european cleaners

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Very impressive! Do you have a favorite brand and/or a favorite cleaner? Do you collect polishers/shampooers or extractors?
 
Ah, another canister syndrome sufferer, but your condition is indeed profound. That is quite a collection and I'm sure represents many hundreds of hours of preparing each of those vacuums.

The plastics on the Bosch remind me strongly of the plastics in similar vintage Audis and BMW cars.

What are the red dart shaped vac standing on it's tail towards the left of the photo and the little butterscotch colored canister on the floor towards the right with it's butt towards the camera?
 
Also on the floor on the right the next vac over from the butterscotch canister is orange and has what appears to be the cord emerging from the center of the right rear wheel. Is that the case?
 
Hi,

<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">Hi Edgar, I love looking at you collection when you post pictures. All look well cared for.
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">You have a nice looking house by the way.</span>


<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">James
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I see many familiar vacs there, mostly Miele and Electrolux AB. I had that Blue Miele in the second picture when I lived in Germany, Belgium and France many, many years ago. I received it as a gift from the MD's wife when she found out I was sweeping the floors with a broom and dustpan... it was very kind of her as I was young and struggling to begin a career far away from home.
 
That was my first thought too Eurekaprince, but that thing is a lot boxier than I associate with Electrolux vacuums, plus the shape of the grill you can see on top of the vacs body. It's all very un-Electrolux. And that color! Right out of the Gerbers baby food pallet. Did Electrolux make machines like that?
 
Just Google images for Electrolux AB vacuums and you'll see how interesting the designs were compared to Electrolux USA. The American company - a division of Consolidated Foods - was working with entirely different competition (much of it provided by Kenmore) filled with power nozzle canisters. I think because America gave us a Hoover that deep cleaned wall-to-wall broadloom for the large houses of American suburbia, we focused on cleaning carpets. The cylinder vacuum was invented by the Swedes and so the European market was focused on lightweight canisters that were effective in small flats with lots of flooring and lightweight area rugs.

The evolution of vacuum design was very different on each side of the Atlantic. As you know, I am not a fan of combination vacuums. So it's nice to have a Hoover upright and a Miele canister in my closet reflecting two very different cleaning challenges! :-). It's a throw-back to the days when Hoover and Eureka and GE and Singer offered two-vac cleaning "systems" for the home - the 1940's and 1950's.

I tried power-nozzle canisters and on-board tool uprights for a few years, and I came to the personal conclusion that these combo vacs are too bulky and complicated. But that's just me!!!!
 
D-T,


 


That vacuum is the classic Electrolux AB vacuum shape. US and Canadian Electrolux vacuums have had nothing in common design wise with Electrolux AB since the model XI. There is an entire world of Electrolux vacuums out there that look like those ones...
 
desertortoise

The red one is a national, the butterscotch one is a philips. the entire electrolux series from that age had the cord coming from the rear wheel.
 
Isn't or wasn't National a subsidiary of Matsushita/Panasonic? My recollection is that Matsushita's consumer lines were called National everywhere but the US where that name was already owned by another firm.
 
national panasonic

I am not sure if it was a subsidiary for panasonic. What i do know is, that mid eighties national became panasonic in Europe.
 
Matsushita's vacs were branded National all over the world except in North America where they were branded with the Panasonic name. Not sure exactly when Europe started seeing Panasonic brand vacs, but I think it was in the 1980's.

For quite a long period of time, "National Panasonic" was the brand name Matsushita used for home entertainment products such as radios worldwide.

Here's a webpage showing the logo:



http://www.shortwaveradio.ch/radio-e/panasonic-rf2800-e.htm
 
another canister syndrome sufferer

Edgar, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Belgium (along with most other mainland European countries) is a largely cylinder/canister dominated market, as opposed to the UK and US which is quite a mixed market.
 
turbo500

so sorry, but i do have to correct you. Belgium used to be a real upright country. lots of rugs and carpets. I am originally Dutch and so is my collection. we used to call Belgium the hoover country. for example, i work in holland close to the Belgium border, and were they only media market in the counter that sells lots of Miele uprights. All the Belgiums are buying them ;-)))

edgar-2014081316303606021_1.jpg
 
turbo500

so sorry, but i do have to correct you. Belgium used to be a real upright country. lots of rugs and carpets. I am originally Dutch and so is my collection. we used to call Belgium the hoover country. for example, i work in holland close to the Belgium border, and were they only media market in the counter that sells lots of Miele uprights. All the Belgiums are buying them ;-)))

edgar-2014081316303606021_1.jpg
 
I've been chewing on "a part of my collection". There is, apparently, more? Holy suction Batman! Canister syndrome is a serious affliction.
 
Belgium, from my recollection is an outlier in other ways. It was the only place in Europe I saw a lot of American cars being driven. Not pampered muscle cars either, but very plain run of the mill "Yank tank" sedans in routine family service.
 
Thanks for the info Edgar, much appreciated. My brother lives in Holland and I've yet to see a house with an upright in it over there. Looking around shops in France and Germany, it would appear that the trend is the same there too - cylinders everywhere!
 

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