My Biggest Dream Machine has now been found

[electrikbroomgu]

1000 Housekeeper

I had the privilege of checking out this unique Housekeeper at Chris' place last year. I vaguely remember seeing this very first model in early 1986 in Zayres department store but have seen far more of the early 90's versions. You can tell the date of any 70's - 90's Reginas by looking at the serial number. In the older models from the late 60's to the mid eighties or so it was 3 numbers. If a plastic 1980's Regina says 426 that means it was made 06/02/1984. If it was a 70's metal body Electrikbroom or cannister and it said 625 then that would mean 05/02/1976. The newer 1990's Housekeepers had the actual dates in the serial number such as 03-01-91 as the picture below.

 

[electrikbroomgu]

Date codes continued

This is a date code of a 1978 Regina Electricbroom as 825 which translates 05/02/1978. You have to know the general decade in which the machine was made for this to work as 825 could have meant 05/02/1988 but this harvest gold electrikbroom is from the 70's and the later 80's brooms were much different at that point.

 

[rugmaster37]

Wow....

Not only does it look good in person, but it's very photogenic!

I tried it when I visited Kyle a week ago, and was very suprised at how weel it DID work as compared to how awful they were reputed to be. I'm not saying that it's peers at the time weren't beating the pants off it in cleaning ability and did so...but for being the first of the new generation of upright style and development....It really couldn't have been worse....lol

I can see tho why many of them died as described. Cheap plastic, and a design while innovative on paper maybe, was not the best in practice or theroy....contributed to their short lifespans. I can remember seing a sea of them at a local Kirby distributor in the early 1990's, that all had their handles snapped off, or just were broken in some way. It was sad becasue Jeff is right when he claims that it killed Regina as an effective vacuum manufacturer.


I could have sworn that I remember seeing them around the 1984 time frame, and time plays tricks on memory, but 1986 seems to be more the year as I knew I wasn't yet in 5th grade when they appeared. I do remember that model sold thru Meijers, K-Mart and TG&Y ( also known as Turtles, Girdles and Yoyo's). I always saw it with the tools on the machine tho.

That said it's rather quiet, not nearly as offensive as the later ones that were hawked thru Fingerhut, and other mediums when they got much larger, with the L shaped nozzles, but still sprorting that crappy build quality.

I was never a fan personally. I remember seeing them next to all the Hoover Convertibles, and Eureka ESP and basic models, and wanting nothing to do with the strange contraption that was pepto bismol pink.

Funny how years can change. As Kyle stated it's a perfect as one could possibly be found, and he qwas very fortunate to work out a deal for it.

Good looker Kyle......


Chad

 

[hoover1060]

Don't get me wrong...

Just because I said it was a miserable excuse for a vacuum does not mean I don't think its worth saving.
That series of Housekeeper is very rare, it was the first, and somebody somewhere should preserve one.
I'd classify the Housekeeeper with some other notable come & go's in the vacuum world:
The Hoover Duster
Airway Dirtmaster
Eureka Emperor
Royal Powercast
Hoover Z

I am quite certain about the dates though, the Housekeeper did not come out until late summer or early fall 1986. The larger Blue 5000 series came out in 1988.
The return rate was something like 90%.
Yes it killed Regina...

 

[charles~richard]

"Oh, I wouldn't call that machine trash at all! "

Exactly. My comments "one man's trash is another man's treasure" wasn't meant literally -- that I consider this machine trash. I was just saying, different vacuums appeal to different people for different reasons.

 

[camelotshadow]

I think we all knew what Charles meant...

At least I did
We all have different qualifications of what makes a vac
interesting or collectible to us.

After all whom is Charles to put down a vacuum
The man harbored Ugly Betty & then snuck her into my car...
Imagine my surprise when I found her straddling the poor Compact stuck beneath her
Guess they were getting to know each other over the winding hills off Mulholland

LOL

 

[swingette]

Was this machine before or after Panasonics Quick Draw?

Looks a lot like the Electrolux Discovery.

 

[rugmaster37]

A final thought....

This machine was WAAAYYYY before the Panasonic Quick Draw by like 5-10 years.

I hope that my earlier post was not mistaken. Sometimes that happens, and I want to clarify that I too think that they ( the Original Regina Housekeepers)are clearly collectible, and not junk in the collectors circle by any standard.

However, taking them in the "when they were brand new" context, that seems to be the summary of the whole Regina Housekeeper affair. Put up against ANY of their contemporaries at the time, they just did NOT have the wherewithal to withstand any average Homekeeper and the beatings that they gave them in the field. Hence the astounding retrun rate that Jeff stated.

Later when I was fortunate enought to become a repair/sales person, around the 1997-98 period, most of the original Housekeepers were long gone even then. I know that I rebuilt many a later model, especially the l-shaped head machines. Occasionsally I would get in a more standard earlier designed model, but usually they were horibly broken.

Dirt Devils were better in terms of quality, but not much. Some of their earlier machines from the Dirt Devil family were exceptionally bad in their own right. However to qualify my feelings on that, one must remember I personally was adding up their pluses and minuses to what I considered to be the standard of their day... The older Converibles, ESP Eureka's the Panasonic's, Royals and earliter 1970's and 1980
's machines that I was rebuilding daily along with the newer plastique' throw away machines from everybody at that point I.e Hoover Elites, Eureka Bravo's Housekeepers and the like.....

However 10 years on, and now I see daily some of the very worst quality, and lower than I ever personally expected lifespan results ever. The Regina may have well been two things... The start of a new type of upright cleaner obviously...but the beginning of planned obsolesense in the vacuum cleaner field. Not too many before that would have been allowed out of the factory gates before hand.

It's saddening. And in a way set a precedent.

