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Thread Number: 26105
Why we collect the vacs we collect??? |
[Down to Last] |  |
| Post# 292665 , Reply# 1 8/9/2014 at 23:36 (3,538 days old) by cb123 (Mobile, Al.) | ||
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| Post# 292666 , Reply# 2 8/9/2014 at 23:53 (3,538 days old) by PoconoVacMan (Northeast Pennsylvania) | ||
For me, I'm most partial to the models and brands that my family had growing up, which primarily consisted of Hoover, Singer (from the 50s), Eureka, Electrolux, Fantom, and a few others along the way that I've developed my own interest in.
Also, the majority of machines I own and grew up around were uprights, so I tend to favor uprights more than canisters, while still liking certain canisters and disliking certain uprights. Our dear Hans (Kenkart) would have a stroke if he saw some of the machines I hold dear, but would fall over and wet his pants if he knew some of the others!! (Hans, you know I love ya like my luggage and am just busting your chops!) | ||
| Post# 292676 , Reply# 4 8/10/2014 at 01:30 (3,538 days old) by cb123 (Mobile, Al.) | ||
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Post# 292682 , Reply# 5 8/10/2014 at 01:59 (3,538 days old) by electrolux137  (Los Angeles) |
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~ In one word: Nostalgia. A remembrance of simpler, more decent and honest times when I was growing up in the 1950s. Not to over-portray the 1950s as something that era wasn't -- there was plenty of bad stuff going on back then too -- racism and segregation for example. But, overall, people -- at least in the small towns where I grew up -- were kind and decent to one another, and most folks were honest. Most of the people I knew as a child never locked their houses. (My mama didn't even know where the front-door key was when she went to look for it one day.) People left the keys to their cars in the ignition -- at home and when out and about. Household appliances were better-made back then, and were more beautiful. Sure, there were drawbacks -- most of them were dirt belchers and dust breeders and awkward or difficult to deal with the vacuumed-up dirt. But they were made to last a household a lifetime, not 2 or 3 years then they fall apart and the folks would have to go buy another disposable machine. Many of the ladies -- even the older ones -- had vacuum cleaners and other appliances that they had gotten when they were first married, either as wedding gifts or just purchases for the new household. As most of us, my attraction to (okay, obsession for) vacuum cleaners began at a very, very early age. And I loved every single one I ever saw, found, or used. As I began to grow up and had to become more secretive about this "peculiar fascination," I put a stop to overtly engaging in my hobby. You could say that I went into the "sweeper closet." Interestingly, one of my first after-school jobs was working for a vac shop, cleaning up, arranging stock, and such. When I went downstairs one day and saw the bewilderingly beautiful jumble of old trade-in machines that the owner had been putting down there ever since he opened, I began to play around with some of them, especially the old Kirbys and Electroluxes, and eventually bringing a few of them home to work on. One day the owner of the store said, "You really have an eye for those old machines, don't you." I felt a deep sense of shame and embarrassment, like he had "outed me," and brushed aside his comment -- even though, looking back, I realize he meant it as a compliment and may well have had "an eye for those old machines" himself! But I considered my interest in them too secret and too shameful and I wouldn't admit it to anyone, not for many years. Not, actually, until after I met Stan Kann in 1990. But that's another story. When I did begin openly collecting vacuum cleaners and began scouring through junk stores, thrift shops and vacuum cleaner stores, the machines I was most attracted to were the ones I remembered from my childhood. And that's the way it has stayed to this very day. Every machine in my collection is like one that someone had when I was a kid. I have multiples of certain machines I really like, and some of them are configured as different people had them -- e.g., a Model E with a cord winder and XXX hose as I've talked about. I have that version sitting right here. And So It Goes. | ||
| Post# 292687 , Reply# 6 8/10/2014 at 03:00 (3,538 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center) | ||
 Charles, you hit the screw on the head there! But don't forget our modern times come with there own issues! I'd like to see Russia hack into Facebook's credit-card stuff, in 1959! Then there was no Facebook, internet or Prius car things. The cars had an extra ton of chrome on them, and could cause eye damage if you stare into it long enough!
