Collection Photos!

[henrydreyfuss]

Hello everyone! I've acquired some new vacuums over the last couple years, and would love to share some photos with fellow vacuum enthusiasts! I have almost 110 vacuums packed like sardines in a spare bedroom of our house (that badly needs to be remodeled...try to ignore the flooring and walls). This is about 70 percent of my collection, with the others peppering the rest of the house!

Sorry some of these pics are a smidge dark/blurry.

Have a peek!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Hoover Island from the other side of the room....

These Hoover greet you when you walk in!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Loves my Eurekas...

A row of Eurekas with newer Hoovers behind them.

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Hoover Power Drive with little bro Elite.

The last version of the Concept one, complete with attachments! It's a very powerful vacuum (threw a Quadraflex agitator in mine.. which required a bottom plate swap as well). I love my early Elites too! Those things are noisy, and cheaply made, but those basic lightweight models do a fantastic job, and are wonderfully light!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Early Hoovers

My Hoover model 800 (runs beautifully), and my model 150! The 150 is complete with tools, owners manual, and even the receipt! Unfortunately the bag strap on the 150 broke recently, so I need to repair that.

 

[henrydreyfuss]

More of the Eurekas..

From the opposite end. I got the plain white Eureka off ebay new-in-box about 2 years ago!

 

[ohio_tuec]

Love your vacuum collection! I didn't realize the Dimension was the final incarnation of the Concept 1, I thought it was the PowerMax of the early '90's. As for the Elites, well, we know where they stole that design from. Paging Mr. Oreck....

 

[henrydreyfuss]

More of Hoover Island...

The back row. It's not quite arranged how I would like it (the 1060 and 1076 should be next to one another, of course!), but you get the idea. My DC17 I recently mentioned is hanging out in the background (ignore the DC07 dusting brush sitting where the crevice tool normally does). The orange fluff in the dirt cup is fibers of carpet!

I also have the DC16 motorhead. It's the best rechargable hand-vac I've ever used. Great for cleaning out the car!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Ohio_Tuec: Thanks for your comment! The Dimension uprights were actually just gussied-up Elites. That Power drive is different from those, and has a lot of the same features as the Concept one (two handle release pedals, and similar bottom plate and brush setup, for instance). I'm not sure if the motor is the same as the concept motors. Regardless, it incredibly powerful. I got that a couple months ago, and wanted one my entire life. I remember one of my friend's Grandmas had one when I was five years old, and I wanted to try it so badly!

Here are most of my canister vacuums as well. I Have all the tools stored elsewhere, for space reasons ><.

 

[henrydreyfuss]

And the newer Cheapies...

That Kenmore twin-fan is one of the ugliest vacuums I own, but the motor sounds so good I can't part with it! Better than any of my other twin-fans. It pounds plumes of dust out of the carpet!

The Fantom is another vacuum that runs too well to get rid of. These vacuums let so much dirt into the motor (no real pre-motor filter on the dual-cyclone uprights), and most of the Fantoms I come across now sound dry. This one sounds flawless!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Onto my newer vacuums, Panasonics, and Kirbys!

I love Panasonics, especially the early Japanese models! They're so quiet (with a really unique sound), and lightweight. They pull themselves across the floor, and are fun to use! They have great attachments too. Unfortunately my earliest mustard model needs a handle for the bag door. It's just kinda'resting there now. The wacky Dualsweep does a great job, with its generous agitation.

Kirbys line the back row, and I don't feel like I'm doing them justice hidden away back there. Can you identify them all just by the bags and handles??? There's a 880 royal in there too (needs a bag ><).

And of course, there's a Regina Housekeeper in there, to bring the whole group seem a little less awesome.

 

[henrydreyfuss]

And of course, there's a Regina Housekeeper in there, to make the whole group seem a little less awesome**

Sorry! Gotta' double check what I type!

And Finally, we have more Hoovers. These were the Hoover's that didn't make it onto Hoover Island. The Dual-Voltage gray Convertible is a very interesting model!

I got carried away when Hoover first came with the Fusion, and picked one up. It's a flawed vacuum with a poorly designed shroud in the dirt cup and plugs too fast, and easily lets larger dirt into the cyclone. It has a wimpy spongey secondary filter, that lets too much dirt into the motor!

