Tool conversions

[chan55]

Greetings from Green Bay,

I grew up witha Hoover 1020 Convertible. I remember when you put the converter in the back , you would first set it to Shag, and then the metal part on the bottom of the converter would lift the front of the vac off the floor.

How did the older pre-Convertibles stay off the floor during tool use? When you put the hose in the side what happened?

Also, on the GE/Premier uprights of the 60's and 70's the hose stuck in to a hole in the back of the machine. What kept the brush from damaging the floor?

 

[eurekaprince]

I don't know about other brands, but from 1960 onward, Eureka's fan-first uprights always had a way of covering the revolving brush so it would not cause damage to carpets, floors, fingers and toes. Before the pan convertor was introduced in the late 1960's, users of Eureka uprights covered the revolving brush with a "Bottom Plate" - there was even a slot to store this plastic plate in the cardboard attachment caddy. Once you covered the brush with this plate, you took off the tool port cover which was located in front of the headlight (see my avatar), and inserted the hose end.

 

[henry200]

The Hoovers with tool conversion on the side had spring-mounted rear wheels.  When inserting the converter you first pushed down on the rear of the base, thus lifting the front off the floor.   The fully-inserted converter "locked" the wheels in position.


 


The GE/Premier uprights had a carpet vs tools toggle switch.  When it was moved to "tools" it closed the suction path to the brushroll and also moved the height selector to the shag setting.