Scary Vacuum Cleaners

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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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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
 
<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
 
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
 
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. ;)
 
Colletors' fears of vacuums

This is a little bit of drift, but someone (I don't remember who) asked me not too long ago if I was afraid of vacuums as a kid - in fact, she assumed I had been because she had the idea that all vacuum collectors were terrified of vacuums early in life. I never was afraid of a vacuum. But, I had it easy because my family had Electrolux canisters, which were quiet. I didn't (and still don't) like loud vacuums, but they irritate, not frighten, me.

However, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that people who grew up in the era of Hoover Elites, Dirt Devils, and other "screamers" were scared of them as kids because of the horrible noise they make. I don't have data, but it's an interesting speculation.
 
Fun fact for you....

I used to be scared of all sweepers! Like all the way until I was like 13! Sad, I know haha. I really didn't like loud noises as a kid, and now I still don't really (ironicly I like rock and heavy metal, however that works). When I was really little I was also afraid it was going to eat me or something lol. I think one time I remembering seeing my mom accidently suck up a small tpy of mine so it freaked me out. Since we used to live with my grandma till I was about 6, they had a hoover elite. I know when my mom got married we had a dirt devil vision with the swivel wheels, but Idk if the vision was around in 98? So if it wasn't I have no idea what they had pre vision. But now of course I'm obsessed with sweepers and have a house full of them. Even when I was really scared of them, I still had like this small interest, or intrigue about them. I'm an odd one lol
 
Scared of....

See that many years back, commented on this thread. Had another revelation of a machine, or rather machines that scared me back when I was younger. The town my dad moved to, post my folk's separation, had another on of those "thrift type places" that had scads of vacuums in it. In later years, post licence, one found several machines there that I purchased. One being a NORCA model 80, which now resides with another collector in Illinois... It closed a few years back. Was heartbroken.

BUT, back when one was a young lad on his bike, I'd make a pilgrimage there every single Sunday when I'd go to visit dad for a weekend. Around 13 or so, three machines came up in the little alcove they kept all the vacuums, that I had NEVER seen before. Two were Royals, Straight Suction, and one I believe; was A Purifier? And then a large Hoover, which today I can safely say to all, was a Hoover Senior. An early one, just after the bag ring was introduced.

One was terrified of plugging any of them in. All of them had tattered cords, and being not too far off from that electrifying experience with the Kenmore, received by my great aunt, and they just looked ODD to me, prevented me from ever plugging them in. Or using them. Stupid me. That Senior, would have been the neatest to use. I know this now having used both the Model 0, and several Seniors.

The more you know!

Chad
 
Hello,
It's really fascinating to read your vacuum cleaner terror tales! I was very phobic of upright cleaners as a child. Recently I had to record an audition tape to an appliance company to talk about why I like vacuum cleaners. Here it is!


http://https//youtu.be/6erKEKml7Oo
 
Shortly after I was born my parents bought a Panasonic MCE43N. My mum used to leave the machine running by my cot on low power to help send me to sleep (maybe this is where my vacuum interest comes from??).

I used to love this vacuum and as I grew up would play with / use it at every opportunity.

With two small children and a large german shepherd dog the vacuum used to get used a LOT. My mum was one of these people who never maintained her vacuum cleaner and the bag was often left to become so full that dirt would begin backing up down the hose. I can still remember my grandmother giving her a lecture as she pulled clumps of backed up dirt from the hose.

My uncle (mums brother) owned the same model Panasonic but also owned a Kirby Tradition with all the extra bits. My mum used to regularly borrow the Kirby with all its kit to give the house a good clean and shampoo carpets. I was TERRIFIED of this machine and would run from the room screaming as soon as it appeared. I can still remember hiding in my bedroom while she used it and trying to barricade the door so she couldn't get in with it.

Another memory I have of the Kirby is one time my uncle came to visit and my mum had mentioned that the Kirby wasn't working very well. Turned out the bag was so full that the dirt had backed up right the way down the fill tube to the emptor. I can remember watching as they stood it in the garden, took the bag off and tried to fish out all the backed up dog hair.

No idea why I was so scared of it. Maybe it was the inflating bag?

