searching eBay, I just came across tons of little hand-held black lights with the headline "Find Urine Fast!" Pretty odd without knowing of the pet issue...

I looked into the vacuum, Ray.

@strider Your knowledge of useless information that provides you with the ability for the perfect quote for the moment is amazing. I applaud you, sir.

So, if the UV light in the air conditionvent works, that sounds like a fun DIY project.

"Whatever you do, don't cross the powercords"
"why what will happen if we cross the powercords?"
"it would be bad?"
"explain bad"
"Imagine all the molecules in the universe simultaniously being sucked into this vacuum bag all at once"
"ok, we got it, cross the powercords... bad!"

but does it never loose suction?

@hnkelley

You sound like someone that proudly forked it over to pour some snake oil into your new AC system (either that or you sell them)...

Yeah OK; UV light CAN sterilize things and kill bacteria. It's a great addition to say, an autoclave where you can bombard your silverware or what have you with insane amounts of UV for insane amounts of time.

However, inline in a central air system a UV light operating with an amount of power that will not seriously upset your electric bill is not going to do much except (maybe) keep a few feet of the ductwork around it free of surface bacteria. It's certainly not going to kill bacteria blowing past it in the air. If you REALLY REALLY believe that it does then please explain to me how you think that a lot of bacteria live quite happily outdoors exposed to the sun where they absorb hundreds of thousands of times the amount of UV they get on their quick trip past that light bulb in your ductwork.

The same goes for inline water UV filters; they are generally not effective at sterilizing flowing water.

I remember talking to a PhD chemist for Johnson and Johnson, or Dow, or whatever, back in college who was telling me that they put the little blue crystals in Tide powder detergent for one reason--nobody buys just plain white powder detergent. The little blue crystals did absolutely nothing from a chemical standpoint, or cleaning standpoint. So why do they slap a UV bulb in somebody's ductwork, or in somebody's waterpipes, or somebody's vacuum? They same reason they used to put the little blue crystals in the Tide wash powder.

Well, the UV does kill a proportion of the microbes. But it sure doesn't get many with just a quick "flyby" past the UV source. And viruses will be a little more resistant to the UV than bacteria because 1) many viruses contain RNA instead of DNA, and the principle damage via UV is thymidine dimerization and RNA viruses lack thymidine, and 2) the nuclear content of viruses tends to be more "wrapped up" than bacterial DNA and can be more forgiving to coding errors. AND...in many situations it can take a lot of bacteria to get you sick, but often just one virus particle can get you sick.

OK. That's about all the microbio I remember from med school. My opinion: the UV stuff, at least how it's being implemented at the consumer level, is largely gimmick.

Halo has a cool web site (www.gethalo.com) and some big name researchers who have tested the UV on the product. If the vac works, then some UV light is better than none...