Im just really surprised as all

[eureka1998]

Amazing how insanely difficult it is to actually find any of these types of Hoovers. Granted all the bagless systems have their flaws but were these REALLY worse than the also flawed Twin Chamber and Fold Away units? With good maintenance my Grandmothers Fold Away actually lasted her 9 years! I know its not great but a core childhood memory I had was seeing this teal one in a Target when I was like 4 or 5. Want to find one just for that reason alone. We also had a Fold Away in this same color scheme though! Hope to find one of these two some day, U5348 for the Widepath, U5162 for the Fold Away.

 

[panasonicvac]

Yup they were

Another great example of Maytag's terrible engineering team. Not only it'd clog up instantly and be a pain to clean the filter out but also the filter cage has terrible seals where dust would easily escape to plug up the pre motor filter. I'd definitely take a Twin Chamber or a Fold Away over those machines without a doubt.

 

[eureka1998]

panasonicvac

The more I look at it the more I see there's actually no proper seal under the lid where the canister disconnects from. What were they thinking adding no seal. Same with the direct air twin chamber, no seal!!!! But perhaps that gets a pass because it was literally the FIRST EVER Hoover bagless. We had a Hoover FoldAway the same color as the Widepath above. Only problem was the hose would pop out too often.

 

[wstonehockertv]

The bagged Maytag machines are better in every regard. Teal is a nice color.

 

[eureka1998]

In all honesty

I never cared for this machine as a kid. I always liked the soft guard bagged models the best. I only really liked this one variant because of the color. We got the Fold Away back in 2003 which is almost identical. That machine I have a ton of nostalgia for, saw this photo on TikTok. Went with my dad to pick it up from KMart. 22 years ago.....

 

[panasonicvac]

I recently did a video on my green Twin Chamber. Yeah I agree that the lid doesn't provide a proper seal. However, it wasn't Hoover's first bagless machine. They had dust cup models that came before this like the Decade 80 for example, but they're half bagged and half bagless. For being the first full on bagless model, I'd say that honor goes to their central vacs. At least for the uprights, yeah I'd say this was the first. Personally, I'd prefer the green bagged variant of this and use the reusable shakeout bag if I didn't wanted to buy disposable bags.

 

[eureka1998]

Panasonicvac

The bagged version of the twin chamber is the vacuum that launched my interest in vacuums. I wrill remember one night searching all sorts of different vacuum sites (this is like over 20 years ago). Came across a site selling Henry's (so a UK site at the time), a Sanitaire website (thought the blue residential models seemed pretty cool), came across a page for a rare maxhine called a Eureka Oxygen (also known as an Electrolux Aptitude), then finally Hoovers page. And this was the one I thought was the absolute coolest.

 

[panasonicvac]

I wouldn't mind owning the green bagged version if I had the space. I did had a blue one before but I sold it due to lack of space, however I'm after the blue Twin Chamber version. The one that I'd really love to find would be the black Turbopower 4500.

 

[huskyvacs]

A lot of these never sold in large amounts and what did got used, abused, and pitched in the bin when the local vacuum shop would refuse to fix it.

I have a metallic blue Twin Chamber myself, but it needs a very big restoration. FedEx smashed it up in shipping and busted the entire handle off down to the upper part of the vacuum. It also has a couple busted parts around the bag chamber system that need to be replaced.

 

[eureka1998]

huskyvacs

Seems like Maytag Hoover REALLY just did not hold up in the bagless department. Which sucks because before they die out or clog from my understanding, theyre actually fairly DECENT performers.

 

[eureka1998]

Other photos of U5348

Apparently this sold rather far overseas as well.

 

[eureka1998]

IDK if the teal is really that dark, or its just really faded after 22 years.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah they were new to bagless vacuums at the time, everyone was, and they didn't know how it would really perform long term. I think where Dyson was doing cyclonic, Hoover and others was doing direct air vortex chambers, and they probably didn't think or didn't want to add more filters that would restrict airflow. But they really could have used more motor protection filters. Also a lot of it was due to just trying different ideas and gimmicks to see what works and what doesn't, and none of them were expected to last long-term. Like the Hoover Windtunnel V2 and its goofy gear driven quad brushroll anticyclonic brushroll setup.

 

[royalfan103]

There was also a Windtunnel and even a Turbopower variant.

The Windtunnel variant came in Red, Blue, and a silver color similar to the Lowes Exclusive Preferred and Savvy models.

The Turbopower was called the Turbopower 3000. Given the number in the Turbopower range, it was a lower end model. Unfortunatey, we only have a few blurry images of it.

 

[eureka1998]

Id get one.....

For the nostalgia factor. Make it like a Sunday driver, whereas the Shark or something that can take the abuse remain the daily drivers. The Windtunnel and TurboPower variants do look nice.

 

[blackheart]

Similar but not quite a match

Came across this 200 miles away on marketplace

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/963276785950784

 

[wstonehockertv]

Kmart sold that thing back in the day.

 

[eureka1998]

Blackheart

Interestingly I've seen more of those Sprint bagless units despite the fact they have the same flaws design.

 

[eureka1998]

Wstonehockertv

Yup, I think they sold the navy blue color scheme. Hoover used to sell the same vacuum with a different color scheme at particular stores. The blue was sold at Kmart, the aqua was sold at Target, and the red was sold at Walmart. The Fold Aways actually debuted with the same exact color palette, except the blue was sold at Walmart, the red at Target and the aqua at Kmart (went with my dad 22 years ago to buy that one).