Tech & Biz

Dustbuster: 30th Anniversary of the Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

by Jordan Yerman | July 14, 2009 at 11:08 am

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Happy anniversary, Dustbuster! The ultraportable vacuum cleaner celebrates its 30th anniversary.

As a child, I marvelled at how it was part laser gun, part lightsaber. Occasionally, I'd actually use it to clean up dust. The design-forward elements were lost on me at the time, and I didn't really care that its silhouette evoked the dustpan which it proposed to render obsolete. I just wanted it to have a few glowing buttons. In fact, that feature request is still outstanding.

Also, the catchy name sure beats the original concept: "the electric dustpan". The Dustbuster has earned a spot in the Smithsonian, as well as in the hearts of many a home-cleaner, but I'll always remember it as the thing that could suck up those little flat Lego pieces.

It was rechargeable, wall-mountable, used a high-tech (for the time) design based on a familiar product (the dustpan), had an immediately catchy name and was instantly indispensable for every suburban family in the country.