1986 toshiba vj-350

[tommymilan]

I've found this marvellous cleaner from about 1986!

 

[tommymilan]

another view

 

[ian88]

Heh, I love early Japanese vacuums so naturally I think this is a great find.

Interesting i notice a lot of japanese designs from the same era look the same, have similar colour schemes..they're always red with black trim, with white hose/tools..or a variation on that..i've seen national-panasonics like this anyway.

Ian :]

 

[tommymilan]

This vacuum cleaner has many interesting features: here's how it splits into two parts!

 

[tommymilan]

and here's a picture f dirt container and filtering unit

 

[tommymilan]

here's how you remove from the bottom the filter assembly

 

[tommymilan]

here's the filter assembly opening

 

[tommymilan]

here's the filter assembly open. it is composed by a nylon wire screen, a plyurethane foam filter, a microfilter like the ones used on cars.

 

[tommymilan]

here are the two halfs

 

[tommymilan]

here's the powerbrush: it's one of the best built I've ever seen...the brushroll is made by two rows of soft bristles and two beating bars, there's a switch for stopping the turbine and opening the airstream, a brush strip behind the brushroll, and four rubber wheels for bare floor cleaning.
Believe me it works great!

 

[tommymilan]

the bottom

 

[tommymilan]

A lot of buttons!!!!!

there are a lot f buttons on the machine. I don't have the owner's manual but trying again and again I've undertood this: the button on the front pushes dust and dirt away from the filter down in the dirt compartment; the button on the top, between the two handles splits the machine into two parts, motor/cord winder and dirt compartment/filtration system; the button on the left of the handleoperates only when you have the front part separated from motor unit.It releases the bottom cover for emptying the dirt compartment.
On the rear bottom of machine there's a lever that operates the cord winder.

 

[tommymilan]

It works!!!

Well, when I took this vacuum cleaner home, the filter assembly was completely full of dust, and bag compartment full too, but suction was great! I removed it, and washed carefully every sigle part of the filter: suction is incredible now! Another interesting thing is that I opened the motor compartment to check if everything was ok: the motor is wrapped in polyurethane foam and extremely clean...this means that the filters have done their job!
On/off switch is only at the end of flexible hose!
Toshiba doesn't seem to produce vacuum cleaners anymore and I really don't know where I could ever find any kind of part for this machine, though I remember that these very hard to find vacuums have been sold for at least ten years in italy in the eighties.
tommy

 

[petek]

Nice little vac..sort of reminds me of the Sanyos. Toshiba put out some good stuff in the 70's and 80's, good quality too, but they more or less got out of the small appliance business except for televisions nowadays.

 

[ian88]

The cleaner splitting apart seems to be quite common of japanese vaccums of that era also.

random fact: toshiba made the first japanese vacuum cleaner, back then they were called Shibaura Engineering Works.

Ian

 

[tommymilan]

wow! thank you for the information, I've never taken much care of japanise vacuum cleaners,but I like this one;-)

 

[ian88]

I will find the page on the "mitsubishi huujin" it's a similar beast, was apparently made famous in Japan as it was used to clean the Sumo rings after the big fights on TV. It also uses the "split in half" design, although in my opinion (whilst I still love the toshiba lol)its a more handsome machine.

Ian



http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/heritage/contents/huzin/page_1.html

 

[funvacfan]

The Toshiba sure looks like the Sanyo I have (rebranded Brother).

Ian:

I love those Mitsubishi vacs! Any Japanese members on the forums?

Guy

 

[74simon]

Japanese vacuums

There's a great ad for a 1971 National vacuum on Youtube - if you haven't seen it yet, you haven't lived!