Tell us your favourite vacuum memory- like that vac you grew up with etc...

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Growing up we always had Kenmore Power Mate canisters and I was fascinated with them. My mother had a green one from the 1970s, and then a tan MOL one she bought in about 1982-83. We have a photo of me pulling it around the house. Since I liked vacuums so much, I got a few vacuum toys. One was blue and looked like a Hoover Convertible. I also had a Dirt Devil toy upright, but I sucked up a piece of cereal with the hose and broke the fan so we took it back to the store. I felt bad about it. The store was out of them and no other stores we called had them in stock, so we didn't get another. I also had a Dirt Devil toy hand vac for many years that I later sold at a yard sale. I think it may have been bought to replace the broken upright.

My grandmother had a Hoover Concept One self propelled from about 1981, and a Singer Silver Glide canister from the 1970s. When she moved again, she got a Hoover Elite Supreme in hunter green and kept the Singer in the coat closet. She gave my mom the Concept One. When I was visiting, I would get out the Singer and put it together and we would talk about vacuums. I remember being interested in all of the vacuums on the back page of the manual as well. One time I was explaining her Hoover Elite's attachments to family who were visiting. LOL
 
On top of my earlier post regarding my Mums Panasonic/Kirby drama, one of the strongest memories I have is of my grandma's Electrolux 610. Thankfully for me, my Dad has a pretty good memory and remembers both my Grandma's Hoover Constellation and Electroulx 502 prior to the 610. My Grandad was a bin man and used to find allsorts of treasures on his rounds - the Constellation was a bin find, or so I'm told.

My Grandma got her 610, in her own words, "when the first came out" being the first domestic upright in the UK with on board tools, so she must have bought this around 85/86. It was ALWAYS stood against the back wall behind the kitchen door and next to the coats and shoes in the utility room - it was the first thing you'd see when you walked in the back door. In the early 90's, it was accompanied by a Goblin Aquavac although I don't remember this ever being used for dry vacuuming in the house - mainly just for shampooing and vacuuming the car.

By the end of the 610's life in 1997, the bag door release had broken and was held together first with celotape and later with one of those elsatic bin lid thingys, the handle release had broken, the height adjuster was stuck on low making it almost impossible to use on thick carpet and meant that it went through belts like most people go through underwear, the top cord hook had snapped off and the hose was split in several places and secured with duct tape. It finally died a death in summer 97 and was replaced with a Dyson DC01, the first of 5 Dyson's that my Grandma has broken.
 
That story did make me chuckle Chris.

11-12 years isn't too bad I suppose, especially in comparison with the length of time the Dysons lasted.
 
Indeed. Bare in mind, Jamie, my grandma still does and always has vacuumed twice a day, everyday, just over a decade isn't bad. She's currently on her fifth Dyson, although this has now been superseded by a George as my Grandma now has a mixture of wood floors and carpets downstairs, meaning the Dyson is only used upstairs where the dogs don't go.

She bought a DC01 in 1997. That died about 99/2000 and was replaced with a DC04 Silver Lime that she had until 2005 and then got a DC07. This lasted just over a year and was replaced in late 2006 DC15 (the first "ball" cleaner). She never got on with The Ball and ended up snapping the thing in 2 (she's rather rough with them). It was replaced with the DC27 in 2010.
 
"She never got on with The Ball and ended up snapping the thing in 2 (she's rather rough with them)." Now, now Chris this is a family forum!!

As for the Lux, that is very good for the amount of use it got.

I never used to fully understand people vacuuming twice a day until we moved from a house with expencive carpets into our current one, with paper thin carpets which show up every bloody crumb. My poor TP1000 is being used 2-3 times a day now.
 
I've always found it excessive. My Grandma has ALWAYS had dogs and yet if there is so much as a spec of hair on the carpet, she feels the need to vacuum. If you're going to get a pet, you need to be prepared for the mess.

I have pretty cheap carpets and a lot haired cat, but I don't vacuum more than a few times a week. Infact, it's now Monday and I don't think I've vacuumed since Thursday.
 
