Electrolux

[dustin]

I have an Electrolux that I got last summer at a garage sale for $3 and if anyone knows, I would like to know what it is called, and what years it was made. It is a canister-style vac with a brown PN4 power nozzle. It looks very similar to the Super J, but the bumpers are slightly different (the sides of the bumpers on the canister stick out instead of being flat),and the handles on the canister are also somewhat different. The color is a brown-ish color,and it sounds EXACTLY the same as my Super J did. Everythimg else is the same. THANK YOU!!!

 

[elux89]

Olympia 1

Sounds like an Olympia one if it has the full bag indicator like the SJ

 

[crevicetool]

Dustin.

Vernon is correct. That would be an Olympia One. I will add that it was made from 1978 - 1982. It replaced the Super J as the top of the line model.

Rick

 

[dustin]

THANK YOU! Ihave had it for over a year and have called it "the brown Electrolux" ok,now I know what model it is and how old it is!

 

[crevicetool]

This pops up on the POD every so often.....thought you would like it.

The Olympia One was the official vacuum cleaner of the 1980 Winter Olympics...sometime around 1980.

 

[dustin]

Thanks, I didnt know that!...

 

[joe22]

some Olympias have a special *olympic* label on them.

 

[vacbear58]

Why?

Now this will probably upset some US members but I have to pose a question why has intrigued me since I have been collecting and became more aware of models in the US, whch is why, for most of the 1950s & 1960s are US Electrolux models so UGLY?
I am sure they performed well, and its clear that they had more features than UK models and from comments I have read on here they appear to have been excellent machines - I just cannot get over the styling - to my mind, looking at the picture above, its only when you get to the 1205 that they styling appears to come more up to date and perhaps typical of the late 1960s.

I would be the first to agree that the XXX is a style icon (and I have one myself) although more of the 1930s than 40s or 50s. We did not have the XXX here although you can see its influence in our post war models 30/55/62 - 62 shown below

 

[vacbear58]

62 in action

...

 

[vacbear58]

From 1960

The very popular 65. The tools are not quite correct here - it should have a pink & cream "butterfly" nozzle

 

[vacbear58]

The Lux 80

Its successor model - styling updated, this model is one of my favourite Lux models

 

[vacbear58]

BOL Models - 1960s

The 64 (Brown/Beige) & 77 (Whire/Blue) - from my own collection

 

[vacbear58]

TOL 1960s

The Lux 90 from 1964

 

[vacbear58]

And later on

The Lux 100

 

[vacbear58]

Colour TOL

The 90 is at the bottom of the stairs, the 100 is the next one up

 

[vacbear58]

Maybe its an age thing

as these models seem to my eyes more elegant even than the models that came after them - they come from the period when I was first aware of cleaners (up to 11 years old).

But they just seem so clean and graceful to my eye when compared to the American models from the same years.
Al

 

[aeoliandave]

Canadian Collectors won't be much upset as we got to enjoy our very own versions quite similar to European Electroluxes. American Luxes were much flashier in design as were the automobiles while we more conservative Canadians kept it low profile.

And we certainly didn't get the vast array of model changes that the USA did through the 1950s & 60s. Even through the 1970s & 80s when the North American lines converged we had a way to keep our exterior styling on the elegant, if dull side.
I have to say that the LX will always be a favorite of mine for its gorgeous, if excessively heavy expression of the best that American post-war engineering & manufacturing prowess could produce. What followed the LX does come across rendered top heavy and ungainly by the tapered and rounded body and narrow bag chamber perched high over its wheel axles exposed so indelicately below. The more demure Canadian 80 series hugs the ground, much the way conservative hemlines did on our womenfolk.
Yet it will always be a feather in our cap that Canadian Electroluxes from that period can quietly suck the paint & performance off a USA model, comparatively speaking. Pay no attention whatsoever to what Crevictool has to say about handle ergonomics.

Dave, Dominion of Canada

 

[crevicetool]

"Rick, when I snap my fingers - you will awake." "You won't remember anything about this thread". "It never exsisted" "Ready? One....two....(snap)!

 

[crevicetool]

Joe's right Dustin! The earlier Olympia One's had a colorful rectangular label with the five Olympic circles on it!

Rick