Dirt Devil Ultra Hand Vac - discontinued?

[fan-of-fans]

I remember not too long ago, Dirt Devil still had the Ultra Hand Vac for sale. It now shows sold out, I'm assuming it has been discontinued. Does anyone know when it ended production? I know it had been in production for quite a long time, I believe it came out sometime in the mid 90s. At one time there was even an attachment set that you could get to use with the onboard hose.

Also it looks like some time ago Dirt Devil discontinued the Classic bagless handvac, which had some styling cues from the older models with the cloth bag.

 

[lesinutah]

If

They could rebrand them as oreck.

 

[wstonehocker96]

It got discontinued because it was one of the loudest vacuums ever.

 

[lesinutah]

Did

You manage to read dirt devil handvac? I'm guessing you automatically think royal metal upright. It's a hand vacuum not an upright. There far from noisy and there one of the best hand vacuums out there.
Thanks for the input but maybe you should look before you leap.

 

[hoover300]

The original Dirt Devil handhelds(103,etc) with the rubber front plug are awesome. I have had many and have never been let down by them. Now the Ultra... I have one of those too. It is very, very loud, has a cheesy little hose on the nozzle, and does not not have a shakeout bag option. The bag on it is way too thin to use on its own, as copious amounts of dust will leak through.
I wish they still made the old, rubber plug style handhelds, but good riddance to the Ultra imo.

 

[panasonicvac]

You are correct, they've ceased production fairly recently. It is possible that you can still find one online that's NOS as of today but I personally wouldn't recommend it (Unless of course you would pick one up for collecting purposes). I agree with a couple of users here, they are very loud. At least if you use it on "high" mode but on "low" mode, it is still a bit noisy for me. Also I agree with one other user here, the outer bag is very thin. I would highly suggest to use the disposable paper bags for these. But overall, these are still to this day the worst hand vacs that I've ever used. Feels cheap, loud, heats up pretty quickly, filtration is horrible, and it performs terribly. Even with a new bag and a new belt on, this thing never impressed me. Especially on cat hair, the central vac with the Rug Rat did a better job than the Ultra from the house that this was filmed at.

 

[lesinutah]

Panasonic vac

You are using the plastic version. There loud because I think a 7 amp motor In a hand vacuum. Kirby uses a 7 amp in there upright vacuum.
You are entitled to your opinion. The dirt devil were good handvacs. The royal prince are the older better quality hand vacuums.
From the 1930's to early 1990's almost every hand vacuum are aluminum body with a shakeout bags. The later hand vacuums are the same vacuum rebranded with okay performance. The royal prince with the baby blue bag is the best looking hand vacuum ever.
Here is my list of the best hand vacuums.
1. Iona/Regina Dirt raider7 amp motor and 7 inch brush. It was released around the time the Indiana Jones raiders of the lost arc. It has a scene from the movie on the box).
2. Riccar squire
3. The shark cordless hand vacuum made 5 years ago
4. The dirt devil made about the same time the shark was made.
The rest are a wash
I think royal made good uprights and dirt devil made good hand vacs. There other conglomerations like a dirt devil on a stick with an extension and a long handle. Those vacuums were worthless.
I have quite a few hand vacuums. Oreck canister hand vacuum and sharks first blue hepa filter shark euro. The black and decker cordless vacuums released 5 years ago that were highly rated. Those are the worst hand vacuums.

 

[panasonicvac]

Les, the Dirt Devil Ultra has 4 amps.

 

[regularrett69]

I think Les is getting confused here. The Ultra hand vac, which came out in July 1996 is VERY loud and unpleasant to use. They were manufactured through 2010 and were discontinued my guess is around 2015. The original Dirt Devil came out in 1984. Not all hand vacs were metal before the 90's. The Dirt Devil Hand Vac? Great vacuums and are a dream to use. Nothing wrong with those. But the Ultra Hand Vac is less than desirable to operate.


 


Thanks, Garrett

 

[lesinutah]

My

Bad the platinum or power force blue version is 7 amp.
The one you have is wonky. It was bad but it. Was loud is it's best feature as it couldn't do anything else good.
The blue one was amazing.
The
At is all.

 

[panasonicvac]

Oh you mean this one, it does look similar to the Ultra. But the Platinum Force is almost in every way better than the Ultra. I had a neighbor that has or had one of these before and it was an awesome hand vac. My only criticism though with these is that the filter would clog up frequently, but luckily they aren't a pain to maintain. I would always use my neighbor's central vac to clean the filter every time that I would use it. I don't get why Dirt Devil quit making the Platinum Force while they were still making the Ultra, I would take one of those ANYDAY over the Ultra.

 

[huskyvacs]

Wasn't Dirt Devil's blue colored uprights and/or hand vacs colored blue to signify commercial use models?

 

[lesinutah]

No

If they were blue it would be a royal branded hand vacuum I believe. If you look at your picture I can see the royal logo.
I don't recall when they stopped but the hand vacuums matched the uprights. I have a 1950s royal with black and red bag with the red and black belt cap. I have more matching models too.
Ya Panasonicvac sorry for the confusion. I do like the platinum force and the ultra needs to be recycled.

 

[human]

I passed on two of those red plastic hand vacs at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. One was complete and priced at $5 and the other was missing the plug to access the belt and was priced at $4. Having two of the (far superior, IMO) metal Royal Prince 501 machines, I just didn't see the need although to be honest, I did briefly consider buying them for their brush rolls.

 

[regularrett69]

Huskyvacs,

No, those blue Dirt Devils aren't for commercial use. There was only one commercial dirt devil made and that was after TTi bought Royal and Dirt Devil in 2002. Also, Les noticed that there's a royal logo on the hand vac. That's normal, every Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner made from 1984 to 2002 has the royal logo on it. They're called the Dirt Devil Pro Series and were made as a vacuum shop exclusive with better specs and features than the normal ones you could buy at stores.

 

[lesinutah]

Explain

The dirt devil ultra and its lack of a sticker.

 

[thevacuumbarn]

I had one of those Dirt Devil Ultra hand vacs that I picked up at a thrift store a while back. Unfortunately, i couldn’t find the right size belt for it anymore, so I wound up getting rid of it. I also have a Dirt Devil Broom Vac with the same problem; in great condition but the belts aren’t available. Trying to sell it as a collectors item now on FaceBook Marketplace, as I figure some collector might want it.
I also liked the old Dirt Devil hand vacs with the rubber caps on the front. They had one that took a disposable bag at some point, though I forget which model it was. I believe it also had a two speed switch like the Ultra, but a quieter motor.

 

[wstonehocker96]

I can remember using a 90's DD handvac at a summer job when I was 18, vacuuming the stairs at a church. It was not the Ultra because the front cap was rubber, allowing one to change the belt. Plus it had a shake-out bag. The fact it was made in the USA implied it was still working after 20 years (the owner told me he owned it since new, which was the early-to-mid 90's according to him). It was way better than the Ultra, which DD should've never invented because it's loud AF.