By Michele Kadison
Ten year old Gregory Evans has been in the news lately for his obsession with vacuum cleaners. Collecting them since he was three years old, Gregory is by now a vacuum cleaner expert, taking them apart, fixing them, and understanding what makes each model tick. He can even tell what type of vacuum is being used by the way it sounds!
Dream analogy equates vacuum cleaners with the lungs as they are devices that work with air. So if we want to go deeper to understand Gregory’s passion, maybe it starts with an unconscious passion for life!
But Gregory is not alone in this passion for the vacuum cleaner. Stan Kann was a frequent guest on the Johnny Carson show, presenting his wide array of antique vacuum cleaners that he began collecting as a child. There are many sites devoted to people who have a strong attachment to vacuum cleaners, which I found by reading Charles Richard Lester’s site at http://www.137.com/sweepers/.
For those of you who may still be in the closet about your own vacuum cleaner obsessions, you can join the Vacuum Cleaners Club at http://www.vaccc.com/ or visit the Cyberspace Vacuum Cleaner Museum at http://www.137.com/museum/.
Maybe this little boy from Illinois is on to something bigger than just a quirky passion. Breathing life into a cleaner world is, after all, a pretty wonderful way to use your time.
Alright, we are a little slow on this entry…but this entertained me enough that I had to share it. USB Vacuum cleaners, as a product, have existed for a few years, making it so that people can clean their keyboards more efficiently. But these machines end up looking more like nose hair clippers rather than the vacuum cleaner you use to clean up after yourself in your house. (See Image).
I haven’t figured out who creates this yet, but I will try. But some vacuum genius created an USB Vacuum Cleaner that looks like a miniature upright vacuum cleaner and actually helps you clean up after the crumbs littered around your desk from your afternoon snack. Like I said, we are a bit behind on reporting on this invention, Gizmodo wrote about it back in 2007.
Cross your fingers that this is still being made so that I can offer it on GoVacuum!
August 22, 2008 at 5:46 pm
· Filed under Just Cute
I don’t usually consider myself a gadget freak but sometimes during my long hours perusing the internet I come across a gadget that makes me downright giddy. Normally, I leave the gadget dorkiness to my sister, who was the originator of this blog, but this time I couldn’t help myself and had to share this genius invention.
Somewhere in the cubicle of a bored office worker obsessed with video games, who became fed up with the crumbs from his mid-day snack littering his desk, a brilliant idea was born. This idea comes in the form of the Mushroom Desk Mini Cleaner , a hand-held, cordless vacuum that helps you clean up the small mess on your desk and also shares a strong resemblance to the mushrooms seen in the Super Mario Brothers games.
We do not currently have any of these cult worthy vacuums available for sale, as the company that invented appears to be Hong Kong based, but we are trying. When we do have them in stock, you will be the first to hear!
August 19, 2008 at 4:03 pm
· Filed under Just Cute
I have to admit, I haven’t seen the movie but the people at Pixar put together a pretty funny promotional video showing the robot Wall-E fighting an extremely worth adversary, the vacuum cleaner.
I think my favorite part is at the end when Wall-E makes an attempt at literally “covering his tracks.”
Considering the popularity of this film, it makes me wonder whether a few videos of dueling vacuums would spice up our GoVacuum Video Series
August 14, 2008 at 3:27 pm
· Filed under Just Cute
Recently, I came across this obscure article about the idea of a vacuum cleaner also serving as a baby stroller of sorts. The idea being that instead of having your child chase you around the room when you are vacuuming, you could have them sit on the canister of the vacuum and let them enjoy the ride as you try to clean the room.
With so many people already complaining about the feeling of weight dragging behind them when they use a canister vacuum, the idea of having your child add to this weight, while presumably also screaming in fear of being sucked up by the vacuum, makes this machine a scary prospect for me. Luckily, I think it is only a funny idea by a bored parent and it hasn’t come to fruition.
In my infinite search for new wisdom, I am subscribed to an interesting site called Idea a Day. Today’s idea was something of obvious interest to me: vacuums. The author of the site made an interesting suggestion for a new kind of vacuum. Check out the idea below:
“Manufacture a vacuum cleaner with an integral carpet freshener function. An adjustable switch or trigger on the handle would dispense the user’s preferred brand of carpet deodorizer through a series of wide-spray nozzles on the front of the device. A dial mechanism (similar to those used on steam irons) would allow the user to adjust the intensity of each burst of the good stuff.”
After summoning the more mechanically and technically inclined members of the GoVacuum team for an emergency vacuum invention meeting, I realized that this technology already exists. Actually, I didn’t realize anything, I was reminded by GoVacuum’s CEO Bill Anand that this technology already existed. He reminded me of his early days of entrepreneurial activities where he sold Rainbow vacuums.
As it turns out, through the use of the Rainbow’s water filtration system, you can add fragrances into the machine so that your vacuuming efforts leave your carpets clean and smelling like your favorite fragrance. I believe the only part missing from fulfilling the “Idea a Day” dream is a nozzle that controls the level of fragrance output.
In the end, it was nice to see a dream come to fruition, albeit a partial fruition. It did leave me wondering, however…do any of our readers out there have their own vacuum invention dreams?
I generally dislike the billboard advertisements that litter the highway system across the United States. Mainly because they usually lack humor and are distastefully designed with enough tacky colors to make a clown feel sick.
Recently, however, I came across a billboard advertisement that I found hilarious and extremely convincing at the same time. While I don’t think that the advertisement is real (it’s rumored to be the design of a student of graphic design), I think it proves that some advertisements can do a good job at what their supposed to do: sell.
Attention all aspiring barbers, neat freaks, hair aficionados and vacuum fanatics!
During a recent conversation about strange videos on Youtube, I was introduced to a product that I realized was a necessity for our site: The Flowbee. A brilliant tool that combines the forces of a hair clipper and a vacuum, the Flowbee allows you to cut your own hair without having to clean up the mess that is usually left behind. The product itself was developed in the late 1980’s by Rick Hunt, a San Diego carpenter who was frustrated by the inability of his industrial vacuum to serve as a personal grooming tool. As a vacuum lover, I was impressed by the simplicity of use of this product. The Flowbee site claims that the product is compatible with 90% of vacuums with a hose capability.
The Flowbee itself is simply a hair clipper with a hose that can attach to a vacuum cleaner (with hose capabilities) that cleans up all the hair being cut off your head. By attaching the Flowbee unit to your vacuum, you can give yourself a haircut in the comfort of your own home without having to sweep up afterwards.
Previously only sold on late night TV, or through As Seen on TV mail order and brick and mortar stores, the owners of the Flowbee are beginning to make a bigger internet sales push. A quick Google or Youtube search reveals that in its time, the Flowbee has attracted a significant cult following. People who buy the product seem to love it. A friend even recently confided to me that her father was actually a Flowbee addict…
Interested in checking out how fun (and clean) cutting your own hair can be? We are now offering the Flowbee for $79.95.
Thus far, this is my favorite video of how the Flowbee operates:
This shows you the major downfall to bagless vacuums. This is typical of a bagless machine after only 1-3 years. The reason this happens is the main “HEPA” filter in the dirt cup gets dirty, (that’s the filters job is to capture dirt) and the motor has to work harder to try and vacuum todays dirt, through yesterdays dirt on the filter. You will NEVER hear a Sebo Upright make this noise because the bag on Sebo, as well as most other bagged machine, captures the dirt before going to your motor.
