Thread Number: 24181
Scary Vacuum Cleaners |
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Post# 270495   3/6/2014 at 15:16 (3,703 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles)   |   | |
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A memory -- or, rather, a realization -- came flooding into my memory today for some reason.
I have always known that when I was a little kid I was afraid of certain vacuum cleaners, most notably early Kirbys and Royals. What just occurred to me is the reason (or one reason, at any rate) why I was afraid of them -- because the exposed motors were scary to me! I was afraid I would get shocked by them.
I didn't realize at that young age that even though the motors were "exposed," they were still safe because they were insulated. But I was very afraid, especially when the motor was running.
I would probably have gone into hysterics if I ever saw any of the really old machines where you could see the sparks from the carbon brushes rubbing against the commutator through openings in the motor housing back there.
I had forgotten all about until, as I said, today the memory of being afraid of those types of vacuum cleaners.
Are there vacuum cleaners that any of y'all were afraid of when you were young?
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Post# 270498 , Reply# 2   3/6/2014 at 15:27 (3,703 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)   |   | |
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Post# 270503 , Reply# 3   3/6/2014 at 16:37 (3,703 days old) by kenkart ()   |   | |
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On the other hand, bought a Dial A Matic in 1969 because she said those with bags on the outside surely would.."Blow Dust!" LOL |
Post# 270505 , Reply# 4   3/6/2014 at 17:07 (3,703 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)   |   | |
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The only vacuum cleaner I was afraid of were Kirbys. Or at least one in particular. My mom cleaned a building and in the storage room there was a Kirby (I forget what model) and a beige plastic base Hoover Convertible. For some reason the look of the Kirby scared me from trying it, so I would use the Convertible instead. I guess the metal look of the Kirby made me think it would be really loud or something.
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Post# 270506 , Reply# 5   3/6/2014 at 17:19 (3,703 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center)   |   | |
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I would LOVE to bring home new vacuums when I was younger, but when it came to see if it would run when I got home, that was another story! I would have to get someone to test it for me while I ran outside to a safe distance! I forget what machine I "ran" away from, I think one was an Hoover Elite II chop-shop special (I put a hard-bag and an older Hoover Qwik-Broom II cord on it).
Sparks, I too was scared of sparks! well, not so much the sparks, just worrying that the vacuum was broken, I always had this feeling I could be testing or using a "sparky" vacuum and it'll just explode on me! I had an Red Oreck "David Oreck signature" or something like that, and still do! I stuck it in the garage and didn't use it for years over some small arcing (Well, more of a healthy glow were the carbons meet the armature) from it's motor! it didn't help that I could see it clear as day! Even worse, We had an Oreck XL that sparked quite a LARGE amount, I NEVER used it or went near it, and was always worried when they used it! ESPECIALLY when they used it near ME!
Still today, I use a power strip at the wall to test cleaners, It is a nice, safe way to do it! I remember once testing a Hoover Convertible I had serviced by means of power strip. and I'm glad I did! that Hoover leaped and screeched when it's fan blew!
I'd love to hear more of these stories! -Alex. |
Post# 270507 , Reply# 6   3/6/2014 at 17:46 (3,703 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)   |   | |
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I was the same way with vacuums that I brought home. I would plug them in on the porch, run out in the yard and make my dad turn them on! I did find a Convertible once that I was just too afraid to try for some reason. It didn't appear to have anything wrong with it, but I never tried it out.
