Geographic Distribution (USA) of vacuum makes/models

[briankirbyclass]

I know Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma are big Kirby states, as well as Electrolux. Practically everyone i knew growing up in Southern Minnesota had an Electrolux or a Kirby, mostly Electrolux. Rainbows were practically unheard of in Southern MN, but there were alot of Filter Queens. I know that Beam Central Vac was/is also very big in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ill. Living in Central Wisconsin at one time, many of our neighbors that had newer (1960,early 70s) homes were equipped with a Beam Central Vac.
I had never heard of or seen a Compact, or a Rainbow until moving to Kansas. At one time, Topeka Ks had 2 Kirby office/Dealers, a Rainbow Dealer,an Electrolux branch office, a TriStar/Compact office, and a Filter Queen Dealer.

 

[electrolux~137]

When I was growing up it was 99% Electrolux and Kirby of many varieties, with Electrolux slightly in the lead I'd say. Nearly everyone in our neighborhood had one or the other.

I remember a couple of Hoover uprights, a Constellation, a candy-apple-red Eureka upright (one of which I now have, thanks John Young!), one Air-Way (77), one Filter Queen (the chocolate & chrome model), one Bee-Vac tank, one Kenmore Ken-Kart, one ancient Health-Mor upright, one G.E. canister, one Westinghouse Convert-a-vac, one 1940s Kenmore upright, and that's about it.

Oh, and I had an uncle with a bunch of different vacuum cleaners, including an old Royal, and an Aunt with the low-profile triangular-shaped Eureka canister in a houndstooth-pattern storage chest.

I remember a Royal door-to-door salesman coming by the house once sometime in the early 1960s. My parents didn't even let him in the house!

Never laid eyes on a Compact until I moved out here but somehow knew about them. Never knew Silver King, Kingston, Universal or Rexair/Rainbow even existed.

 

[gmerkt]

Out here in the Seattle metro area, just about all the major brands are seen including lots of Kirbys and Hoovers. Never see a Lewyt or Airway. As I assume is the case in most places, people these days seldom buy something that will last (like a Miele). They take the cheap/easy way out and buy a low-iend plasti-vac at Walmart, Target, etc, and throw it away in a few years. Repair is rarely undertaken on these new vacs. When I visit one of the local vac shops, I usually take a look at the pieces having been serviced and are waiting to be picked up. These are nearly all older machines; the cheap China-vacs make a trip to the dumpster instead. Now, I even admire the Mexican Hoovers over the Chinese product.

Not long ago, I was given a Eureka Altima. It's a China-vac. You can look at the cheap plastic and quickly tell. Yes, I have some American Hoovers and some Kenmores than are plastic, but it's marked ABS and you can feel the difference; even quality of plastic varies. Anyway, I tested the Eureka and although it's a screamer, it works okay. It was missing the front wheels and adjustable strut so I sent away for the parts and they were cheap. When I got the parts, it turns out that the only thing that holds the strut in place is a 15 cent spring; no wonder the part came off in the first place. Very bad design. For test purposes, I've run it around the house some but it's going to find a new owner eventually. I've got so many better machines than to hang onto that one.

 

[tolivac]

My aera-You find DTD brands-Kirby,Areos-Lux,Filter Queen,and Rainbow.Dealer brands-Riccar,Simplicity,Royal,Sebo, Meile.Then of course the Wal Mart "dumpster" vacuums.

 

[eurekaprince]

A perspective on Eureka in Canada

One of my biggest frustrations as a closeted vacuum lover growing up in Montreal, was the dearth of Eureka vacuum cleaners in Canada proudly showing the "Eureka" label. These Canadian Eureka vacs were all manufactured at the "Onward Manufacturing" plant in Kitchener, Ontario.

