Pics From The Vac Shop

[rugsucker]

the place of which we do not speak

Kevin,Good job with pics.I couldn't have done better and as you didn't see me operate anything more advanced than a Roadmaster wagon with woodgrain you will understand.---Bagintheback,"All vacs & parts for sale"?Let's say MOST need a new home.(to repeat-The dumpster is 50 ft,the scrap yard is 1 mi,where are you?)This works best if someone,such as Kevin,drives up with a large cargo space and relatively small amount of currency.But would consider anything to get what you want to where you want it.---Vintagerepairer,The orange VAX appeared in early 90s and was marketed to vac shops who seem to have had little interest and Sears who carried it for a time.I remember walking through local Sears and seeing VAX cleaning solution on closeout table at reduced price.It then reappeared as the red Dirt Devil Cyclone.My white is labeled Wash Wizard by Vax and know nothing more.My opinion is it looked to much like shop type vac and to complicated for average customer to switch bags,tanks and filters for different jobs.Also unknown unlike the also complicated Kirby which was known for quality and power.VAX trivia-The US Life magazine had article on M Thatcher when prime minister that had a picture of visiting daughter when house was being redecorated and shows orange VAX in middle of living room.-Also book on hot air balloons shows VAX balloon.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Rugsucker, thank you for your information. Here in the UK we were not at all accustomed to using wet & dry cleaners to clean our homes in quite the same way that we did with uprights and cylinders machines. Because of this, Vax did very well to break down those barriers with their new machine. The size of the cleaner was enough to put people off now that I reflect on your comments, and yet whilst a good deal of people will have bought something smaller in the fullness of time, there were many who used their Vax as a dry vacuum cleaner until the very end.

It was the idea that one could wet-clean carpets one's self which really got people excited over here. Vax cleaners sold and sold and sold again. From about 1983 until 1995, Vax were still 'THE' cleaner which people wanted. Whether Vax knew that people would very quickly bore of such a facility I don't know, but it was very hard work to Vax-clean carpets, not to mention a messy procedure which needed lots and lots of time to prepare the room, prepare the machine, execute the cleaning, dispose of the dirty water & clean the machine, and restore the room to it's regular state. It was the novelty of such a machine which 'sold' it, and Vax had the ultimate back-up plan built into the cleaner; you could use it as a regular dry vacuum. This mean several things and I will mention a couple if I may, one, anyone who was sitting on the fence over the purchase of a Vax could be easily persuaded that the fact the cleaner could be used dry would mean they were certain to gain their moneys worth. Two, you would be less inclined to lend it out to someone if it was your only vacuum cleaner, unlike a shampoo-only machine which would often sit in the cupboard for months -if not years- on end, waiting for someone to borrow it off of you.

The Vax cleaners were well built and their only fault was that the hose on a good deal of the 121 models was very poor. For me, that was a huge bonus as I sold many replacement hoses. But the cleaners were very rugged and many of the other brands which competed with Vax were a pale imitation in my eyes.