Ezee Grasshopper Vacuum Sweeper

[ezee1914]

Does anyone know how many Ezee sweepers are known to exist? Thanks!

 

[hoover300]

Well I know of one that used to be in a vac shop in Avon Ohio(someone bought it, not sure who), one in the Kirby office, and one in Don Aslett's museum. If anyone knows of more please chime in.

 

[KirbyCollector01]

Believe it or not, I saw a very worn and dirty Ezee sitting on the porch of an old farm house out in rural Madison County, Ohio while passing by. Someone was living there and I wasn’t going to steal someone else’s property. That was a few years ago now.

 

[dysonman1]

The Ezee was not made by Scott and Fetzer, but rather by the Frantz Premier company, who was making the Frantz Premier (designed by James Kirby) electric vacuum since 1910. There is absolutely no reason it's on the Kirby Company timeline as it was never their product. In one of my old VCCC newsletters is the ad for it as well as the electric Frantz Premier.

I imagine that they sold as many as they could make, for the short time timey made them. Frantz Premier was bought by General Electric in 1918, who would have never made anything "non-electric".

 

[ezee1914]

Thanks for the replies!
I have one of these vacuums. It’s in pretty good shape but it’s missing the little glass dome that goes on the front. I’m hoping I can find a 3” glass dish that will work. It’s also missing most of the latch on one side, but I can make those parts.

 

[hoover300]

So you're who bought that one from Avon... How much did ya get it for?
Also, how does it work??? Do you push down on it while pushing foward?

 

[ezee1914]

This one came out of an estate in Huron, Ohio. I did have it listed for sale recently, which kind of turned into a real sh*t show with really nobody to blame but myself for not doing my homework on it. Among all the different things I collect, I love local stuff the most, so I have decided to hang on to this piece.

 

[ezee1914]

To answer your question about how it works, yes, you push down on the handle and the snout slides forward while the bellows expand creating vacuum. The wheels stay put until you lift up on the handle letting the wheels catch up to the snout. Looks like an inchworm going across the floor. Lol

 

[huskyvacs]

Very fascinating piece there. That handle is crazy with how steep the loop is. They should have called it the "caterpillar".

Also how fitting is that that the serial number just happened to be 1776?