Electrolux 160 Slimline

[ryry_87]

Been working on this one today. I first owned it in about 2004 but quickly sold it on after discovering it sounded horrific when I powered it up. Sold it to ric and it remained unopened in the same box I sold it in until about 3 months ago when I got it back from him. Took it apart today and not only was the motor seized but the motor compartment was stuffed full of rubbish. Cleaned it up, greased the bearings and now it runs lovely!

It was Electrolux's cheapest cylinder in the early 80's, it's basic but quite powerful and quiet

 

[ryry_87]

1982...

 

[vacbear58]

Slimline

Ryan

Those are nice little cleaners - powerful and surprisingly light.

This is my version

Al

 

[ryry_87]

wow! never seen one like that before. loving the blue. very 80s

 

[turbo500]

I love the slimlines. So powerful to say they're only small and the bags hold a decent amount. Here is my Slimeline 154 from 1988. 


 


 


 


 

 

[jmurray01]

These look like great Vacuum Cleaners! Much more basic than my Tango Z5001.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Although Electrolux had always made basic cleaners with lower wattages, these were the first to have a smaller motor in them. I don't know why, but as Ryry found, the motor casing was always crammed full of rubbish which had escaped the bags and the filters. This made the motor very noisey as the fans were always full of rubbish too. You can easily put an Electrolux 500 motor in one of these, but it isn't as powerful.

It also never ceases to interest me as to how so many vacuum cleaners of all makes still have the silent salesman sticker attached to it, after decades of use.

 

[ryry_87]

all the ones i've ever used have been bloody noisy, however now I've cleaned this one out and got the crap out of the fans and washed the little exhaust filters which were extremely clogged, it runs very quietly. It sounds a lot like the bigger 350/350E models which I always thought were quiet. The motor is an odd one, it has a shaft for a belt and looks identical to a 500 motor. Could never work out why they put these in a cylinder? or didn't put them in a 500. A 700w 500 would have been amazing at the time.

These are essential as basic as it gets. It's basically a motor and a box but I must admit, the Slimline is a damn sight better than the equivalent Hoover Spirit of the time. When I moved out of my mums into a 3-bed house, I had an old Spirit for a while and it was awful. Ever tried vacuuming a 3 bedroom house with thick 80s carpets with a Spirit screaming away?! it took forever, the tools were horrible. Oooooh 650w of power too!

 

[collector2]

This thread reminded me of this brochure that my aunt and uncle sent me years ago so I dug it out and scanned it.

Page 1

 

[collector2]

page 2

 

[collector2]

Page 3

 

[collector2]

Page 4

 

[vintagerepairer]

Ryry the reason the motor has a pully is because it used an existing design of motor, the 500 style from the upright range. This motor was of course much smaller and leaving the pulley on meant the motor did not need to be adapted. I suppose that the upright cleaners did not go above 560 watts because for upright cleaning the power was not needed. You are right that the Slimline Electrolux was far better than the Hoover Spirit, but the Spirit was a later cleaner and appeared a good few years after the Slimline started, although towards the end of the 1980's they were on sale together. It's predecessor, the Hoover Powerglide, was very much on a level playing field with the Electrolux Slimline.

 

[ryry_87]

I love that brochure thanks for posting that one, I've never seen a 180 before. I used to have a 185E which was almost the same but with variable power. That was a great little vacuum.

I did have a another 160 back in 2008 and I managed to put a 1100w Contour motor in it, that was pretty powerful. I suppose the fact that they use upright motors means you can give them a little power boost lol

 

[collector2]

Hey Ryan:

I have another brochure for them too. Its exactly the same flyer but with a brown background instead of red. Dont know what the idea behind that was but it really didnt serve a purpose.

Doug

 

[jmurray01]

"designed to make life easier for the busy housewife" They wouldn't get away with saying that these days I bet. Not that I don't agree with it, but still.

 

[jmurray01]

Maybe I didn't make my last statement clear enough - the reason they wouldn't get away with that these days is because women these days for some reason don't want to be housewives and want to work all the time so they can be "even" with men.

 

[paulc]

The reason Electrolux would not get away with that Ad campaign now is it is out and out sexist!

I also think that the average family needs both parents to work to make ends meet in this economic climate.

Collector 2, thanks for posting the brochure, as I have said before I did own a 410 briefly and thought it was a great wee cleaner.

 

[jmurray01]

While that is true Paul, I know a lot of people who feel they are better keeping the house nice and bringing up kids than passing them off to child minders all the time so they can work.

There are a lot of variables so I can't really judge on any aspect of it.