I too do the power strip myself when I test machines for the first time. I've never really had anything too "exciting" happen, they just start up, except for that Room Mate I found a while back that just smelled terrible and ran slowly. |
Post# 270508 , Reply# 7   3/6/2014 at 17:53 (3,703 days old) by bagintheback (Flagstaff, Arizona)   |   | |
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Alex, I was almost exactly like you. As much as I loved to try new cleaners, I was paranoid one might screech or a fan might shatter. My parents always had to be one to turn it on first. Older models caused me the most anxiety. Kirbys have the coolest looking designs, but a bit of a dangerous scary aura. They have such aggressive lines; it looks like a truck about to run you over when you are five. |
Post# 270516 , Reply# 8   3/6/2014 at 20:05 (3,703 days old) by s31463221 (Frenchburg, KY)   |   | |
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I too was afraid to try a vacuum out when I found one, I ALWAYS made my dad plug it in and turn it on to see if it would run or not! What put the fear in me, I found an old Regina Electrikbroom and plugged it in and hit the switch. Instead of coming to life like my grandfather's did, it made a horrible noise, a loud pop and smoke poured out of it! These days I too like the power strip to test out a new find, and I must say I've been pleasantly surprised at machines I expected to "blow up" run quite well!
Charles, I was too little to remember, but mom loves to tell me how I would run and jump in top of my bed when she would turn her Olympia One on! Funny thing is, Electrolux is my favorite brand now! Go figure.... :-). Great thread! |
Post# 270521 , Reply# 10   3/6/2014 at 20:20 (3,703 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center)   |   | |
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Post# 270549 , Reply# 11   3/7/2014 at 00:55 (3,703 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)   |   | |
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I was affraid of my grandma and aunt's Kirby Classic Omegas. I was playing with grandma's kirby one day and my sisiter said it was going to bite my fingers off (I would have been 3 my sister would have been about 25). After that day I wouldn't have anything to do with any Kirby. All other vacuums were fine just no kirby's for little Phill.
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Post# 270555 , Reply# 12   3/7/2014 at 05:09 (3,703 days old) by Craig_1982 (Newcastle Under Lyme (England))   |   | |
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I was quite the opposite with Kirby's when I was little, when I used to play up for my mother, she said she would sit me in my push chair bring out the Kirby turn it on and leave it running at the side of me, apparently it always made me calmer and fall to sleep lol.
Since joining this great site I have come across one Vacuum in particular that I know would have scared me if we had it when I was young, That Vacuum is the Bison Centurion at 31 years of age even today I think it look's creepy but saying that I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to own one, I just don't think it would sit in my room at night :-) lol |
Post# 270558 , Reply# 14   3/7/2014 at 06:50 (3,703 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Even though I always loved Kirby's, my Mom's cousin was babysitting me one time--they had an old, pre-classic Kirby. I used to play with it all the time, unplugged. Her husband plugged it in without me knowing and it (to me) mysteriously just came on. The bad thing was it had a broken fan blade, so it was VERY loud. It literally scared me to death. I ran upstairs in a crying fit. After that, like some others, I was always a little gun shy to turn on unknown vacuums. I used to turn the switch on then run the cord to a far away outlet and plug it in to make sure it was going to blow up or something. I know...kids irrational fears are funny sometimes.
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Post# 270563 , Reply# 16   3/7/2014 at 09:04 (3,703 days old) by bvac6 (Fort Wayne, Indiana)   |   | |
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I was afraid of Kirby's, especially the 1CB Omega. When I was very young I used to spend the day hanging around my dads office and the building it was in. His secretary/receptionist one day brought in her Kirby Omega to clean the lobby (she liked to do that herself and insisted the cleaning staff half-assed the vacuuming) and asked if I wanted to use it. No Way I said! The sheer sound of it drove me from the room! Nowadays I love that model of Kirby and I even own one, all original with all the attachments and accessories!
