Vacuum Cleaners

Certain sounds evoke memories of our childhood homes. By listening to them again, whether by chance or intentionally, we can magically be transported back to that time and place. What those sounds are for you, I’ll let you think over. For me, one sound that is forever engrained into my memory is that of an old vacuum cleaner. Vacuum Cleaners is my attempt at rediscovering the unique sound of the machine I remember from when I was a kid. To my imaginative, adolescent ears, it sounded like a rocket ship, a blimp and a race car. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Vintage Hoover Constellation model 858 canister vacuum. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Vintage Hoover Constellation model 858 canister vacuum. Isn’t this a work of art? The vacuum that is, not the photograph. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

Included are 35 machines: stick, canister, upright, robot, handheld, hand pump, industrial and central vacuum cleaners, plus antique and modern sweepers, a steam mop, carpet cleaner and shampoo polisher. To my ears, each motor’s unique voice sounds like something way beyond a simple vacuum cleaner. Vintage uprights howl and roar like rocket ships, classic space-age canister vacuums whine like futuristic hovercraft. There’s a central vacuum that can suck the life out of you and an antique pump vacuum that gives off eerie breath-like sounds.

I recorded some machines while sweeping back and forth in front of my microphones. For others, I captured them in place, in line with my belief that these motors sound more like rocket engines than vacuum cleaners. I created loops when a file allowed for it. To record a wooden Adler-Royal sweeper at an antique store, I asked the owner if I could walk around the store and sweep the aisles. She said yes, so I slung a Domke bag over my shoulder and gaffer taped a pair of contact mics to the sweeper. The result sounds like a boulder going down a hill.

I came close to finding the vacuum of my youth it in the wild. Along the way, I captured quite a few machines, each with distinctive-sounding motors. I hope you find the library as interesting as I did and useful for your projects.

Library Specifics

  • 35 cleaning appliances, 112 sounds, 3.28 GB, 80 minutes
  • 23 loops
  • Metadada included (Soundly and BWF MetaEdit)
  • UCS compliant
  • Sound Devices 702 and Sony PCM D100 recorders
  • Line Audio CM3 microphones in ORTF and XY, plus a pair of Barcus Berry contact mics

Preview Vacuum Cleaners

Why I Recorded Vacuum Cleaners

Growing up, our family had a Kirby model 516. She was a heavy, chrome-plated beauty with red rubber accents, scuffed bumpers and a bag that swelled up and saluted as soon as you flipped its switch. A salesman surely made a successful foot-in-the door pitch to my mother in 1956 or ‘57, before my time. My job, being the youngest, was to clean its bag when it became full. We had a black-haired dog at the time. Reaching into that dusty old bag full of Tippy’s fur was like sticking your arm up into a fistulated cow.

During my early elementary school years, when I was laid up in bed with whatever the latest sickness was going around or stuck at home due to a snow day, Mom would be wandering the house doing chores. With four messy kids, vacuuming was high on her list. In my bookcase headboard and on my nightstand, I had models of rocket ships and the Hindenburg. As Mom inched closer to my room, sweeping the carpet back and forth to create designs that rivaled the look of any professional baseball field, I can remember hiding under the covers and staring at those models. I would imagine the sound from our Kirby transforming into the deafening roar of one of my model’s rocket engines taking flight.

Our dog with stuffed animals and models from when I was young. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

Sucked into a Vacuum Cleaner Rabbit Hole

Searching for a Kirby 516 sucked me down into vacuum cleaner rabbit hole. I was given permission to record machines at thrift stores, dealerships and repair shops. By chance, I found a Miele upright perched high atop an overflowing dumpster outside Sun Valley, Idaho. It’s only issue was a clogged hose from a wedged Lincoln Log. An easy fix. We use it to this day. What’s great about the Miele, from a sound effects standpoint, is that it has a variable speed motor. It is my blue rocket ship, zooming faster and faster with each pass along the floor until it slows again for a gentle landing.

Vacuum cleaners in a dumpster outside Sun Valley, Idaho. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Loads and loads of vacuum cleaners in a dumpster outside Sun Valley, Idaho. Our Miele is on top. There’s a Miele canister vac in there as well. Getting to it would have taken too much digging. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

I searched Facebook Marketplace and found a guy looking to sell an early 1900s Jaeger Jr. plunger action pump handle vacuum. I explained up front that I only wanted to record it. He was quite receptive. With a little pushing and shoving, I was able to produce sounds reminiscent of deep-breathing aliens.

I recored and purchased a Hoover Constellation 858 (featured on the library’s cover). This globe-shaped levitating hovercraft of a vintage vacuum is a classic example of Atomic Age design. They sound as awesome as they look.

Sadly, I didn’t find a Kirby model 516 to record. Instead, I found a Kirby Dual Sanitronic 80 (1967-1970) at a Kirby dealership in Boise, Idaho. The proprietor was more than happy to let me record after explaining my strange attraction to her machines. To my ears, this model’s motor sounds just like the 516. It could quite possibly be the same motor design. 

For many years, my wife and I kept the old Kirby 516 that had been passed down to me. It finally gave up the ghost somewhere between Wyoming and South Carolina. I don’t miss cleaning its bag, but I do miss that sound. Now, listening to it over and over, I am transported back to my childhood, waiting for Mom to switch off the Kirby so us kids can watch cartoons on a Saturday morning. 

Behind the Scenes

• See the Kirby model 516 and other classic Kirby models at their page here.

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