Anyone recognise these bent ends?

[manchestervacs]

I was in a supplier today and there was a skip full of these (photo attached). 


 


The guys on the counter seem to think they are Electrolux after-market handles that are no longer in demand. The hose end had a thread in that a hose could be wound into. 


 


They could just be stuff from China that was made wrong. 


 


I have shot the MD an email asking what they are and why they are there. I *may* get an answer before the scrap man comes and takes the skip if he is in the country. 


 


If anyone recognises them, do holler. I can maybe save some before they go for scrap if of any use. 

 

[vintagerepairer]

Hello. I am afraid that I do not understand your comment about China, sorry.

These are indeed after-market handles, though not made by Electrolux. These are pattern parts made to thread onto standard diameter hoses and to fit 32mm tubes and tools.

Although they would have been sold as complete hose assemblies, it was also possible to order them as a stand-alone part. This is a very important point to note, because for people running independant repair shops, it was often cheaper and easier to fit a "standard" 32mm bent end onto a customers existing hose, if, for instance, the original bent end did not have the threaded fitment.

However, many cleaners had a bent end with a specific size or fitting, and these could be very expensive to replace. Thus, it was often easier to just put a standard 32mm bent end onto their hose and sell them a 32mm tool kit at the same time.

 

[manchestervacs]

The comment about China referenced where such stuff is manufactured. If something gets made wrong, colour, design, etc. One does not send it back. One puts them in the skip. 

 

[beko1987]

They certainly look like 'bojack' hose ends for certain 1970's & 80's lux cylinders and select upright tool kits.

Could be handy depending on wether their useable. Could you put one under your coat the next time your their and see what the issue was? If their 37.5mm rather than 32mm then obv. there's your problem!

If they just screw onto a chopped hose then they could work for a quick and dirty repair on a machine. I remember snapping the hose handle on my mums Tango back in the day and buying a numatic cuff and bent end to make it work again!

 

[beko1987]

And I agree, must me alot cheaper to get 1/4 the value back on the weighbridge and cough the rest up to experience than send it back!

 

[manchestervacs]

I just heard back from the owner of said items. He said they were for Australian machines similar to Electrolux, and are about twenty years old. I guess he has had them long enough so they are going. 

 

[spiraclean]

Unless manufactured to the wrong spec, these should be a 32mm fit. The black version with sleeved handle is still used by Nilfisk on their commercial GD930 canister (see link below). The reason this machine still uses a Lux style bent end is because it was formerly an Electrolux product, until they sold off their Euroclean division to Nilfisk some years ago.

It doesn't surprise me that there isn't much demand for older Lux spares any more. At this late stage, if the hose is shot, I think most people would call it a day, say they had their money's worth and be thinking of buying a whole new cleaner instead.

Really surprised a Nilfisk dealer hasn't jumped on these, though. For pennies on the pound they would be able to offer a generic alternative that costs their customer less, yet probably yields a higher profit margin for themselves. In fact, being 32mm, they would indeed be compatible with the vast majority of cleaners on the market today. From what I've seen most commercial contracts have no qualms whatsoever about buying and using generic parts. As long as it fits, works and helps them stay under budget, they're happy.

http://www.nilfix.co.uk/special-offer-gd-930-159-p.asp

 

[vintagerepairer]

What that skip shows is that it's not cost effective to hang onto stock. When suppliers to the likes of Qualtex can mass manufacture an entire tool kit for a matter of pence, you get to see why no business is going to be least bit interested obtaining one single part like a bent-end, not when storage, admininstration, and delivery is taken into account.

Wasteful as it technically is, from a financial point of view, that skip is the best place for those bent ends.

 

[beko1987]

I had a massive clearout of bags a few weeks ago for that reason exactly! They cost me sod all, but the space was worth more than obselete bags for machines I've never heard of or heard talked about!

 

[spiraclean]

True. To the guy with the skip, it doesn't matter if they make peanuts sending these items off for scrap, or peanuts selling them on to someone who is able to find a market for them. Peanuts is peanuts either way, but holding onto them any longer is only going to cost money rather than making it.

Back in my retail days we would often find boxes upon boxes of obsolete spares while stocktaking, which had been ordered over-enthusiastically long ago by previous staff members. We knew they were never going to sell anytime soon, and were only taking up valuable space in the warehouse (not to mention the time and staff resources spent on inventory control), so we struck up a deal with a local vac shop owner. He was in a better position to sell such items and would buy them from us at a reduced price. This meant we could at least claw some of the money back, instead of writing off the entire value. Had we hung onto them for five or ten years, even he wouldn't want them and we'd have ended up fully depreciating the entire lot.