Everything I own is older than I am! My vacuums, mixers, 8-Tracks, etc. I do things the vintage way when I can, such as playing a 45 RPM record from my library, or making a video on Super 8 film. I wonder at times if I'm trying to clutch onto that perfect lifestyle of the 1950s, from my dream-car to my dream-house, from my appliances to the way I style my hair!
Every now-and-then I'll get super-nostalgic and vacuum every possible thing I can with the Electrolux, or other days switch the Kirby into attachments and go about the house's floors and crevices. It's nostalgic because that's the way it was. The husband went off to work and won bread in an awesome poker match (figure of speech) and the wife stayed home to keep the house and kids in order (not that I'm the wife, but I do keep a clean house!). The house was always clean. Fresh Pine drifted into the air from the kitchen floors, and dust was kept down constantly. Having vacuums, and anything really, brings me closer and closer! | ||
| Post# 292714 , Reply# 8 8/10/2014 at 12:14 (3,538 days old) by pr-21 (Middletown, OH) | ||
What I grew up with.....
A Premier 21 Upright started it for me when I was young. I also always asked for a toy vacuum for Xmas. Back in the 50's, they had some great toy vacuums. Anyway, my mom traded a PR-21 in for an Electro Hygiene Tank in the late 50's. I didn't realize until I got older, that my mom made a very good choice for the type rugs and hardwood floors we had. When I got my first apartment, I bought a Top of the Line Eureka. This would be the early 70's. I also bought my first Kirby brand new, it was the Kirby Classic. When my Mom's vacuum quit, I bought her a Hoover Model 70 which was the tol Hoover then.
I always had a straight suction canister for above the floor and an upright for carpets. In the past 20 years or so, I am 62 now, I discovered Electrolux and bought the Discovery III upright and the Marquis tank. I now actually prefer canisters to uprights, although I have lots of both, simply because a canister with a power nozzle and onboard attachments in my opinion is better for mixed flooring. I have wood, tile and carpet. If I had to choose just one to keep, it would be hard to choose. My favorite top of line cleaners are Rainbow, Riccar, Aerus (originally electrolux) and the upright favorites would be Kirby Sentria II, My Vintage Eureka 250 with ST fill tube adapter for filtration, Simplicity Premium Vibrance, and the Eureka Retro Vac with the original bag from that era on it.... PR-21 | ||
| Post# 292970 , Reply# 9 8/11/2014 at 14:48 (3,537 days old) by edgar (Belgium) | ||
Growing up | ||
| Post# 292972 , Reply# 10 8/11/2014 at 14:55 (3,537 days old) by marks_here (_._) | ||
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| Post# 292983 , Reply# 11 8/11/2014 at 15:36 (3,537 days old) by eurekastar (Amarillo, Texas) | ||
For me it's about preserving a little bit of Americana, combined with the fact that I love working on things. So obviously my preference is with vintage models. Many newer vacuum models tend to be over-engineered and unnecessarily difficult to work on. Plus, when a part breaks on something newer, it's often no longer available. But amazingly, Kirby still manufactures parts for models dating back 75 years!
The brands I have the most experience with are Kirby, Electrolux, Eureka, Compact/Tristar, and Rainbow. I have some limited experience with Hoover, mainly because parts for older Hoovers seem to be less plentiful. Pictured are a few of the vacuums that I've either rebuilt or repaired. | ||
| Post# 292988 , Reply# 12 8/11/2014 at 15:52 (3,537 days old) by dysonman1 (the county) | ||
I started my obsession with vacuums at a very early age (4). My mother had a Rainbow model D upstairs and a Compact C-4 downstairs. My aunt had an Electrolux Automatic F, and my other aunt had a Model G. Next door was a 1954 KenKart. Across the street was a Kirby Dual 80. The day the lady bought the Kirbeast, my mother took me over to see it. After the owner went to get us some tea, my mother said "that thing is worthless". "Why" I asked? She went to the lady's sofa and smacked it. Dust clouds rose. "See, worthless" she said. When we got home, she smacked our sofa and nothing happened. The Rainbow salesmen told her to use the upholstery tool every time she came to the sofa, and she did. My mother always felt our house was the cleanest on the block.
