Scary Vacuum Cleaners

[Bagman75]

Super-sweeper

I've posted a few things here from time to time, but mostly I just come on here and like to read the posts. I'm not sure if I'd classify myself as a collector, but I enjoy reading about others peoples love of vacuums like I have. Now to answer your questions....I have a kirby classic 1-cr that has an enormously large inflated bag on it and I love it. It's one I would have absolutely been scared to death of as a youngster!! Bag material favorite would have to be vinyl. I love the 1400 series Eureka outer bags and Hoover convertible outer bags that have the large vinyl bags on them. Too bad they don't inflate as large as the Kirby bags do. That would be my dream vacuum bag!

 

[anthony]

i was

terrified of my grandma s Goblin wizzard delux [ looked very much like a Hoover 119]i think pale blue with a cream handle .Wizard de lux written on the bag with a red goblin staring out at you it was pretty useless as a vacuum but good at scaring me . the one thing that sticks in my mind was the handdle grip it was blue and looked strangely like a budgie or some other small bird

 

[turbo500]

This one, Anthony?

 

[dirtmaster37]

The only vacuum that scared me...

So I have two.

My very first "vintage" vacuum ever given to me was a late 1940's Kenmore upright. Tom has one at the museum. I was given it by a great aunt, who just marveled at my "interest" and had it down in her basement in the laundry room just sitting there, and offered it to me at one of her Christmas parties. Much to my parents dismay.

When I got home, I wanted to TRY out my new toy, so i plugged it in in the dining room, and reached for the the switch and as I touched it to flip it on, got a NICE SHOCK!!. Well my dad, saw me stumble a bit and he yanked the cord from the socket, and cut the cord off the machine. It was forever, until it was tossed when i was gone somewhere years later...to being just that... a PLAY vacuum.

Later on we had a mom-n-pop thrift store, junqueatorium in our town that had an early Raymond Loewy Singer S3 that the old bat told me would ELECTROCUTE me if I touched it, which oddly she always left plugged in. She probably used it to clean the old joint but IDk anymore. After the experience with the Kenmore tho, i wasn't ABOUT to push my luck....

Chad

Here is a look at what I'm doing today. Showing new vacuums to the people. Just not with the neat G.E. that hes demonstrating....

 

[dysonman1]

To Tylerawells

The Hoover Sovereign was notorious for flowing the bag door off if the bag got too clogged with fine dust (immaterial of how full it was). The Sovereign was sold only through Hoover Factory Service Centers, and not very many were sold. The problem was that, even though it had a hard bag door, the air was BLOWN into the bag, so the resistance to airflow as the bag's pores became clogged was tremendous. Enough that the bag would cause the latch to fail and the door would blow off, and usually the disposable type O bag too.

 

[tylerawells]

Didn't know that Tom. Thanks for the info. Thinking back the earliest machine I remember us having was the blue soft-bagged Singer upright (like the Bissell one), then we had a red Dirt Devil with soft-bag, and a couple of Hoover Elites, then a Fantom Fury, and after that a plethora of forgettable bagless vacs.

 

[gsheen]

Mine was this, at the day care I went to as a young child they had one, No one could figure out the actual truth as to why I was afraid of it but Most of the adults thought the cleaning lady must have scared me with it so that the vacuum obsessed me would leave her alone. Funny thing is that to this day I hate this particular machine and The name Sybil ( cleaning lady's name ) also brings back a very uncomfortable feeling.


 


Gareth  

 

[uksausage]

Omg. Mine is that very junior

That Hoover junior used to scare me so much. Instead of putting the tools on daily my mum used to pick the whole vacuum up and vacuum the sofa and arm chairs, I just used to see this big orange coming towards me that made noise and I would run off screaming.
Now I'm (a lot ) older it's my favourite vacuum

David

 

[paulg]

Oh yes, the Westinghouse upright

Our Westinghouse upright was just simply scary looking. Although my parents were married in the late 1950s, the vacuum cleaner was bought used. I suspect it was from the late 1940's.
It certainly worked well but it had a big, brown bag that inflated to a big balloon. It was dark metal and bakelite with deco accents on the bag and on the removable fan cover. There was little attractive to it ... at least to a youngster.
I ultimately overcame my fears and would use the inflated vac as a punching bag. It was fun seeing the dust poof out just a bit when whacked.
To clean the bag you had to twist the bottom collar and lift the bag off. Bend the bottom of the bag so the dust doesn't dump due to gravity. Then you had to run outside and pull off the very-hard-to-pull-off metal clamp at the top. Drop all the dust into the alley's garbage drum and shake it out. Cough a bit.
I've not yet seen a picture of this unit on this website as yet. Hopefully someday.
As an aside, there were other things that were frightening at that time (1960's). Our Admiral TV/Stereo was frightening as if you DARED to put it into HIFI mode, cracking would come from the speakers followed by a big BANG! That was never fixed.
Our Webcor phonograph (OK...FONOGRAF for you enthusiasts) was frightening as half the time you used it you would get shocked pretty bad when you touched the tone arm.
It is a wonder we baby-boomers survived with our lives with those products!