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Post# 270608 , Reply# 17   3/7/2014 at 18:30 (3,702 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center)   |   | |
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Post# 270811 , Reply# 18   3/9/2014 at 00:10 (3,701 days old) by smow69 (Muskogee Oklahoma)   |   | |
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when i was young about 8 my mom had a eureka 1405 a it had a broken fan was very loud and vibrated real bad it scared the daylights out of me. she used to have to treaten me to vacuum after that for a while.this isnt it but its identical i still have this vac today. |
Post# 271299 , Reply# 20   3/11/2014 at 15:26 (3,698 days old) by anthony (leeds uk)   |   | |
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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
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Post# 271458 , Reply# 21   3/12/2014 at 07:41 (3,698 days old) by Turbo500 (West Yorkshire, UK)   |   | |
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Post# 271471 , Reply# 22   3/12/2014 at 09:22 (3,698 days old) by dirtmaster37 (Ypsilanti, Michigan USA)   |   | |
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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.... |
Post# 271483 , Reply# 23   3/12/2014 at 11:40 (3,698 days old) by dysonman1 (the county)   |   | |
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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.
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Post# 271522 , Reply# 25   3/12/2014 at 13:41 (3,698 days old) by gsheen (Cape Town South Africa)   |   | |
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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 |
Post# 271566 , Reply# 27   3/12/2014 at 20:16 (3,697 days old) by paulg (my sweet home Chicago)   |   | |
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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! |
Post# 271569 , Reply# 28   3/12/2014 at 20:27 (3,697 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles)   |   | |
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Post# 271572 , Reply# 29   3/12/2014 at 20:55 (3,697 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center)   |   | |
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Post# 365941 , Reply# 30   1/31/2017 at 17:25 (2,641 days old) by crazykirbydude (Lexington, KY)   |   | |
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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.
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Post# 365998 , Reply# 33   2/1/2017 at 22:02 (2,640 days old) by Vintagefox (California)   |   | |
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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. |
Post# 365999 , Reply# 34   2/1/2017 at 22:17 (2,640 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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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 |
Post# 366056 , Reply# 36   2/3/2017 at 00:09 (2,639 days old) by hygiene903 (Galion, OH)   |   | |
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Post# 368454 , Reply# 38   3/15/2017 at 09:07 (2,599 days old) by thebassetthound (Melbourne, Australia)   |   | |
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Post# 368456 , Reply# 39   3/15/2017 at 09:34 (2,599 days old) by sleepdoc (St. Louis, MO)   |   | |
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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. |
Post# 368472 , Reply# 40   3/15/2017 at 14:56 (2,598 days old) by anthony (leeds uk)   |   | |
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Post# 368506 , Reply# 41   3/16/2017 at 07:01 (2,598 days old) by icee (Indiana)   |   | |
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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
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Post# 368525 , Reply# 42   3/16/2017 at 16:18 (2,597 days old) by dirtmaster37 (Ypsilanti, Michigan USA)   |   | |
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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 |
Post# 370232 , Reply# 43   4/7/2017 at 15:05 (2,575 days old) by crazykirbydude (Lexington, KY)   |   | |
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Post# 370266 , Reply# 44   4/8/2017 at 01:56 (2,575 days old) by Oreck_XL (Brooklyn, New York 11211)   |   | |
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Post# 370365 , Reply# 45   4/9/2017 at 14:23 (2,574 days old) by crazykirbydude (Lexington, KY)   |   | |
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Post# 370366 , Reply# 46   4/9/2017 at 14:25 (2,574 days old) by crazykirbydude (Lexington, KY)   |   | |
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Post# 370459 , Reply# 47   4/11/2017 at 03:12 (2,572 days old) by Ian (Dorking)   |   | |
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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! CLICK HERE TO GO TO Ian's LINK |
Post# 381798 , Reply# 50   11/25/2017 at 22:26 (2,343 days old) by Gj3476 (Prosper,TX)   |   | |
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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.
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Post# 381827 , Reply# 51   11/26/2017 at 13:21 (2,343 days old) by huskyvacs (Gnaw Bone, Indiana)   |   | |
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Post# 431218 , Reply# 52   9/4/2020 at 06:46 (1,330 days old) by Ilovehoovers (England)   |   | |
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Post# 431330 , Reply# 55   9/5/2020 at 17:45 (1,328 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)   |   | |
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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. |