Thanks for the pics of the Eureka 260!
The unit is almost identical to the one we had when I was growing up in Montreal. We might have had the previous version (the 250), because there are some differences.
First of all, our bag did not say "Eureka". It was the same colour as Norm's, but instead it had a neat graphic of a vertical rectangle closer to the top, with the famous curvey Eureka "E" in a circle and I think the word Automatic in smaller letters in a vertical line.
Also, our tool box was identical in shape, but not in colour. Ours was a light blue (not cardboard brown), similar in colour to the attachment box we see with all the Vibra-Beat canisters. I could never understand why there was no special slot for the curved wand! The only place for it was in one of the wand channels on the side, which made it disappear from sight! Also, the tool box "handle" (basically a hole in the cardboard), got ripped early on, so I had to deal with the word "Eureka" violently ripped in two every time I looked at the box! I knew that box by heart - I must have been the only 4-year old in Canada who knew how to spell "upholstery nozzle"!
The model was very highly rated for carpet cleaning in Consumer Reports, if I remember correctly. This was probably due to to the ingenious top-fill F&G bag which Eureka introduced years before Hoover. And yes, the suction through the attachment hose was pretty weak! Even with the "Bottom Plate" attached to the main unit. And yet, our hired housekeeper used all the tools religiously every week. I remember her using them to clean our carpeted stairs - she had to gradually move the main upright down the stairs about three stairs at a time - it sat pretty comfortably sideways on a tread. The tools that came with it are the classic Eureka tools whose design has survived the decades - the upholstery nozzle was very efficient, and I remember using the "floor and wall brush" to dust floors which, even with the weak suction, did a pretty good job with surface litter. We even used this Eureka with tools to give our car a good cleaning in the summer!
Thanks for the memories! (What vac did Bob Hope have?.....hmmm....)
EP Brian
