My Collection + Intro

[eurekaprince]

Hi Alex...welcome to Vacuumland!

I think that Kenmore Power Centre upright you have was made by Whirlpool, not Panasonic.

I have been intrigued by the transition Sears made from Whirlpool to Panasonic as the primary maker of Kenmore vacuums in the 1980's. I know that Matsushita bought the Whirlpool vacuum factory in Danbury, Kentucky in 1991 - thus fully taking over manufacturing of Kenmore vacs. But it seems that before that date, Sears was selling some Kenmore vacs made by Panasonic at some other American factory. But I have yet to find evidence of a location for that American Matsushita vacuum assembly line. Would you know?

 

[eurekaprince]

Sorry....I meant Danville, Kentucky....not Danbury...

 

[panasonicvac]

I'm pretty sure my power center was made by Panasonic or maybe it was made by Whirlpool before it was taken over by Panasonic at that time(I know there are a few models of these that are made and licensed by Panasonic in their Ultra-Pro line back then). Strange I didn't know there was another factory. I'll have to ask my old buddy who has sold Panasonic for over 30 years before he retired if there was another factory and where it was made.

 

[panasonicvac]

I've made it to my other shed earlier this week finishing off my collection here.

Kenmore Progressive with intelli-clean
Kenmore Whispertone
Panasonic MC-V7337
Kenmore Quick Clean (grey)
Dirt Devil Vision
Kenmore Quick clean (green)
Sanitaire
Dirt Devil featherlite (green)
Hoover Turbopower 1700

Not pictured:

Hoover soft guard (elite version)
Dirt Devil featherlite (like that green one but it's blue with a stretch hose)
Kenmore progressive with direct drive (like my black one but it's purple)

 

[panasonicvac]

Since that shed was next to my Grandparents, I thought I would show off their collection.

You can easily tell what these are:

 

[panasonicvac]

So that finishes up here. If I feel like it, I could show off the my relative's vac collection if I have time.

 

[panasonicvac]

Was at my aunt's place this week so thought I would show off her collection.

 

[vacuumlad1650]

Welcome! Im Andy, and i mainly collect vintage Aerus Electrolux vacuums, but a few late 1990's and early 2000's vacuums have found shelter in my collection

 

[vacerator]

Beam Serenity series;

Great system! She needs a total control hose. A Cana-Vac gas pump style hose will fit, and is the most reasonably priced.

 

[panasonicvac]

Vacerator

We just got the handle replaced not too long ago, the handle used to be white but the black one was the only replacement option we could do. I recommended her to get different handle for it but she went with this one because it it was still under warranty. She is still quite happy with this so far so no changes are going to happen at the moment.

 

[durango159]

Welcome aboard! Nice collection pieces you have!

Do you find the difference of the air powered TurboCat nozzles vs. electric power nozzle on a central as amazing as I did?? The TurboCats sound cool, maneuver easy and seem to groom nice but when you run an electric head over the same area afterwards, it really is amazing and scary what was left behind I found. Still a good unit that definitely works for quick pickups or in between of an electric nozzle. The Beam Rugmaster heads are quite powerful. Have you thought about getting other Electric power nozzles for your Central system such as a Panasonic nozzle, Hoover, or Wessel Werk or other Beam style?

Do you have any interest in Panasonic/ Kenmore canisters? Seems like you have several of their upright lines.

 

[panasonicvac]

Durango159

Thank you. Yes I know that the electric powerheads are WAY better than the turbocats for a long time. That was one of the reasons we upgraded our system years ago.

I really like these Eureka/Beam powerheads because they have very strong agitation but I rather not perfer them to use as my main powerhead because I like powerheads that have the manual height adjuster system instead of the free floating heads. I love panasonic powerheads on a central vacuum as I think it is one of my favorites but if I were upgrade again, I would get a stealth (Lindhaus) kit from MD.

I perfer panasonic upights better than canisters for lots of reasons but I still really like them. I just picked up a Kenmore progressive canister tonight and just overall my biggest concern on these which I perfer the uprights better is the door compartments are really cheap and flimsy. Oh and I like the attachments better on the upights better than the canisters as well.

 

[durango159]

Oh Cool!

I only saw the Eureka Express style power head in your photos so I wasn't aware if you had any other ones.

As far as the canisters I find them very powerful. The older generation's 4 piece attachment set does a better job than the current series. Though the gorgeous Panasonic MC-CG902 still offers the original tool set. The only tool that I'm not wild about on that set is the bare floor brush. I find the bristles too firm, too short and not enough of them. But for $10 at a vacuum store one can get a generic bare floor brush with full perimeter horse hair bristles and the front bristles are cut a little shorter to prevent a snow plow effect.

I've had concerns myself for durability of their tool doors but at the same time I have yet to see a broken one!!! Of all the machines that appear on eBay, in thrift shops and using a few myself I have yet to see a broken tool door or attachment door. I think it is just very tight fitting and unless it is pulled up and down at a perfectly straight angle then the slight bend makes it rub on the plastic more and not swivel up as easy. Vaseline or WD-40 or cooking oil may help but I've never tried any sort of lubricant on one!

I wish you great luck with the Progressive unit that you got! Please post a photo. The Progressive name has been out for about 20 years roughly and has seen quite a few changes, utilizes 2 different power nozzle designs as well!

 

[durango159]

Oh Cool!

I only saw the Eureka Express style power head in your photos so I wasn't aware if you had any other ones.

