1994 Panasonic MC-5501 Ultra Pro

[hooverman99]

I recently picked this up at a goodwill for 7 dollars that I cleaned up. Its an interesting model of panasonic since I've never seen a Ultra Pro in this color scheme before, you usually seen them in black and yellow and what strange is that it has a reusable bag that ive never seen in any panasonic in my life but it could be aftermarket tho but its interesting.

 

[cam2s]

This would have been geared towards the commercial market. Looks like there is no bare floor switch or metal brush roll. Commercial vacs tend to be no frills and aimed to keep costs down, hence the reusable bag. Does it have a heavy duty three prong cord or a regular two prong? Also curious to see if it has a port to put an attachment hose in the back.
Cameron.

 

[hooverman99]

Its does have a heavy duty three prong cord and it does hose port on the back. There's something I forgot to mention that this came without a bottom cord hook and it looks like it didn't came with one when it was brand new since there no place for it. Its still a downside to it and I wish it came with one.

 

[eurekaprince]

I think the lack of a lower cord hook makes some sense: these commercial vacs tend to have very very long cords and they are thick and heavy too. It's a lot faster and more convenient to loop up these heavy duty cords and hang them on a big hook rather than winding and unwinding them all the time.

 

[huskyvacs]

Nice vacuum!

 

[cam2s]

My versamatic has two cord hooks to wrap it but also had a place to loop up under the handle. Much easier and faster to use it that way.

 

[huskyvacs]

Also the reason why it only has 1 cord hook is because for whatever reason (I don't know how it started) in the commercial industry you learn to wrap the cord in a figure 8 loop and then it stays bundled up that way.

I never learned how to bundle a cord like that, and I hate it because the cord gets knotted up and it makes it have a messed-up memory in the cord and if you put it flat on the floor, it will want to curl up and wad up and get tangled everywhere. I just loop cords in a simple hoop like rolling up a garden hose.

 

[durango159]

That's an older Panasonic. It looks kinda similar to the Jet-Flo uprights. They were good vacs.

The black and yellow Ultra-Pro models came a little later. Many commercial uprights are a single top cord hook. It's annoying for homeowners but convenient for a hotel Housekeeper, commercial building janitor or other. They don't want to stand there winding, they just want to quickly wrap it on their arms and toss it somewhere.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

hooverman99

My 1987 Royal 662 Heavy Duty Commercial upright has a thick 50-foot long cord, but obviously because of its length, the stationary top cord hook does it no favors when it comes to unwinding it and one of these days I am going to convert this to the top handle with the quick-release swiveling cord hook for extra convenience.

~Ben

 

[panasonicvac]

Some of these older Panasonic commercial vacuums did came with cloth shakeout bags.

 

[tolivac]

One should NEVER wrap a cord in a figure 8 fashion-it is hard on the wires and plugs.Plus where it goes into the vacuum.A LOOSELY wound cord on the hooks is better for your cords.NSS and Sanitaire,and Kirby do not recommend figure 8 winds.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah I never advocated for figure 8 looping - it's an absolute mess to unwind it and it is obnoxious.