Vacuum Cleaners

QUESTION: I don't have allergies, but I want a super-high-filtration "allergy-safe" vacuum cleaner to cut down on dust. How are they different and do the filters require more a powerful, electricity-guzzling motor? ANSWER: True "allergy-safe" vacuum cleaners have more than just a better bag. The best ones have multiple high-efficiency filters and seals to eliminate leaks of allergens (allergy-causing dust) back into your room.

The directors of the delightful 2001 short film "Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers," which showcases the noncutesy melodic possibilities of squeak toys, toothbrushes and vacuum cleaners, successfully build upon the premise in "Sound of Noise. " Spoofing police procedurals while bowing deeply to John Cage, the cheeky Swedish feature pits a music-loathing yet sympathetic detective against a group of anarchist percussionists. In lesser hands the mash-up might be nothing more than an act of cinematic contortion.

About 33,000 Sears canister vacuum cleaners are being recalled because of a potential wiring problem, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Wednesday. The recall involves Sears Kenmore vacuum cleaners sold between Nov. 1, 1986, and May 1 of this year, the agency said. The model numbers are 116.2643581, 116.2643583 and 116.2645082. The company is recalling the machines to check the wiring.

Its prices were low. But in the end, the downtown Los Angeles used-goods shop simply wasn't used enough. That's the reasoning behind the planned closure Friday of the 35-year-old Goodwill Store at 235 S. Broadway. "The downtown store is actually in the lower-to-middle range in terms of volume of business," said Sasha Itzikman, director of marketing for Goodwill Industries of Southern California. Nonetheless, countless downtown loft apartments and business offices have been outfitted with quirky artwork and inexpensive furnishings since the store opened in 1975.

A safety cover for motors of various models of Sears Kenmore vacuum cleaners is being offered by Whirlpool Corp., maker of the machines, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Wednesday. The safety program follows reports of 19 people suffering finger injuries. The hazard occurs if fingers are placed in an opening at the top of the motor, after the canister has been opened and the motor filter removed, while the motor is running, officials said.

Stan Kann, an organist with an affinity for antique vacuum cleaners whose unlikely hobby brought him celebrity as a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and other talk shows, died Monday at St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis of complications from open heart surgery. He was 83. Although Kann was best known in his native St.

From the "Has Joe Biden Heard About This?" file: British politician Neil Kinnock serenaded his colleagues in the House of Commons Wednesday--by playing a vacuum cleaner. The Labor Party leader was promoting a summer concert series in Wales, which will include a piece with the familiar domestic device. The vacuum will be featured at a July 22 family concert, when the Halle Orchestra of Manchester performs Malcolm Arnold's "Grand Grand Overture for Obligato Vacuum Cleaners and Rifles."

A group of companies accused of using heavy-handed and deceptive tactics to sell TriStar vacuum cleaners has agreed to comply with consumer protection laws and to pay civil penalties, Ventura County prosecutors announced Tuesday. Several Orange County-based companies have agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $350,000, while admitting no liability.

Police are seeking a man who may have been shot by the owner of a Fountain Valley store Thursday afternoon after he allegedly stole vacuum cleaners from the store. Fountain Valley Police Detective Dann Bean said the apparent shooting occurred about 4 p.m. Thursday after a man entered the Southwest Sewing & Vacuum Center at 8876 Warner Ave. and took several vacuum cleaners from a window display.

The directors of the delightful 2001 short film "Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers," which showcases the noncutesy melodic possibilities of squeak toys, toothbrushes and vacuum cleaners, successfully build upon the premise in "Sound of Noise. " Spoofing police procedurals while bowing deeply to John Cage, the cheeky Swedish feature pits a music-loathing yet sympathetic detective against a group of anarchist percussionists. In lesser hands the mash-up might be nothing more than an act of cinematic contortion.

Stan Kann, an organist with an affinity for antique vacuum cleaners whose unlikely hobby brought him celebrity as a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and other talk shows, died Monday at St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis of complications from open heart surgery. He was 83. Although Kann was best known in his native St.

Horse racing announcer Kurt Hoover, a regular on HRTV who is also the inter-track television host for Hollywood Park, has hit more than a few daily doubles. But he experienced a different kind of double at Angel Stadium last week -- catching two foul balls from consecutive batters. Hoover was sitting in the club level between home and third during the Angels' 5-3 victory over Oakland on Tuesday night.

LISBON -- Terry Jones giggles as he describes his latest project: Vacuum cleaners, dryers and parking meters singing opera on stage. The Monty Python alumnus and an all-Portuguese cast are rehearsing for the Jan. 12 world premiere in Lisbon of "Evil Machines." Jones co-wrote the libretto and is directing. To make the author's vision real, the singers climb into elaborate costumes, including one that creates a 15-foot-tall vacuum cleaner.

Chicago researchers have identified the fossil of a 110- million-year-old dinosaur with a mouth like the business end of a Hoover vacuum cleaner to feed its voracious appetite for grass, ferns and other low-lying greenery.

A 12-year-old boy who has collected more than 150 vacuum cleaners says he is learning to identify them by sound. "I'm getting pretty good at it," Kyle Krichbaum said. Kyle has been in Hollywood taping a game-show pilot where he had to compete with other contestants blindfolded and identify vacuum models, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday. He said he got his first working model at age 3 and keeps part of his collection in his room.

From the window in his small union hall office, Jim Repace can look out at the red brick, four-story Hoover Co. plant and dream about owning the well-known vacuum cleaner maker. His task is to inspire hundreds of workers that their best strategy to stop a job drain is a risky one: to buy a struggling company, if they can find some financial help. They hope to form an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, now that new owner Whirlpool Corp. is selling the nearly 100-year-old Hoover.

Mobile car washers pollute residential areas not only by dumping dirty water into storm drains ("Polishing Off the Competition," Oct. 28), thus violating the federal Water Quality Act, but they also pollute air and ear by running diesel-powered generators for high pressure water hoses, emitting high decibels with industrial vacuum cleaners, and I have even observed the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers to dry cars. If you have neighbors who have their several cars "detailed" once a week, it can be quite a nuisance.

The Ventura County district attorney's office and the state attorney general's office are pursuing a complaint alleging fraudulent sales practices by the manufacturer and the Southern California distributors of TriStar vacuum cleaners. TriStar vacuum cleaners are sold through extensive in-home demonstrations for about $2,500. According to Deputy Dist. Atty.

I don't follow baseball nearly as closely as I once did, but every morning I still open the paper and go immediately to the box scores, where I check on my Baltimore Orioles. It's as inveterate as brushing my teeth or grabbing a cup of coffee. To be sure, the Dodgers have hooked me. There's nothing more pleasant than sitting at Chavez Ravine with my son, Nathaniel.

Watching the original "Star Wars" movie as a mathematically inclined 11-year-old, Helen Greiner dreamed of someday creating a robot like the heroic R2-D2. After enduring plenty of lean years chasing that elusive vision as a co-founder and chairman of IRobot Corp., Greiner can now boast a product that whirs and chirps much like the character she to this day calls her "personal hero." The Roomba vacuum cleaner may be incapable of fixing an X-wing fighter like Luke Skywalker's trusty droid, but 1.