I've wanted one of these for so long

[vacman117]

I finally got a purple Kenmore Progressive Direct Drive. Davis just got one of these last week and brought it over on Monday and I was so jealous. They are great vacuums. Well my mom's friend's parents said that they had some vacuums for me that didn't work. He said one didn't turn on and one needs a filter. So he brought them over tonight and one was a Eureka Light Speed and the other was the Kenmore. He said the Kenmore just quit working and wouldn't turn on. I gave them my blue Kenmore Progressive upright because they needed a vacuum. And he insisted that he give me $20 for it. I felt bad at first because I didn't want their money, but they have lots of it, so the feeling went away. But I plugged the Direct Drive in after he left and it runs perfectly! It just needed cleaned and unclogged! The motor filter needed cleaned big time as well. It came with all of the attachments and runs great. The only problem is the handle release is broken, but that's no problem. I love this vacuum though, and it is great!

This picture is from before I cleaned it up.

 

[suckolux]

Great cleaners, if a bit heavy for me.

 

[gmerkt]

Yes, I was on the look-out for one of these for a while myself. Lately, I've acquired two. They made more than one version of this judging by the two that I've got. One is a navy blue Model 116.34925 which has the basic shape of the many Panasonic of America-made Progressives both bagged and bagless. This one has a shorter hose and the electric Power Mate Jr. stored on the back. This one I think was made in the Tennessee factory. The other is a kinda gray/lavender/light blue-ish Model 116.35922. This doesn't appear to share any major structural parts with the first one, although the control panel is the same. It has a significantly longer basic hose and has the Handy Mate Jr. turbo tool stored on the front. I believe this one was made in Panasonic's Mexico factory.

I didn't know much about these when I first heard about them. I figured, "Hmmm, beltless, must be some kind of turbo propelled brushroll." No, the brushroll has it's own motor but not like the Italian-made uprights. The Kenmore/Panasonic beltless direct drive has a rather thin, flat motor for the brushroll down in one end of the hood.

The beltless/direct drive Kenmore in the picture in the original post is like my 116.34925, having the distinct hump in the semi-transparent plastic cover over the brushroll.

I can't quite make out the color of your machine; that brushroll cover I referred to above looks purple. The rest looks black but could be dark purple. I've seen a similar machine in purple before. I don't know what all colors these were made in.

Here's a pic of my 116.34925:

 

[gmerkt]

Another pic of the 116.34925 with hose extension (sorely needed) installed. By accident, I discovered I had this extension.

 

[gmerkt]

Picture of the later version of the direct drive Progressive, a Model 116.35922:

 

[gmerkt]

Another of the 116.35922:

 

[gmerkt]

One more picture of the 116.35922, showing the back and the length of the original hose. I'm missing the proper wand and an attachment but those will come along.

 

[vacman117]

I am on the lookout for the one with the electric hose, but I do have the blue Progressive, as well as a Direct Drive Kenmore Intuition upright. I love the direct drive feature, it is really neat and ensures the constant rotation of the brushroll. They also have a tendency to yank themselves across the carpet which is really like!

 

[gmerkt]

Panasonic MC-V7398 upright

Now this machine isn't a Kenmore, but was made in the same factory in Tennessee and carries the actual name of the manufacturer, Panasonic. This is a Model MC-V7398. Very attractive in deep red, I think. This takes the same bag as a Kenmore, what's called a U bag now. You can see similarities in the styling. I've had it apart for cleaning and belt replacement and what I see under the hood isn't Kenmore parts but things that are a little better made.

This machine has an interesting power switch of three positions. The intermediate position causes the operator to use a gun-like trigger in the handle to control the power; or power can be locked on in the third position.

 

[gmerkt]

Oops

Reading back, I see you've described your machine as being in purple. Lovely color; I wanted the one I saw in that hue but the front and back main body casings were popped open for some reason and I didn't want to go down that road.

 

[vacman117]

The trigger! I have seen that same one except it was purple and had a dirt sensor and such. Those are very neat machines.

 

[gmerkt]

The blue 116.34925 has the electric hose and of course the purpose of that is to run the little Power Mate Jr.

The story re. the hose extension is funny. I just got that the other day and didn't know what it fit. I posted a query for help on ID'ing a couple of hoses including that one. So this evening in looking over these direct drives, I noticed that the extension hose is for one of them. Thanks, Vacman117, for the inspiration.

 

[whirlsonicmore]

The direct drive motor in these uprights actually resides inside the brushroller itself, and it's pretty hefty and reliable. At the end of the motor is a gear cog and three planetary gears that run along an outside ring gear, which is keyed into the brushroller itself. Externally, without taking the brushroll/ motor assembly apart, you can only see the brushes and commutator side of the motor.

