What are your earliest and favorite vacuum memories?
The Electrolux 502S from my childhood. Kept in the airing cupboard in my brothers bedroom. I was scared stiff when my mum use to get it out and Id barricade myself with cushions on the sofa before she plugged it in. Lol. Soon enough I wanted it out all the time to play with. When I was 6 my parent bought a Turbomaster so my Dad removed the pins from the plug on the Electrolux and I use to play with it in the garden.
Every Sunday afternoon we would visit my grandparents in Wembley and I would spend all afternoon upstairs playing with their Electrolux 350 cylinder. Id always purposely make mess eating biscuits just so I could use it. Lol. Those were the days when you had to ask to vacuum!!! :D
What is the history of vacuum you have owned?
I had started a collection as a kid and kept them in a dedicated garden shed and these were acquired from neighbours. I had an Electrolux and Goblin Cylinder, Hoover Senior and Turbopower and a Goblin Laser. That was until I got into a big bust-up at school and got suspended. As punishment my dad took them all down the local tip and I wasnt aloud another vacuum cleaner again. That was until age 14 when I sneaked home a SEBO X1 that I saved all my paper-round money to buy. Dad hit the roof when he found out but I persuaded my mum to talk him round into letting me keep it! Haha. More followed once I discovered eBay in 2004 :)
Have you ever worked on, repaired and/or restored any vacuum cleaners?
I have restored a fair few cleaners. I started off working on Turbopowers as they were really simple. I was lucky to have a friend whos grandad worked as an independent vacuum repairman and he would show me how to change bearings etc and provide me with parts too. So I started rescuing cleaners from the dump seeing if they worked and cleaning the up and servicing them. Nowadays i get asked by family/friends to sort out their cleaners. Recently sorted out a friends Oreck that somehow had a photo jammed in the fan. Think she was secretly trying to sabotage it in all honesty! Lol.
