Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Just learned from another forum that Airway has stopped business and been sold to Vita Mix/Vita Vac.  First, Hoover; now, Airway.

Venson, I'm sure you've already read Mike W.'s excellent reply including history of Vita Mix/Vita Vac and their having contracted with Airway.  I certainly learned a lot from and appreciated Mike's reply.

Very sad news, and the end of yet another great American company.  I loved the Air-Way as, like you said Venson, it remained virtually unchanged over the years and was made with the same quality as it was 50 years ago, not to mention the styling and versatility.  The main problem though, I believe, was that they did not seem to market their machine enough in recent years.  Had they done that I think they could have fared better, but who knows.  I also wish the 2-motor Air-Way upright had been around longer, as in my opinion it seemed way ahead of its time.

Motorhead wrote:

I will totally agree with this statement.  Our local Air-Way store closed in the late 70's, and until I joined this board thought they were already gone.    From what I know and what I have heard from others, Air-Way offered outstanding customer service to those that did find them.   It is sad to see another piece of vacuum history pass.

Yesterday I visited with one of the owners of an antique store here about Airway, and he was stunned to learn Airway had shut down.  His father, assisted by his wife, sold Airways door to door in Amarillo, Texas, in the 1950's.

Hi all,

Since AirWay is the subject, thought that I'd mention that there's an AirWay Dirt Master (Model 38 upright for auction on eBay.  As it is a sale of sorts, I will not include a link but instead include my suggestion that not only the collector's among us take a look see.  You can neither well recommend nor understand the new very well if you've limited knowledge of the old.

Best,

Venson

I saw the Air-Way Dirtmaster on eBay.   A very fascinating machine with a strange design, the motor is mounted forward in the housing, and the fans are belt driven.  I've only seen one in person one time (last summer), and even then I didn't get to run it because it had a broken fan belt.  It looked the same as a standard sewing machine belt (exposed-motor that is) so I bet it wouldn't be too difficult to replace.

What reminded me of this, though, was that I was looking at my full-sized Metro tank today and I noticed it had a similar type of bag to the Air-Way.  I've known this, having had an Air-Way 88 before, but hadn't really thought anything of it until now.  The bags of course are paper.  If that was the original setup and it hasn't been "bojacked" (but for some reason I bet it has and the bags are "open" so to speak), I'm wondering if the full-sized Metro tank bags wouldn't perhaps fit in the Air-Way?  Vita-Vac which acquired the rights to the name (or so I read elsewhere) is going to continue to produce the bags, but even so, would Metro bags work? 
-MH

I think Airway made the Vita Vac. I contacted Vita Mix and they said I could order bags for my Vita Vac vacuum cleaner that are still allergy filtration, made of a different substance not paper bags like the other replacement bags.