Did your friends/family love uprights and dislike canisters or vice versa?

[ultralux88]

We had a canister when I was little. Mom and dad preferred the canister’s flexibility over an upright. Dad grew up with a central vac, grandma always had one during my life. My mom’s mother always had an upright and a shop vac. They use the shop vac like a canister, never understood why not just get a nice canister vac for that...

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Cole, all of our family had Hoover uprights.

Later, Constellations, etc entered the picture. My father's side had Electrolux canisters.
All of this was before 'quadraflex'.. they could have made a huge difference.
My sister loved her Hoover Powermax, pistol grip, which I now have . Luckily, there are numerous uprights AND canisters on each floor here, not to mention 2 GUVs in the basements.

 

[n0oxy]

some of both

The first vacuum I remember us having was an upright that my mom and dad received from my grandparents in 1970 as a wedding gift. Not sure what model it was, it was beige, might have been a dial-a-nap. It had a dial on the front of the motor assembly to adjust the height. It could use attachments, and to do that, I don't think you removed the brush assembly, there was a metal piece that fitted over the brush assembly and that's what the hose connected to.
When I was in third grade we bought an Electrolux special edition which my mom still has, still runs very well, I bought her a new hose for it a couple years ago, but she mainly uses the Fresh Aira light weight upright now and really likes it.
My grandparents on my mom's side of the family had a straight suction canister, can't remember what brand, might have been a Eureka. It was square and had two speeds and also had a bracket on the top of it to store the attachments. Thinking about that now, I wonder how clean their living room and bedroom carpet was, they had thick shag carpet and there is no way a straight suction canister will clean that very well, you would need a spinning brush to clean that.
My grandparents on my dad's side had two cleaners. A Kenmore upright, not sure of the model and they had an old canister that my grandmother said would smoke if you ran it for too long. From what I remember, it might have been an Electrolux, it was a long tank type canister with a woven hose and from what I remember the motor sounded like an Electrolux. Not sure why it would smoke, the few times I used it there were no clogs, it seemed to work fine and the motor sounded good.
My aunt and uncle on my mom's side had a canister when I was younger, I think it may have been an Electrolux and based on the sound, I'm guessing it might have been a Super J, it definitely had a power nozzle. When they moved to a different house in the late 1980's, the house had a central vacuum, that's the first time I had ever seen one of those.
My aunt and uncle on my dad's side had a Kenmore power nozzle canister, not sure of the model.
I much prefer hose cleaners, whether that's a canister, backpack or central vacuum. I especially like central vacuums, I use all of my units without pipes. I do have one upright, a Sebo Felix which I also really like, but I'm not much of an upright person.
Mike

 

[kirboover]

Since I live in the Midwest...

People (including my family) vastly prefer upright vacuums. When I was a Young kid, we had a Bagged Hoover Windtunnel, then 2 bagless. Now with me collecting, we switched to a eureka bravo.

My grandma had an Electrolux 1205 (I have it now), but now she has an Electrolux Discovery 2.

My Aunts and Uncles on both sides have always had uprights, mostly cheap bagless crap.

Side note : I work in a vac shop, so we stock vacuums. We have 47 uprights in stock (as of end of year 2020) and 6 canisters. People around here really seem to prefer uprights.

 

[hoover300]

Lets see

My paternal great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, and then me all used the same vac, a 1954 Kirby 514. Of course by the time it got to me it was bojacked to an extent and many of the parts were totally shot, to the point of where if I tried to restore it, it would pretty much be a totally different vac with a handful of original parts. For awhile my great grandmother and my mother used a yellow DAM SP, but it was thrown away when we came down to KY. I hear that when my dad was a kid they used a teal Compact, then a Rainbow, but no one knows what happened to them.

As for my maternal relatives, from what I've heard my grandmother used a Hoover Convertible?, Regina Electrikbroom, and a red Eureka f&g with the round hood when my mom was a kid. Before my grandmother passed away, she had a Hoover Caddy Vac, a new black Dirt Devil, and a light green Bissell shampoooer, as well as attachments for a Eureka Whirlwind and a 90s Dirt Devil.

My mother also told me of when she was a kid, she had to go into the attic for something and noticed a blue vacuum on sleds, looked like a bullet(Electrolux XXX), so I'm guessing that was their main vacuum before the Hoover? and Eureka.

Around here, I do most of the vacuuming, but my mother likes her direct air Featherlite and the Bissell Powerforce Compact.

 

[rainbowd4c]

I'm not sure about my dads side of the family. But I think his mother was a pretty good mix between the two.

My Grandma was mostly upright. She had an Electrolux "tank" as she called it and I remember that well. It later went to my mom when I was young. Then my Grandma always had Electrolux uprights.

My mom only ever had three canisters. She had a Gold GE swivel top. My Grandma's Electrolux and then a Kenmore canister. After that point she has always had uprights.

I have always been canisters. I always thought that uprights were Old Lady vacuums. I prefer canister because they are so much easier to be able to clean with and a lot lighter in weight.