In a way there is a silver lining. With all the truly yucky stuff that is being put out today and the higher than I ever expected survival rate for many common machines of the 1980's that we may have shunned at the time, and of course some of the anomolies like the Housekeeper, there may well be plenty for each of us to drool over for the duration I believe.

That Regina to me is one of them. Too bad I diddn't sock one of those away when I turned up my nose at them all those years ago.


Chad

 

[tolivac]

You know-the more I look at the picture of that Regina Housekeeper vacuum-the more I appreciate its simple beauty.Sadly most of the Housekeepers I have seen are broken,dirty-or just plain brutalized byond recognition.Its great that a NEW one survives here.When these first came out-didn't pay much attention to them-now they seem to be quite rare-when they last beyond their simple lives most were just thrown out.I never see them at the vac stores here for repairs.Suppose the owners just throw them out when they break-and just buy another similar type vacuum.I remember a TV ad for these years back-they show the "host" demo-ing the machine picking up nuts and bolts with the hose.I would think this treatment to the floor nozzle would crack the nozzle from the roller brush throwing the bolts against it.

 

[kloveland]

Got one for Christmas in 1989.

I just wanted to add that I received a housekeeper when I was about 4 or 5 for christmas. It broke within a year. I am glad to see pictures of one again.
Kenny

 

[rugmaster37]

oh wow....

Kenny that picture is priceless. The fact that you got a BRAND NEW vacuum cleaner that was real for christmas leaves me green with envy...lol.

I was NEVER allowed to have a real machine, and in fact did not have one until I bought a late 1950's General Electric SwivelTop mint green and chrome model w/ cord reel, myself many years later, on my own...and with my own money.

Sompeplace up in a huge plastic tub of pictures at my mom's is a few snapshots of me with various machines I recieved over the years as a youngster.

One I know of for sure, was a picture about age four of me using my new Eureka BatterOperated Upright. It was blue and white, with a whit bag with blue stripes.This was one of several Eureka's I had including a several pink ones and a green one. Or a least I believe it was green.

Thanks to Kyle I have that young childhood machine once again, except it's in red. Which leads me to believe that it's a later one.

I also had a canister version that looked like an Electrolux with a clear dirt container, white hose, and a clear suction tube. the attachments that came with it were all body color...which I believe was either yellow, or butter yellow. That was also a battery operated machine as well. It lasted the longest of all I ever had tho.

What a great pic. Brought up wonderful memories...for me on a boring, saleless Wendesday here at work...

Chad

 

[hygiene903]

Congratulations, Kyle!!

I know you've wanted a Housekeeper for a long time, and I'm glad you finally have one! And being new in the box makes it even better! Enjoy!!
Jeff

 

[ohio_tuec]

Toy vacuums

Yes, Chad, I too had that butter yellow canister that looked like an Electrolux. IIRC, it even picked up dirt! I also had a few blue Eureka battery operated uprights. Earlier models had a slide switch, whereas later ones had a turn switch. I still have one of them, sans the vinyl bag. I recall seeing them in pink as well, but not red. Ah, memories....

Karl

 

[rugmaster37]

IIRC, it even picked up dirt!.........

Hey Karl,

Yep it did pick up dirt, and quite well I believe, ore er. at least very well for a toy.. The machine split in half, so you could clean out the little filter, which IIRC looked like a little "filter-footie" that went over the motor inlet.

That machine also used 2 or 4 D cell batteries. Whichever amount, would allow it to work for quite some time before dying out, which I could accomplish in less than 24 hrs if I really tried to do...which usually was always.

In regurads to the Eureka upright style machines, I do remember that my blue and pink ones had slide switches, yet the red one that Kyle gave me has a turn switch like you described. I also remember that they died the quickest on their D cell batttery supply...

The Eureka I have now works perfectly, and doesn't pick up dirt per se, but really takes to inlating the bag up. It uses D cells too, right where the percieved roller brush would be.

I turn it on every now and then just for a smile.


Yeah...the memories.

P.S. The toy vacuum's I have now are the Miele Canister Toy, which I just bought two Christmas's ago. And I also have a 1960's ELECTRIC Kenmore upright. The one that uses the small vent fan motor...and it has a headlight. And of course the Eureka Upright that Kyle gave me.

 

[clarkecombi]

I Found a Regina Housekeeper 1000 commercial on youtube

Its the Mahcine kyles got...Its in the commercials after the Wrestling show..it says it in the Details..Avalable at Zayre.

 

[myvacsrock]

yeah

i saw it before, i have had it on my ipod.

 

[kloveland]

Housekeeper

The attachments were sold separately from the first version of the Regina Housekeeper correct? Finally found the one like I had in the picture above. I'm so glad to have one of the first Housekeepers. Did the model 2000 have the attachments included?

 

[kirbyvertibles]

How many of these early models were there? I've seen 1000 2000 I have a 2500 and I have a box of attachment for a 3000. Were they all the same pinkish color?

 

[dial-a-nap]

Very cool find! I remember when these came out, one of the first "affordable" all-in-one uprights. Those that have found good, unbroken examples of them are very lucky, I saw more than a few with broken handles in the garbage. A friend of mine bought a little later version and the handle snapped off the first day he had it. He returned it, the handle only lasted for a few months before meeting same he same fate. He ended up with a Sanitaire that he's still using today. It was pretty powerful for its seemingly shoddy quality and that some have survived is a counter to the "all junk" moniker they've acquired

I think there were some Housekeeper bags at a small-electric shop here, I'll have to look again the next time I go in there.

That's a great picture, Kenny - is the Visions cookware still around? Those had a love-hate reputation as well!

 

[vacuumman206]

kinda old

I know this thread is kind of old, but would you be interested in a Housekeeper 2000 to add to that 1000?