Collected a Kenmore Elite 31150!

[stark]

I mainly lurk here and just read but I thought I would share my recent find from Facebook Marketplace. A local woman had posted up 5-6 vacuums that she had gotten from a shut down Sears store. She told me they were returned units and the store couldn’t sell them since they were used... all of them worked and she had a couple Elite uprights and canisters. By the time I messaged her she only had one upright left and I told her I wanted it! I was able to score this Kenmore Elite for......... $30!!!!!!

I haven’t seen much on these Kenmores and there’s only one thread here on them and in that thread everyone is correct on how powerful these are. This has got to be the most powerful (clean air) upright I’ve ever used and the direct drive brushroller is very aggressive and agitation is very very good.

Enjoy the attached photos.

 

[vac-o-matic]

An absolute steal! I love the design. I have what I think is the first model that was direct drive. After I bought it, I found a brand NIB brushroll for it, it's one of my favorite clean air vacuums, a pleasure to use and does a great job.

 

[stark]

vac-o-matic

It’s an absolute beast for a clean air vacuum! My only dislike is that the motor is quite loud but I can overlook that to get 280 air watts of suction.

I know these are also made by Panasonic and it’s basically the American version of Europe’s Panasonic ICON with the same direct drive system.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Nice find! I like it, it reminds me of the Progressive I just got recently, it's just the Elite is the newest update of it.

That's odd they couldn't sell the returned units. My Sears store sells used returns all the time, and I've bought one or two from there. I got a great deal on my Kenmore Progressive canister, the red one. It was selling new for almost $400 and I bought mine for $95 because they kept marking it down. It still had the manual and everything with it except for the box, and they still gave the full warranty.

Does anyone know if there are new Kenmore uprights being made since Panasonic stopped making them? I know Cleva started making the Kenmore canisters about two years ago, and there's a few new canister models from them, but I haven't seen any new uprights. But they are still selling these Elite uprights and canisters, and some others, so could Cleva be making these too, and didn't change them? Or is there just a lot of old stock? It doesn't seem like they're discontinued.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Oh, on second thought I think I found the answer to me question. I see the model number on yours starts with 125, that's not Panasonic's code because their code was 116, so this may in fact be made by Cleva, using Panasonic's design and tooling. So these are still being made after Panasonic stopped production, interesting!

 

[stark]

Very interesting that Panasonic hasn’t made this unit... can anyone here date it?

 

[stark]

Bump to see if anyone can date this. The label is in the photos... Thanks!!

 

[broomvac]

I can’t tell you the year, but I will say that this is Kenmore’s latest upright, but you know that already. A steal, indeed!

I have a Progressive from a few generations back—I believe it’s the same model fan-of-fans has. It’s a Panasonic made unit and has a direct drive brush roll, too. You aren’t wrong when you say these things are mighty powerful!

Congrats on the great deal and thanks for sharing!

 

[suckolux]

Nice Machine

 

[fan-of-fans]

I'm not sure there's any date code on them, if you call Sears they should be able to tell you. It's definitely no earlier than 2016 because that's when Panasonic stopped making. I'd guess it was made in 2018 or 17.

Here's the video for it:


And the manual if you didn't have a copy:
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/user-manuals/11631150311-kenmore-elite-parts-manual