Can't of been the noise as my grandmother had a Hoover Turbomaster Freedom and that was noisy as hell in comparison to mums Panasonic but I wasn't scared of that!

matt8808-2017041203450306502_1.jpg

matt8808-2017041203450306502_2.jpg

matt8808-2017041203450306502_3.jpg

matt8808-2017041203450306502_4.jpg
 
The thread about exterior bags on upright vacs is interesting and one that appeals to me too. I live in the UK and over here these days, there are precious few vacs around with inflating cloth bags. This is sad. We seem to have become a "bagless is best" society..lol.

One thing that the USA had which we never have had over here is VINYL bags. I wonder why that is ? Did the vinyl bags perish with age ? Which upright in the USA had or has the largest vinyl bag ? Did anyone make one themselves and adapt it ?

The other thing I wondered is if anyone knows anyone (that ISN'T a vac collector) in the UK, but who still uses an upright vac with an inflating bag in everyday use ?

Cheers Guys and Gals
 
Back around the late 90’s - early ‘00s, my aunt Angela used to have a blue hoover widepath upright and I remember when she used to run a daycare at her house, she would pull out the Hoover and turns it on to vacuum while everybody including me would be taking a nap and I freak out, jumping off the floor to the couch like a monkey! Lol, good times! Here’s the one my aunt used to have. That’s how I started to love vacuums. I would love to find one like this soon.

gj3476-2017112522170205616_1.jpg
 
Thanks to "The Brave Little Toaster" and the scene with Kirby going crazy, I was always afraid of running over the vacuum cleaner cord.

Starts at 00:52 if the link doesn't jump directly to that point:
 
I used to be (and still kind of am) terrified of loud vacuums. Convertibles, Orecks, you name it, I was scared of it. That's why I love my Constellation; it's nice and quiet.
 
Definitely an old Hoover upright

Probably a #28 or#29. It was stored in the hall closet. When company came over mom would stick it in the corner of my bedroom to make room for companies coats and hats.

My parents were hosting a cocktail party so I was put to bed early. This was in the winter and we were having our fair share of thunder and lightening storms. As the night wore on the party got louder and so did the storm outside. At some point I woke to loud thunder and streaks of light shot through my shutters and would light all or just a part of the Hoover mom put in the corner.

She stuck an old wicker hat on the handle that was in the closet also just to make a little more room. I laid there side-eyeing this stranger in the corner of my room,barely visible except when a beam of light struck.

This little 3 yr. old was petrified, I was scared to even sit up and take a closer look so I hunkered under the covers until mom came in to check on me. I must of been crying loudly because some of the guests came in with mom to see if I was alright. I kept saying it's in the corner, it wants to eat me. Seen too many old cartoons with uprights eating everything in sight until they exploded! So yes old uprights scared me as a young man. Canisters, no problem!
 
A few for me

I didn’t like seeing the sparks through the motor air vents on our Regina Elektrikbrooms. Also when I was a toddler Mom’s Electrolux model S had a malfunctioning switch and it would flicker on and off while using it. I could swear I saw sparks coming from the switch while Mom was vacuuming with it one time and was scared of it. Though I surely liked pushing the single wand with flip over rug and floor tool around, it was just my size as a little one. Even as I got older and the switch had been replaced...I did notice that those switches do spark inside when turning on or off. I can see it through where the metal shaft goes into the switch housing. My parents still have that Model S today though it resides as the basement vac now. We’ve had to put a few switches into it over the years. I last ran it when I visited them over the 2019 Christmas holiday when I vacuumed the basement steps and some of the basement for them to help out with some of the housework that is now a lot for them. I always think about that sparking switch every time I use the model S!!! Funny how that sticks you after all these years. The Electrolux model E, model R and early white model L’s all use that same flip type switch.

Jon

Jon
 
hatted Hoover

That would be scary to see that vacuum in the dark with lightning flashes lighting it up spooky!

Speaking of sparks through vents, I used to have a Bissell 3 in 1 hand vac/stick vac that I got for Christmas one year. You could see the sparks through the vents on it too. I didn't realize that vacuum motors had brushes and sparked, so I thought that something was wrong with it. Other than that I liked the vacuum after my dad told me it was fine.
 

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