The complete history of the Hoover Junior

[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

 

[vacbear58]

More Juniors

Actually there are a couple more since these photos were taken

 

[vacbear58]

1334E

The 1334E was something of a hotch-potch of parts - up against the newly restyled 1346 (then denoted as Junior DeLuxe by the way), looked very old fashioned although the main body was the attractive smoke pine/swedish green combo. It did have a grey bag, and i think the old grey style which was used back in the days of the second series machines - it did seem like they were using up old bits - those bags are like hens teeth now.

 

[vacbear58]

You will not have seen this before

I recently received this inside another piece of Hoover ephemera I recently bought, showing just how popular the 370 was. its in three parts

 

[vacbear58]

page 2

 

[turbo500]

Hi Al,

I knew you'd chip into a Junior thread . The info is much appreciated. The 1334E certainly wouldn't be the last time Hoover made a model just to use up old parts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the next cleaner in our line up is the original 1346 with the brown bag and orange belt cover?

 

[turbo500]

Hi Al,

I knew you'd chip into a Junior thread . The info is much appreciated. The 1334E certainly wouldn't be the last time Hoover made a model just to use up old parts.

That's some very interesting reading regarding the 370, thank you for sharing. I wonder why, even when the cleaner was such a success, it was redesigned within the first 2 years of production? For a Hoover of that time, 2 years seems a rather short production life.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the next cleaner in our line up is the original 1346 with the brown bag and orange belt cover?

 

[vacbear58]

And finally,

Page 3

I have always made it clear my belief that Hoover were not market leaders by accident, it was a combination of good product, clever marketing and extensive sales support. Note how though, the concern was not to use the 370 as a basis to trade up to the 450 or 750, but rather a trade down if the more expensive machine was beyond the means or not appropriate to the house it was being sold into.

Note that last sentence, because I have recently been made aware that part of the Hoover sales technique was not necessarily to sell the most expensive machine, but the best machine for the household

 

[turbo500]

but the best machine for the household

If only Currys staff thought the same, eh?

 

[vacbear58]

1346

Chris,

That would be correct , but I am not done yet LOLOLOLOL

 

[vacbear58]

The three enemies

Even back in the 1930s