I buy and sell so my collection is constantly changing except for the core 4 I have had for many years. I bought my 1st vacuum in 1985 from sears of course a Kenmore, I think it was their best one at the time $235 before tax. Im still using it and would pit it against any bagless for suction, dirt removal, large item clogs, length of runtime without any maintenance, durability of case, motor, belt, brushroller and bearings.
What are your dream machines yet to be found?
An Electrolux thats less than 10 years old and actually works. It seems that Electrolux gave up making working vacuum cleaners a while ago but still thought they could expect to price their stuff as if it was state of the art cleaning technology based on their past reputation. After a few years of making the worst high priced vacuums the world has ever had the misfortune of trying, they have destroyed their reputation, made buyers feel ripped off, lost all hope of ever becoming anything more than a brand to stay away from. After close inspection of their design, I feel the company left all new design up to one person who simply had terrible ideas and there seems to be a complete lack of testing on any models they produced. Allowing production to begin without question when every model made had design flaws based on the same problematic air valve that diverted flow from the floor to the tool. Way too close of tollerance of the flap size moving inside the tube and eventually sticking. Could have used a stronger spring or a shorter arm on the lever that pushed the valve, allowing it to move further than needed to ensure it would fully open and close. Etc..
What are your earliest and favorite vacuum memories?
I try to erase all vacuums from my mind each day out of frustration and anger created by manufacturers.
What is the history of vacuum you have owned?
Since I forgot to state my current base cleaners Ill post them here. 1985 Kenmore bagged type U, Electrolux 3 pad floor polisher which triples as a carpet cleaner pretreater, hard floor scrubber and of course is never used for what it was made to do, polishing. For water pick up on hard floors after scrubbing is the Hoover Hard Floor cleaner FLOORMATE 500 or the larger one with the extra brush. Both work great but the smaller one gets into areas easier. For carpet extraction I use pretty much whatever I have ready to go at that time but will always grab a Hoover no matter what, basically I wont plan in doing any cleaning unless I have a few Hoovers, new or old, they all outclean any other made for home use cleaners made. I have tested just about every brand but not every model if course. I have found Hoovers to always be able to extract water that was left behind after using any other brands new or old. Ive conducted my tests numerous times using all current models by RugDoctor and Bissell and all Hoovers no mater what year or design (that has the spin brush) has been able to loosen 2 more tanks of dirty water after the others had been running clean extractions. The square feet was equal to what 1 gallon of water would cover, maybe 16 square feet 4x4. I would run each cleaner on the area till it was getting clean water, let it dry 24 hours in Phoenix, AZ, I know it was dry, then run the next till it extracted clean water. RugDoctor first Bissell 2nd. Bissell got 1 tank if light brown then clear, Hoover got 2 black tanks, 1 light brown and then clear. I also did extraction tests and found the hoover extracted 90% after 2 passes. It also could extract more from the other 2 test areas.
Have you ever worked on, repaired and/or restored any vacuum cleaners?
I do that daily, at least 3 a day depending on make and models, Kirbys will take a full 10 hour day to strip, clean, scrape, examine, wash, polish, buff, clean and reassemble. Electrolux takes the tip prize for making the most unfriendly, non-serviceable, break while trying to remove cases junk, then comes Dysons complete joke of an unusable, impossible to disassemble without breaking thin brittle plastic parts, only to discover that his ”lifetime filters are only good for about 4 years before the post motor filter is unable to be cleaned and will block the airflow making the vacuum overheat and have no suction (even though the other claim is to never lose suction). Replacing a belt can turn into an all day event on some models. All the rest are pretty well designed and take minimal time and effort to repair, the only thing that can go wrong with Shark is their use of different lengths of screws. Tiny differences can end up with white dots on the front side of the case when the wrong screw is used!