The motor is DC driven (AC household current is rectified in the suction motor compartment on a circuit board), it's fairly high torque, and coupled to the gear reduction it makes for very aggressive cleaning, not to mention pulling the vac and you clear across the carpet if you have the nozzle set too low!

Sears also had a Kenmore Bagless made with a revesible brushroller feature. It basically switched the polarity on the brushroll motor when the sliding handle grip was pulled back to the "reverse" side. Used to work on alot of these at Sears. The handle had problems with it not going to the "neutral" position on its own.

Those didn't fair too well. I guess customers got fed up with them and it's an obscure model these days.

 

[gmerkt]

Whirlsonicmore, thanks for the explanation. I didn't understand the design of the motor as you describe it. I wondered why the brushroll was so fat. That gear reduction really gives some mechanical grip; that's the only way they could get the old VW Microbus up hills. Fortunately, I haven't had to get into brushrolls on these aside from routine cleaning.

I wondered if Sears had offered a bagless version of these. I've never seen the reversible brushroll model you describe but no doubt one will come my way. I keep getting surprised by the number of Kenmore Panasonics that are out there. The number of model numbers is dizzying, and sometimes the differences are slight, like a color shade change on the back casing.

On the conventional upright models, the Kenmore brushroll is the weak link. It needs to be kept clean and won't tolerate being ignored. I've replaced a few of them in my selection of Progressives (and a couple of lesser but similar models), sometimes with non-Kenmore parts. My best adaptation was a higher quality Panasonic brushroll into a Progressive. I used a Filter Queen power nozzle bearing to fix another one. I've stocked up on bearing cushions.

Of the lesser models, I've got one out in my storage shed called a Grab'N'Go bagless. I cannibalized it for a few parts to restore another Kenmore, but it's interesting enough to keep and maybe restore later as the parts come along. The "Grab'N'Go" is smaller in scale and has an interesting handle that folds up for storage.

New repair parts from Sears for the Panasonic-made machines are fairly expensive (plus shipping). On the other hand, the parts for the later Phonemate-made machines are dirt cheap. I don't like the Phonemate machines as much; they are mostly heavy beasts. Cheap parts causes me to pick these up sometimes.

 

[eurekaprince]

The best part about these Panasonic Belt-less Brushrolls is that you can set the motor to "Gentle" for cleaning delicate rugs. This setting actually slows down the brushroll!

Overseas, Panasonic sold an upright called the "Icon" which uses the exact same "motor inside the brushroll" set up. There was a bagged version and a bagless version. Here's a YouTube clip from our friend Jack (DysonAnimal/VintageHoover):

 

[vacman117]

I love the Gentle feature! I use it very much on my Progressive Intelliclean. Unfortunately, only the models with the electronic switches feature the 'Gentle' option.

 

[eurekaprince]

Kenmore's Intuition 31100 Upright also features the Panasonic Direct Drive Beltless Brushroll. It's rated a "Best Buy" by Consumer Reports as it lists for only $240. Consumer Reports testing showed the following results:
1. Medium Pile deep carpet cleaning = very good
2. Bare Floor cleaning = very good
3. Airflow through the hose for tool use = excellent
4. Noise suppression = good
5. emissions control = excellent
6. handling (pushing, pulling, carrying) = good
7. pet hair removal = excellent

Panasonic does not seem to offer their beltless technology on any of their current uprights - they only offer it to Sears for their Kenmores.

 

[vacman117]

I have the Kenmore Intuition upright and it is a fantastic cleaner. It is probably one of my best vacuums in my collection.

Chase

 

[gmerkt]

It's funny how these things go...

So here we were just talking about these and another one came my way today for $4. It's the purple basic model, a Model 116.31912. No four position electronic switch panel, no turbo hand tool accessory. The pictures show it just as it came out of my car, dirty and no attachments. Those come along all the time, though, so no prob. I didn't even bother to plug this one in when I bought it, thinking I'd take it even if it didn't run. It didn't, no power. I took it into my vacuum cleaner hospital and quickly found out it had a bad cord. I pulled the handle and front access panel off (tricky), and found no power to the switch. The cord looked good, no cuts or abrasions to the outer sheath. I examined it back to the plug and found one of the plug spades loose. Simple fix, but someone else condemned the machine due to this defect.

This model, not having the four position electronic power switch, has the power on/off feature as a pedal switch on the left side of the nozzle. The more expensive versions of this have a cut-out for this switch but it's filled in.

Oh, this one has the handle lock pedal inop just like the one in the original post but I think it involves a broken spring. I haven't gotten that far yet.