Let's Turn Two Husqvarna Viking 507 Uprights into One Working Machine!

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551 - the first of the newer style Twin Turbo cleaners. Pretty much the same machine, just in new colour schemes, a bit more of a modern design and a far chunkier and more solid handle. The 551 was the base model Twin Turbo, with the 561 in dark blue being the TOL, then the 610 and 612 being the overall TOL cleaners with on-board tools.

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The second main-run style Twin Turbo's in a much more sleek looking design and colour scheme, launched in 88. There were older style models still sold at this time as exclusives, but there's so many of these in various forms it would be difficult to list them all. Currys, Comet, Co-Op and the Electricity Board showrooms all had an exclusive.

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why these European uprights did not have a headlight

I always wondered why members across the pond find a headlight so essential. Who vacuums in the dark? It's a pointless feature and a way for manufacturers to slap a higher price tag on the cleaner.


 


Incidentally, whilst headlights may not be a thing of the past on most European machines, Hoover, Panasonic & Goblin all offered uprights with headlights right up until the late 90's.
 
I find them really helpful in illuminating any areas in shadows or even near the edges of beds and chesterfields where a sock or plastic bag might jam up the revolving brush. It also saves you from constantly running to turn lamps on and off in bedrooms and living rooms. Also, it's a great help for seniors who have poor eyesight which might prevent them from seeing bits of dirt and dust on the carpet.

I would never buy an upright without one. And it really is not very expensive to add the wiring for a tiny lightbulb and plastic lens.
 
not very expensive to add the wiring for a tiny lightbulb

true, but it traditionally it was a feature that one would pay more for. Just because it doesn't cost a lot to make, doesn't mean that the manufacturer won't charge more for it just because it has a headlight and doesn't actually have any impact on performance.


 


As for running around and turning lamps on, vacuuming at night isn't something I normally do.
 
A headlamp might have not cost very much in terms of parts, but the additional labour which would have gone into assembling each & every cleaner with a headlamp would have been considerable. On UK cleaners I think the Hoover Turbopower was just about the only one where additional assembly time was kept to a minimum, but even then it would have added up.

Clearly there were two camps - those manufacturers who saw a headlamp as a selling point, and those who didn't. Electrolux never had headlamps on uprights, nor did they have automatic cordwinders on any of their uprights, save for one model of the Glider in the late 80's / early 90's which was very short lived. Electrolux always sold themselves on the performance and quality of their cleaners, rather than adding on subjective extras which the competition were using.

You only have to look at the Moulinex Major to find a cleaner which had everything on it and still cost less than many of the others. Popular as it was, it doesn't appear to have impacted the sales of the less-fancy Electrolux 500 cleaners.
 
In my experience, its a typical American thing to have a light on an upright vacuum cleaner. Another helpful feature when one can't be bothered to turn on a light. Given that we had the Holy Loch Naval U.S base in Scotland where I reside, I saw a lot of American homes with a lot of American appliances and plenty of Hoover uprights with dirt searcher style lights. Their homes weren't dark; there was little difference to the American homes that the Navy base built aside from voltage and electricity power plants nearby the homes to cope with the change of voltage and appliances that the families brought over.

And yet, for the most part whenever my late parents' Hoover Ranger light stopped working, they seldom replaced the bulb - reason being the vacuum failed to go under low furniture any way when the light "showed up dirt" and the non-functioning light didn't impede the robust performance that the Ranger provided.

Miele also fitted LEDs as standard as part of the S7 uprights, but only reserved the function on the top two of higher priced versions versus the basic ones that do without.

A lot of Hoover/TTI branded uprights available in the U.S and the U.K have cosmetic differences AS WELL as a blanking plate over the area where a light can be found on the U.S versions. Only a few models have the light retained. Bissell in the UK are an example of this - some of their bagless uprights have LED lights retained.

Another American "trait" I noticed when growing up are uprights with cord rewinds. Sadly Europe and UK don't feature many uprights that have auto cord rewinds built in.
 
Thanks for all the great ads and information!

As an American, I admit I'm pro-headlight (spoiled). The S7 has beautiful LED headlights, that cast a shadow on dirt before it picks it up.

I don't miss headlights on machines that don't have them, but I always welcome them.
 
The advances in LED light bulb technology mean that lamps are seemingly endless now - My last wahsing machine had a control panel festooned in them. And of course some are so bright they are being used in actual househole light bulbs. What a contrast this is from the bulkier neon bulbs which were used in the past -the very same in the Electrolux cleaners which had illuminated switches- where having one on an appliance was considered useful, and two simply decadent. LEDs really have replaced the neon bulbs for good now on many appliances, though I see the latter is still widely used on kettles, irons, and wall sockets & switches which require illumination.
 
The 500 series is what gave Electrolux their name in Sa. While we got all the early ones from the 500 502 504 it was the 506 and almost identicle 560 that sold the most. The 506 had no competition from the then market leader Hoover who was still selling good but vastly outdated Hoover seniors and concept ones. They took the market from Hoover with powerful lightweight vacuums with the best hose suction of any upright on our market at the time.
The 560 was almost the same colour with slight changes to the trim. The motor was a better design that was not sealed but able to be worked on. On the competition front the 560 competed witb the origional turbo power but again although the turbo power had the better brush roll its build quality was terrible and the Electrolix triumphed again.

It seems that everyone who has walked into my shop since i had the display up has said Oh wow my mom had one or We had one.

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