Attachments

[fan-of-fans]

Do you guys have an OCD about finding attachments for your vacuums? I really prefer to have the attachments for all of my vacuums, in the correct color and in the correct storage spots if it has them.

For a lot of newer machines that are less than 30 years old, and some older ones depending on the brand, finding attachments is not that hard. Often the same attachments are still in production so are easy to order. Especially since most these days only come in gray, black or similar colors.

With older ones, especially when the attachments came in different colors in different years, it gets harder to find attachments in the correct color.

For example, I have a Hoover Slimline that was missing the crevice tool and furniture tool. I finally got some recently off eBay. Still not the correct color, but close enough and it's nice to have the two holding spots finally filled instead of looking at empty holes every time I open it.

Then I just got a mint green Hoover Celebrity. It came with no tools. I know I'll never find a complete set of mint green tools most likely without buying one with the attachments still with it. I did see a mint floor brush last month on eBay. I'm about to either try to find a full set of period white tools from an upright tool set and live with them being white (haven't even had any luck with that yet). Or, I'll just get a modern light gray set of Portapower attachments. (At least they'll fit and light gray won't clash too bad with the mint I don't think).

Anyway it still bothers me to have machines with incomplete or missing tool sets. It also drives me nuts when vacuums come in thrift stores with all the attachments yet they inevitably get picked off and go missing as time goes by. If someone tried to buy one attachment from me, I'd tell them to go back and get the whole machine.

Also, has anyone had luck finding attachments in thrift stores? None of the ones here have any bins of attachments for sale. Bags yes, but strangely I never see attachments, and can't recall seeing any in the past either.

 

[electrolux137]

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Back in the day, most of the large thrift shops had huge bins full of attachments. You're right, you don't see that anymore. Orphaned attachments just get chucked out.

 

[real1shep]

It's sad.....

but true. The bins and boxes full of old attachments are mostly gone now.

Sometimes you see them at thrift stores or even in antique booths.

Everything comes up on eBay at one time or another.....but you'll pay for that convenience. I have to admit though, if it were not for eBay, most old stuff would just wind up in the landfill. For decades, people would find old junk and their friends/family would clamor,"Put it on eBay!"......and so they did.

Kevin

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Yes, I, too,

prefer things to match.
On my last trip to North Canton, I got a box full of Hoover attachments, vintage and non.
Is there something you're looking to find?
Perhaps I might have one.

 

[eurekaprince]

Indeed, I feel a twinge of discomfort when I see the wrong attachments stored or used with "foreign" cleaners!!!

My mini obsession gets a little crazy when I see Eureka attachments stored incorrectly on vintage Eurekas and Tool Pak attachment caddies!!! All Eureka dusting brushes must be facing forward on the canisters, and if not, I develop insomnia!!!

 

[real1shep]

Depends......

on how you look at it and your budget. If you're collecting old vacs, why not get everything period correct? But on the other hand, if you're a cost conscious collector, you're not going to spend $$$ to match original attachments to original vacs.

Elux hoses are a great example. The good vinyl replacements last a very long time depending on how you use and store them. The old woven ones....they're lucky to still be above the ground of the landfills.

Kevin

 

[suckolux]

It's a quest!

 

[detroitdirtbag]

I have a nice teal floor tool for sale, it was so nice I bought it, but then I wanted one in cream color.

 

[rainbowd4c]

It's crazy how many people lose their attachments and ow people will mismatch for whatever reason. Anytime I think about buying a vacuum on ebay or Craigslist the first thing I do it make sure all the attachments are included and the same for the model. I then check the cord and hose.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Yeah, it's nice when a vacuum comes with all of its attachments, but many times they're missing a few.

It's also a little odd to me how many vacuums on eBay sometimes have attachments for other models with them. Like I see Hoovers with the original attachments but there will be extra dusting brushes or upholstery tools from another model with them or different color, etc.

Makes you wonder how people ended up with the extra attachments. Did they have more than one Hoover? Did they buy extras at a vacuum shop? Etc.

 

[real1shep]

Yeah.....

I've bought used vacs and gotten extra attachments that never went with it. I figured they had other similar vacs and got confused or just threw them it. Hard to say.

And yeah....where did the missing attachments go? People lose stuff when they move, especially smaller items....they're the most at risk. Sometimes they lend attachments to friends and family and they never get them back etc.

I liken it to the Owners Manuals that come in cars. Over 60% of the time when you buy a used car the Owners Manual will be missing. I've pondered over this phenomena for decades. Do previous owners take them as a keepsake....do they peddle them on eBay....is there some giant, secret warehouse somewhere that stockpiles Owners Manuals?

Kevin

 

[gottahaveahoove]

A lot of times, when I buy cleaners at thrift stores, etc

there will be a bunch of tools that don't go with the cleaner. I put the 'strays' in a box. When I host minimeets, I'll put them out for others to take. Or, I'll bring them to the conventions. Amazing how they add up.

 

[vacuumkid47]

How about with Kirby attachments in the caddy? I always put them in the same order every time. People always just stuff the attachments everywhere else on it, but I go by this order:

Ext. Tube Upholstery tool Crevice tool Dusting brush Ext. Tube

Multi-Surface Nz. Wall/Ceiling Brush
Hose

 

[human]

Traveling Tools...

What gets me is how little care thrift store staff take to keep a vacuum together. I've seen a vacuum with all or most of its attachments fall apart over a week or two if it's not bought right away. Attachments and other removable components eventually get scattered all over the store as employees, and maybe even some well meaning customers, pick pieces up off the floor and just put them randomly on a shelf. One brand of vacuum that seems to get preferential treatment in this respect is Kirby. The Goodwill near my house will use what seems like a couple of miles of cling wrap to mummify a Kirby with an accessory kit together. Of course, I've also seen other thrift shops that just sell the accessory kit separately. Again, individual tools just seem to get up and walk away over time if the kit isn't sold right away. The time to buy something like that is truly when you first see it.