At some point in the 1960's, Eureka must have signed some exclusivity deal with our big Eaton's national department store chain, and 99% of the Eureka vacs sold in Canada were labelled with the Eaton's brand name "Viking" and available only through Eaton's. Some years later, the competing Hudson Bay national department store chain also signed a contract with Eureka and so they started selling Eureka vacs plastered with the name "Baycrest." Later, the "Baycrest" name was changed to "Beaumark" - a name that worked both in English and French and was more marketable to French Canadians, especially in Quebec. (Our third big department store was Simpsons, and they sold Kenmores from Sears).

Dad bought our first Eureka Automatic upright (turquoise model 250, I think) in 1960 or 1961 from an appliance store in Montreal called Empire Electric. They stocked a lot of properly labelled Eurekas and I even remember going with Dad to the store as a toddler and seeing all these Eurekas in reds, greens, blues and yellows! In 1974, when my parents decided to replace the Automatic, I somehow got up enough courage to tell them that Consumer Reports had given high points to the new gold Eureka Rugulator Vibragroomer upright model 2082. Mom really liked the idea of having a cord reel! My father had contacts in the electronics retail world in Canada, and I remember he ordered our 2082 (it actually was the newer 2083 with Edge Kleeners), from a business associate who ran an electronics and appliance store in Edmonton! A few weeks later, we got our beautiful Eureka "Goldie" with the actual name "Eureka" on it! I was so happy that we were able to avoid buying the Viking version! The box the 2083 came in was unusually plain - just the word "Eureka" and "Model 2083" printed on the box in regular letters - not the official Eureka font and missing the Eureka Williams "e" logo. Can't figure out why the box appeared so plain - all I know is that it originated in Kitchener Ontario, was shipped out west to a store in Edmonton, then was shipped to us back east in Montreal!

I used to love it when our family took vacations in the US because I could finally see real Eureka vacs in all the stores, not some department store copy labelled "Viking" or "Baycrest"!

 

[vaccrazy]

In the northeast part of PA seems every third house on my block had a Compact. All of my relatives had them as well. If you didn't own a Compact then you had an Eloectrolux, there were a few Kirbys thrown in for a good luck. Our next door neighbor had a Hoover Portable which fascinated me, I loved how everything was "inside".

 

[petek]

I wasn't all that fascinated by vacs when I was little like a lot of you so I don't recall much of what all the neighbors had unless it was something starkly different than our Kenmore Satellite. I do remember my aunt had a tank style on runners with a red on/off button and later she got what I now know was Lewyt Big Wheel, thought it was a strange looking thing back then. Another time I was over at a friends house and we were playing in the rek room and I saw this big blue ball shaped thing, that was a Constellation, thought it was really neat because it hovered so we played with it shooting it across the floor. The only other I recollect was when another friends dad came home with a green Electrolux. I just happened to be there so I guess that was their then new model 89 but back then I'd have never thought I'd be collecting the things and that 89 would be one of my favorites. I don't remember anyone having an upright but then as I said I wasn't really looking

 

[tazcatsdad]

Here in Western New York

we seem to have had a little of everything. I remember there being sales offices here in the Buffalo area for Kirby, Electrolux, Filter Queen, and Rainbow. Today, we still have all of those except Filter Queen -- in fact, when I e-mailed the company for information on how to obtain a copy of the owner's manual for my Majestic Triple Crown, their representative referred me to a distributor's office in Ohio!

We must also have had Compact/Tristar and Air-Way distributors nearby as well: I once bought an Air-Way 88 from a local garage sale (and fool that I am gave it to the Salvation Army long before I became a collector and realized what it was worth!), and at least 3 people I know personally had Compacts. (Come to think of it, I think that the father of one of my vac-shop owning friends here in town was the local Compact distributor! Hmmm....)

And of course, we had our share of Hoovers (including the Constellation, as my Grandmother Wood and a few of my friends, neighbors, and acquaintances had them), Eurekas, General Electrics, Royals, etc. Long story short I would say that literally every brand of cleaner -- yes, even Bison -- has found its way into our humble neck 'o the woods!

 

[kenkart]

We also had!

2 Westinghouse dealers and 2 GE dealers in Lenoir so as you can guess there were a bunch of canisters sold by each.