HOOVER MODEL 90 AND IT'S MANY DESCENDANTS.

[junior1975]

Guy's,

I would like to open up a thread dedicated to the sturdiest cleaner every built (In my humble opinion).

The Hoover Model 912 UK, or 90 US.

I have a 912 and it's younger sister, the U7008. These machines remind me so much of being at school. The school I attended when around the age of 7 had a caretaker who always seemed older than anyone I had ever met, but was a really nice man who never shouted at the kids, even when we dragged a whole field full of mud all over his freshly polished class room floors.

This same care taker would occasionally let me "Play" with the U7008 that the school had as it's main cleaner. I remember the low hum as the old girl wound up to speed and the way the bag alwats seemed to inflate to an impossibly large shape having hung so flat whilst the machine was turned off.

It is only in the last 12 months that I had learned that the machine had originally been born as the model 90 in the US. It also seems to have had possibly the longest run of any single vacuum cleaner design I know of.

1940 saw the first of the 90's and it was the very early 1990's as far as I am led to believe before the last of the U7008's was seen in the shops.

50 odd years is a spectacularly long production run for any product, and for the product to see as few design updates and changes over that production run as this range did is phenomenal.

Even the venerable VW Beetle shared very few parts with the original car from the lates thirties when it stopped European production around 1978.

So would anybody like to share stories, and more especially pictures of these wonderful old ladies, I am sure it would make some super reading.

For now, here are my two veterans.

Happy hoovering all.

 

[junior1975]

912A.

Above is my U7008. Here is her older sister, my 912A.

U7008 is 1980 virage and the 912 is 1970.



http://www.freewebs.com/bfg75

 

[tommymilan]

912-7008

Hello! I'm very fond of these hoover models. I also have memories of these quiet beasts while I was at school! When I was six years old, I found a Hoover U 7008, just like yours, in a closet at school, it was used to clean the carpet in the gym. I remember myself looking at it and being just a little bit taller than its handle;-), good perspective for it. Then, when I changed school at the age of 11, I found another one there, and I have been seeing it in use everyday while I was waiting for my parents to bring me back home.
At that time these vaccum cleaners were very popular in Italy in shops, offices, museums etc.,probably because they were "heavy duty" in the real meaning of the word!
When I was 12 I picked up from the trash an early verson of U 7008, with black bag, and it had a problem with fan/pulley, the pulley couldn't be screwed to the shaft tigtly, so the fan didn't work properly. I solved the problem replacing pulley and fan.
I'm finding U 912s quite frequently lately, I have three of them now, and I'm impressed by the way they still work, though they usually need bag replacement and very often a new brushroll!Hoover repair centers still offer the new top fill bag (white) to replace the older ones.
I own three 912s, one 7008 with black bag and one with grey bag. According to my Hoover brochures and my memories, Mod U 7008 has been produced til 1990-1991 and the last version featured the same orange bag as the Conquests,and were shown in the hoover commercial cleaners brochures.
tommy

 

[junior1975]

Orange Bag.

Tommy.

Great to hear you have such an affection for the old girls. It would be great if you could post some pics of the later machines here, especially the ones with the orange bags?

Any information from your brochures would be wonderful to see aswell.

Come on guy's lets pay respect to the best Commercial machine made!

Speak soon,

Clark.

 

[myhooverco]

Here are the US big girl commercial machines...model 91, model 913, 918, 918-01, and U7037. These are heavy well built machines and are some of the best carpet cleaners around. The 913 and on were made in the UK and shipped here. Plant space at that time was at a premium until further expansion here in North Canton was a reality.

--Tom

 

[rexairman]

Those were great, indestructible old machines! I once heard that the unions wouldn't let women use them because of the weight. No wonder. It takes 3 men and a donkey, or one medium sized bull dyke to operate it.

 

[tommymilan]

Orange bags from commercial brochures in Italy

these pages are not in good state, sorry.

 

[tommymilan]

here it is

 

[tommymilan]

group

 

[swingette]

i LOVE those old cleaners. im a 6ft plus tall guy and dont have a problem with the weight, but can see how others would. if only the rear wheels were better/different. IMO the Conquest was a vast improvement. and before that, the all-metal commercial Eureka with Vibra-groomer put the 913 style cleaner to shame. but the old Heavy Duty Hoover is STILL special!

