I wish Hoover made an electric power nozzle for the Constellation!

Constellations are a lot of fun to whiz across a hardwood floor :D

:D:D
They have a suprising amount of lift on hardwood and linoleum floors,just make sure you vacuum the section you place it first or you'll blow the dust and dirt all over!

I think the Celebrity "flying saucer" or "pancake" cleaner also hovered too,but I've never used one to find out how well they work.

Hoover sure got a lot of mileage out to the constellation series,they made them into the '70's.

Regarding Kirbys,my favorite would have to be the 1965 dual Sanitronic '50' with the light up oval Kirby logo on the light cover.
I like the stylized "S" on the Sanitronic logo on the belt lifter,plus Sanitronic is a futuristic sounding name!

Sadly Kirby never embraced modernism like the other manufacturers did and they always used pretty dull colors on the bags and trim of their machines.

I recently saw a newer Kirby that had cool looking boomerang patterns on the bag.

The DS80, I had one that I used for many years. Kirby's only green model in the small series. I don't remember there being any design difference between the "500" series and the DS80. I think the DS80 was the last of that chassis style before the "classic" series came out, and those things were like trying to vacuum with a Humvee....

Ran across a Celebrity at the thrift about two weeks ago, that one had wheels as I recall. You want I should pick it up for ya? :)

I had a Constellation 86 as I recall, it was orange. Seen blue ones too from time to time.

You're right about those Kirby Classics!
A girlfriend used to have an Omega classic and she hated using it because it was so clunky and heavy,I preferred the smaller Kirby too,but personally have always liked canisters with power nozzles best.

The only drawback to the electrolux G is that bags are small,but thankfully bags are very cheap.

Thanks for the offer on the celebrity,if it was the "flying" one I'd be interested!

Hoover made many different colors of Constellations,I've always wanted the turquoise model but have never run into it yet.

Seems to me I've had all 3 colors that I know of....orange, tan, and turquoise. The turquoise one I had would best be described as a parts machine.

We should open up a vacuum forum here. I loves vacuums :) .

My favorite beater canister vac was always a Lewyt. I used to use them in car detailing all the time. Couldn't kill them, and they had nice cloth bags. That was, of course, before the days of the prominent use of the wet/dry vac for such things.

The one canister vac I have here is a really nice Royalaire, a metallic blue, with all of the attachments. Looks like a Buck Rogers spaceship, my kids used to ride on it around the living room :D

Kamakiri (in his best Picard voice): Make it so, number 1 (Grumpy?)

I'm partial to what we had when I was a kid - the Filter Queen. My wife loves her Rainbow - and no, I've never bought a vacuum in my life, always been given ones when older family members downsized or bought others.

I recall the snow blower thread from a few years back - bring it on! Doug loves his lawnboys - maybe another thread for "yard machines" or something like that. Always something interesting and entertaining!


Cheers,

I just got new tires on my Cooper Klipper last weekend :)

Two stroke Lawn Boys? Cool stuff! Now, what to call it.....

AK has Wings, Wheels, and Water, or something like that.....do we have a Lawn and Carpet forum? :D

I picked up a 1920's (25-30?) Hoover Upright a few weeks back.
It has a tag on it that says it was refurbished by Hoover, probably in the 1950's.
It works fine and is in great shape but it has a bad switch, I bypassed it for now just to see if it ran, it does but it's vacuuming abilities leave a lot to be desired.

I will say this is one area where vintage is NOT better, any of my three modern era Uprights (one Kenmore two Hoovers) will outperform this one, they also have the advantage of replaceable bags, and HEPA filters.
I didn't pay more than $10 for any of them.

The oldest probably dates to the late 80's and is a well built machine despite being made of plastic, I've got a lifetime supply of bags for it I found at thrift stores for cheap.

I had an old Kirby at one time, built like a tank but it pretty much just picked dust up and blew it out through the bag, yes, a new bag would have helped but no cloth bag can match a modern paper one.

What floored me was the $500 Dyson "Ball" Vac I saw at Wally World recently, it looked like the type of overpriced junk they used to sell at The Sharper Image, lots of Gee-Whiz appeal and no quality. Probably spend all their money on advertising, like a certain famous audio company.

Kamakiri,
I agree old vacuums are pretty cool!
Lewyt made some very interesting cleaners,I think they got sued by filter queen for patent infringement on their earlier models,they even used a filter cone similar to filter queens.

I've always wanted to find the elusive lewyt electronic the first motorized power nozzle canister.
I've read that was the vacuum that drove them out of business after owners sued due to electrical shock.

Westinghouse made some very futuristic vacuums in the '60's
The Converto-vac being to most bizzare.

Were there any wildly designed lawnmowers back in the 50's and early 60's?
Any with futuristic designs,fins or any spacey design themes?

I've never run into any vintage lawnmowers anywhere and have always wondered if there were any really modernistic ones made.

Have you ever run across a flymo mover before?
They have no wheels and hover above the ground,I remember seeing them for sale in the 70's,but never knew anyone who had one or used one.

I've seen those flymos on ebay from time to time....but never seen one in person.

Last summer at the Salvation Army I picked up this 1929 Moto-Mower "Detroit", powered by an external pushrod Briggs engine. Thing weighed over 300 lb! Ended up selling to a guy on eBay who had to have it, for about $400 as I recall. It cost just as much to crate it and ship it to him!

Needed the money, otherwise I'd have loved to restore it. The engine was seized tight. It looked absolutely threatening :D

Holy mackerel, that Moto-Mower would never make it past the first lawyer today! Imagine getting your knickers caught in the teeth of that thing. Back when men were men.

If a new section of AK is started, I submit it should just be called "Stuff" since we have such wide-ranging obsess...er..interests.

I was thinking about that last night. Be nice to get a wide sampling of interests to guide it in certain directions though. For example, I like vintage kitchen appliances, small and large.....fans.....that kinda thing too. And player pianos!

I like that idea too!
There were so many amazing products back then,toasters,vacuums,refrigerators..heck I even have an old Vornado window air conditioner from 1955!

That mower you found looks pretty intimidating!..I wonder if it would bog down in heavy grass!