This is a little weird

[vacuumman206]

So I'm doing the occasional (for me, almost daily) craigslist browsing of vacuums. Haven't found anything that I really want, but this particular vac goes in the record books as one of those strange name-combination vacuums.
For starts, I have never, ever heard of the Powermax name being reused since the concept model ended, until that yellow and blue piece of modern garbage came out.
From the looks of it, it has the breathe easy/soft guard body, with Dimension coloring and bag door labels, and a dirt finder which I think was a feature on a deluxe version of the soft guard. All around a hoover that struck me as awkward.
But of course it's not like it's anything new for Hoover to jumble a bunch of things from different machines together and claim a new machine!(Just makes it harder to get them all when anytime you think you have them all, a new odd-ball shows up!)

 

[vacuumman206]

Just to add it in

This is definitely vintage, but I have never seen such a strange looking shop vac. In my opinion though, for anyone that likes collecting shop vacs too, Craftsman has the most of the intriguing-looking shop vacs, pre-90's.
Almost looks like that motor/top was homemade

 

[ultimatevacman]

That Craftsman looks interesting. It a shame we don't get vacuums like that over here.

 

[tolivac]

I remember that Craftsman Shop Vac!!A radio station I worked for had one of those at their transmitter site.One VERY cold winter day the water pipe in the back of the transmitter building froze and broke-Had to turn the building water off-Me and that vac were cleaning up the spilled water!What a Mess!

 

[vacuumman206]

Have another

I just found this on ebay. I have never seen a nozzle like that on any machine.
That bag and handle is familiar to me on Singers though.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-0-AMP-VIN...840?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c35dae778

 

[durango159]

I like those Hoovers!

Hoover used the PowerMax name on several vacuums over the years. HSN had a Hoover Fusion PowerMax bagless cyclonic upright similar to the Fusion and Hoover Mach 3 that was a Wal-Mart exclusive as its inception. Of course the PowerMax line of canisters was on the market for over 10 years with the sleek PowerMax power nozzles.

This one above is indeed the styling of the Widepath Breathe Easy or SoftGuard lines. Hoover had several models of varied color in this series. I think originally they were fitted with a Dimension style 7.3 Amp motor around 1999 and then later were switched over to have 12Amp motors. They were loud, but cleaned fairly well and the hood styles were very cool looking. Attached is a sheet for a later model 12Amp that is of the same styling but with 12Amp motor and is named a Widepath.

 

[durango159]

Full shot spec sheet of a Widepath

 

[durango159]

A PowerMax series canister