There's a couple vacuums in this row I still need to clean up (the 28 with the orange cord for one).

Thanks for checking out my photos!

 

[vintagehoover]

Corey - that's a really beautiful collection; of course, my eye went straight the Hoovers, and particularly to that shiny Hoover 800! You have some wonderful cleaners there.

Karl - aside from being a lightweight, direct air upright, I can't see many similarities between the Elites and the Oreck. Could you explain further? Surely, David Oreck bought the rights to market a 60's Whirlpool design; he didn't 'invent' anything himself!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Thank you Jack! The 800 is a wonderful vacuum. It's the Only Hoover of that Type that I've gone through and buffed to a shine. You have a gorgeous collection of classic Hoovers yourself!

You do raise an interesting point regarding the comparison between Hoover Elites and Orecks. The Build quality is sadly similar, but thanks to it's much larger fan, more aggressive agitator, and much larger dirt ducts, the Elite cleans absolute circles around the Oreck. Some Elites were overdone in design with hard cases, and attachments (and 12 amp direct air motors...*shudders*). Some were waaay too heavy. The original 5 amp Elites are incredibly powerful, and light n' fun!

Do you have any Hoover Elites Jack?

 

[crevicetool]

Nice machines Corey!

More than that I like to see them displayed so nicely. You have HenryDreyfuss as your Vacuumland name. Was he someone famous?




(runs for cover)
Rick

 

[crevicetool]

BTW, I think the photos are just fine.

 

[vintagehoover]

Hi Corey - the Hoover 800 is my very favourite vacuum cleaner of all time! My primary vacuum-fascinations are the Hoovers made between 1908 and 1938, and I could talk about those for days!

We did have the Elite in the UK for a very short time in 1988-89, badged as the Turbolite. I really can't see why we needed them, because we already had the Turbopower Juniors, which were much better! I guess Hoover saw a limited market niche for a basic, ultra-lightweight upright. There were two models, both identical in appearance, except one came with dusting tools, and one didn't.

I actually have 2 Turbolites, both the same model. Nice cleaners - light n fun, as you say!

Here's a quick video of the nicer of my two Turbolites. The bag was half full of household dirt from ordinary vacuuming when I made the clip!

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[henrydreyfuss]

Haha! Thanks Rick!

Jack that Hoover 800 is beautiful! The bag is stunning! Mine came with the original bag, but it was shredded I have a satisfactory black generic bag instead.

That's cool that the Elite was sold outside of the US! That's a super basic model. Does it have two rows of brushes or just one? Those models in America only had one row, but that second row makes a big difference!

 

[vintagehoover]

Thank you Corey

The bag is one of the rare 'Jubilee Model' bags, made for 1935 only, and fitted to the Junior 370, and Models 450, 800 and 925. The bag was very kindly given to me by my friend Mike King - he knew how much I'd appreciate it!

The UK Turbolites only had one row of bristles, and one beater bar. For this reason, they weren't as good as the broadly similar Turbopower Junior, which was fitted with the wonderful 'Activator' brushroll. The Turbolite was one of Hoover's cheapest, most basic cleaners ever!

 

[vintageroyal611]

Corey

Your Hoovers are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! If my Hoovers ever look that good it will be a miracle! You have all my favorite models on display too: 28, 63(i WILL find one someday), 1060, DAMs etc. Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Thank you Matt for your nice comment! It's not too hard to polish up an old Hoover. Just takes the right cleaning products, and a little elbow grease!

Now Jack is the 'Activator' Brushroll you're referring to the brushroll shutoff switch that's on America's Hoover Innovations? Is that the brushroll with the almost vertical small beater bars? I'm really spotty on my knowledge of newer Hoover cleaner's outside of the US.

I really liked the commercial for the original Hoover 'The One' vacuum cleaner. But I hear those had a lousy typical filtration setup.