My old house, the one I grew up in 15 years ago, saw many vacuums. When purchased by my then-married parents in 1990, my mom came to the house with a Hoover she says must have been an elite, and she bought a Dirt Devil can vac for the upstairs. My dad had a panasonic she said had to be thrown out because it stunk and didn't work. Around the time I was born her Hoover died and was replaced with a turquoise Hoover Runabout. Somewhere in there she bought a BOL Legacy for the basement area rugs. That was a machine I got to use when the machine became my dad's when they divorced in 97'. It lasted till 2001. In 1994 my mom bought a(now mine)Eureka Bravo 85th anniversary edition from a tv sale because she needed something stronger than the canister and something with a brushroll. Coincidentally, the canister stopped working around the time she wanted to replace it, and it became my toy. Shortly after, the Runabout burnt up and was replaced with a Singer poweramp, which was used up till 2000 in our current home when my mom decided she didn't need 2 vacuums. Not long after buying the Poweramp, my mom got tired of the Bravo and bought a rather expensive Panasonic, which she later came to hate too.I Still have that) The Eureka was sent to my dad's office where it sat barely used but non-the-less abused until he gave it to me in 2003.In 2002 the Panasonic was replaced with a Bissell, which lasted till 2010. At my dad's, when he moved into a bigger house in 2001, the Legacy came along, along with a new Dirt Devil Vision. The legacy died not long after, and was replaced by a Bissell Lift away which he still has and uses. The Vision died 3 years later and he bought a Windtunnel supreme, which he also still has but no one uses. When I was given the Bravo, it spent some time as a main vacuum at my dad's house probably until he got the windtunnel. The can vac mysteriously started working a couple years after it stopped, and we still use it today for heavy dusting every couple months. Same goes for the Eureka, I still have it, along with it's very very beat up twin my grandma bought at the same time. My dad also still has his craftsman shop vac he bought in the early 90's too.
 
Kirby Tradition--my childhood family vacuum

I grew up with a Kirby Tradition. One day, one of my older siblings answered the door--there was a Kirby salesman. He got in the door before Mom knew what hit her. He talked and sucked her into buying the whole Kirby Tradition kit and kaboodle--he even spread dirt on her floor and sucked it up! She remembers spending over $1000 on it (it was sometime between 1979 and 1981, the Tradition model run). I remember she had the Rug Renovator and everything else (I don't remember if we had the Handi-Butler though). She kept all the attachments in a big yellow vinyl carrier (with pockets on it) she had slung over the back of the rear foyer door, and the hose draped over that. I remember she always used the Tradition in upright mode; I never saw any of the attachments being used. In my junior high and high school and college years, I took over using the Kirby once every fortnight on house cleaning duty, to clean the entire 2-story, 14-room ex-funeral home we lived in in Garrett, IN, just north of Fort Wayne. It took all day to vacuum and dust the house. In its latter years of life, our Tradition was beginning to wear out, and always sounded like a jet engine. Looking back, I think I didn't use it with the rug nozzle all the way down (like it should be)--it was harder to push that way (I was just a sub-90-pound skeleton of a boy then, a weakling, even in my high school and university years). Plus, my dust allergy was aggravated every time I used it, to the point where I wore surgical masks. The Tradition was finally retired in 1998, traded in on a new green Sharp Twin Power upright with HEPA filtration (which greatly helped me with my dust allergy). The vacuum shop owner, in Auburn, IN, added it to his shop's antique vacuum cleaner display!

Recently, I have found a good used Kirby Tradition at Newby's Vacuums here in Calgary, Alberta. It works great, and I use it every Sunday to clean up the grotty Sunday school room carpet in my church's borrowed building. I am now hunting down as many accessories as I can find for it; I now have the blue plastic attachment box, with a Suds-O-Gun, an extra belt, and the air intake guard. There is much more for me to find out there somewhere--a hose, portable handle, attachments, etc, that I need to find that are correct for the model's period.

kirbytradition7
 
I grew up with a few vacuums. We had an 80's Eureka canister that was grey and black like that green rotomatic model that a lot of you guys like and collect. It said 'Quiet Kleen' on it, and I was always amused because it didn't seem quiet to me at all. It was used a lot and eventually the hose was all taped up and got replaced by one of those wonderful Eureka worldvac uprights in a beautiful emerald green. Most of you know those have problems. We went through 2 of them and the 2nd one blew up and caught fire. My dad tried taking that one to a vac shop and that didn't do much. Then we went through 2 kenmore canisters that did the job for about 15 years, but eventually they wore out. They're now on a Dyson (I don't like it). They sadly got rid of all the old vacuums, but they were in pretty bad shape.

