AB Electrolux Sells Eureka Division to Chinese Company

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Indeed. There only 4 Eureka products I can think of that were good vacs sold in the last decade: the SmartVac bagged upright, the Mighty Mite III bagged canister, the Quick Up stick vac and the EasyClean handvac with rotating brush. I imagine these four good machines will be discontinued now.

I wonder if this means Sanitaire is doomed too. 🙁
 
Sorry to hear about the Eureka Company. I recently purchased a Model 2033A NOS off of an Ebay sellar. It has the 3.5 amp 2 speed motor, with switch in the handle and I had a nos square end Vibra Groomer I brush roll that I put in it. Runs great and sounds like the Eureka's of old. This even had the headlight. I did have to obviously put a new belt on it, but while it was off, I just let it run for about 15 minutes, as this was at least a 25 year old model that had just sat in the box in an old vacuum store that went out of business and someone bought their stock. Hope some more of them pop up on Ebay.....The sellar did have some 2097's with cordwinder, but I had one already except it did not have a cordwinder.


PR-21
Bud
 
Bud, you are lucky to have found one of those classic Eureka Williams vacs. That's why I hope we can all still depend on Sanitaire to keep these great designs on the market.

I now know how people felt when Kodak went under. The famous American corporations of my childhood are disappearing fast.

How has Germany been able to hold onto their famous brandnames like Miele and BMW and Braun for so long? At least with Miele, I know that the brandname on the product is what it says it is, and not some fake branding used to hide a run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter vac from the Far East.

Rant over. Guess I am becoming a grumpy old fogey. 🙁
 
Oooo....I forgot about the Boss Model 1934!!!! Wow. Like I said, I hope Sanitaire is not being sold to Midea too....because if that division stays as is, we'll still have access to classic Eureka vacs through that division...including a 1934 style basic upright.
 
Tacony has a company called Powr Flite. They have commercial vacuums that are very similar to Sanitaire. In fact, I have been thinking of adding one to my collection. I actually use their F & G style bags as I believe they filter better than standard Eureka F & G bags.

Sincerely,

Bud
PR-21
 
I actually don't know that, but Tom Gasko would. If he reads this post he will probably let us know which plant.


PR-21
Bud
 
Powr-Flite Model PF-70 looks almost identical to the yellow Eureka commercial vac that used to be made just up the road from St. Louis in Bloomington, Illinois. It's even in Eureka's old blue colour!

Tacony should market a domestic household version for the home - because these vacs are so simple, they could put them in the Simplicity line-up.
 
higher end electrolux vacuums

Kind of makes me wonder what the future holds for vacuums such as the Electrolux ultra one series. While these vacuums did not have the eureka brand on them, they were made by the same company, and what about the Beam line of central vacuums? Or was it just the specific Eureka brand models that were sold off, if so, that's not much loss, the current Eureka line up was not very good anyway. What a difference compared to vacuums such as the canned ham that were made years ago. The ultra one vacuums are actually very good canisters, very quiet and powerful. My only pet peeve with them is they use a nonstandard hose end, but an adapter easily solves that problem.
 
Midea will not be taking over Aerus. Aerus and AB Electrolux are two separate companies. The Electrolux canisters made in Hungary like the UltraOne will still be part of the line-up being sold by Electrolux Home Care Appliances of North America.

The good Eureka vacuums that may be on the chopping block with this sale are true remnants of the original Eureka company: the Boss Upright 1934, the SmartVac 4870, the Mighty Mite III canister, the Quick-Up Boss Lite Cordless Stick Vac and the corded EasyClean hand vac with on-board hose. All five of these vacs have received good to excellent marks in Consumer Reports tests over the years.

I guess the Swedes at Electrolux used Eureka to its benefit for 30 years and now see no need for the brandname after tarnishing its reputation with junk plastivacs over the last 10 years. As soon as they closed the building in Bloomington, it was downhill from there.
 
older eureka canisters

In the 1950's, 60's and 70's, Eureka made some awesome canisters. I'm actually not a fan of uprights, love the flexibility of canister vacuums, the vacuum museum in St. James Missouri has some of Eureka's best models. I love the motor sound of the canned ham vibrabeat, while the sound of the vibrabeat nozzle is annoying, and I don't think it cleans much, the motor in that canister, I think it was made by Ametek has a very pleasant sound. I think Eureka, along with Hoover introduced their first power nozzle canisters in the early 1970's, I can't remember what it's called, but apparently Eureka came out with a very good power nozzle around 1972 that is still used now. Of course, Aerus and Kenmore had power nozzle canisters long before this, but still, Eureka had some really good models around this time. Wonder why Eureka allowed themselves to be purchased in 1974 by Electrolux? I can see why Electrolux wanted to purchase Eureka, from 1968 when they sold their part of the American Electrolux company, now called Aerus to Consolidated foods until 1974 when they bought Eureka, the Swedish Electrolux company really did not have a market at all in the United States. I wonder if the Eureka vacuums changed a lot in the mid 1970's once Eureka bought them. Also wonder what will happen to the Sanitaire line of vacuums, was it sold as well?
 