 

[kirbyvacuum]

carbon brushes

Hi Tom a real nice display of Hoovers. Tom maybe you could help me out i am looking for a set of carbon brushes for my Hoover 918. I have tried in my local vacuum shop with no luck maybe you could refer me to a vac- store that could help me out. Thank you Doug.

 

[charles~richard]

Hoover 91 Memories

My first after-school job when I was in the 10th grade was working for a vac shop - running errands, picking up, putting away stock, etc., and vacuuming at the end of the day. The official vacuum for that duty was a Hoover 63.

My second job, the next year, was working as an usher in a movie theater. Part of my ushering duties included cleaning up after each movie. We had two cool things -- hand-held blowers made from salvaged old Kirbys that the guy in the vac shop up the street had rigged up for the theater owner, and a pair of Hoover 91s that were in remarkably good shape considering how much abuse they got!

I remember seeing these big Hoovers all over the place once upon a time -- it seems nearly every church, theater, hotel, etc., had them before the Eureka Sanitaire knocked them off the throne!

The first one I remember is from when I was around 5 years old when we went to Annapolis, Maryland to visit my Uncle. I was in Heaven there as he and my aunt had more vacuum cleaners than anyone I knew! They had an old upright Royal that I was afraid of because it looked like a Kirby, then a tan Hoover Constellation, some kind of porta-vac (GE maybe?), a Singer hand vac, and one of those huge, cast-iron commercial Hoover 91s with an enormous, fat pin-striped bag.

My cousin Jackie still teases me about how when I brought that big Hoover outside from the garage where it was stored, and vacuumed their entire cement driveway with it! With the motor running!! For some reason I fell in love with that huge old sweeper, and the entire time we were there I dropped very broad hints about how we had "only one sweeper and you have a lot of them," and how I would love to take it home.

When we got ready to leave, I had my little suitcase in one hand and was rolling the big Hoover out to the car with the other hand. Mama told me I had to put the sweeper back. I looked at my uncle hopefully. He said, catching Mama's frantic
'NO!' expression, "Why don't we leave it here, and whenever you come to visit us you can use it."

Well, I started bawling and crying, just utterly despondent and FURIOUS that I could not take the Hoover home with us! There was no consoling me, and I stewed and pouted about it for several days.

Another uncle was an an associate pastor at a large church in Richmond, Virginia. One time when we went there to visit him when I was 9 or 10, the custodian was vacuuming the front area of the sanctuary with a Hoover 91. I asked him, "Would
you mind if I helped you run the sweeper?"

Mind?! He gladly handed the duty over to me and I spent the entire morning vacuuming the expansive sea of carpeting in the large vestibule, then pushed it inside the big (~2000-seat) sanctuary and did all the carpeting in there as well!

Once upon a time I had a 913 - the U.K. version of the 91, but it was so big and heavy and in the way that I finally got rid of it. Put it on eBay, I think.

 

[myhooverco]

Doug... email me and let me know what you need...I bet I have a nice used set for your machine. We have to keep these old Hoovers running!!

--Tom

 

[kirbyvacuum]

carbon brushes

Thanks Tom i will E-mail you tomorow . What i need is a set of carbon brushes only. Tom did you hear one of our memembers wii be on the Jay Leno show tonight at 11.30 pm tonight you may want to catch that. If you like i will e-mail Saturday. Again thanks for what ever help you can give me. The vacuum other then the brushes getting low works fine. Doug.

 

[junior1975]

Tommy

Hi All.

Tommy, Many thanks for the pictures of the ornage bagged U7008. It is amazing how much a bag can transform the appearance of a machine.

I wish we had had this model over here in the UK, but we had to put up with the old Grey cloth bag only.

I must keep an eye out on ebay Italy to see if anything like this comes up!

Great selection of the older girls there Tom, 91 onwards. I only have the two, but I am looking for the older 912, 1950 era, with the full length rubber handle grip, and red handle release button.

Oh well, I can dream.

Happy hoovering guys and gals.

Clark.

 

[tommymilan]

this is a picture of some hoover commercial cleaners in my collection: there are 2 U 912s, one U 7008 and two of my conquests!

 

[tommymilan]

this is a picture of some hoover commercial cleaners in my collection: there are 2 U 912s, one U 7008 and two of my conquests!

 

[charles~richard]

I finally found some photos of my 913

Here's the first one: (again noting that I no longer have the machine)

 

[charles~richard]

and the second

with our dear sweet Oz (R.I.P.) looking on-