Hoover Turbopower U2334 (July 1986)

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thekirbylover

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Mar 27, 2012
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Warrington, cheshire
Got this of eBay for a steal of a price, this machine really makes no sense to me as it has some of the higher end features such as, bag light indicator, 2 speed motor and autoflex however it doesn't have a headlight which just confuses me, anyway here it is, this I believe was the 2nd generation of the Electricity board exclusive range, there was this and a Turbomaster in the same color scheme which i believe is Carmargue Grey and Charcoal Grey, (do correct me if I am wrong), anyway here it is my new phone has an appalling camera when it comes to lighting so i do apologize if the pictures aren't great.

thekirbylover++11-21-2016-18-49-5.jpg
 
That's lovely Michael, and good job cleaning it up. You're right, it was the second leccy board special, sold alongside the u1222 Turbopower Junior, which oddly enough did have a headlight.
 
2nd generation

This was technically the third generation of Turbopower cleaners for the Electricity Boards, because the original brown & cream cleaner stayed the same colour when the design of all the Turbopower models was overhauled around late 1985/ early 1986.

So, the original Electricity Board hardbag models were single-speed and had no bag-full lamp. The softbag models had no air freshener. When the mainstream hardbag cleaners were given a two-speed motor and bag-full lamp, and the softbag cleaners an air freshener, these upgrades were also given to the Electricity Board models too. Two new model numbers were generated but the colours stayed the same (although I do believe there were possibly some minor changes to the lettering on each model). I think these cleaners were short-lived as the grey cleaners replaced the brown & cream colour scheme sometime in 1986 or so. You can find out more here:

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?18364

As for the dirtsearcher headlight on the softbag and no headlight on the hardbag, this was a very cheap & easy way to offer exclusivity to the range. For sometime Hoover had only been producing dirtsearcher versions of their Junior and Senior cleaners for the Electricity Boards and Co-Op stores (doubtless other outlets too), none of which cold be found as mainstream cleaners. The same mentality was applied to the Turbopower Junior exclusive cleaner, although as far as I know the only UK models with headlamps were the Electricity Board models and no others. Whether the average UK consumer lusted after a dirtsearcher model or not I don't know, thought I expect not. But either way it made for a cleaner which could not be purchased elsewhere.

The hardbag with no headlight was a reverse of the above. Again it offered exclusivity without much cost or effort on the part of Hoover. I am sure it was priced slightly cheaper than the mainstream cleaner too.

Of course all of this exclusivity I speak of went right out the window when the Turbomaster went into production and the Electricity Board version was identical to the mainstream in all but colour. The same thing happened with the exclusive Hoover Compact cylinder cleaner which was the same as the mainstream. The Electrolux 615 upright was identical to the mainstream 614, except that it came with a moulded plug and was cream & grey not white & pink, proving that it wasn't just Hoover which was no longer adding or taking away features in order to make an exclusive model. At the end of the day it all came down to what the Electricity Boards were willing to buy from the makers.
 

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