Dirt Devil Quick Power

[starryblues4u]

I have seen this vacuum at walmart and been curious about it. I know a couple fellow collectors have one. I wanted one but wasn't going to spend the $50 for it. I went to goodwill on friday and they had this one for sale. Only $19.99. I couldn't pass it up. There are very few scratches on it and it has all the attachments. The cord is nice and long for a small vac. The suction is amazing! I was shocked at the amount of suction it has. I took the bin off to empty it and when I looked at the hepa filter, it was covered in carpet fuzz. I vacuumed it off and the filter looked to be brand new. I do not think they used this vacuum very much. Maybe once if that. I used to use my eureka enviro vac as a quick vac but this will be it now. Its a lot easier to use and its smaller. I made a quick video of it. Its only like 20 seconds long due to getting a phone call while making it. All in all for $20 it was definitely a good buy.

 

[sebo_fan]

I had this one - it was sold under the "Proaction" label before Argos UK brought out their "Argos Value" tag. It was also sold at UK appliance store Tesco and Woolworths (before they went bust.)

What I hated about this machine are both filters - the top filter can be tricky to take off, the plastic grid holder at the top that keeps the filter in place can't be taken off unless you undo screws whilst the middle cone filter is one of those twist-to-unlock- slatted types that was really messy to clean even before getting to the filter underneath. I did like the folding handle though and I liked the hose on it with the handle.

The Tesco vac (VCU007) was similar and now they have a silver version with a pet hair tool on it. The Proaction model had a handy view window for the drive belt.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Hi can anyone explain the whole Dirt-Devil thing? Like where did they come from and when did they hit the UK? I remember seeing the Dirt Devil broomy and handy, about 1990 or so, and then came the Eclipse and a variety of cylinders. I had little to do with them in my shop but one of my competitors was a Dirt Devil repair agent and he told me that he had done many repairs on the Eclipse as the fans and chambers were shattering like there was no tommorrow. He also sold factory refurbished Dirt Devil cleaners. I know, because I bought an Eclipse via him, just to see what they were like really. I confess that I loved the look of the cleaner, but that was where my love started and finished, as it was noisy, not that powerful on tools, and so very hard to push as there was no height adjuster. It was OK at vacuuming short carpets though and seemed to groom well. It was very flimsy. The ones I saw in the other guys shop had many bits broken off them.

I also remember the Eclipse being changed to a clean fan system before it went off sale. After this, we in the UK never seemed to have proper DD cleaners, just generic machines with the DD name on them.

 

[sebo_fan]

Well I can't be 100% accurate but I'll tell you from the best of my knowledge.

Dirt Devil U.S products appeared in the U.K in the early 1980s comprising of the Handy, Broomy compact upright and the Eclipse with headlight. In the 1990's, ALBA PLC who were/are a large trading company were made up of small appliance brands like Goodmans, Bush and Amstrad (Lord Sugar's company, although they eventually went separate) dealing in audio equipment and small home appliances. ALBA PLC eventually went on with other companies as well as establishing Dirt Devil UK who had nothing to do with the U.S company, but rather just licensed the name. Therefore the products that came out of Dirt Devil UK were Chinese built appliances that were given other brand names or models such as their Electrolux or Hoover based vacuums, cosmetically changed with a few upgrades to the motor etc. This is one reason alone to why Dirt Devil US products never came to the UK under their own name and before TTI fully took over Vax, previous Vax bagless uprights and cylinder vacuums are usually all Dirt Devil U.S vacuums excluding the VX upright/BVC range which was a collaboration between Vax and Bosch.

I was just about to put on a link about a "new" Vacuum that's arrived at ASDA, but it's been here before in the form of a Hoover product and before that a U.S Dirt Devil upright.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Thank you so much for that, Sebo_fan. There is only one thing I want to question about what you have said, and that is the date when Dirt Devil US came to the UK. You mention early 1980's but I don't ever recall seeing them before about 1990 so i assumed it was late 1980's. Also, the Eclipse I got was bought in about 1994 but I do know they'd already been on sale for a couple of years or so.

 

[jmurray01]

I had one of those when it was branded Proaction, and sold by Argos (a retailer in the UK), and after a few months, it went up in flames! The culprit was the wiring where it entered the machine.

I could have saved it now, but that was a few years ago and I wasn't interested in Vacuum Cleaners back then, so out to the bin it went. I can't say I'm all that sad to have seen it go, as the suction never really stayed that high for long, but I suppose if it happened now I would have saved it.

Can't dwell on things though!

Oh, but on a positive note, I did find that folding handle very useful for storing it in the cupboard which had a very low ceiling, and it wasn't that loud either.

 

[rugsucker]

Dirt Devil-Vax

For a short time we had the canister wet/dry Vax as a Dirt Devil Cyclone in US.Red instead of orange.

 

[sebo_fan]

Well, vintagerepairer, I had a little brochure that came with my Handy tool box that I purchased - that was dated 1989 and found it in a charity shop for the mere price of 35p! But I can't say when Dirt Devil U.S products arrived precisely. The one page brochure I have is fairly late dating 1992 and I was still at school then, a school with boarding and at the hostel there was a fairly old Broomy in use by then.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Hi again. Well that more or less fits in with what I was thinking, which was late 1980's. Thanks.