I went to Catholic Church and Catholic School until I begged my mother to let me go to public school (I hated church and still do). The church had a GE Swivel Top that they used to clean the alter (pink). The only thing I enjoyed about that church and school was getting to vacuum with the GE. Everyone I knew had canisters. Uprights were considered "low class". I don't know why. Even my best friend's mother had a Fairfax. And my mother's best friend had a Filter Queen model 500. Canisters and Tank types were all I grew up with. It wouldn't be until I was an adult with my own vacuum cleaner sales and repair shop that I began to see uprights as anything other than "worthless". When I sold Rainbows as a young adult (I'm 52 now, I was 19 then), we hung uprights in the tree and shot them with shotguns at the Rainbow company picnic. I always thought of uprights as dust belchers. Today, I see them in a whole new light. I still hate Kirby. But Maytag and Simplicity with their on-board tools are wonderful. I have a love/hate relationship with Dyson. Unlike so many brainwashed people, I do not hate them. I see them for what they are. I did use a DC07 for several years exclusively and really liked it. All in all, I still like the vacuums I grew up with. To me, The best canister, other than the Rainbow which can do it ALL, is the Air-Way Sanitizor. | ||
| Post# 293005 , Reply# 13 8/11/2014 at 16:43 (3,537 days old) by kirbymodel2c (Nottingham, England) | ||
Well... Hi. Well for me the nostalgia side does come in to it especially with certain models like the Electrolux 345,406,350 etc as that was what family had and what I grew up with since I started liking vacuum cleaners at the age of 4. With Kirby which is my favorite brand(As if you didn't know!), that was a love that blossomed from the moment I saw next door using one to clean their car out. Not long after I got to see one used in a demo and was opened up to what a true quality vacuum cleaner could do and could be capable of. I can remember the time I got my first Kirby and feeling my heart pumping with excitement from the first moment I saw it & rushing over too claim it as my own I also had a very helpful,friendly and supportive Kirby distributor which helped with any questions I had. And for that I am truly grateful.
James | ||
| Post# 293010 , Reply# 14 8/11/2014 at 16:51 (3,537 days old) by Jaker15 (Meridian, ID) | ||
Why do I collect what I collect?
To put it simply, I like how my older vacuums sound. There are so many people out there that have NEVER heard an Electrolux Model 30 run before. When I show them my Model 30 for the first time, they usually say, "Oh, wow. Would you look at that! It looks like an old Cadillac! I bet it's really loud..." and when I turn it on, they're stunned. It sounds so mellow and smooth compared to today's plastic banshees. I also collect certain machines because I don't want them to end up in the scrap pile. If you have the opportunity to save a vacuum from being trashed, do it!
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| Post# 293011 , Reply# 15 8/11/2014 at 16:59 (3,537 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 293160 , Reply# 18 8/12/2014 at 13:55 (3,536 days old) by Jaker15 (Meridian, ID) | ||
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DT, | ||
| Post# 293184 , Reply# 20 8/12/2014 at 16:19 (3,536 days old) by super-sweeper (KSSRC Refurbishment Center) | ||
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Post# 293237 , Reply# 22 8/12/2014 at 22:28 (3,535 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640) |
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I could write a whole epic about  | ||
| Post# 293320 , Reply# 24 8/13/2014 at 13:37 (3,535 days old) by compactc9guy (Bathurst NB) | ||
reply
I started getting interested in vacuum cleaners at an early age . The first vacuum i used was a Hoover Celebrity IV powermatic in light blue , afther that iwas hock .
The vacuum i collect are compact , electrolux . I would love to find more vintage kirby i used one once a classic 3 at a local trift shop could not take it home it had no attachements and it was allready sold the next day .I did manage to save an Electrolux Discovery 2 from the trash it was on sale in a yard sale so i ran away and took it home short of speak afther paying 20 $ for it . People tought i as nuts for taking it home but i told them its a lux shell be purrin like a kitten in no time at all . I like older Kenmores and shop vac also beaucause thats what i grew up whit .Electrolux Compact Tristar Hoover and Shop vac is what my famaly use trought out the years . I own a Compact IEC Electra C9 , my rescued from scrap Lux discovery 2 whit a full rebuilt , an Electrolux Floor Pro polisher whit all the brush paid 1086 for it from a lux sales man he was very nice . I guess i got hoock on old vacuums beaucause to me they were odd looking sound diffrent perform better and i like them .Like some people say if you can save it from the trash bring it home .You cant beat vintage vacuums they last longer . | ||
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