Bought a Fantom - don't know why

[justjunque]

Hey all.

No pictures yet, because it's pretty dirty.
But I bought a Fantom Thunder off of Craigslist. And I'm not sure why.

I don't have any interest in vacuums this new.
I have no interest in bagless vacuums.
I honestly don't expect to ever use it.

It has some wear and tear, and, like I said, it's pretty dirty.
But it seems to be pretty complete.
I don't know what all it's supposed to have with it, but it has a floor tool, a rectangular dusting brush, the HEPA filter housing, what appears to be an extra hose with a crevice tool attached to it.
It even has the owner's manual with a bunch of inserts. The warranty card, and several other pieces of paperwork that I haven't really looked at yet.

I think the only reason I bought it was because I've seen on here that they're getting harder to find.
They have sort of a cult following. And they're sort of a future collectible.
I don't expect to live long enough to see it become some sort of valuable collectors item.
It was a novelty, impulse buy basically.
And for only $20, I figured it's not like I was breaking the bank.

If I ever get motivated to clean it up, I'll post some pictures.
Or, if anyone who knows and likes these has any questions about it, I'll try to check it and provide answers.

Btw: Man, these things are heavy!
Carrying it down to the basement, it makes my Convertible feel like a stick vac!

Barry

 

[broomvac]

Some love them, most don't. I'm one of the ones who does.

If you have owned, or even used, a Dyson upright, you will see plenty of Dyson design language in Fantoms. They are like prehistoric Dysons. I find this very interesting. The vacuums just have that early cyclonic revolution feel about them.

Fantoms seem reasonably valuable, even today. Watch Ebay and you will see that most Fantoms sell north of $100, even when they are beat.

 

[justjunque]

One picture

Here's this, in case this tells you anything interesting.

Barry

 

[gj3476]

Your Fantom Thunder was made in April 1996, 17th week of that year.

 

[rivstg1]

Barry, your title cracked me up and drew me in to read your post! Ha

 

[justjunque]

Kelton:
Thanks. I like that!
It's just really how I feel. We have limited space, so I don't know why I bought a fairly large vacuum that I'm not really interested in.

Regarding the vacuum:
Is this an earlier example of the Thunder?
Even though I know nothing about them, a couple of things caught my eye.
The logos are decals as opposed to being printed right onto the plastic.
And most of the Thunders that I've seen have a different manufacturer name.
Is it Fantom Technologies or something like that?
This one is IONA.

Barry

 

[broomvac]

Yes, that one does seem pretty early. It’s one of the earliest I’ve seen, but I haven’t seen many. It has a white bumper and the sticker logos, as you mentioned. It also says “Iona” instead of “Fantom Technologies.” I’ll bet it has a white hose, too.

Does the vacuum have a HEPA filter? Does it say “Thunder” on the bin? If no and no, then it is really early. That would make it a “Fantom Domestic,” the Thunder before it was called the Thunder.

I encourage you to continue giving it a chance. There is a possibility that after you clean it up and use it a few times, you will begin to appreciate it more.

 

[man114]

Fantom Domestic

They had HEPA filters with the domestic as an available option at least as early as late 1993. I convinced my parents to buy it for me as a birthday gift. They imported them through Buffalo and had them in retail stores around that time. I know when Lechmere first started carrying them the HEPA filter domestic came in a plain brown box.

Sears had destinys without the filter slightly before the Fantoms hit the shelves (I can’t really comment on widespread availability at that time our one Sears was and as far as I know still is used for test rollouts of floorplans), they came in a brown box too I actually picked one up during the liquidation in 2001 but fitted it with a HEPA because Sears sold the filter and housing units in store cheaper than just the filter. I actually had spares for quite a while.

For a 12 amp this is pretty early in the run, if it has a Thunder sticker it is usually a paper sticker on the bin. I want to say they switched over in late 1995 to 12 amps but I’d have to dig a few out to try and confirm that. The only real difference is the amperage and power switch outside of that. Should you need you can swap motors as far back as the 9 amp model. Machines all perform pretty much the same

Someone recently had a NOS Thunder motor on eBay which I snagged because it was pretty cheap and they don’t come up too often. I have a few spares from pulls but don’t remember which work and which need new bearings by now. If you properly care for them the motors last just fine.

Here they’re not terribly uncommon and probably sold a disproportionate quantity I still find them in thrift stores and even still garbage picked a Fury this summer.

 

[justjunque]

Hey Erik and broomvac

It does say Thunder on the bin, and it is a sticker.
And it does have a HEPA filter, although the housing is off at the moment, and there's no filter in it.
The hose is light colored, but I don't know that I'd call it white. Unless it's just really dirty.
I'd say it looks looks grey?
Is the crevice tool sort of permanently attached to the hose?
And, if the hose is supposed to stow on the machine somewhere, as it looks like it should, there might be some sort of bracket or something missing.

If nothing else, I'll probably try to clean it up a bit, and take a few pictures.

Barry

 

[man114]

Crevice tool should separate from the extension hose and stow in a bracket on the machine. The hose itself doesn’t stow. Color is not really white white it’s some off color, it’s irrelevant to age, my 9amp unit was light colored, most others have been black, probably just dictated who sold them.

 

[broomvac]

I had always associated the whiteish/grey rubber components with the early ones. However, it is clear to me now that age and color are not perfectly correlated. Thanks for the info.

The vacuum’s main hose stores on the back of the machine, as shown below. The handle wand simply slides inside it. There was an optional extension hose; this one did not store on the machine.

 

[man114]

Liquid caranauba car wax will shine a Fantom up like new. As far as the ABS plastic? It holds up fine as long as it wasn’t bright light with a lot of UV at a high temp.

The Thunder is actually quite durable. Most issues are strict maintenance problems. If you took care of it and it didn’t last 20 years I’d be surprised. I have a lot of these, I’ve worked on them for years, I used to buy them at thrifts or garbage pick them and sell them.

Cleans surprisingly well. The 11 amp domestic is IMHO the best bagless ever made (outside a water filtration like the Rainbow) close second is a Samsung.

Honestly try it and you’ll be surprised, maintain it well and it will last a long time.

 

[ultralux88]

I have a couple of Fantoms in the shameful guilty pleasures section of my collection as well. Both were in nice shape and free though...