EPIC yard sale find!

[thatwasherguy]

Hey everyone! Hope you are all well. I was out with a friend today thrifting, and found these machines at a yard sale for $3 each. So of course, I had to have them. The Eureka 1447 is from 1989, and the Hoover U-4387 is from sometime prior to 1987. Both are in fantastic condition overall. Other than the standard headlight being burned out and belt being trashed, the Hoover has nothing wrong with it. The eureka, however, has a couple of minor issues. Besides the standard belt and headlight, it has a trashed brush roll end cap, and is missing the bumper. Both motors run good. The Hoover even sports a sticker from a local vac shop that’s still in business (I highly recommend them; they sold me a replacement motor for my Electrolux PN4 at a killer price). I do have a question about the Eureka, however. As silly as this will sound, I can’t figure out how to access the headlight to replace it. It doesn’t have any screws on the bottom like my convertibles do, and I don’t want to force the lens out if it’s not supposed to come out that way. I’ll probably end up just upgrading the brush roll on the eureka to a metal Sanitaire one with the replaceable brush strips, and I may use a Sanitaire bumper as well. Overall, $6 well spent.
Thatwasherguy.

 

[eurekaprince]

Here’s a full YouTube video of your exact Eureka! Made by one of our very own Vacuumlanders!

 

[human]

Nice pair...

...and color coordinated, to boot! To access the headlight bulb on the Eureka, I believe you just take the whole top cover off. It should be held in place by a couple of springs, accessed from underneath. You can see them in the tenth photo, just behind the front wheels. To release them, just pull them away from the chassis with pair of needle-nose pliers.

 

[paul]

Congrats—both are very similar and good performers!

Attached is a screenshot of the instructions for accessing a Eureka 1400-1900 Series headlight.

I have also included a newspaper ad for each. The online database I used contains marketing for the U4387 from 1984 to 1987, and the 1447 from 1989 to 1992 (there was also an earlier version with some different styling and design elements marketed from 1979 to 1980; I have only seen Type A listed for each).

1. Headlight access instructions (Eureka)

2. Hoover - 1986 Sep 13 KENTUCKY NEW ERA - Hoover Models U4387, U3109, S3277, S1083

3. Eureka - 1990 Apr 4 THE VINDICATOR - Eureka Models 3322, 1447, 1432, 2034



In addition, here are links to pdfs of the owner guides:

1999/2001 Eureka 1400-1900 Series: https://evacuumstore.com/images/Eureka-1934B-product-manual.pdf

Hoover Convertible (for U4359 but should be very similar): https://www.manualslib.com/manual/70118/Hoover-U4359.html#manual

 

[kirbyman65]

$3!

That is an incredible price! I have never seen any vintage machines for that price! Great find!

 

[thatwasherguy]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Eurekaprince…
Thanks for the info! I always enjoy videos from vacuumdevil’s channel. In fact, it was his channel that convinced me to get a sebo G4 and a Numatic Henry for the collection.

Human…
I totally agree, they were nicely coordinated. The house they came from was two stories, so I strongly suspect that they had originally bought the Hoover first, got tired of lugging it up and down the stairs, and then bought the Eureka to have one on each floor. Thanks for the info! I pulled the hood, and it looked like everything was in nice shape, even if a little dusty.

Paul…
Thanks for posting the ads and manuals for them! I always love seeing the original literature to these vintage machines! That is some good info on the headlight. The springs on the hood were quite contrary to reinstall, so it’ll be nice to be able to avoid that some in the future.

Kirbyman65…
I agree. I had to do a double take at the price tags, by far the lowest I’ve ever seen for a vintage vacuum. I think the lowest I’d seen before that for a full size vacuum was an Electrolux Super J (with power nozzle, floor head and several wands) on Ebay that I got for $10 on an estate sale auction, but getting it shipped was like $70.

Thatwasherguy.