New toy! Hoover WindTunnel Supreme upright

[evolutionclean1]

Today's thrift find! She was a project, took a few hours to get everything cleaned up and looking better. Had to grease the brush roll bearings, luckily they're the same style I've seen in Convertibles. Got everything put back together, and rigged up a temporary belt and bag, good lord I had a similar one before and I don't remember it being so loud! It may have been, and this one sounds very healthy, but clearly Hoover was focused on performance over noise level. Going to pick up the proper belt and bags Monday, and an exhaust filter. Before and after pictures to follow

Was this one a Maytag build? I know the self propelled models were for awhile, as were the twin chamber bagless machines. It's made in Mexico and the label says Hoover... Kinda curious now

Very excited to have another one in the collection! Even breaking the sound barrier I love how aggressive these are.

 

[panasonicvac]

Before my step aunt married my uncle, she had one of these before that was bought brand new somewhere in early 2009 from Sears. It would've been NOS as Hoover no longer made that particular model at the time. I remember it being my first ever experience with a Supreme. Impressions were that it was easy to assemble, it had a TON of power through the hose, the cloth bag it came with filtered extremely well, filter bag check indicator worked well, I did liked the carry handles, it had a pretty bright headlight, the attachments were alright, the manual height adjuster was a plus, and I really did liked that the switch was on the handle. The drawbacks was it's rather too big or bulky for my taste, at least for her condo I thought it was. The handle felt awkward on my palm. I wasn't a fan of the tracks it was grooming on the carpet, I remember making several passes to go over some sand it was struggling to pick up. Because it has a stretch hose, the turbo brush and the attachments were difficult to use. And the dirt sensor lights although it was cool to look at first, it later became annoying to stare at not to mention they were too bright for me. On a side note I also remember when we changed the first bag out and started using the UltraCare type Y paper bags, they leaked out a TON of dust. So finally those complaints of mine convinced her to return it and eventually got a machine that was much more suitable for her place. While I'm glad she replaced it, at the same time I wish she could've kept it if I would've known eventually she'd marry my uncle and moved into a house that the Windtunnel would've been much better to use on than her other vacuum because of the manual height adjuster the Hoover had. Their carpets were like thick shag pile, both her and my uncle's Panasonics had automatic height adjusters which not only were harder to push but also they burn through belts pretty quickly. Despite all of that, I thought it was a good vacuum. Ever since then I've been after one for my collection. Loved the blue translucent colors, very simple to use and repair, the sound of the motor was like music to my ears, it was just overall such a pleasant looking machine even though I could care less about the Hoovers that Maytag had produced. Anyways, to find out when your Hoover was made, look at the first four digits of your serial code. That should tell you the month and the year it was assembled at.

 

[huskyvacs]

Wow it must be transparent Hoover month everyone seems to be finding these. Rare model, take care of it!


And yes they are supposed to be loud. It's funny when Hoover brought these back for the anniversary people complained how loud it was, when it was the exact same design as the very first model from 1998. They put bigger motors and purposely made them loud because the advertising gimmick that programmed vacuum buyers that louder = better. That's also the same ethos James Dyson copied too. This is what led to the EU noise decibel limits on new vacuum cleaners for health & safety reasons.

 

[evolutionclean1]

That's awesome

I remember hearing that Dirt Devil got in trouble too for making some of theirs loud too. I don't mind it too terribly much, but compared to the Twin Energy, damn

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah some of Dirt Devil's more high end models they tried to make "super power" vacs and that equated to more noise. I think that was around the bagless era when they were trying to compete with Hoover.

 

[evolutionclean1]

I should do a

Decibel reading on my favorite machines, now I'm curious. My hot rod Sanitaire clocked in at 88 dB with a freshly shaken out bag, not surprised though. The original motor was a 3.5 amp and I swapped it for a 7 or 7.5
The Rainbow D3C was 63 dB, not surprised on that either. Kenmore Magic Blue was 55dB at full power, which still stuns me with the amount of suction it pulls.

I'd wager the WindTunnel probably sits in the 80 range, which isn't the most pleasant for long cleans but if a machine sounds good the noise level doesn't bother me a whole lot

 

[evolutionclean1]

She is complete!

Aside from a missing crevice tool but that's a trifle. Running much quieter and softer with the proper exhaust filter in place. Honestly might be a bit quieter than my fiance's new self propelled model.... I love it! Very happy to have given it a home

 

[huskyvacs]

Looks good!

 

[royalfan103]

Can I see the Model Sticker on it please?

I can Identify when it was made by the Serial Number. It's definitely an Uncommon Model around the time when Hoover made some of their vacs Transparent. Owner of 4 Windtunnels, btw.