New user form Ireland

[nilfiskga70]

Hello, Peter here from Limerick, Ireland. I am also on the autowasher forum. I work in factory maintenance for a semiconductor manufacturing firm, but I spent 2 happy years away form home in my first real job from '87 to '89 as a repair technician at a cleaning supply firm who were official Nilfisk agents. Looking forward to sharing my Nilfisk experience and hints/tips with any Nilfisk heads out there. I grew up with a new GA70 my parents bought in 1976 for £70, not a small sum back then. As a kid, my Saturday chore was the vacuuming so I got to know that vac pretty well! It is still on the go - I stripped and serviced it in 1989. Acquired it a year ago after Mum bought a light-weight vac she could handle easily. Today I use it as a workshop vac and for cleaning oil burners, but I need to restore it as its commutator is badly dished/worn - no doubt in part to all those hours I was using it back then! We also repaired other makes of vac, I liked the Electrolux cylinders, esp. the 345 and the Hoover Junior/Senior. My other past times are hiking and classic cars - I own and run a roadworthy 1977 Triumph Dolomite 1300 and am a member of the UK Triumph Dolomite Club - drove one of these as a daily from 1991 to 1993.

 

[madman]

Welcome!

Cleaning oil burners - that's interesting. I have two big waste oil heaters in my shop. Cleaning them is a pain in the ash. Huehuehue. I wonder now if I should get a dedicated machine to vacuum them.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Welcome, Peter.

You'll enjoy this forum a lot. I only collect Hoover products.
My family comes from County Mayo. I still have family in Navan. Been there 3 times.
John Long, Vice Pres of The V.C.C.C.

 

[huskyvacs]

Madman - Shop Vac makes a special variant of their vacuums for vacuuming up ash for fireplaces and BBQ's. There is also by a different company - vacuums for sucking up...umm...cremated remains - both hot and cold.

 

[eurekaprince]

Welcome Peter!!!

So nice to hear from a cleanerphile who has expertise in a brand we rarely hear about in North America!!! The only Nilfisk I've seen in Canada was a very industrial looking commercial tub vac being offered in a vacuum specialty store. And I do seem to remember a Nilfisk canister vacuum rated very well by America's Consumer Reports one year - many years ago.

I can't remember the heritage of the brand - is it based in Denmark or in Norway? Also...was there not a time in Nilfisk's history when it was owned by Sweden's Electrolux?

Glad to have you join our online community!

 

[nilfiskga70]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, Nilfisk were Danish - named after the surnames of their original owners: Nielsen and Fisker. They did some large commercial/industrial vacs, namely the following:
GA71/GS81: A medium-sized metal oval-bodied cleaner with the same motor as the domestic vacs and a heavy duty green rubber hose with a robust floor nozzle.
GA72/GS82/GM82: Larger oval-bodied machine, approx 30" high, with a larger diameter green rubber hose and external filter shaker knob. Fitted with 2 of the standard motors as used on the domestic vacs. Very popular with chimney sweeps in Ireland.
GS83/GM83 - Large cylindrical vac with external filter shaker knob and 3 standard motors fitted to the domestic models.
GB733 - Same as the GS83, but using a single 3 phase motor, popular in factories.
These were models I worked on from '87 to '89' - obsolete now but a lot of them still earning a crust. Brilliant suction due to the huge filtration area and ability to shake off the dust using the external shaker knob.

 

[lesinutah]

Why

When I order from Amazon or wherever it says it's comparable with Nilfisk.
I'm guessing they have commercial grade machines and or central vacs.
Les

 

[bisonian]

Nilfisk

The company is a HUGE player in the commercial/industrial cleaning equipment business worldwide. Over the past three decades, they have taken over many smaller, often family-owned companies, including Advance, Clarke and Viper here in the U.S.

In fact, Advance, once based in Plymouth, Minnesota is now known as Nilfisk-Advance, and it appears the company is gradually fading out the Advance brand all together. Other brands the company has absorbed include Alto, WAP and Kent/Euroclean.

Still based in Denmark, never a part of Electrolux.

 

[bisonian]

Link

Forgot to add this.

ttps://www.nilfisk.com/en/nilfisk-group/Pages/nilfisk-group.aspx