THE NSS PIG

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">In the Vintage Bags thread codyf asked, "What a neat litttle machine! Do you have anymore pics of it?"</span>


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Well, the National Super Service is hardly a "little machine!" The beast -- which was nicknamed "The Pig" by the manufacturer -- is made of cast iron and weighs easily 50 lbs.</span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">The motor is huge and powerful (but relatively quiet) and the huge bag is something like seven-gallon capacity! It is a very cool machine and on every count in a class of its own. Besides being extremely powerful and functional, it LOOKS great, is fun to use, and the motor has a wonderful "singing" sound.</span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">The specimen in these photos was one of the earliest models made by this company. When I found it at a junk shop I did some research on it and found the company's web site. I emailed them and they were quite tickled to hear about it. The representative replied:</span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">"Our resident expert is guessing your unit was manufactured sometime in 1947, just a couple years ago! I wish we had pricing records on file for that year, it would interesting to know what customer paid for it....today's list price is $1131.00 without attachments. We know of quite a few machines 40 years old and older that are still put to rigorous, everyday use. Certainly a testimonial to a product that can really 'take a beating.'"</span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">The suction and air flow are just tremendous! I don't have mine anymore, it went the way of one of my "Great American Garage Cleanups" many moons ago. Was sorry to give it up as it was a really fun machine to play with.</span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Here are some more photos of it:</span>

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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Following are two links from the company's web site.</span>


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;"> </span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Sooooooooo..... how about a thread on vintage commercial vacuum cleaners! I don't recall there ever being one here.</span>



http://www.nss.com/about_legendary_pig.php

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">A brief history of the NSS Company:</span>



http://www.nss.com/about_looking_back.php

 

[blackheart]

Looks like a real beast! ~50 lbs huge metal fan i wonder how common these were? I've never seen one in person, but i've seen an ad for one in the twin cities though.

 

[codyf]

WOW, It sounds like a real beast!! Thinking back I want to say I saw one of theese at the high school I went to. Thanks for sharing!

 

[suckolux]

I cleaned one up for a friend maybe ten years ago, was used at Joanns Sewing center, lots of junk inside, big fan, huge volume.

 

[briankirbyclass]

I saw one once, being used in the entry way of the Student Union building on the K U Campus. It was yellow, and had a large and long yellow hose,,and a bluish green bag. Extra long heavy yellow cord too. I remember the stand up cord holder,,had never seen anything like it. Made me look twice.
The wands were the Filter Queen/Royal type of S wands only extra large and heavy, and had an extra large carpet/floor nozzle. Was supprised at how quiet it was. Evidently they were made for commercial use wherever you didnt want a noisy vacuum to create a problem. Wondered how good the filtration was with that bag on top.

 

[tolivac]

WHAT!!!?? you gave up your PIG--shame on you-I have 3 of them-not the early model that is shown in the pictures.Later ones are made of cast aluminun with a steel lined fancase-put a magnet close to it and you will see.I love my PIGS and trying to get the place I work for to get one.I brought one of mine in to show what they can do.Folks out at my workplace were impresssed.GSA lists them.(Government Service Agency)they supply parts,tools,etc to the go'vt.Love the ones I have-bought all of them new.the newest ones are black in color with a black colored bag-and an "orbit" NSS logo-like the old "Horse" logo better.One of my Pigs has an outlet on it for a powernozzle.Have the NSS powernozzle for it-quite effective.The hose on the one in the picture is unusual-looks like a boiler or furnace cleaning hose-for ashes and soot.I have a furnace -stove cleaning vacuum that has a similar hose.I have seen Pigs in the following--Bank of america,The White House-(when my first one was delivored to me-there were several in the Daycon products delivory truck-they are a janitorial supplier in the Wash DC area.I asked the man where the others were going-he said "the White House!"Was sort of honored mine was with those-still have and use it today)And in schools-these were popular in schools.cleaning services use them too.And Pigs are so easy to work on-you can take one down in less then 10minutes!My oldest one-replaced the bearings and brushes in that amount of time.For age yors is beat by one traded in from a small movie theater from Florida-theres was a first model made-like 1940-just before WW2.the theater was still using it in the early 2000's to vacuum the popcorn and gun wrappers from the auditorium-then NSS offered a contest as to who had the oldest machine in use.the theater got a new one and they shipped the old one to NNS.NSS has it in a display in their plant lobby-and they can take it from the display and show the machine still works.I learned about this from talking to the nice interesting folks at NSS.Their main factory in Toledo,Ohio.

 

[djtaylor]

On Saturday mornings I clean my church. I have been using the NSS 'Pig' to do the long hallways and the big classrooms. I much prefer the 'Pig' to the NSS Pacer. The Pacer is SOOOOO cumbersome and hard to navigate, even in the foyers. That 'Pig' just sucks up everything in it's path. I just wish it had an upholstery tool so I could clean the upholstered pews. They really need a good 'going over'.
Justin

 

[tolivac]

Upholstery tools are available for the Pig-contact the NSS dealer in your area.Oh yes-A Kirby Rug Rat style hand tool works well on the Pig,too!The hose fits over the end of the tool.

 

[electrolux~137]

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Boy, I'll bet a rug rat does work great with an NSS! I connected one of my polishers to my NSS while I still had it -- I thought that little disk WAS going to take off and fly into outer space! It was AWESOME how fast it was spinning!!</span>

 

[tolivac]

The Rug Rat was spinning real fast,too-and was good on doing stairs.Used the NSS powernozzle on the carpets.Does very well.The Powernozzle NSS sells also fits their "Designer Dry" canister vacuum.