Telescoping wand
Seems two subjects ended up here. Here in the states the telescoping wand was introduced with the 1205 and while it is interesting, it was quickly discontinued because when extended, the upper portion is not reinforced with metal and would crack easily. Also the plastic around the top plug end would be prone to cracking and breaking. I am not sure if the teal blue early automatic plug in hose handle swiveled or not, if it didn’t that could have been a problem as well, if it did, perhaps the electrical parts of the swiveling system weren’t reliable enough. Hence they quickly modified it to become the blue sheath over metal wand design without the automatic electrical connection and they changed the electric hose handle too to one with the curved all metal handle that swiveled and the dual outlet on the collar. The electrical outlet on the hose did not swivel but the metal handle did. The sheath got downgraded to just have a cord hanging out of it that one had to plug in to the outlet on the hose.
Anyway, I feel like this was a “prototype” design for what is currently still in use today on the Aerus Lux Classic and was reintroduced here in the states in 1974 on the Golden Jubilee.... The automatic electrical connection between the hose handle and the power nozzle wand. It was improved and beefed up in the mid 1980s as a lot of the sheaths were breaking at the top around the power plug causing a poor connection so that was beefed up, and the upper metal wand inside the sheath's design was changed to the current fastening system using the indented slots on the hose handle instead of the pressure grip ring system. I believe this helped to eliminate the handle from being able to twist in the wand which may have been causing some of the issues of breakage of the sheath at the power outlet and quick wear on the hose ends outlet too. The newer design using the slot to lock the handle in place does not allow it to be twisted left or right like the pressure ring allows.
Just some observations. While some may complain that Aerus hasn’t changed much in many years, I still find this metal wand system with the sheath and the pistol grip handle to be the easiest and most comfortable and ergonomically correct hose handle and wand design on the market today. I’ve been hard pressed to find something I find as easy to use or ergonomically correct and comfortable to hold and still fit into small spaces like when having to clean out my car. Gas pump handles are all bulky and hard to use, anything where the handle doesn’t swivel where it connects to the hose is annoying, even if if the hose swivels where it connects to the machine instead, that just doesn’t work right and I’ve found I have to untangle the hose periodically on those types.
So...”if it isn’t broken...and is a great thing....then don’t fix it” is the philosophy I think Aerus is using to keep this hose handle and wand system still in use today on their base machine...it is a time proven system that is very durable and reliable in an area of a vacuum cleaner that sees a lot of heavy use...and abuse...people who have had it are used to it and like it, it works also with machines that have been made for over 40 years so it supports the replacement or upgrade parts customer market. Though adding a switch to turn on and off the power nozzle on this hose handle is something they could do...and aftermarket generics have done, though those little switches tend to get bumped easily and turned on or off when not desired to be switched on or off and is another source of something to get broken so perhaps is why they haven’t done it on this model of hose handle and opted to keep the switch on the power nozzle itself which can be operated with one’s foot or hand.
Jon
