Eureka/Sanitaire age anomally

[connorthecarguy]

I picked this beauty up the other day and it has a metal base,no vents in the hood,3.5 amp motor, and the rocker power switch. My rudimentary understanding of eureka manufacturing dates would place this one in the early 70's. Here's the catch,a 78 made into the base where one would find the date code. Am I missing something or its that strange? Model 623 "made by the Eureka Company"

 

[eurekaprince]

Could be that Eureka was using up old stock of the early 1970’s hood for their commercial Sanitaire line? By 1976, Eureka’s basic low-end uprights had motor hoods with vents and a foot-operated push button switch.

I’ve seen this happen with Eurekas before...some old design shows up on an odd model mysteriously - I’ve always assumed it was to get rid of old stock of a certain part.

 

[kirbyvertibles]

Metal base in 78? That's new to me.

 

[connorthecarguy]

That was my first thought about using up stock, but those are usually more of a grab bag of parts where as this is all old parts.

 

[TheSpiritOf76]

ok...That is not from 1978.

Major clue one, the rocker switch. look on the base for a little circle, with a raised center that looks rather like a nipple. In that circle should have two digits. As you have already applied those two digits are the year. Seeing what I am seeing, the rocker switch (which was not used after 1975), the Moss green color, and the metal handle with plastic cord hooks (Eureka started using in late 1974), and the metal base (Eureka went plastic in 1975). I would have to date this machine at late 1974. I do have a Sanitaire sales sheet from 1969, 1970, that machine is in the same color yes, but the one in the sales sheet has the metal cord hooks, and is stlyed exactly like the Vanguard.

 

[connorthecarguy]

Exactly what was confusing me, I have the nipple pictured in the 3rd picture of my second post. That looks like a "78" to me even though I would agree with everything you are saying about the other features. That's what has me confused. So why would a 74 machine have a 78 on it?

 

[huskyvacs]

It could also be something happened to it to damage the hood, and a vacuum shop or Eureka just happened to have that part in the stock to repair it using the same color. I had an Eureka ESP of this style in the 90's and I remember I accidentally tipped a chair over on it, it smashed the top cover to pieces, that was plastic though obviously.

 

[eurekaprince]

Another clue is the corporate name: Before Eureka’s sale to Sweden’s Electrolux in 1974, the rating plate would have said Eureka Williams. Electrolux brought back the old name - The Eureka Company - after they bought the company. So this is definitely made after 1974. Indeed, maybe the old hood was a replacement put on by a repair shop? Kind of like a Frankeneureka?

 

[connorthecarguy]

Yes, that's certainly a possibility however that still doesn't explain the metal base with the date cast in.

 

[eurekaprince]

Maybe Electrolux kept making metal bases for the Sanitaire heavy duty line-up? Does anyone know if those Moss Green “Continental” Eurekas from 1978 had metal bases?

 

[TheSpiritOf76]

Those are.....

Wild Moss that you are thinking of. Moss green and Wild Moss are two different colors. Besides the Wild Moss Centennials came about in 1976, they are the 2nd line of Eureka to have the new Lexan base.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Model S440A

Eureka kept at it with the recycling of older features when, in 1986, they introduced the S440A canister as part of the new Sanitaire "Blue Line" series, which had the old canned-ham body of the former 1200 and 1600 series.

~Ben

 

[paul]

Ben,

I'm thinking that Eureka rediscovered old overstock from time to time when it rearranged; or that it had it saved such unused parts for limited promos or test runs.

Would you say the S440-A's sales were on the low or high end of the spectrum?

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Paul

My guess is for the S440A that sales were likely anywhere between low and moderate.

~Ben

 

[paul]

Got it.

By the way, I contacted Sanitaire to inquire about a model list and the early white and green models. After several days I received a Dear John letter regretting to inform me that parts were no longer available; so unless someone has saved old catalogs or other ephemera the Sanitaire information will remain limited to what's available online as the company rarely advertised in newspapers or magazines (where I locate most of my data).

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Paul

Yes, I understand, we should work on finding all of these rare catalogs from the '70s and '80s.

~Ben