Do you ever wonder about a Vacuum's history?

[ultimatevacman]

Hi fellow vacuumers!

Have you ever bought a used vacuum online and wondered what the vac has been used for?
I for one have, like for example, if I bought a used Henry, was it used in a shop? was it used in a school? was it used by builders? was it used as a rental vacuum? or was it just used domestically?

I wondered if this was just me?

I wasn't really sure where to post this, so please forgive me if this is in the wrong forum.

Thanks,

- Joe

P.S. I'm loving this new VacuumLand design!

 

[suctionselector]

Joe

<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, anything used I think about it's background, especially when buying/selling used washing machines, I wonder how they have been treated and with vacuums too! I would definitely not want a vacuum cleaner that could have been used for vacuuming up say, dog faceas (not sure on spelling) or something loike that! PS. Loving the Flat Eric profile pic, mine is brightening up a naked shelf in my bedroom!</span>


 


<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Jacob</span>

 

[ultimatevacman]

Hi Jacob!

Yes! Me neither, you never know what some people might do though...

Haha! Thanks, I love Flat Eric, I'm getting one of my own soon

- Joe

 

[s31463221]

Joe

I too think about things like that. I've always heard the old expression "If walls could talk" well the same thing could be said about vacuum cleaners as well. If I pick up a used one from say a thrift store, I can usually get a pretty good idea about what sort of life the machine has lived simply by taking a quick peek in the bag to see what kind of items have been vacuumed up. Sometimes I'm surprised, other times I'm flat out grossed out by what I have found! My latest find was a vintage Electrolux XXX and when I pulled the cloth bag out of it for a quick investigation, I found it was completely stopped up with drywall dust (and I mean COMPLETELY stopped up!). To me, knowing the history of an item, or at least speculating the history of an item is half the fun of owning it!

 

[ultimatevacman]

Most of the vacuums I get don't have a bag installed, as most of them are from Ebay. It would be interesting to see though!

 

[ultraperformer]

Only ever brought brand new so no lol

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I KNOW the history of SOME of mine.

Others, I can only imagine. Were they gifts? How many Christmas trees did they pick up? How did they leave their original homes and all end up here?
I look at some, YEARS apart in age and think: they were all made in the same place.
At the convention in OHIO, "Happy Birthday HOOVER", I brought a Dial-A-Matic. A retired employee came up to me in tears and said, "I MADE that machine", YEARS ago. It went from Ohio to a store, to my cousn's, to me, back to Ohio. Amazing.

 

[dysondestijl]

Hi joe!
Well with lots if vacs you can guess its history by what's in the bag/bin, or if it has any markings (ie 'pat test' sticker)!
Unless you get them from a certain place, like when a shop is closing and their selling their fixtures/fittings, then you know that that's where it has been usd!
George

 

[ultimatevacman]

Wow John, that's quite amazing!

Yeah George, we'll never really know I guess.

I'm guessing lot of Numatic's in the UK could be from that holiday place "Center Parcs" as they have always used Numatic's, and the place is massive. I wonder what they would do with any faulty ones? Also Numatic's are used commercially everywhere too. I'm really wondering where my Henry came from!

- Joe

 

[rugsucker]

"Like reading tea leaves"-

-is what a vac store owner told me years ago.You can learn type of pets in a household(canary feathers?,dog hair?)what they eat(Cherios?,candy wrappers?)and much more.--Another owner sorted through most bags and filled a jar with coins and jewelery pieces.

 

[myles_v]

I think about things like that. Sometimes I wonder what vacuums have been used in my house (well, my dad's house that was built in 1982. My mom's house is relatively new and I know the history of vacuums that have been used in it) by previous owners.

 

[marks_here]

The sad thing is

when I was a kid I knew what kind of vacuum everyone used in my neighborhood before I knew who the people that lived in the house were. Only one person across the street from us had a central Black & Decker it was green with a black top that lifted up to change the bag & you could hear it when it was on even when the garage door was closed. All the homes in the neighborhood were around 2900 sq.ft. single story w/2 car garage.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I always wonder everytime I get another....

I always wonder where they have come from, what they have been used for, how well they were maintained and how much they had been bashed about over the years. I usually get vacuums with dirty full bags and I never look inside them!! I hold my nose and run off to the bin with the packed to the top, crinckly, caked in dust feeling bag and dispose of it as fast as possible. I always find it fasinating how a consumer bought a vacuum cleaner all those years ago and some how I have ended up with it, it is like it was planned to happen from day one! Lol.

 

[floor-a-matic]

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I wear a N95 dust mask & latex gloves whenever I clean out the vacuums I aquire from eBay, garage sales or curb-side; & even my very own & what my parents bought new.</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">The vacuums that were my parents bought new smelled like cigarettes after SEVERAL YEARS of use only by my family.  Years back, cigarette smoking indoors was FAR MORE common than nowadays; my pop has ALWAYS smoked indoors & still does to this day.</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">The TriStar EXL I picked up from the curb had been used without the paper & cloth bags, filling the bag chamber with dirt.</span>