A great new (old!) find...

[vintagehoover]

Here's my latest find, a 1923-26 Model 541 from eBay. Saw this picture and thought it looked very battered, but worth saving. The motor hood looked thick with rust, and I imagined hours spend sanding it down and respraying it, etc...

 

[vintagehoover]

however...

...turns out, the blurry picture was misleading. It wasn't rust, it was just a nice, thick layer of century-old dust!

 

[vintagehoover]

A few minutes with a Miele and a duster...

...and we get this:

 

[vintagehoover]

It's in good working order, too, although the brushroll is quite worn; see video link:

 

[vintagehoover]

The bag:

I thought from the picture it might be a 160 bag, but turns out it's the same design as the 375 Junior, with the modern 'The Hoover' font, etc...only ever seen this design once before...it's quite faded, but in great condition, no holes or anything...

 

[vintagehoover]

Not bad for 81-84 years old!!

It's now the oldest cleaner in my collection, and the second ever Hoover cleaner to be sold in the UK. I only have 2 more pre-war machines to find now, the 105 and the 575...I'm not counting the 961 or 972, since that'll never happen! It's worth every penny I paid for it, and I think it would have gone for a lot more if the seller had spent 5 minutes with a duster wiping it off, and taking a clearer picture! My good luck, I suppose...

 

[ian88]

Ah I see you've gone for the "Ian's bedroom" look with your floor (damn 70s house hasn't got floorboards)

luckily now i've got some lovely 1980s office esque carpet tiles

 

[vintagehoover]

lol, I ripped the carpet up over a year ago, when my parents promised I could have laminate...looks awful, and I'm still waiting :S

 

[myhooverco]

Congrats on your Hoover find! The 541 was Hoover's first die cast base and they really were pioneers in the field of die casting rather than sand casting. Hoover was able to sell thousands upon thousands of the 541 at a lower cost to the consumer. I really like the look of the bag!

--Tom

 

[vintagehoover]

Thanks, Tom!

Here's a better view of the bag design...

 

[ian88]

A collector of vacuum cleaners, hoover uprights no less, and he wants laminate..

axminster AXMINSTER I say..

 

[vintagehoover]

I like the look of laminate...we have it in a few other rooms in the house. I was planning to have a nice vintage rug in the middle of the room, which would fit perfectly with the Hoovers! Would be more practical, too - no possibility of me staining a carpet with carbon dust, motor oil etc (I never bother with newspaper!). I'm also very clumsy, and vast amounts of food and drink seem to get chucked over my floor!

The downside is the fact that with no carpet to absorb the dust, it ends up all over my surfaces, TV and computer screens etc. And a vast amount seems to end up in my bed, too :S

 

[ian88]

Ah yes, just like my 80s office style carpet tiles match my vacuums, goes well with the Powerplus lol..I'm lucky with my house really, due to it's earthy almost retro colour scheme I don't own a single vacuum that doesn't match it even the garish 70s hoovers fit perfectly.

And yeah, my room tends to make a lot of dust too lol..ah well gives me an excuse to use my vacs ;p

do you often use any of yours mate? for me using them is part of the hobby lol.

 

[vintagehoover]

Yeah, use mine all the time! Usually put a junior/senior-type paper bag inside the cloth bags to protect them, since replacements are no longer 'obtainable from your Hoover Dealer at a very reasonable cost'!! And ones with their original plugs have to be run using socket-adaptors. They all do a great job, though, especially the 800 and 825 - at least as well as the later Seniors.

It's part of the hobby for me, too!

 

[ian88]

Alan Partridge: "i'm convinced...he's my best friend ever.." lol seriously got msn or something?

 

[vintagehoover]

Finally...

...got the rest of the encrusted dust off the top of the motor...

 

[arh1953]

Wow, what a super vacuum!

Here is a 1922 model shot from a National Geographic.

 

[vintagehoover]

For direct comparison; before and after!

I guess the 541 isn't that big a deal in the US (unless you have the astonishing good luck to find one with it's original bag, like Mr. Lester!). However, they're much rarer over here - I'm delighted to finally have one in my collection!

 

[sfovacman]

Bag design

The bag with your 541 was the design used on the Hoover Model 25 and the Model 150 although I believe their bags were black with red lettering. We had a Model 25, which my parents bought in 1937.

Jim K.

 

[eluxomarty]

Jack

Your vacuum is absolutely beautiful! What did you use to shine the motor cover? Congratulations on your latest aquisition!

Marty

 

[hygiene903]

Congratulations Jack!!

That's one beautiful 541. I just got one myself about a month ago. But on mine either the motor has been switched out or it has a special cap for a headlight. Would much rather have the original like yours. Even your replacement bag is nicer--you have a genuine HOOVER replacement, where mine is just a generic. I trust yours runs better than mine, too. Mine just doesn't seem up to speed.
I also agree with you and Ian--part of the fun of this hobby is actually running the vacuums. Actually, I think it's the best part of the hobby!!
Happy Hoovering,
Jeff

 

[vintagehoover]

Marty - The shine was really a consequence of my attempts to remove the big dirt-patch from the top of the motor (can be seen in the earlier pictures) - I think it was made up of motor oil and dust, probably baked on with motor heat! I used WD40 and white spirit, then some ordinary furniture polish once the stain had gone. Took about 10 mins to remove it all!

Jeff - It seems to run fine, although the brushes are quite worn, and aren't really in much contact with the floor. Your motor cap with a headlamp sounds quite interesting, I'd love to see a picture. I know these were available as aftermarket accessories, and were often fitted to Hoover Specials which started life as non-headlamp models. You never know, it might be quite a rare find! Certainly keep the lamp-cap if you do decide to replace it with an original, I wouldn't have thought there'd be many 541 lamp-caps around.

 

[lux1521]

Lamp-cap and Oil Filler

A Hoover 541 with a lamp cap sounds especialy intersting due to the fact that they would have to work around the oil filler on the top of the motor. It must be a very hard to find thing and I have never seen one. The lamp-caps for models like the 725 are hard enough to find, can't imagine how rare one for a 541 is.

 

[hygiene903]

Hoover 541

You guys have a point, maybe the headlight cap is something to hang on to. And with this cap, the light appears to be built in, rather than added on. And the bulb has a screw-in base, rather than the usual bayonet style. And there is a hole right in the top center for oil. I do still have suspicions, that the motor may have been switched out at one point. I'll find out more Saturday, as Tom Anderson will be having a look at it.
And Jack, I know what you mean about the brushes, but believe it or not, yours has much more bristle left than mine!!
Jeff

 

[vintagehoover]

New! Improved!

MUCH better video, done this afternoon...

 

[arh1953]

What a neat Hoover! It sounds great for a little old lady!