After that, I took over responsibility for ordering spares and made it a point to only carry items for cleaners that we sold either currently or recently. Anyone who came in asking for Lux 2000 series bags or Hoover Sensotronic filters, for example, was directed to the aforementioned local vac shop. There was no sense in ordering a full case when we only sold one or two pieces a year at the very most.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Its a pity you couldn't direct us to that vac shop nowadays to buy a Turbopower 2 brushroll, or an early Purepower one, but I bet its long gone now. The parts that are left are what no one wants, and the parts that people want are all gone. I wish they had made more TP2 brushrolls, as there are still a fair few Turbopower 2's out there, and many In the hands of collectors.

 

[kirbyloverdan]

its called planned

OBSOLESCENCE . It how company makes money they cant make parts for old machines for ever . They don't care about collectors its your job to stock up on parts while they are available. Company's would go out of business catering to a few vacuum collectors .

Dan

 

[seamusuk]

Henry, Kerstar, Premier...

Any Commercial vac using a cuff and curved wand arrangement would be easy to fit with one of these. sell em for £1.50 each and they would be cheaper than a cuff- and more practical IMO.....
Seamus

 

[vintagerepairer]

To sell them requires time, and a lot of it too, to use up that amount of bent ends.

 

[manchestervacs]

One of the lads on the counter bagged me a handful before they went. I've got about ten. 


 


If any of you chaps want one, you only need cover the postage. I am happy to pass them on to folk who want one as a one off. 


 


Use the link to shoot me a mail if you want one. 



http://manchestervacs.co.uk/Dyson/index.php?route=information/contact

 

[manchestervacs]

Back in my retail days we would often find boxes upon boxes of obsolete spares while stocktaking, which had been ordered over-enthusiastically long ago by previous staff members. We knew they were never going to sell anytime soon, and were only taking up valuable space in the warehouse (not to mention the time and staff resources spent on inventory control), so we struck up a deal with a local vac shop owner. He was in a better position to sell such items and would buy them from us at a reduced price. This meant we could at least claw some of the money back, instead of writing off the entire value. Had we hung onto them for five or ten years, even he wouldn't want them and we'd have ended up fully depreciating the entire lot. 


 


As Spiraclean says, we get stuff from one of the after-market manufacturers in a similar way. We have a bunch of Kirby flexes that were made in the wrong colour (they are lavender so we use them on Dysons with lavender fittings), we had a load of Oreck brush rolls a while back that were all black instead of with red bristles, and we have a slew of purple Dyson stair tools that are really cheap as I took about 500 of them and made them into a cheap offer. 


 


We have the mechanism to sell odd stuff like that - they don't so easily. 


 


Similarly, we have stuff like Vax filters that are full of dust because nobody comes in a Dyson shop for Vax filters. Why the girl ordered them is anyones guess. 


 


Had these been Dyson-related bent ends, they would have offered them to us before they saw the skip. 


 


I just don't like to walk past a skip full of swag........ 

[this post was last edited: 5/15/2014-16:47]

 

[manchestervacs]

OBSOLESCENCE . It how company makes money they cant make parts for old machines for ever . They don't care about collectors its your job to stock up on parts while they are available. Company's would go out of business catering to a few vacuum collectors.


 


Dan is correct above as well.


 


We were selling armatures for DC01 YDK motors for ages, then suddenly one day without warning they were no longer available. When I asked the question, it turned out there was only us buying them. They ran out - no cause to order more. 


 


I can get them if I buy 1000 of them. For 1000 they will make a production run. But we would sell two or three a week, so that 1000 would take a decade to shift. And on that basis, they are gone. 


 


I don't remember what they cost, but lets say four quid each. Do I want to be the guy who sunk four grand into DC01 armatures that will take a decade to shift? It is simple economics that creates obsolescence. 

 

[vintagerepairer]

"Do I want to be the guy who sunk four grand into DC01 armatures that will take a decade to shift? It is simple economics that creates obsolescence".

This is quite correct. But also, every vacuum cleaner repaired is a lost sale of a new cleaner too. No one apart from the customer (and of course in many cases collectors) wants to be able to keep something going forever.