Grandma had a rainbow. She died recently, and there's a chance I might be able to get it. I remember finding it in her closet while playing hide-n-seek, and being a little afraid of it, not knowing what it was. I never saw her use it and I wonder how often it was used.
 
We had...

First Mother bought a 815 GE the first swivel top, it was used until 66 when she got another GE ,which was not anything like as good as the first one, then a Dial A Matic in 69, a 1140, then a Celebrity Powermatic in the late 70s...which is the main reason I dont collect Hoovers to any great extent, it cleaned great, but I wanted a SuperJ which Mother wouldnt buy because she thought 379.00 was outrageous!LOL..." But she bought that first GE in 52, and it was 99.95!!!!
 
My mother started out with a Kenmore round canister bought in 1956. The top flipped open and the paper bag pushed onto the spout. She was talked into buying a Compact C-4 in 1958, and they put the Kenmore in the basement. She got a Rainbow in 1962 (the year I was born) - and that's the cleaner I remember the best. I talked my aunt into buying a Model G Electrolux (bronze) when I was six years old and she gave me her 'old' Automatic F, which I promptly took apart, rewired, and popped all the circuit breakers with. After taking it the Lux office to be repaired, I was told 'don't touch it again'. I immediately took it apart again, but this time got it wired correctly. I've been working on vacuums ever since.
 
vacuum memories

In 1947,my mother bought my grandmother a 116 brown Kenmore Birtman upright,for Mother's day. Guess who did the vacuuming-not my grandmother. I guess mom got sick of pushing the the old carpet sweeper.I still have this machine,the only thing I've had to replace was the cord.Around 1966, somehow the handle fork cracked,I remember going to a vacuum shop on east 79th st.in Chicago,with my dad, to get another one.He also brought home a very dirty 1963 Kenmore upright,that was used to vacuum the Beverly country club.At the time we lived in a two story house.Mother wanted one for each level,so she wouldn't have to lug the Kenmore up,& down the stairs.The 63'was very tempermental.I remember it being in the shop,to fix the tricky handle mechanisim.After she was widowed,my grandmother moved in with us until the house was sold a a year or so later.She brought her Hoover 29 that never failed her,& the 63 Kenmore went to goodwill.In 1975 mom bought a new dial a matic,the 29 went in the basement till I moved out,& got it.
 
Here's the long line of my Family's vacuums...

Let's start with my Grandmother in the 60s, She and her husband had a cute little ranch house finished in 1960, that was built for them by a contractor. I believe back then she said she had a Kenmore canister, I want to say it was a lady kenmore in pink, or maybe a commander or Kenkart, I'm not sure. From there on, I believe the next vacuum came around in the 70s or sometime, when she bought a Rainbow (A D series, I belive) and the Kenmore was donated. Well, sometime in the 90s she let my Mother borrow it, and she left it sitting with water in the pan, and... Well you know what happens then, :D

Mother than bought my Grandmother a Fantom Cyclone XT as a replacement, You'll learn what happens to it later on. The Cyclone XT died in it's explained tragedy below, and I (Being born in 1999), was put in charge of selecting a Wal*Mart vacuum (This had to be in 2005). I was rushed, as we had to go and pick up my sister from Pre-K, And I decided on a Blue Eureka "The-Boss", I'll include a picture. This vacuum has likely been used less than 2-3 dozen times, and has sat in the closet while all my other cleaners were of more interest to me. We still have it, like new.

On my Mother's side, A nighbor friend donated her an old Kirby Classic III (With a Classic Brown bag) way back when, and some of her pets (She had gerbils and bunnies and what-not) Apparently chewed a hole in the bag. When my parents married in 1993, Dad came along with his Singer "Singer-System" in grey, and the Kirby was sent to my Grandmother's house, and stowed away in the attic. Dad had that signer since he first moved out and into an apartment, and ofcourse the bag was also chewed by pets, plus the fan busted (If I can recall correctly). The singer got replaced around the same time as Grandma's (Now rusted-out) Rainbow, around 1998 I believe. The singer was replaced by a Fantom thunder, which switch busted and was replaced with one in the cord. This also died the same way Grandma's Cyclone XT went. When the thunder met it's match, It was replaced by a Bissell powerforce bagless.