While I do try to use the "right" brand of accessories with my vacuums, I'm less concerned with model colors. A while back, I bought a Kirby Heritage Convenience Group kit that was missing a few tools, most of which I was able to fill in with some random navy blue Tradition tools. I completed cobbling this set together by purchasing a Classic Omega tool kit because it was cheaper than trying to source the extra long wand by itself but I haven't had the heart to consolidate the best of the two kits and get rid of the surplus, despite not having a Classic Omega or a Tradition. And when I got my Legend II last year, I got a matching red hose for it but not any other tools because I had such a surplus of Kirby tools that it seemed redundant to acquire any more, even if none of them are red. By the same reasoning, I have not sought to acquire any tools for my Heritage II Legend.

That said, I have also not been above bastardizing things when necessity arises. I have a little Eureka canister that came to me with only a powered hose and rather than sink any additional funds into it, I modified the tip of the hose handle to accept an Electrolux wand and power nozzle, which worked great and kept me from buying anything else for it, other than a small supply of bags.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Manuals

As for automobile owner's manuals, I wonder if they just get put in the house somewhere and forgotten about when the car is sold/traded? I like to take mine out of the car sometimes to learn about certain features or things I might not know about the vehicle.

I noticed we had manuals for things we no longer owned. Usually I try to be careful to keep everything together when selling/donating.

Last time we had a garage sale, I looked through our manual stash and made a mental note of the things for sale that we had the manuals for. As the items sold, I went back and grabbed the manual as the customer was paying and gave it to them. Might as well give it to the buyer instead of throwing it away, and the customers were all pleasantly surprised.

I even put the manuals out with things we throw away.

When I collect vintage fans I also really enjoy having the booklets and hang tags for models I have. I've been fortunate to get a few originals. Other times I print them out from the internet.

 

[real1shep]

"As for automobile owner's manuals, I wonder if they just get put in the house somewhere and forgotten about when the car is sold/traded?"

I like that....think it's a very plausible theory. I always keep mine in the car/truck....even if I bring them inside, I return them back.

I keep all literature that comes with whatever gizmo I buy. When I had my farm auction, I had literature and Owner's Manuals for everything....I think that helped with prices.

I have a file cabinet still full of original purchase stuff. I don't know what to do with it all....I can't bring myself to throw it all away. Sometimes I go through it all and it's like decades and decades of my life unfolding. Heck, I found the orignal OM for my Diamond J I bought back around '85! I've got stuff going back to the 70's.

Kevin

 

[rivstg1]

ha, I can Identify with the matching tools obsession! I once bought a 2nd FQ just to get the tools mine was missing!! haha. I have to have all the matching tools for each of my Kirby's tool....its overkill for sure as I have so many....but....I just....want them all....to match its a sickness

 

[jo]

Tools and manuals

Some people keep the attachments they like from a vacuum when it gets replaced and then gets used with subsequent vacuums. This leads to mismatched stuff. Often attachments get lost in couches, under rarely moved furniture or thrown away by people cleaning out in a hurry and not realizing it’s some tt info that is current or good. A woman in my office for example, when it was time to change desk/cubicle locations she would dump her entire drawers into a trash can and go to the new desk and and go to the supply closet and get everything new, stapler, note pads, pens, highlighters, tape rolls, tape dispensers, etc even though she had perfectly good stuff at the old desk she could have just taken with her. Terrible waste of company money and very lazy.

Car owners manuals often get out in the house and people trade cars often on impulse and don’t bother to be diligent about returning its parts to the cars. Even the spare sets of keys which in this day and age are quite pricey to replace since most are now just remotes or remote key combination devices. Then on a future clean out they are found and thrown away because the car is long gone.

Owners manuals should be kept in the car though because if you are on the road and suddenly need to jump start or change a tire the manual needs to be consulted spontaneously and if stuffed somewhere in someone’s house is useless at a time of need.

Most manuals for products though at this point can be found on line.

I’ve noticed a lot of people that have had an Electrolux canister have kept the combination dusting brush upholstery tool because they like it so much and often even the accessory wands and combination rug and floor tools don’t end up going along with the vacuum, unsure if they are being kept or misplaced somewhere else in the house or just get thrown away.

I was fortunate to find an Aerus Lux Legacy at a Habitat for humanity store with all attachments and even an extra, a combination rug and floor tool as well and 47 genuine bags and the entire thing was rarely used. To me, finding this with everything included and in such great condition was a gold mine and so I had to have it as it was a mere $27 for it all! They were trying to sell the bags separately for $5 and the vac for $22 so I bought both.

A few months before I came across an Aerus Lux Classic at a goodwill, just the vac, hose and power nozzle with its wand, no other accessories that came with it. I bought it anyway foe my brother and fit it with the missing accessories to make it a complete machine.

Jon

 

[human]

Jon wrote:
Car owners manuals often get out in the house and people trade cars often on impulse and don’t bother to be diligent about returning its parts to the cars. Even the spare sets of keys which in this day and age are quite pricey to replace since most are now just remotes or remote key combination devices. Then on a future clean out they are found and thrown away because the car is long gone.

I reply:
I have two owners manuals from previous cars. One was a duplicate, which I saw no reason to leave with the car, and the other I kept for somewhat sentimental reasons when I donated the car to my local public radio station.

As for remotes, most of the used cars I've bought in recent years have, at most, had only one remote, if any at all. There's enough of a market for second-hand remotes that they often get sold off separately. Pairing a remote to a car is often a pretty easy task although some cars do require the use of a scan tool.