We’ve sold a lot of vacuum-cleaning robots over the years. But whatever happened to the old-fashioned canister-style vacuum? We unearthed a cache of them and invited 13-year-old Cobain DeKuyper to try one out. (Because our house needed vacuuming.)

My Dad had explained to me that people used to vacuum their own floors, back before everyone had robots to do it for them. It was hard for me to get my head around that idea: Pushing a vacuum-machine around the room by hand. Wouldn’t it be boring?

The Hoover Legacy is pretty neat-looking, in a retro sort of way. It has a canister with a hose running out of it, which reminded me of steampunk design. I guess old-fashioned devices like this one are the inspiration for that stuff. One thing I noticed about the Legacy was its headlight. It seemed silly! “What’s that for?” I asked. The Woot guys said it was to help me see where I was sweeping, and I said “oh, yeah, I forgot I have to push the thing.”

LISTEN UP TEENAGERS… THE HOOVER CANISTER VACUUM EXPLAINED

1: FOURTEEN-INCH POWER NOZZLE FLOOR BRUSH
2: ALLERGEN FILTRATION (TRAPS DUST MITES, RAGWEED, ETC.)
3: BUILT-IN “HEADLIGHT” TO HELP YOU SEE WHERE YOU’RE CLEANING
4: VARIABLE SPEED TWELVE-AMP MOTOR
5: YOU HAVE TO PUSH IT AROUND YOURSELF

Honestly, I expected it to be heavier. Pushing the thing around the house was not too hard, though. It was lightweight, and the hose and grip swivel 360 degrees, so I didn’t get tangled up like I thought I would. By the time I had vacuumed the whole house, though, I was pretty tired! I’d say it was the equivalent of four full tennis matches. (Editor’s note: Cobain is referring to Wii Tennis.)

Another weird thing is that the Hoover Legacy is non-wireless. I mean: It has a power cord. The cord is pretty long (eighteen feet), so I was able to do almost a whole floor without unplugging it and moving to another outlet. You have to be careful, though, not to run over the power cord with the vacuuming part itself. I guess that’s just another skill that people had to master in the old days, like making candles, or tanning deerhides, or learning all the different values of paper money and coins.

In the end, I’m glad I got a chance to try out the Hoover Legacy Canister Vacuum. I’m pretty sure it even did a better job of sucking up dirt and dust than my family’s fleet of robot sweepers does. On the other hand, it took a lot of my time when I could have been cyberbullying. So there’s a trade-off. Still, it was neat to learn a little bit of history, and it totally explained part of a classic, old-time movie that I never really understood before: The “Mega-Maid” scene from SPACEBALLS.

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