I get the sense that for about 25 years after AB Electrolux bought Eureka in 1974, most of Eureka's American design and manufacturing team stayed in place with minor management and supervisory changes being made by the European owners. Until the early 1990's when we started seeing more canisters made in Sweden added to the Eureka line-up, there was very little commonality between what Elux sold in Europe and what was sold in North America. Eureka's new vac designs in the 1980's may have reflected some design elements from Europe - with sleeker and lighter canisters (the Express and the Mighty Mite), and sleeker and lighter uprights (the Ultra and the Victory). So it is possible that some of the industrial designers were Swedes or influenced by Electrolux's design team in Sweden.

In the 1990's there was indeed more integration between Bloomington and Stockholm - vac designs were going in both directions. 110-volt Electrolux and Volta canisters were rebranded as Eurekas for sale in North America and 220-volt versions of Eureka uprights were rebadged as Electrolux and sold in Europe.

The death knell for Eureka happened when AB Electrolux re-acquired the rights to use their brandname once again in North America beginning in 2001. With their ability to save money by shrinking the Eureka division and just importing Electroluxes from Europe, the writing was on the wall. Upright manufacturing moved to Juarez Mexico and canisters were being imported from China and Europe. I really don't know how many American jobs were lost when Eureka's Bloomington plant closed. For all I know, those refugees from Bloomington ended up rescued by Tacony and other American companies.

The "Sanitaire by Electrolux" division remains a mystery. It remains to be see
 
No where in the history does it say Eureka was purchased by

Aerus LLC, formerly Electrolux Corp. USA, manufactures vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners and air purifiers. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has over 500 independently owned franchises in the U.S. and Canada. Aerus is the successor to Electrolux USA, the iconic manufacturer of vacuum cleaners. However, the Electrolux name is now used in the U.S. by the Electrolux Group of Sweden, which also manufactures Eureka vacuum cleaners.
Aerus/Electrolux !!!

Electrolux was founded in 1924 by Gustaf Sahlin, a Swedish businessman who emigrated to the United States. Its tank vacuum quickly became an industry standard, and was very popular for many decades.

In 1968, Consolidated Foods Corporation (now known as Sara Lee Corporation) acquired Electrolux.

In 1989, Electrolux Corp. USA created Purelux the first residential under-the-sink water purification system combining ultraviolet (UV) light and activated carbon filtration. Actor Lloyd Bridges was the company's spokesperson.

In 2000, the North American rights to the Electrolux brand name were sold to Electrolux Group of Sweden, which was previously unaffiliated since 1968. The corporation that originally manufactured Electrolux vacuums has been known as Aerus since 2001.
 
Sorry to have to complicate the recent history of the Eureka Company, but indeed I did find an article which states that Aerus moved their assembly to a Eureka-owned factory in El Paso, Texas in 2003.

The move from Bristol, Virginia seems to indeed have involved the signing of a contract between Aerus and AB Electrolux. Yikes! It's enough to make one go cross-eyed!

But I don't think that Midea of China bought the El Paso facility... it was not a strictly Eureka plant. But who knows?

If someone here at Vacuumland who lives in El Paso, Texas could tell us what vacuums are coming out of that plant now, that would be helpful! :-)

Click the link below for the full article:



http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...d-distribution-to-el-paso-texas-74664747.html
 
european electrolux models

Kind of makes me wonder what the european designed electrolux models were like in the 1970's and 1980's. I would think they couldn't just import those models and sell them as Eureka models since the voltage is different, unless they just used a different motor that ran at the appropriate voltage. I could be wrong, but I think Tacony is actually making one of Aerus's vacuum models now, not sure which one.
 
Hi Mike,

Indeed, that is what AB Electrolux did: they needed to install 110-volt motors and North American wiring and plugs on their European models. I imagine the vacs were shipped to Eureka's Bloomington / Kitchener factories without the electrical components (and with the Eureka branding on the vac), and the North American plant would install the correct motor and wiring and plug.

I'll give you one example I remember from Canada: In 1980, AB Electrolux bought the German vacmaker Progress. Not long after that, the Canadian department store Eaton's started selling an "Eaton Viking" Power Team vacuum made at Eureka's factory in Kitchener, Ontario which married a Progress canister from Germany with a Eureka Roto-Matic Power Nozzle from North America. We also saw some Progress stick vacs relabelled as Eureka in Canada.

Here is a link to a webpage that shows the Progress Model 93 that was brought in to North America by the Eureka Division of AB Electrolux. The photo shows a German power nozzle, but Eureka changed that to their tried-and-true Roto-Matic nozzle when they packaged them for sale in the Eaton's stores.

I seem to remember that the colour was changed from green to a nice cream/beige colour for the Canadian version.



http://staubsauger-progress.de/html/progress_93.html
 
I know several people who loved that 'canned ham' cl

My late brother had one, aswell as a Hamilton Beach canister, a few Eurekas (they kept wearing out), and a Hoover Convertible.  I had an aunt (now deceased) who had a "Boss".. didn't last long, went back to a Hoover....


  Just saying....


 a lot of thses companies get sold, some improved, some dissolved,  etc..


  To quote Sonny and Cher, "History has turned a page, uhuh".


  I'm very fortunate to say that Tom Anderson and I were treated very royally, (no pun intended) here......

gottahaveahoove++12-31-2016-14-15-40.jpg
 

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