Air-Way......The Death Knell Has Sounded.........

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air-waycharlie

air-waycharlie

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I found out today from Tania Voigt that Air-Way is indeed out of business and it's doors are closed. The phone is disconnected as well.

Tania spoke with Air-Way owner Steve Tomberlin yesterday to confirm the information. As most know, I am an Air-Way dealer and had been expecting this due to some recent developments.

There are no vacuums left at the factory and the name has been sold to the VitaMix/VitaVac company. Hopefully, they will be able to supply bags and filters.

A VCCC member was meeting with Steve Tomberlin today to find out if there are any inventory pieces/parts left that are available for purchase.

As of this writing, I only have "bojack" bags, (and a limited number at that), for my customers. So, if you have bags, use them sparingly! I have no vacuums or filters in my inventory.

Sadly, another great American, hand made, product has bitten the dust. I guess it's ever onward with the $99 dust blowers from K-Mart! If you own vintage or newer Air-Way products, hang on to them.............they will increase in value down the road.

Charlie W.
 
So sad...

I hope they will still make the Air-Way under the Vita Vac name (which they have been doing for some time now). If not, I hope that we will still have a means of ordering bags (even if they are bojack). I would hate to have to retire my Air-Way simply because I can't find bags for it.

Very sad...
 
very sad indeed...

Its a shame they could not have had more exposure, They had an excellent machine!
Why did this Tomberlin guy not sell the company to someone who could have given them a rebirth?
 
Sad, Sad, year...

Charlie...this is such sad news. This follows on the heels of the demise of the Hoover Company. The Airway is a great machine. I cannot believe that people would rather buy $40 made in China crap at wally mart than a quality Airway. I hope that there might be some great leftovers still in the factory. Are they going to have an auction or did they simply close the doors? This is a very sad day indeed...

--Tom
 
Tom,

What I was told by Tania is that there is probably not much left at the factory. Frank Morgan was meeting today with Steve to see if he could get the, "molds", which Steve told Tania, "were just junk".

If he is able to get them, then at some time someone may be able to resurrect the vacuum perhaps under another name. The VitaMix people do not plan to manufacture the vacuum, just keep the supply of bags and filters going.

We will just have to wait and see. I spoke with Scott Light today, whose father was probably the largest seller/distributor, (more so than Don Clark), for Air-Way in years gone by. Scott, who has a very successful vacuum business in PA, said he lost interest in even selling Air-Way's since they never kept up with the industry.

He considered them too large, no cord retractor and at one time they only had the Douglas power nozzle which, even then, by industry standards was terrible.

The world only spins in one direction.........forward and sadly for Air-Way, they jumped off years ago and got left behind. And, yes, I did immediately think of Hoover and what has happened to that former trend setter. It's like the death of old friends. Very sad.

Charlie
 
Oh I'm glad I found one just in time they are as rare as hens teeth here. I think they were only ever sold in Ontario and perhaps Quebec Canada and that was eons ago.
 
I'm quite sorry to hear this, although I suspected something was up when Air-Way downsized their product line. Charlie, you are indeed right in saying Air-Way jumped off the world years ago and got left behind. Of all their products, I must say I like the Sanitary System the best. With all its attachments, it paved the way for Kirby later on. I don't think they did themselves any favors by not offering an upright after 1940. You could never sell an Air-Way to a die-hard upright fan, just as I could never sell an Oreck to a die-hard canister fan. Wouldn't even try....
 
Charlie, I am saddened to hear this news as well. So what vacuum companies do we have left here? I know of Kirby but what about Filter Queen and Rainbow?
 
Kirby is a very strong & old company, being owned by Scott & Fetzer for over 80 years alone. They will be around long after we are gone.

On Friday, I was given free of charge by the local Kirby Service Center, a very nice booklet called The Kirby Story. If I had a scanner, I would post it to the site. Has anyone else seen this booklet?

Before joining this forum I had never even heard of Air Way.

I believe Riccar AKA Simplicity and Oreck are US made, not sure where the parts are made. Overpriced, all plastic machines, like something Wal Mart would sell.

Las Vegas with a population of over 2 mil. does not even have a Filter Queen dealer. A few shops have used machines laying around, but they are not authorized dealers. There are several Oreck dealers. It wouldn't suprise me if FQ was the next to go.

Not sure on Rainbow, other than I've seen their offices open up and close frequently.

Ray
 
Very sad-I have three Air Way machines.Was having good hopes for the company-seems like they didn't do a very good job of PROMOTING their fine vacuums.If people don't know about it-they can't buy it.A company called "Air Tec" sort of makes similar machines-and their Filtrete bags fit AirWay canister vacuums.I beleive DVC makes AirWay canister bags too.Also it seems that AirWay couldn't decide to be a dealer sold machine or a DTD sold machine.
 
Thanks G3 for the information and yes I am sure we would all love to see "The Kirby Story"
 
Really sad news.

Boy, sad news indeed. Really knocked the wind out of me when I read the above posts. Always hate to see another long-lived company go under.

I must say that I am concerned about getting bags for my machine...Air Tec bags do fit? I'm going to check Air Tec out as soon as I leave this forum.

Many thanks for the news.

Joe
 
Oops!

Sorry, didn't mean to post that huge version, hit the wrong key :S

Anyway, it's my Airway Fleetwood Special, which no one's been able to give me a production date for!
 

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