 

[electrolux137]

.
.

Paulg, was the Westinghouse a straight-suction or motor-driven brush model?

I have a straight-suction upright from, I'd say, the early 1930s.

 

[super-sweeper]

I'm nearly CERTAIN

It was one of These, this is Hygiene903's Cleaner. (The bag does not appear original, though).

 

[crazykirbydude]

This one scared me to death as a kid. It's just loud. It's a hoover Elite hard bag. I also had a Shop-Vac that scared me.

 

[luxkid1980]

I don't recall being terrified of any vacuums (though our old Shop Vac at home was plenty loud) but what I do remember as a kid was a guy at the Winn Dixie supermarket using one of those large floor buffing machines with the orbital pad. They weren't loud at all but I remember that it was scary looking to me as a 4 or 5 year old and I did NOT want to go down the isle when he was using it.

 

[real1shep]

Ironic.....

that so many of us collect vacuums but were afraid of them at some point! I was never afraid of an upright, but terrified of the Rexair we had. For one, I didn't understand the water part....when the nasty water was dumped in the toilet, it looked to me like the machine was sick...lol. And then once I was standing there when the motor unit was separated from the water pan and the motor was still turning after it had been shut off. Through that protective grate, I thought I saw spinning razor blades that would happily eat my fingers. Not unlike escalators when you got to the top and/or bottom...the tread disappeared into the mechanism, I thought I would lose my toes if I didn't jump. 


 


To this day, I still give escalators the ol' fish eye when I get on & depart. I got over Rexair fear though....I think.


 


Kevin

 

[vintagefox]

Funnily enough, when I was about 6, watching "Scream" with a bowl of popcorn on hand. Been a while since I last saw that movie, but one of the scenes made me jump and spill the bowl..

Didn't really feel like picking up the greasy kernels with my hand so I lugged out the Hoover Elite (the black hose/dark red model) and began vacuuming up the mess.
Unfortunately the Elite didn't like the mess and started making thudding noises along with blue sparks near the rear of the machine. Dropped the handle and backed up for a moment before pulling the plug. My mother found a dead Hoover the next day, I got in trouble and the Hoover got replaced with a Eureka "The Boss" with the hard bag cover. Only to be replaced with a Hoover Concept One (with the Handivac) 1 yr and 7 months later.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

electrolux137

Charles,

As I said before, I had always been afraid of my mom's Kirby Classic III 2CB because of how loud it sounded to my ears at the time. I am not sure why: was it because one of the fan blades were broken?

Some vacuum cleaners were indeed quieter than others, including some Royal all-metal uprights.

~Ben

 

[real1shep]

<a name="start_24181.271566"></a>Our Webcor phonograph (OK...FONOGRAF for you enthusiasts) was frightening as half the time you used it you would get shocked pretty bad when you touched the tone arm.


 


Webcor had a penchant for this issue on most of their products. I had a Webcor tape player that nearly electrocuted me as a boy. It was plugged into a outlet that had a dubious ground and ZAP....barefoot on a slate floor....knocked me on my butt!


 


Kevin

 

[hygiene903]

To Super-Sweeper,

Yes, that IS the original bag on my Westinghouse. It's a bit faded and you can't see it in the picture, but it has gold trim stripes and the name WESTINGHOUSE also in gold, in similar lettering to what is on the attachment caddy.
Jeff

 

[easyace]

When I was about five, walking through a department store with my parents, I inadvertently bumped against the handle of an upright, I forget now what kind---and the sonofabitch kicked on and the bag blew up right against me. I had no idea the thing was plugged in for demonstration. I couldn't go near uprights for years to follow after that.

Fortunately, my mother owned a canister. (Early GE swivel top, traded in a couple of years later for her first Electrolux, a Model F.) So did my grandparents. (Maternal: Hoover Constellation, eventually traded for an Electrolux Model G. Paternal: Electrolux XXX.) I got over the fear of uprights---now I just despise them because they're a pain in the ass.

 

[thebassetthound]

this is all I think of...