 

[joe22]

wow, awesome vac collection.

i have a red Elite that looks like the uk turbolite and it is an excellent vac. the other one has 2 heights and the tools mount with the adapter hooked under the front.

only relation to an oreck is that the dirt goes up the handle.

vac fact, was once told the early elites had a flaw, the switch on the side of the handle would get clogged with dust and they had to replace them. later ones had a sealed off switch. info from local vac guy, he said he replaced dozens of switches on the first elites.

joe

 

[vintagehoover]

The original Agitator was developed in the late 1910s and early 1920s as the most effective way to clean the carpets of the era. It's design was 'tweaked' over the following decades to fit the specs of the machines it was used in, but it remained essentially unaltered until the early 1980s. By then, things had changed; we now had thick, heavy, wall-to-wall carpeting, and something new was required to clean it!

Hoover found the problem with the Agitator on these thicker carpets was that with each stroke, although the brush bristles restored the trodden-down nap, the beater bars smoothed it flat again.

The Activator was developed to have smaller, diagonal strips which gave the desired, gentle beating action, but did not smooth the carpet down. This left the carpet looking more refreshed because it 'reactivated' the pile, hence the 'Activator' name.

Combined with extremely powerful airflow from Hoover's direct-air 'Turbo' motor (a concept they actually patented in 1917!!), the Turbopower and Turbomaster machines were some of Hoover's best-ever carpet cleaners!

 

[vintagehoover]

Oh, and 'The One' was an embarrassing disaster in every way. I spoke to the assistant manager in my local branch of Currys about The One recently; she said 'Every machine we sold came straight back!'

Design and build quality were appalling, and the useless cyclonic system clogged instantly. Customers found the machines overheating and cutting out constantly.

It's one of those cleaners that you look at, and just wonder, 'what the heck were they thinking?!'

What the free flights scandal started, The One finished; the final nail in Hoover's coffin!

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[a007kirbyman]

Corey & collection...

I have only one suggestion Corey...

...move the Kirbys to the forefront where they should be. LOL

Other than that, you have a very nice & vast collection. Those 'coffee can' Hoovers both (yours & Jack's) L@@K in gr8 restored condition.

[[To answer your posed ?: G6D, 2HD w/an original Zipp Brush, 3CB, DS 80, & a S VII or DS 50, I believe.

hagn all

Bill

 

[aeoliandave]

Fantastic Heap O' Sweepers, Corey! and only 22 years old, already.

Boy, I'll say your collection exploded when you got the driver's license...side trips down to Perrysburg, perhaps? *wink*

I really like the carpets you chose. Is that lumpy textured green carpet over linoleum in the grape leaf pattern or is that carpet too?

Dave aka Brushminster Fuller

 

[ohio_tuec]

Hoover Elite vs. Oreck

"You do raise an interesting point regarding the comparison between Hoover Elites and Orecks. The Build quality is sadly similar, but thanks to it's much larger fan, more aggressive agitator, and much larger dirt ducts, the Elite cleans absolute circles around the Oreck."

I will agree, the Elite has more powerful suction than the Oreck, and Hoover really did a copycat with the top-fill direct air system. The roller brush turns faster on the Oreck (6500 RPM). I think the jury is out on who built a more long-lasting machine however. When the Elite first came on the scene as a replacement for the Convertible, I thought it was a piece of junk, I've since added a few to my collection. There are plenty of Orecks out there 20 years plus still going strong, however trying to find an early Elite without a broken fan housing or a dry motor and you're looking for a needle in a haystack. Why is that?

 

[ohio_tuec]

Add to my last

Mr. Oreck DID invent the design for the Oreck, while he was working for Whirlpool. It was originally licensed under Whirlpool and when Whirlpool gave up their vacuum cleaner division, Mr. Oreck purchased it. The first Oreck models were made for him by McDonald Electric.

 

[eurekaprince]

Corey!

That's one beautiful turquoise Eureka Automatic 260 upright! Take good care of it! My childhood buddy was that very machine. So interesting to see how that three-level hood profile began in the early 1960's and was retained all the way through to some of the last Dial-A-Naps...

Question for you: That dual voltage Hoover upright interests me a lot. I am always looking for dual voltage appliances as I may want to move overseas one day. When you say dual voltage, do you mean 110volts and 220 volts? Was this kind of machined designed for the armed forces families moving back and forth from the USA?

Eurekaprince Brian