UFO Canister Vacuum

[ZomZom]

When I was in college (82-86) our dorms included canister vacuums shaped like UFOs. The exhaust from the canister was aimed down and the canister hovered so you didn’t have to lug it around while you cleaned.

I’m shopping for a canister vacuum now and can’t find these anywhere. Does anyone remember these, who made them, or why the design didn’t catch on?

[postcards]

You must have had much better drugs than I.

It hovered?

Perhaps you meant to say it Hoovered?

[ZomZom]

Seriously, it hovered just high enough to get clearance so it could slide around while you tugged on the hose. We even played a kind of air hockey with it.

[AskNott]

I never saw a vac like that, but I remember Toro made a hovering lawnmower called the Flymo.

–Nott, the large

[Reeder]

The Hoover Constellation 1952

This was the first of the Hoover Constellations, a type of cleaner they sold right up into the late 1960s. Later models were said to ?float on air? ? a cute advertising gimmick but in reality all it meant was that the exhaust blew onto the floor under the metal ring that the machine rested on. This did make it easier to drag the machine around; the exhaust formed a sort of cushion of air. However, it also affected the suction power of the machine because the free-flow of air through the cleaner was impeded and tended to blow dust around when the machine was lifted from the floor. A textbook example of form not following function!

[Squink]

I remember Toro made a hovering lawnmower called the Flymo.

The Flymo