A Lewyt by any other name is a Shetland

[dysonman1]

Just because a vacuum is vintage, and it was made in the USA back in the 'good old days' doesn't mean the machine was any good.

The SCM/Shetland company got hold of the Lewyt after Lewyt went out of business because of the problems from the "Zapper" big wheel canisters. They kept cheapening the design until there was no where left to go.

This Shetland/Lewyt sold for $29.99 in 1968. The motor was the cheapest they could make it, with a plastic fan shroud and fan, sleeve bearings, and a very tiny commutator on the armature. Motor failure was at an all time high, with most of these examples not surviving more than a couple of years (the first 'sharks').

Still, they were light in weight and had a cord rewinder. All the plastic feels very cheap. I'm lucky to have this example in my home collection. I don't think it was used more than 3 or 4 times.

 

[dysonman1]

Plastic fan case, with a plastic fan underneath. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

 

[dysonman1]

Not a bad looking machine, with its tool garden and all metal construction.

 

[dysonman1]

The logo was a lady with one leg up in the air, vacuuming.

 

[dysonman1]

The tool garden of cheap plastic tools.

 

[dysonman1]

The famous Lewyt "Power Dial" which controlled the suction.

 

[completenutt]

Super interesting, as usual!!

I recognized the dial right away!

 

[broomvac]

Neat! I'll bet it sounds different with all of those plastic (nylon?) motor components. Also, no pre motor filter?

 

[compactc9guy]

How about changing  the motor case to a metal one maybe adding a motor filter .Neat machine 

 

[huskyvacs]

Damn, when I first started collecting I seen one that looked like that on eBay and it was green with kind of a floral pattern or some such. It was like $35 or $45 with shipping and fully complete with extra bags. I had no idea what it was or that they were so special, so I scrolled right on by it.

 

[hygiene903]

Shetland Lewyt

Don't think I ever seen one in person, but I remember seeing them in Spiegel's and Alden's catalogs back in the day.
Jeff

 

[eurekaprince]

Back in the 1960’s when I saw these cleaners for the first time, I remember thinking how similar they looked to Eureka Princess canisters at the time. Someone recently posted an advertisement or dealer spec sheet showing the full line up of these Shetland Lewyt vacuums. The line-up featured various colour schemes (blue, green, light brown) and each design had it’s own “groovy” 1960’s “flower power” decal decorations.

Can’t remember exactly, but I think in Canada these were sold in hardware stores and discount catalogue stores like Consumers Distributing.

The brown colour of the one posted here reminds me of the exact brown colour of my SCM cartridge electric typewriter of the era.

 

[crazykirbydude]

It's like the Bissell PowerForce of the 60s. Dirt cheap and reasonable performance.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Reminds me of

my Eureka 'Old Iron Side' that I wish I'd kept.In these latter day Lewyts was it bearing failure that caused an early demise, just curious.