My Numatic James

VacuumLand – Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts

Help Support VacuumLand:

I ordered it through a supply campany.

I forget which one now. It was over 300 dollars but well worth it. Does your James have the receptacle on the back?
 
Seth

Your Numatic James is awesome! I have been thinking of getting one with the same powerhead kit you have. Here in Canada, it's the Numatic Harry that's offered with 2 powerhead kits, this one & then the Wessell Werk EBK290, the small PN that's a generic version of the Miele SEB217. The 110" Waterlift, large HEPA Cloth bags & aggressive powerhead would make for a unbeatable cleaner!

Rob
 
Wayne, if you wanted to add a power nozzle to your Numatic James, you could always just buy a central vac hose outboard cord, attach it with straps to your hose, & plug your PN & vacuum into the wall at the same time. Sure you would be using 2 plugs & would have to store 2 cords, but at least you could have a PN with your vacuum if you wanted.

Here's one here near the bottom of this webpage. It's 36 foot, so if your hose is 6 foot, that should leave you 30 foot of hose to be able to move the vacuum with.

Rob

http://www.thinkvacuums.com/beam/hoses.htm
 
I have an EBK290 that is branded Kenmore and apparently came with something called the Magic Blue canister. I adapted it to a standard Kenmore wand and use it with an older Kenmore 12 amp canister. I like it. It is not quite 12 inches wide and can sneak between things the wider Panasonic built Powermates cannot. Quiet too. The first time I switched it on I had to pick it up and flip it over to be sure the brush was turning. No height adjustment though and it doesn't clean deep pile carpet as well as the Panasonic made Powermates. It seems well made, it's certainly easy to disassemble to replace the brush and to keep it clean inside. Nice piece of equipment. I wasn't aware it was still being sold.
 
Say D.T, why not tell us some of your misadventures in craigslist? 
smiley-laughing.gif



 


Good find, by the way! 
smiley-laughing.gif
 
kirbylux77

We also have both version of the Harry available here now. I'm thrilled they have finally started to offer a power nozzle on at lease one model. Good to know I can replace mine if he ever goes up. I originally has a sebo power nozzle kit in this unit that I bought years ago. It worked great but I decided to upgrade last spring to the newer kit figuring it would be better for cleaning houses.
 
I need to buy some model cement today and see if it will hold together the broken handle on that Kenmore 2.5 Swamp Creature (that's my name for it now :o ) from your home state (near by Daytona). Nothing has crawled out of so far (whew) but ooooh ooooh that smell .......

Sears Parts Direct shows the base for the little Powermate it came with is still available. 30 something year old part. Ha, we shall see. They've lied before.

Two of my favorite vacs were Craigslist finds from LA. All of a sudden people are asking three digit prices for old 1980's and 90's Kenmore canister vacs on Craigslist. The word must be out that the Desert Tortoise is out of his burrow and on the prowl.
 
Dircik

My apologies, I misspoke when I said it was the EBK290 that was the other powerhead that was offered with the Numatic James & Numatic Harry cleaners. It's the EBK280 that's offered. This is the same PN that was offered as Riccar & Simplicity's most basic PN on some of their mid-line offerings, such as the Riccar 1500 canisters. It is also the same as the Miele SEB217 PN, the only difference is cosmetics on the outside & of course the PN neck is made to accomodate the Miele direct-connect wand. However, as for the EBK290, back I think around the late 1980's/early 1990's, Miele did offer this PN with some of it's earlier canisters, such as the S300 series.

Seth - Just wondering about the James. Since you have been using this to clean houses, & obviously you would have encountered lots of dusty homes, can you tell me how well this vacuum maintains suction through the hose?? How much of the bag can you fill up before it's lost too much of it's suction & airflow & needs to be changed? I was thinking of this vacuum because the bags are HUGE, & I also like the manual cordwinder....one less thing to break....and just the fact that besides the direct-connect wand, hose switch & PN, it's a very basic canister without frills. However, my main problem has been with bagged vacuums, even ones that use HEPA bags, is they lose power very quickly, since I tend to pick up lots of sand & fine dust out of my carpets.

Dircik, your opinion with regards to the Numatic HEPA bags would also matter to me, since you say you use them on your Kenmore canisters that call for the 5033 bags.

Rob
 
I love it, it does wonders.

I previously used an electrolux tank which did very well but the bags filled so fast. I run James until his bag is about 3/4 full before I change it. Since I primarily clean homes with pets and here in Delaware we have sand everywhere it's not like one bag lasts much more than a month. Even with the pet hair and dander the vac still has excellent air flow just before I change the bag. From my experience regular house dust and sand do very little to clog a bag. The pet dander is by far worst. Sand is too coarse to clog a bag or filter. Having cleaned homes with literally inches of dust I don't often have an issue with dust clogging the bag. Iv had far more issues with bagless vacuums loosing power quickly. Hence why I only used bagged machines.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top