fan-of-fans
Well-known member
Most any vintage vacuums I've seen had pretty decent to very good attachments included.
Somewhere along the line, many of them started to cheapen the attachments or include ones that are too small to be useable.
It seems to me this likely started around the time upright vacuums started having attachments on board. But perhaps not quite exactly, because even Hoover Elites and Dirt Devils even came with a pretty good set of attachments. A separate upholstery tool and a fairly soft dusting brush. Same with Panasonic uprights.
By at least the mid 2000s though, many of these attachments were smaller and the combo dusting/upholstery tools were common. Dusting brushes with stubby, scratchy bristles and the like.
Then we started having canister vacuums (especially compact) canisters with combination tools as well. Some models today have a crevice tool that serves as a dusting brush by simply sliding bristles on the end. A dusting brush the size of a toothbrush! Can't imagine cleaning a car interior or dusting the table tops or upholstery with that! LOL
Today's door to door vacuums still have excellent attachments. And even many independent brands include good generic, but full sized and horsehair attachments.
Other than those and makers like Miele, many of the big box and dept store brands such as Hoover, Eureka, Kenmore, etc have less than optimal sets. Kenmore's horsehair dusting brushes in the past several years are little softer than their non-horsehair equivalents. Not to mention the crossover handles of some models that are simply too big to fit into tight areas.
Look at the attachments from the Hoover Air Revolve. They did include a generous set, but most of them are clunky, huge oversized things!
And trying to use the hose on many tool on board uprights, sends the whole machine tumbling over as soon as the attachment makes contact with a surface. Too much suction through the springy hose. Although I have seen a lot of improvement as far as this in recent years.
But it seems as if today's vacuum designers have never used the attachments on a vacuum or expect that people won't do so.
Somewhere along the line, many of them started to cheapen the attachments or include ones that are too small to be useable.
It seems to me this likely started around the time upright vacuums started having attachments on board. But perhaps not quite exactly, because even Hoover Elites and Dirt Devils even came with a pretty good set of attachments. A separate upholstery tool and a fairly soft dusting brush. Same with Panasonic uprights.
By at least the mid 2000s though, many of these attachments were smaller and the combo dusting/upholstery tools were common. Dusting brushes with stubby, scratchy bristles and the like.
Then we started having canister vacuums (especially compact) canisters with combination tools as well. Some models today have a crevice tool that serves as a dusting brush by simply sliding bristles on the end. A dusting brush the size of a toothbrush! Can't imagine cleaning a car interior or dusting the table tops or upholstery with that! LOL
Today's door to door vacuums still have excellent attachments. And even many independent brands include good generic, but full sized and horsehair attachments.
Other than those and makers like Miele, many of the big box and dept store brands such as Hoover, Eureka, Kenmore, etc have less than optimal sets. Kenmore's horsehair dusting brushes in the past several years are little softer than their non-horsehair equivalents. Not to mention the crossover handles of some models that are simply too big to fit into tight areas.
Look at the attachments from the Hoover Air Revolve. They did include a generous set, but most of them are clunky, huge oversized things!
And trying to use the hose on many tool on board uprights, sends the whole machine tumbling over as soon as the attachment makes contact with a surface. Too much suction through the springy hose. Although I have seen a lot of improvement as far as this in recent years.
But it seems as if today's vacuum designers have never used the attachments on a vacuum or expect that people won't do so.
on this.