Unfourtunately, my parents later split, and when dad moved and re-married, his new bride had a Hoover Soft & Lite, And I'm %99 sure the Bissell was given away to his new bride's sister. The Hoover later was trashed due to a busted impeller fan. I was then tasked with it's replacement, and made the quite smart (Especially considering I was likely 8 or 9) Choice of a Eureka The-Boss smart-vac, which lasted until My new stepmom called into a Radio station, and I got a $150 or so coupon for a purchase at the Sears Refurbishment store. I narrowed the choices down to a Red Kenmore Progressive, and Older 90s Kenmore canister in white, and a Hoover savvy. I decided on the Red Kenmore, which we still have and is in quite regular use, although it is quite beat-up and dilapidated (Plastic clips busted,Etc). The Eureka The-Boss Smart-Vac was given to me, and some "Friend" We used to know borrowed it and a Bissel my Farther's Dad gave me, Without asking me permission, and returned the Eureka with an odd, high-pitched sound, The Bissell with no cord, and an 90s Kenmore Canister, With NO back wheels, and a frozen power-nozzle motor. I wasn't happy.

Now, onto the explanation of the Fantom's unfourtunate implosion:

When we where moving out of our house, likely 2004, Dad had the bright idea of using The Fantom Thunder with CARET FRESH! OH NO! Which of course, burnt out the motor before he could finish the living room. He then borrowed Grandma's Cyclone XT, Which also died off before completing the living room. The solution came when the Kirby Classic III was released from the attic, the hole in the bag was covered with a plastic grocery bag, and mussled trough the whole house and CARPET FRESH without a problem.

I later continued to use the Classic III, with the same plastic bag patch in place @ my Grandma's house, and although the bag was continually repaired thanks to my Dad's sewing skills, It continued to randomly burst from time-to-time.

Back to my Mom's side, we moved into a rental house down the street from Grandma's, and guess what the landlord left us?

A HOOVER caddy-vac style cleaner, with a cool red see-trough bag (Funny part- I remember taking the Thing to Grandma's for the night, and sucked up some scrambled eggs in the house, LOL).

And...

A RAINBOW E SERIES!

The Hoover was mainly used, I don't think mom liked tolling with the water filtering rainbow, and didn't want to break it like last time...

The Economy completely failed misserably then, and mom was out of a job.
We ended up moving into Grandma's 1960 Ranch house, which for the last 20 years was a rental property, as the house was too much for Grandma to keep up with, especially since we had a barn and an acre or 2 of land!

Grandma and the Landlord became good friends, with Grandma being in charge of collecting rent. The landlord lived in Virginia, and took his Hoover back with him, and Left the E-series with Grandma for a few years. He later took it back to Virginia, and I think he left the aqua-mate, But I know he left the power-nozzle manual. I remember trying to use the aqua-mate on the backyard patio, LOL.

I took the Kirby and some other machines to the 1960 house, and Mom tossed out the Kirby (I think what happened was I took the brushroll head off, and mom considered it junk). I still have the head. Ironically, she did the opposite for another kirby, I left the head off, and mom threw out the head. I managed to combine the classic III head and heritage body to make a functional kirby, and the heritage did not receive a proper head until late 2012 I believe.

I used to be able to find awesome vacuums in the trash, I recall a red Eureka, a Blue Early oreck (70s maybe), and a Bissel powerforce turbo, and a Bissell power-partner type (Singer designed). The Eureka was tossed due to me not knowing about belts, and smelly bags, the oreck was tossed becuase i didn't know about bags, and the Bissell (Singer one) was tossed because I didn't know how to replace an impeller fan.

I'll leave it off at this, let me know if i can be of further assistance.
-Alex.
 
I had a Hoover Convertible Soft & Light growing up. Performed like an Elite, and lasted unti 2006 or 2007. I also had a bagless twin-chamber Hoover from 2000 up until 2003.
 
I am working on my "Sweeper Obsession" story... I am doing a major rewrite-rework of it with lots of stuff I've never written about. And it seems the more I write, the more the memories come pouring forth from the cobwebbed recesses of my mind. It's going to be long but I hope fun to read and worth the wait!
 
Mom's Vacuum

The only ones I remember were The Aqua Westinghouse canister and the small portable GE gray vacuum. I still have the Westinghouse, but sold the GE. The Westinghouse probably isn't interesting to anyone else because I repainted the top loosing the gray band that read WESTINGHOUSE and the Logo. Otherwise it runs perfectly, has the attachments and a huge supply of Glamorene Bags. However, if anyone is interested in the Westinghouse, I will supply pictures and let you make an offer.

Garreth
 

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