The complete history of the Hoover Junior

[turbo500]

Hey folks,

Since there's been a LOT of drama between the UK members recently, some of us were chatting and thought this might be an interesting, fun way to pull us all back together again.

As a team effort, lets pull together the complete history of the Hoover Junior. This should certainly get very interesting into the 1960's - 1980's when the exclusive and unusual models start cropping up. I think between us, we've got them all. Lets try and keep it in order too?

I'll start us of with the Hoover Junior 370.

The 370 was a complete departure for Hoover as it was designed and built exclusively for the UK market and the first cleaner to not be sold on either side of the Atlantic simultaneously. There was considerable demand in the UK for a smaller cleaner. In many cases, the Hoover was just too large to be maneuvering around British homes.

The 370 arrived in 1934. It has a 225w motor, along with the famous "beats, as it sweeps, as it cleans" action. As well as being smaller, the 370 was cheaper than the larger cleaners, which is why it is fairly widely considered to be the first affordable vacuum cleaner in the UK. Before this, only the upper classes would have been able to afford a vacuum.

Here is a video courtesy of vintagehoover.

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7BXENJUUNw

 

[ultimatevacman]

Good idea Chris!


 


If anyone has any info on the 375 which is the model which came after the 370, it would be greatly appreciated!


 


Joe



http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/shockadelica/375ensemble1as.jpg

 

[beko1987]

No idea about 375 history but here is a picture of one!

From My Collection

 

[turbo500]

Hi Sam,

That 375 is lush!

The 375 was the first redesign, and arrived in late 1935. Some of the styling changes brought it more in-line with the larger Hoover cleaners, marking the beginnings of the Junior/Senior styling combo.

It's certainly more common these days, I think mainly because it had a 5 year run vs the 18 month run of the 370.

The Junior 119 followed in 1949 and production/sales of the 375 overlapped until it was discontinued in 1950.

See link to the 119 thread. There are 2 styles - the earlier style with the gold lettering on the hood and the later style with red lettering.

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?19975

 

[ultimatevacman]

Here's a photo of my 119, it's not very original!

 

[ultimatevacman]

Here's a photo of my 375.

 

[ultimatevacman]

Neither my 119 or 375 are very original! Apologies for the photos being the wrong way round.

 

[dysondestijl]

Lovely, Joe!
Did the 1224 come after the 119?

 

[turbo500]

Spot on, George. The 119 ran from 1949 to 1957, when it was replaced by the last of this style, the 1224. The 1224 ran from early 57 to late 58, one of the shortest runs of any Hoover cleaner. It's basically the same as the 119. but in a much more striking and modern colour scheme.

Photo here courtesy of chestermike, showing the 1224 alongside the later style 119 with the red writing on the hood

 

[turbo500]

Another pic courtesy of Mike...the 1224 with the hose setup.

 

[dysondestijl]

Wow, that is a lovely colour!
Then was it the red 1334 style Junior after the 1224?

 

[andy-lux]

The 119 for me was a pleasure to use. Manoeuvrable and enough power to do a fairly decent job.
in a uk home it was easier to use than the larger senior

 

[turbo500]

Spot on again, George. The 1334 was launched in 1958 and ran until 1962. The second major design overhaul Photo courtesy of vintagehoover (again).

 

[turbo500]

The 1334A followed in 1962. Originally in a rather dull off-white and grey colour scheme, but was revammed to a more pleasant olive green colour early in the run. No major design differences between this and the 1334, the biggest difference is just the colour scheme.

Video below courtesy of Ryan.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I had a 1334E but the baf was the same as the 1334A, were some of them released like that or was it replaced.

 

[turbo500]

Sorry folks, jumping back a few cleaners here, but just stumbled across the manual for the 119 in my collection. If anybody wants it, feel free to save it.

 

[turbo500]

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[turbo500]

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[turbo500]

Page 4

 

[vintagerepairer]

1334 differences

The white & pink 1334 junior had at least 2 styles of bag, the earliest having a metal slide across the top as pictured on here, but later still it had a zip. Also, the cover plate on early models was metal, and later on plastic.

When the grey colour scheme was introduced, the on/off foot switch cover was changed from square to round. The main hood was metal on a lot of grey cleaners, but I am not sure whether this was changed to plastic during the grey run, or whether that came when the colour was changed to Hop Green & Jonquil.

 

[turbo500]

Alex, that 1334E looks gorgeous! I'm glad you asked about that, as this is where my Junior knowledge goes a bit squew-wiffy.

I believe the 1334E was launched alongside the 1346 in 1968. The 'E' stood for 'economy' and as the 1334E was the budget model, based on the old design. I've not seen one in that colour scheme before though. My Great Grandma had one, but that was 2-tone grey.

Anybody else care to pitch in here? Al? Seamus?

EDIT:

Sorry, Benny, I missed your post. Think we must have posted at the same time. Thanks for the info regarding the 1334 differences. I wonder at which point did they become more plastic. I know by the time the 1346 arrived, the hood was entirely plastic. It seems even at that earlier point, Hoover had cottoned onto plastic being cheaper and were making cuts. There'd be an absolute out-cry if that situation were to happen today.

 

[borusa]

Mum had a 1334e as above but with grey bag and not green which didn't have the cord clip on the handle but my auntie had the two tone grey version which I'm sure had the clip. Benny - any ideas which came first?

 

[andy-lux]

Both my 1334A's had the metal hood but plastic belt covers. One in white and one in the dull grey colour.

 

[vintagerepairer]

I'm afraid I know little else, other than what I already wrote. By the time I bought my shop (1979) the mainstream Junior cleaners on sale were all the style with the flat-belts. The older round-belt cleaners had been discontinued, except of course for the U1012 exclusive cleaners and the same style with hard-bag unit. Because of the passage of time, a lot of the older Juniors which came in for attention had already had bits & peices from other cleaners (or indeed new parts) fitted to them, so it was hard to tell what was what.

The plastic hoods were very prone to splitting, so that rendered a good deal of them useless for reconditioning, as did the metal hoods, which although fully functional, often looked a disgrace in places where the paint had worn away against furniture etc. To that end, I often used to keep the metal hoods to repair those cleaners which had split plastic hoods. Selling a reconditioned cleaner in that state is one thing; that is not on. But telling a customer up-front that their machine can be repaired for very little money so long as they don't mind a 2nd hand scratched metal hood was quite another.

And so the merry-go-round of Hoover cleaners went on. Repairing Hoover cleaners was great for me as they could pretty much always be fixed up. I always said it was a very poor business decision on the part of Hoover to make their cleaners so repairable.

 

[andy-lux]

Grey 1334A

 

[anthony]

i have this

it was a wreck when i got it

 

[anthony]

dont

you think these two are very much alike

 

[vacbear58]

Juniors

Ok guys, here goes

 

[vacbear58]

The Stairway of Juniors