Best Decade for Vacuums

[mercuryman]

1960s and 1970s

I think the best decade for vacuums was the 1960s and the 1970s. Many machines made during those two decades were not only innovative, but also very attractive and sturdily built.

To quote Kevin: I think a lot of older LUX's were traded for newer, just over the leaking/frayed hose issue alone...I agree with this statement. Two of my Luxes I acquired because the hoses leaked and the previous owners said that the machines had "lousy suction"...which was definitely not the case!

 

[red_october]

My US$0.02 is for the 60s through the 80s. By the 60s most modern things we take for granted were widely available (powered brushrolls on canisters and uprights, paper bags, etc.) and innovation continued in force. Build quality probably peaked at that point, too. While a lot of older machines were very sturdy physically, the attachments were often crap or there were little things where the quality of plastics or rubber available at the time made the overall build quality of the whole package lower. By the 80s lots of designs had matured, and build quality was probably for the last time a high priority. There was a real shift in the 1990s away from well-built consumer goods towards cheaply made, low-priced goods. This happened in all fields, including appliances and consumer electronics. Sure there are great machines that came from the 90s or are even still made today, but they are things like Kirbys and Royals that are either an outright continuation of a much older design that continues to sell, or a basic concept that is the vacuums own selling point (Kirby's immense durability and long life are basically completely at odds with modern consumer goods design).

 

[Real1]

That's it in a nutshell really; any thing great in the 90's was a carryover from a previous time tested design. Deviate too far form a good design and the line was doomed. I can just hear the marketing execs telling their sales people, "Tell them it's completely new and better."

Kevin