Hoover UK Floorcare 1969

[myhooverco]

Thanks for posting the 1969 line of UK cleaners. I just have one question. Where do I put my order in for a 417G? I just love that design. I noticed too that all of the UK cleaners came with the very good Ultraflex hose. Here in the US we mostly got the cheap Tufflex hose that did not give like the UK hoses. No...seriously...where can I get a 417G? (or any of the 417 models for that matter!) Great thread!

--Tom

 

[seamusuk]

Tom

Hey !

Will keep an eye on Ebay for a 417 - they are quite rare but do surface occasionally. Are they not the same basic design as the Holiday model you had over there?.

Ref the Hooverflex hose - over here Hoover made a big point of the "Double Stretch" thing- AFAIK until approx 1983 the only cleaners we had without it were US imports like the Celebrity. All our post 1955 Junior, Senior and Turbopower/Master tool kits have the stretch hose. Guess its another odd difference like the handle/foot switches.

Will shoot ya a mail later..

Seamus

 

[myhooverco]

Seamus...

Thanks for the information. Actually, I would love to have any of the "cylinder" type cleaners from the UK. They seemed so well built. The 417 was very similar to our "Holiday" cleaner. We only got one model in the mid 1950s and it was then discontinued in favor of the Constellation and later the Portable/Slimline.

The double stretch hose was definitely superior to anything else from Hoover.

--Tom

 

[rolls_rapide]

Hi all; finally managed to get log-in posting status!!!

The Hoover 'Double Stretch' hoses were absolutely wonderful for cleaning curtain rails/pelmets, ceiling light-fittings, stairs, car interiors.

I think the Hoover cylinders lost their uniqueness and usefulness when the hoses were switched to the 'plastiflex' rubbish.

Seamus:
Thankyou very much indeed for releasing this brochure: it has cleared up a question I had. Several years ago, I came across a reference to the Hoover 'Harlequin' range, as being the successor to the 417. I could not find the 'Harlequin' name in any of the Hoover Data Books' spares pages.

Speaking of the Hoover 417: Decades ago (1990), an old lady came into the Currys shop I slaved in, and asked for bags for that model. None of the staff had heard of that model, including the in-store Hoover rep. Now I know what it looks like; lovely colour.

Hoover 'Conquest': I have had the priviledge of using one, in a rented holiday cottage (North of Scotland, 1980/81). It didn't have the turbo-nozzle, but cleaned well. I used the machine to hoover up an annoying bluebottle, which promptly flew back out when I opened the machine to check the bag! LOL. It was due to the versatility and actual usefulness of this cleaner, that persuaded my parents to invest in the Hoover 'Sensotronic System 2' S3128 (brand new for April 1982).

Hoover 6525A: I think an aunt had one of those. And my sister and I had one each of the toy replicas; apparently we fought over my sister's toy cleaner so much that our parents bought another one! LOL.

A year or two later, my sister got a toy 1354 'Junior'.

 

[luxg]

I loved looking at all of these ads, thanks so much for sharing them!!

 

[anthony]

that orange carpet

looks suspiciously like luxury you can afford from Cyril lord with Enkalon whatever that was i can still remember the tune .my mum had a conquest back in 1970 i think it fell down the stairs and the handle broke off .My dads idea of a repair was to screw on an old leather trouser belt from side to side i am sure he got the idea from seeing my grans electrolux Z65 .the Conquest lived to be 38 years old b efore it finally died

 

[vacbear58]

Luxury You Can Afford

Gosh that takes me back a long way. A former colleague of mine used to work for Cyril Lord in Belfast in the 1960s - he said that as many carpets "went out the back door" as went out in the delivery truck. I can just about remember the TV ads but there seem to be none on you tube.

What I do have though is the dirty great elephant.



This was Hoover's long awaited answer to the somewhat more elegant Electrolux 90/100 series, although the Conquest's styling is very current for the time, it always seemed reminiscent of the Mk1 Ford Capri or Mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac cars. Bear in mind that the Electrolux models had been on sale since around 1964 and indeed established a new market segment for canister cleaners in the UK. The turbo nozzle was a means of differentiation from the Lux cleaners and I think is the only sign of such a nozzle on Hoover for very many years although about 10 years later Hoover did pioneer, rather unsuccessfully, the electrically driven power nozzle so familiar to US and Canadian members.

The 417 series continued on till around 1971 (having first appeared in 1953) when it was replaced by the 427 series. This looked somewhat similar to the 419/429/Harlequin as it shared the handle and front cover latch arrangement but in fact it was completely different.

The 427 carried on until around 1983 as a store exclusive (Co-op springs to mind) and in other territories - I have seen versions with ring lock wands rather than the more traditional pip and clip.

The 419 Harlequin was introduced in around 1964 primarily as a competitor to the Electrolux 65 and there were two series of colour ways: Black/Olive Green/Red stripy sort of material and then the colour series shown above. The cleaners above show the two lug twist hose connector, the earlier machines (and this includes this colour series machines) had a push to release style similar to that on the first series 417 (and I think Hoover Holiday) - the later 417s had a simpler finish.

Here is the Harlequin



It must have been around 1970 or so that the Harlequin was upgraded with an added bag full indicator and the, by then standard, flip over Carpet/floor nozzle. This model was available in tartan only.

The Conquest and Harlequin models were completely dropped in 1973 (I think) when the all new Freedom series was launched.

And a small note of correction on the Hooverflex stretch hoses. Although they first appeared on the 638 (Senior), 822 (Connie), 417E (Cylinder) and Dustette models (NOT the Junior till model 1224 which was somewhat later than the other models) there was a short period when these cleaners were supplied with a blue patterned braided hose - whether or not they ran side by side for a time I cannot say.

Al