Electrolux Oxygen canister and upright question

[fan-of-fans]

Does anyone remember an orange colored Electrolux Oxygen upright and power nozzle canister vac line? I can vaguely remember them, somewhere in the mid 2000s but not exactly the year. It seems like they were either sold at Home Depot or Lowes, but I'm thinking more toward Home Depot, because it seems it was about 2004 I saw them, and our Lowes didn't open until 2006, Home Depot came in 2001. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, I've never really seen any of these turn up since then. I know they were made by Eureka and shared some characteristics. They were quite expensive, I think the canister was over $400, and it was also quite small. I don't remember what the upright looked like at all, but both used bags.

 

[eurekaprince]

These were sold at Sears in Canada just after Sweden’s Electrolux bought back the rights to use the brandname again in North America. The first Oxygen upright was actually exported to North America from the Electrolux plant in the UK - it was a British designed cleaner. The second generation Oxygen Ultra upright with automatic cord rewind was made by Eureka in North America or at its Mexican plant - can’t remember. It was actually rated the best upright in Consumer Reports tests when it came out.

The Oxygen canisters were all made in Sweden and exported to North America. They were first branded Eureka by its parent Electrolux company, then the orange ones were branded Electrolux. The first Eureka Oxygen Power Teams had either an Express Power Nozzle or a World Vac Power Nozzle. The orange Electrolux Oxygen’s were married to a newer power nozzle made in North America - I think these nozzles were also made at Electrolux’s Mexican plant in Juarez.

I loved these orange Electrolux canisters because they came with a traditional classic deluxe Eureka upholstery nozzle...the exact same design that first came out on deluxe Eureka canisters in the 1960’s!!!!! Amazing that Eureka was still using the same mold for these upholstery nozzles - 40 years later!!!

 

[lesinutah]

Sold

The cannisters were sold in home depot.

 

[brando_husky]

I have one I bought from Kyle K (myvacsrock) many years back. Have had it ever since. Been my main vacuum for years now. It works great and is very quiet and leaves a pleasant smell.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Attachments

Does the canister have onboard tools? Where do they store?

 

[eurekaprince]

The original Oxygen canister had a t-shaped tool caddy that slid into the body’s parking slot - the slot was designed originally as a “parking” slot for the carpet nozzles in Europe. This little caddy stored a classic Eureka deluxe upholstery nozzle, deluxe classic square dusting brush with horsehair bristles and a crevice tool. Later versions of the Electrolux Oxygen featured a newer electrified hose handle that stored specially designed tools in the underside of the handle.

 

[johnsmith96]

I have the electrolux oxygen 3 upright. It was an expensive vac of it's time. Around 600$ if I remember correctly and they sold them at lowes. I know for a fact that's the only place I had seen one because we don't have a home depot, not saying they never sold them. I bought mine NOS. It was on Amazon so I snatched it up. I have a video of it on my youtube channel. It cleans very well. Small bags though.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks for mentioning your video, John. It was nice to see the Electrolux Ultra Oxygen 3 in action. The orange Electrolux Aptitude you mentioned you saw at a lawn sale was made in the UK. It was first branded as a Eureka Oxygen upright (blue colour) then a year or two later, the parent company repackaged the same British cleaner as the Electrolux Aptitude for sale in North American stores. I don’t think the Aptitude performed as well as your Ultra Oxygen Three.

I am pretty sure that burnt orange line of Electrolux cleaners (Oxygen, Harmony, Ergorapido, Intensity Foldable Upright, etc) must have also been sold at Sears stores in the USA, since there were sold at Sears Canada stores for years. Maybe take a look at a catalogue from around 2004 or 2005?

 

[jo]

Sold in big box stores

Here they were sold in Lowe’s, Best Buy and the like. At the time these were the first version of the Eureka or Sweden Electrolux companies machines they wanted to sell here in the US but there was a problem, the name had been sold off long ago when the company sold off the US division long ago and hence the Electrolux vac since 1924 to 2003 which became Aerus. The Swedish company wants to sell their Electrolux products here in the US under their name so they approached the US company and bought the rights to the name and in 2003 Electrolux here in the US became Aerus but people didn’t know of the change and simply thought These reddish orange Electrolux’s were the traditional Electrolux’s but now sold in big box stores. Many were disappointed in the product and many failed and they would take them to the Aerus Electrolux dealers for service only to find out they hadn’t purchased what they intended to buy...but instead ended up with a rebadged Eureka machine.

The US company never really did a good job of educating the consumer on the name change and now people just think the product is gone altogether here in the US and hence the franchises are dying off. Eureka has stopped selling vacuums under the Electrolux name Here in the US, probably because they were not as good of machines as the US made ones and lost sales due to the high but poorly met expectations. So they not only have taken the name but now ruined it here in the US which while they paid a lot for it from the US company, taking it from the US company didn’t do them any favors either as most people don’t commonly know a US made quality Electrolux still actually exists...it’s just called Aerus.

Jon

 

[newone]

Thanks to a YouTube channel I saw one and found this new yes even today new, the vacuums are expensive even today but it’s a very nice vacuum. The intensity is not new but it’s fun.