gmerkt
New member
I agree that the electronic on/off switches can give the older of us the feeling of, "Is it really going to come on?"
The Phone Mate machines are kind of a family of product, sharing lots of molds for plastic parts that have a range of compatibility across the product line. They made bagged and bagless versions, with the bagged being the more common in my own experience. They made several iterations of bagless, with a dual chamber version most common of their type, but also single chamber types as well. I don't remember all of the names, but one of the single chamber bagless was the Retraxx, with the "big draw" being a retractable cord. Another one I had was a kind of metallic maroon, dual chamber, heavy as lead, with an electronic automatic carpet level adjustment. I thought my wife would have to place it in my casket with me but a customer came along who just fell in love with it.
As ever, the Progressive name was used on some. I've got a couple of these at present, one for sale, the other partially refurbed but I won't finish that one until the first one goes away. These are both Models 216.37105.800. I won't mess around with the other Phone Mate models; I've learned to stick with the basic bagged Phone Mates.
I've seen Phone Mate Kenmores in a local Sears store as recently as, oh, maybe 18 months ago. In my last tour of the vacuum department several weeks ago, they no longer had any. The ones I saw 18 months ago could've been old inventory. The build dates on the two that I have at present are '07 and '08. The local Sears store still carries new, north American-made Hoover Windtunnels, but these have build dates in '08 and '09.
Oh, wait a minute. I just checked my storage building and I found another Phone Mate product. I'd forgotten about this one. It needs an expensive filter so I haven't done anything with it yet (and won't unless I can get a filter that costs less than what I can resell the machine for!). I'll include three pics of it below. We probably should start another thread re. the Phone Mate machines.
I agree, the way Sears is going, the Kenmore brand may disappear but so might the entire business the way things are going. Sears is in some financial trouble; their trend has been to introduce more and more brand-name merch. and reduce the amount of stuff that carries their private brand. I guess the marketing people have decided that consumers prize main-line brand names and don't identify with Sears brands. Also, they might find (in the world of made in China) that simply buying mainstream merch. in the long run is cheaper than contracting separately for it. It's becoming more apparent in the tool department, with Craftsman names being somewhat displaced by other branded names.
Phone Mate-made Kenmore Progressive:
The Phone Mate machines are kind of a family of product, sharing lots of molds for plastic parts that have a range of compatibility across the product line. They made bagged and bagless versions, with the bagged being the more common in my own experience. They made several iterations of bagless, with a dual chamber version most common of their type, but also single chamber types as well. I don't remember all of the names, but one of the single chamber bagless was the Retraxx, with the "big draw" being a retractable cord. Another one I had was a kind of metallic maroon, dual chamber, heavy as lead, with an electronic automatic carpet level adjustment. I thought my wife would have to place it in my casket with me but a customer came along who just fell in love with it.
As ever, the Progressive name was used on some. I've got a couple of these at present, one for sale, the other partially refurbed but I won't finish that one until the first one goes away. These are both Models 216.37105.800. I won't mess around with the other Phone Mate models; I've learned to stick with the basic bagged Phone Mates.
I've seen Phone Mate Kenmores in a local Sears store as recently as, oh, maybe 18 months ago. In my last tour of the vacuum department several weeks ago, they no longer had any. The ones I saw 18 months ago could've been old inventory. The build dates on the two that I have at present are '07 and '08. The local Sears store still carries new, north American-made Hoover Windtunnels, but these have build dates in '08 and '09.
Oh, wait a minute. I just checked my storage building and I found another Phone Mate product. I'd forgotten about this one. It needs an expensive filter so I haven't done anything with it yet (and won't unless I can get a filter that costs less than what I can resell the machine for!). I'll include three pics of it below. We probably should start another thread re. the Phone Mate machines.
I agree, the way Sears is going, the Kenmore brand may disappear but so might the entire business the way things are going. Sears is in some financial trouble; their trend has been to introduce more and more brand-name merch. and reduce the amount of stuff that carries their private brand. I guess the marketing people have decided that consumers prize main-line brand names and don't identify with Sears brands. Also, they might find (in the world of made in China) that simply buying mainstream merch. in the long run is cheaper than contracting separately for it. It's becoming more apparent in the tool department, with Craftsman names being somewhat displaced by other branded names.
Phone Mate-made Kenmore Progressive:
