Hello, and HELP please for Vintage upright royal

[hooverjedilord]

Hi, I am Thomas Banks, I am fifteen years old and I live in England. You might recognise me from the online Doctor Who review series: "Drwhofanindatardis", in addition to being a dedicated Whovian, Star Wars fan and just all round Sci-Fi enthusiast, I also have a life long obsession with Vacuum cleaners. But this particular thread is about an acquisition I acquired a few years back: A vintage Royal Vacuum, I think it was in the 800 series, however,due to lack of information, I am not sure. It has an American style two prong plug and I was wondering that if it is still in working order that I might be able to use an adapter socket and use it. If any of you guys with more experience can help me I will be forever in your debt!

 

[kevin]

Welcome to Vacuumland, Thomas. Sorry, I'm not a big sci-fi fan so hadn't heard of Doctor Who or you. I did find you on this Youtube vid tho (cool):

http://www.youtube.com/user/Drwhofanindatardis

Regarding your Royal 880 (as you posted on your profile) I do think there is a way to adapt it, so it will work for you. I'll let someone else give you specifics, as my knowledge is limited. Just wanted to say hey and hope it works out.

If you haven't already seen ornery's recent thread in this forum check it out (The Royal Metal Upright by Benjamin Edge & Jeff Schroff). It gives the years of manufacture of the Royal 880 as 1966-1987. You can also use the serial id to find out the exact year yours was manufactured by using a code that the compilation book ornery posted will tell you how to decipher.

Here's a pic I found of a Royal 880 on eBay:

 

[super-sweeper]

Hello Whovian!

Hahahaha, Matt Smith, David Tennet

 


You should find a step-down transformer, in order to bring down 220 current to 110.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Thomas,

A picture or two of your machine will help me out greatly as to how old it really is. The nameplate, whether mounted on the back of the motor unit or to the back of the nozzle casting, will also contain that bit of information.

~Ben

 

[ornery]

That's A Wonderful Vintage

Morning Thomas, Kevin and Ben,

That transformer you'll need will cost as much or more than the vacuum. But, at least you can use it for other things. That vacuum is just a few hundred watts, so you won't need a monster transformer.

Kevin, that vacuum is no longer on Ebay, because I now own it. It's in fantastic condition. Somebody just plain didn't use it! It's missing the brush caps, which I can get, but not sure if I should bother. Doesn't hurt the appearance much. It's a very quiet runner, only 400 watts, with 6 blade fan. I'm trying not to get too attached, but it's hard!

BTW, thanks for the added Royal advertisements, they are a sweet link to the past.

 

[jade_angel]

I know when I lived in Italy you could buy transformers at hardware stores, I'm not sure if you can find them in the UK or not, though I'd expect so.

A plug adapter will not suffice. If you plug an American appliance expecting 120V into a British 240V mains socket, you'll probably destroy it. For a Royal 880, you'll probably want a 750W transformer. The largest motor shipped in the 880 was a 5.4A model (5.4A * 120V = 650W to two sig figs), though only the last ones made had that. Most are between 400 and 500 watts.

 

[hooverjedilord]

Thank you for all the help. At the moment the machine is in storage, but soon I'll be able to get it out and photograph it. I'll look into the transformer. But if anyone else has further information on the transformer, similar cases, or just this vacuum in general please do respond! Yours faithfully, Thomas.

 

[hoover119dude]

HI. I have an american hoover 700 here. it also runs on 110v. go to a store called Maplin. They are dotted all around the U.K. A step down transformer is what you need. A little bigger than a brick with an american style two prong plug on the front. WORKS GREAT!! I think it is about £29.00