Dirt Devil Broomy 750 UK (Royal).

[dyson89]

Hi everyone.

I recently gained a Broomy for my collection. I've never used one before so didn't know what to expect but sadly it's not very good. Mainly because of the rear wheels!! They are so wobberly, the axels have been worn very thin and as a result the soleplate doesn't stick flat to the carpet.

Has anyone else suffered this? I feel it may be more of a static exhibit than a usable model. The pics may help explain my problem.

Enjoy the pics...

 

[parwaz786]

Cool! nice one there.
I seen one for £2 at a carbon sale. working but with a missing soleplate and brush. I got a Dyson DC04 instead for £5

 

[spiraclean]

For smaller homes, or as a second vacuum, I always thought these were rather good. At the time Royal had their own UK subsidiary operating out of Milton Keynes, and were pushing the DD brand in a big way. The Handy and Eclipse proved popular, the Broomy and Can Vac less so. Never saw the Broomy in any of the major retailers, only in smaller stores and a couple of home shopping catalogues.

You can rotate the brush roll end caps on these (a la Kirby) to compensate for bristle wear or provide more aggressive agitation. The attachments for these use exactly the same hose fitting as the DD Handy. The Handy hose is too short for use on an upright, but you could always dissect one and salvage the connector to make up your own hose.

I seem to recall these went for about £80 new, unfortunately at that price they were never intended to last anywhere near this long, hence the all plastic construction with push-on wheels. Other than bags and perhaps belts, parts availability is practically zero now. A repair to the wheels would probably need a degree of creativity, but I'd be more inclined to wait for another machine to pop up on eBay, and combine the two to make one good example with some spares left over for the future.

My cat has that same scratching mat by the way - loves it!

 

[sebo_fan]

I always wanted one, but the closest I got to was the original Room Mate upright electric sweeper.

There's nothing stopping you from contacting any number of EBAY sellers in the U.S, or perhaps a member from here could get you spare parts.

 

[human]

I've got an accessory kit for one of those that fits my Royal Prince model 501 hand vac. It looks as if the Broomy is descended from that venerable handheld line.

 

[whirlpolf]

I just love them

Actually I have two of them (one with a single-row brush and the older logo bag pattern), the other one with a double-row brush and the newer pattern.
I LOVE these babies to pieces, my little red eager mini-Kirby dwarfs.
Fortunately I could get hold of a stack of over 50 bags for them, so I will be in for some more years to come.

There's never been a more lightweight upright and an easier the-witch-can-fix-it-all instant vac than this one.
They come second rank in my list of "keepers", just a small bit behind the monstrous Kirbys, the Vortech Force space hog and the industrial ones. Pop out, wheeeeeeeing the neighborhood down. done ;-)
The brush action is better than on many current fullsize comparisons (at least what I could find).

I love them, a shame they don't make them anymore.
Anyone able to get hold of one of these, for God's sake, keep it.

 

[whirlpolf]

PS.: Concerning the name "Dirt-Devil"....

Have to add this:

THESE little buggers (along with the strap-on carry vac and the fully fledged upright with front light)
the Dirt-Devils back THEN have always been giving me a satisfied smile, but to my utter dismay, the current ones (all canister type, all wannabe pliable paper wannabe-but-can-never-reach so called "cyclone") vacuums are a nasty excuse for shattering plastic junk over the planet.
The ones today do not even give me a frown on my face, they even help to feel ashamed to be interested in vacuums at all.
Dirt-Devil has dropped dramatically in terms of quality or thoughtfulness, there has never been a worse decay in company manners to me than this.

Grab the 80's machines as long as you can, shred all nowaday's machines as many as you can.
(My two cents). How can a corporation start at "good for a good price" (cheap back then even though) and end up "bad for anyone, cheating anyone, stealing materials from earth, never caring about "bad for anyone customers" (and still continue that way) producing stuff that is insanely bad and useless from the very first day of purchase.

Shame on Dirt Devil corp., blessed be the little bagged upright.

 

[human]

Same name, different company

I think it's safe to say that Dirt Devil's decline is directly related to sale of its parent company, Royal, to TTI. The company really just exists now in name only. Too many good, old line companies get bought out these days just so the new owners can give a good name to their junk products.