Just picked up one of my all time favourite cleaners :D :D :D

[hi-loswitch98]

That looks professional

I do remember seeing loads of Hitachi cleaners in catalogues when I was little but not so anymore - much like Argos not selling Electrolux vacuums anymore

 

[vintagerepairer]

Hitachi -like many companies- made other products of course, but again like many others, they kept their ranges slim. It may have appeared that they did many different types of cleaner, but in fact they must have only had about six on sale at any one time. After the original Cv-50 upright, Hitachi always sold a standard, autoflex, and autoflex-electronic upright, but that was it. The cylinders typically comprised two or three bagged cleaners, and a bagless alternative, but never anything over the top or very expensive.

I suppose Hitachi saw a place for a vacuum cleaner bearing their name in the UK market, but played it safe by limiting the ranges and keeping prices low. Moulinex did exactly the same, as did Goblin and, not withstanding price, Electrolux, for a good deal of years. It is a very sensible strategy in many ways.

 

[gwillim]

Nice chris..We had a hitachi powerhouse Cylinder in grey when i was growing up. The bagless one. Can't remember the Exact model but it came apart in two sections. Dust compartment and motor compartment.It replaced the Grey goblin solo that my parents had before that. It went on for many many years then in 2000 it gave up the go and remember my mum replaced it with a Hitachi cv 790. Almost Identical apart from it was dark blue and it only packed in about 2 years ago. Great machines. My parents have a Electrolux powerlite now.

 

[jmurray01]

That's brilliant you managed to find yet another Hitachi.

It is fantastic to finally get your hands on a vacuum you've waited years to procure.

Hope to see a video on YouTube soon!

As for the 1990s heralding the start of a throwaway society - that may be true in some instances but not with the Hoover Turbopower 2 ranges. When the motor in my Turbopower 1000 blew last year I managed to replace it very easily as everything came apart with the removal of screws.

I suppose you got what you paid for and since the Hitachis were budget vacuums they weren't designed to be repaired, whilst the more expensive Hoovers et cetera could be.

That all ended once we got into the 2000s though and even the most expensive vacuums (especially the most expensive in some cases) were useless once a fault occurred.

At least for us collectors we needn't worry about "putting up" with modern cleaners as most of us use older machines for our daily cleaning.

 

[sebo_fan]

Um.. the 1990s was not the start of the throwaway period but rather where production costs started to get more expensive in the UK not just for the buyer but to maintain the products. One reason alone to why Electrolux shifted production to other European countries such as Hungary and Poland. The answer lies in supercapitalism. See link to an old news report regarding this.

To quote some of this report, super capitalism:

"...The economic logic is impeccable: the goods are made in countries where labour costs are low, while repairs have to be carried out here, where costs are high. But even when goods don't need repairing, we still throw them away. Supercapitalism's brilliant answer to increasing durability is to elaborate and refine so that goods feel obsolete almost as soon as you buy them. Even environmentalism has been turned to supercapitalism's advantage: always buy a new machine, you are told, because it will be more energy-efficient than the old one..."

Jamie I would love to know of the "high expensive" vacuums that you refer to. Is there a brand that you have experience of where it can't be repaired?



http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/08/waste-supercapitalism-policy