An appliance that.. well... sucks!

Some friends of mine were cleaning out their basement, and we came across their old Kirby vacuum. It was purchased the year before my parents were married, and still worked. Like the modern Kirbys of today, the sucker is HEAVY, but I wanted it. I had always wanted a Kirby vacuum, despite the fact that they are monstrously over priced, and don't exactly out perform other vacs in their range.

When growing up in the late 1980s, I used to be addicted to certain movies shown on The Disney Channel (which you had to pay extra for back then). One animated film, which came out in 1987, was about a bunch of appliances that try to find their owner ("master") after his family has moved away from the old cabin in which they live. One of the characters, a vacuum named Kirby, quickly became my favorite.

I soon discovered that my grandparents had a vintage 1960s Kirby Sanitronic in their basement which they no longer used. It was almost identical to the Kirby of the movie. I used to go downstairs and play with it, pretending it was the grumpy vacuum from the movie.

By the time I got older, the vacuum had fallen into disrepair, and I had to toss it to the curb.

This Kirby, which was a VERY 70s looking machine, complete with "wood" decals, didn't last me very long. Years being in the basement must have rotted the motor wires, and one day while using it, some smoke came out, and it died.

Recently, I have come into possession of another used vacuum... this time, a Royal M 2028. They look just like the Kirbys of yester-year, but cost half as much (if you buy one new of course) and work 10 times better! This machine really does suck.... but in a good way.

The Royal actually seems to out clean the Dyson vacuum my folks have been using, and they cost about the same in price. The only disadvantages to the Royal, no hose attachment, and it's super LOUD. Seriously, you don't use this vacuum at night, otherwise you will have the cops called on you for making too much noise. Other than that.. this is a great appliance and well worth the money if you are in the market. It has a cool retro look to it.. which I love.. and is made mostly out of metal.. not PLASTIC like everything else.

Btw... part of me is laughing at you now that you actually sat there and read this entry about a vacuum cleaner. Yea.. we both need to get lives don't we? :-P