As far as the canisters I find them very powerful. The older generation's 4 piece attachment set does a better job than the current series. Though the gorgeous Panasonic MC-CG902 still offers the original tool set. The only tool that I'm not wild about on that set is the bare floor brush. I find the bristles too firm, too short and not enough of them. But for $10 at a vacuum store one can get a generic bare floor brush with full perimeter horse hair bristles and the front bristles are cut a little shorter to prevent a snow plow effect.

I've had concerns myself for durability of their tool doors but at the same time I have yet to see a broken one!!! Of all the machines that appear on eBay, in thrift shops and using a few myself I have yet to see a broken tool door or attachment door. I think it is just very tight fitting and unless it is pulled up and down at a perfectly straight angle then the slight bend makes it rub on the plastic more and not swivel up as easy. Vaseline or WD-40 or cooking oil may help but I've never tried any sort of lubricant on one!

I wish you great luck with the Progressive unit that you got! Please post a photo. The Progressive name has been out for about 20 years roughly and has seen quite a few changes, utilizes 2 different power nozzle designs as well!

 

[panasonicvac]

Sure

I'll post pics when this thing is done cause I have it currently taken apart for cleaning right now. Just got it for $10 in pretty nice shape minus a few scuffs and paint marks but other than that, it had ALL the attachments on it and the hose is not even crushed at all. Only reason it was donated was because the powerhead didn't turn on. Just pressed the reset button and problem solved! However upon further inspection just now is that the bag door cover DOES have a crack in it.

I wonder if you are familiar on fixing these alot, what kind of glue would you recommend that would hold up on this crack you see in the photo in the middle cause I'm just concerned this might happen to me again if I didn't had any strong glue that would hold it up? I rather fix this than having to buy a whole new cover for this from sears.

Thanks.

 

[delaneymeegan]

Alex-

That's a wonderful and extensive collection.  


 


Thanks for sharing.  


 


I had one of those Green Machines (without heat) for several years and it worked great.  I found it desirable to shorten the hose about 18".


 


Good luck on your current project.

 

[panasonicvac]

Was at my brother's this week so here's a picture of their vacuums here. I don't think I will ever do a video of these vacs because my brother lives pretty far from me and I only go there about once a year so I'll just go ahead and talk about these vacuums.

Carpet Pro: My sister-in-law bought this brand new from a vacuum store about a year and a half now. She got this to replace her old Red Eureka Powerline gold Victory that was falling apart due to it's old age and with motor starting to fail. It didn't came with the attachments so she found a hose for it at QVC for a dollar and it came with a Kirby attachment with it as you see in a photo. Overall it is a really good vacuum, it does an excellent job on carpets. Couple things we don't like about this is that this keeps burning out headlights and the suction is not very good on this. (Even tho the filters, the bag, and the motor is very clean)

Dirt Devil: My sister-in-law got this brand new from target cause she got a gift card or something that she only had to pay like 10 dollars on so she uses this to clean the bare floors of the house. Overall it's not powerful but it still picks dirt off the floor.

 

[n0oxy]

power nozzles

Regarding using Panasonic power nozzles on central vacuums, the Centec power heads are very similar and may even be exactly the same as what Panasonic uses. I have the Mc-cg902, for the price, you can't beat it. I believe the power nozzle it uses is similar to the Centec ct16qd, then there is the Panasonic mc-cg937 and I think it includes the Centec ct20qd. Recently I've started collecting power nozzles, and just ordered what I think will be the last one for a while. I was mainly interested in the universal power nozzles since those can work on just about any electric hose. Got the Lindhaus pb14 pro, the Wessel Werk ebk 340, the Sebo et2 and will soon have the Riccar universal power nozzle. Unfortunately the Wessel Werk ebk360 and all of the Centec power nozzles do not have pig tail cords, but require a direct wand, so are much more limited in what they will work with. It would be interesting to try and make a pigtail adapter for some of these power nozzles, similar to Sebo's central vacuum adapter. It's actually interesting to pair a canister with a different power nozzle than what it came with to see if there is a difference in cleaning performance.

 

[n0oxy]

air driven nozzles

Forgot to mention this in the last post, I think electric nozzles are by far better than air driven nozzles. Electric nozzles are much quieter, and much less likely to clog. With air driven nozzles, everything goes through the turbine, and the opening is very small so all of the incoming air flow can be used to spin the turbine fan. Electric nozzles may cost a bit more, but it's well worth it.

 

[panasonicvac]

Power heads

Yes Centec uses the same powerheads that Panasonic/Kenmore uses. There's one Centec powerhead that is actually made by Tacony you would see on the Riccar/Simplicity canisters and Central vacuums. My Grandpa has a Vacumaid central vacuum that uses a Vacumaid deluxe powerhead which is made by Panasonic, I think that is the funnest central vacuum I have ever used. My Grandpa got new carpet a few years ago and it amazingly still picks up alot of carpet fuzz cause this really is a great nozzel, it's powerful enough that I would empty the canister everytime I use it because it fills up very fast. I never really like turbocats when I was growing up. I get so bored with it that I just don't ever use it. The only time I ever liked these was one time I was at a neighbor's house once with a Vacuflo unit. There was only low pile carpet in their house so that was why they got a air driven kit. The Vacuflo unit was so powerful enough that it blew me away using it with the turbocat, it was so powerful that it filled the canister really quickly so I really had a fun time using that. Too bad my Beam unit is not as powerful enough to use the turbocats on, or maybe it's just that my turbocats are just getting old and wearing out. I would only recommend a air driven kit to someone that has only low pile carpeting, with no pets, doesn't get the house dirty as much, and use it with a very powerful unit like that Vacuflo I had used.