First Hoover DAM Vacuum Cleaner

[Automatic-Shift]

Hi, does anyone have the first Hoover DAM? If I recall, the knob on the back is different, and I believe it was blue as the first color, around 1962? Love to see the differences as early DAM vacuums are indeed, tough to find. Thanks, Ron

 

[kenkart]

First dial a matic...

Was grey and orange. No bag indicator ,no height adjustment, and the hose on the rear from the nozzle to the cleaner body was permanently attached.

 

[vacbear58]

First Dial A Matic

Hans
I found your comments about the first DAM very interesting as I could never really undertsand why Hoover did not permamently attach the hose, if they had they would have been a good 20 years odd ahead of the competition, or more in this country at least. To me all it needed was a portable type coupling and some means of storing the hose on the machine and good to go. Does anyone have any pictures to share? Or know why it was changed?

Al

 

[kenkart]

I didnt!

Mean the attachment hose, I mean the short hose from the nozzle to the bottom of the bag chamber, the regular hose and attachments are the same as the newer ones.

 

[DysonAnimal]

...

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Not sure if I've told this story before -- but I'll tell it again. 


 


I have a fantastic specimen of a model 1100 Dial-A-Matic...


 


I was working at Hoover; I came in to work one day and noticed there was a *flawless* 1100 sitting in the repair pile, to be repaired.  It needed a new cord (still had the original-her kids bought her a "cleaning service" as a Chirstmas present, and they ran over the cord, exposing bare wire).  So we put a new cord on it, but while we had it apart, we noticed that it also needed a new switch, belt, and agitator bearings. 


 


I was the one who called her with an estimate to fix it -- by the time all of those new parts were in the cleaner, and we added the labor charge -- I had my doubts that she was going to want to spend upwards of $60 to fix it.  She actually agreed to fix the cleaner.. in my closing of the conversation with her, I mentioned that I collected vintage vacuum cleaners, and if she ever decided that she didn't want this cleaner -- that it's a cleaner I would love to add to my collection. 


 


She paused a moment, and said something like "Oh.. hmm.. well.. I really don't have any ties to it, if you would give me another vacuum, you could have it..."


 


After I regained consciousness, I agreed... I bought her a decent cleaner with my employee purchase price, and arranged a time to deliver the new vacuum to her house.  When I took the new vacuum to her house after work one night, she had the DAM's hose and attachments ready and waiting for me... she told me the story about her husband burning out her old "Firestone" brand vacuum vacuuming up Christmas needles, so they went out and bought the DAM. 


 


She was a super-sweet lady, and I sent her a very nice thank you note with a picture of her vacuum "in-line" in the new home that I had given it.


 


Since getting it, I did eventually give it a total tear-down and rebuild... Runs like a top!


 


Here's the first picture I took of it right after I got it home:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

The ensemble:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Another:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Inside -- still had the original filter!

 

[hoovercelebrity]

I'll try to take some updated/more detailed pictures of it within the next few days...


 


Yes, the pointer "dial" was different, on the first few models -- from what it was later on.

 

[Automatic-Shift]

A gem

This is great. Now, after so long I got to see one. Such a great Hoover. Thanks, Ron

 

[vacbear58]

My apologies

to Hans, in my swift reading of your posting I am afraid I mis-read what you wrote.

But I still cannot understand why, with such a revolutionary design they did not come up with a permanently attached hose. Or could it be that, in the US & Canada with generally larger homes, the ability to quickly have a suction nozzle to hand to "do round the edges" was less significant as there was more chance of having a cannister to hand to supplement the upright than in this country?

I never realised the hose to teh brushroll wasn't permanemntly attached LOLOL I will have to look again, I have 4 of them and thank fully they are reasonably accessable.

And thanks Fred for the great pics. Was it only the DAM that had that ring (presumably for hanging it up) on the hose? In the UK I only ever saw them sold with a Hooverflex hose, but the German one I have has the US style hose, with the ring.

Al

 

[kenkart]

One of the reasons..

I like the DAM is that it does NOT have onboard tools, to me they are in the way...but then im old fashioned..LOL!

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I agree,

and, they're SOOO easy to attach, and good suction, too.