Silver King, the most undeservingly maligned vacuum amongst collectors.

[ultralux88]

I know most collectors who know of or have heard of Silver Kings have said things like they clog up immediately or they're just so outdated and clunky, but I love the damn things, I think they're great vacuums.

I love how light they are for an all metal vacuum, and on the wheels they used it pulls around easily. It is a noisy vacuum though, with a 2 can bypass cooled lamb motor in an all metal housing, it does have a lot of rushing air noise, it's not loud, just a large quantity of noise. And I can fill the whole can with dirt before I lose much power at all. The newer filters, best described as a HEPA bag made into a flat round filter disk, filters very well and they shed the dirt back off into the can better than the old paper filters, and they also don't clog easily.

The Douglas PN is OK, nothing special in the quality department, but it meets the requirements needed to clean well, it has a good chevron brush and the bristles do groom the rug well. But it is a $40 PN on a $1800 (back when this was new) vacuum...

I'm watching my aunt and uncles dogs while they're gone, so I brought my black Silver King to their house. I vacuumed the whole house very thoroughly 2 timed and packed the can full as you can see, and I didn't lose any power at all. They have a Dyson DC17.

 

[ultralux88]

And the vac itself...

 

[cam2s]

I love my Silver King!

It's not perfect by any means, you are right the filters can clog quicky and the Douglas pn is nothing to get excited about, but that doesn't stop it from being a beast. I'm always horrified at what it can pull out of my carpet. Of course, it's always nice to use a machine that has a solid quality feel to it.

 

[kirby519]

Wow that thing is full. I can only imagine how many times the water would have stopped moving in one of the water trap vacuums. I have done it a couple of times.

I hope the Dyson supporters see this.

One could have undoubtly filled a bag or two on the Kirby.

 

[ultralux88]

It did great! I quit bringing my rainbow over here because it was such a pain to use, I had to stop all the time and changing the water. I like taking the silver king because it holds a ton of dirt and the filters are excellent filtering as well as cheap and easy to get.

 

[gsheen]

I like that machine. especially the blue one. I dont think they were sold here in Sa but back in the 80's this style of machine was very popular with people with large homes I remember seeing them when i was younger just cant remember the names of them.

 

[blackheart]

The new filters

Are pretty good, i've got the newest model (to my knowledge) the blue max air 2000. It came with a pump style hose and a wessel werks nozzle. The only real complaint i have about the thing is the noise level, other than that it's a well built vacuum that performs very well.

I'm honestly horrified that you managed to dig all that out with that douglas power head.

 

[kenkart]

I Think..

The newer filters make a big difference! The old ones plugged up so bad you could hear the motor change pitch with every stroke..I LOVE my Silver Kings..But I use a Kenmore bag in the short Pan and a Fairfax bag in the big one with a paper filter on top.

 

[kirby519]

It is incredable what a good quality and well maintained vacuum can recover from carpeting.

I for one wouldn't own a bagless upright vacuum on a bet. The only acceptable portable bagless vacuum would be a water trap vacuum. And those are a pain to set up and clean up.

We have a couple of the bagless Hoover Windtunnels at work. I am for ever cleaning the filters on those things. Not worth the money or the time spent on it.

 

[electromatik]

Wow that's a shocking sight. LOL

It looks somewhat similar to a Filter Queen. I guess it might be a play on words... Filter QUEEN... Silver KING...

 

[super-sweeper]

silver queen, filter king,

Don't forget silver knight! I believe user Kenkart has one!

 

[electromatik]

By the way, does anyone know who makes Douglas nozzles? Never heard of them before.

 

[jade_angel]

Those nozzles were made by the Douglas company, as I recall, and used with a whole bunch of vacuums. I've personally seen them with Sani-Clean and Silver King, but I think they shipped with others too.

In my experience they perform alright if paired with good airflow, though probably not as well as a Wessel Werk EBK360 or the current Tacony power nozzles.

 

[kenkart]

Actually...

They clean quite well, My Metropolitan tank has one.Douglas is whats left of the old Kingston company.

 

[rugsucker]

Silver Knight

By coincidence my red and chrome Silver Knight will be on EBay this week.Should have some nice Silver King attachments in original gray caddy next week.

 

[ultralux88]

I emptied the bin and the next two vacuumings got much less hair, but tons of sand and grit. I then shampooed, sadly al I had to use there was their Hoover Dual V steamvac with a motor that sounded like the bearings were totally dry and I swear it smelled like it was burning out, but I did manage to make the carpet look a bit better. Would have been better if I felt like bringing over my Rinse'N'Vac, that would have had the carpet looking like new! I could rant on for hours about how useless I think the "residential grade" shampooers are, no water pressure and pitiful suction, but anyway... After shampooing I dumped the Silver King again and with a fresh filter I vacuumed over the shampooed areas after they dried and kept getting sand, I vacuumed every few hours, making a total of 6-7 thorough vacuumings and got so much sand, almost a whole cup of sand in that damn Silver King! The Douglas PN isn't anything special, but it does have good enough performance.

 

[dysonman1]

Hope you check out the Dyson while you're there. The DC17 is an awesome vacuum when properly working. Is the brush bristles worn? Is the filter (both pre and post motor) clean? The DC17 should have removed all the sand as well as the fluff. You know how aggressive the DC17's brush is, but that machine is an old vacuum now and probably needs brushes and filters.

 

[super-sweeper]

he's using the Silver King,

In the house of a DYSON!? That explains all the crap you're pulling out of the carpets!

 

[tolivac]

Silver King vs Dyson-The Silver King is the winner!!!!Always wanted one--but wince at the 4K prices!!!It is a commercial type machine.Have heard of them used commercially.The Silver King has to be the ultimate "bagless" cleaner!