UK Guys - Catalogue Scans

[madabouthoovers]

I think the longest running cleaner in its current form, to still look identical to the original has to be the Henry - It was launched in 1981, so has now been going pretty much unchanged for 31 years, so that just about beats the Hoover Junior, as the early Juniors were nothing like the later 60's version which ran through to the late 80's pretty much unchanged in basic design. I would love to see another brand new Hoover bagged model, and one that runs at considerably less wattage than the current power guzzling 2 kilowatt Purepower. It would be great to see Hoover bring back the bells and whistles that the old Turbopower 1000 autosense had. It seems that the bagged range are all so basic now, with about the only exceptions being the German made Sebo and Miele uprights.
I'm going away from bagless now anyway, much prefer my Bagged Sebo X4 and Miele S6 for everyday use. The bagless novelty does wear off after a while, and most of my bagless models very rarely get used.
Having used all my models, and made the choice of my all time favourite - its the Sebo X4 hands down for the upright choice and the Miele S6 just pipping the Henry for canister choice. Says something doesnt it, A 20 year old design upright and a 31 year old design canister being my favourites. I just love the Sebo X4, and can not understand why Argos dont sell them, because I think they would be a great seller to rival the Dyson - and Sebo's are so reliable as well.

 

[turbo500]

Steve, a few points.


 


The Hoover Junior 1334 was launched in 1958 and mostly resembles the rest of the junior range. The 375, 119 and 1224 are the only Junior's that look radically different to the rest. 


 


The problem with the Turbopower 2 and 1000 is that they were very top heavy. A contact in my local vac shop was recalling how, back in the day, a little old lady had gone out and bought one from some big chain shop but found it too difficult to push - she exchanged it in his shop for a Panasonic. 


 


Argos did stock both the X1.1 and several of the K series cleaners a few years ago, but they only lasted 2 catalogues as they weren't big sellers. The problem with Argos is that people buy things based on the facts infront of them. A 7.5kg, 1150w, £200 bagged upright is never going to out sell a 6kg, 2100w bagless upright at £79.99 - your average consumer would think "this one is more powerful, cheaper and bagless - duh, no brainer!". It's stores like John Lewis, Euronics and independent retailers where Sebo find their customers, because a. the staff tend to know what they're talking about and b. the customer can test drive the machine in-store and see the performance for themselves. If Argos did a full display listing all the features of the Sebo and what makes it so good, drawing particular attention to the lower wattage motor,  S class filtration (I think those would be big selling points in todays market) and the reliability record, they'd be much more successful. However, Argos simply stuck them on the page next to all the other bagged uprights

 

[vintagerepairer]

Jamie, the Turbopower 2 won't have been discontinued as a result of poor sales, because people can of course only buy what is available, so faced with a Turbopower 2 or one of the alternative brands & models, the Turbopower was generally a good buy. As has been said just now, it was a heavy cleaner and as well as that it could be hard to push, although by the time most people realised they had already bought the cleaner.

But ultimately by 2003 the style of the cleaner was very dated. In fact, they were dated when they went on sale in 1992, when you consider that the Electrolux Contour and Glider were quite different in design and had been around for a couple of years already. Panasonic too had introduced a more curvaceous looking cleaner around 1992 and the Dyson DC01 was on sale from the end of the same year. This rather square-looking cleaner ran for 11 years, which was quite a time by standards of the day, although of course it came to be that the Purepower design is now well into it's 16th year and is still around in one variation and another. It was also probably much cheaper to make just the one design of cleaner, with the Turbopower 2 being replaced by a very basic Purepower. Although I have seen Turbopower 2 cleaners on sale for as little as £49.99 in more recent years, the typical price was around £70 and there were Purepower cleaners already being sold for similar amounts.

 

[madabouthoovers]

As budget bagged cleaners go, I think the Electrolux powerlite 1700W is a great cleaner for the price it sells for, and its very light to move about as well as light to pick up. It gives the carpet a good groom too, and the pet lover version has the mini turbo tool. I think it would have been a good choice for Argos to sell, as their bagged upright range is very limited, and the Miele S7 is so expensive at over £300 compared to the Panasonics and the Hoover Purepower, I bet they dont sell many S7's.
The only problem I found with the Powerlite is the hose is very poor and tends to kink easily on the attachment to the elbow on the back of the cleaner, other than that, I cant fault it - A great little cleaner for under £100.

 

[sebo_fan]

Chris - totally agree with you regarding the TP2/3. Buyers were getting into the lighter feel of upright vacuums, buyers finally seeing the light with Panasonic as opposed to choosing the TP2/3. I found the whole aspect quite sad, but managed to get a good price on my yellow Hoover TP2 900 watt upright when it was bought brand new, and heavily discounted because no one would touch it as it was too heavy compared to the other uprights at the time.

Actually Chris, the reason Sebo stopped selling the X series at Argos wasn't for the lack of demand but rather for the fact that John Lewis were getting fed up of customers who demanded the "knowingly undersold" policy and Argos were one of the many franchises who sold the X series at cheaper cost. JL threatened to stop buying in Sebo vacuums. SEBO UK responded by pulling the X uprights out of the Argos franchises, re-releasing the X4 Excel solely for John Lewis and leaving it at that. JL after all were one of the first independents in the UK to showcase and sell SEBO vacs.

Don't forget though Euronics, Comet, Currys and Tesco sell SEBO vacuums so its not as if the buyer is losing out.

As for the Electrolux Powerlite upright- its a budget cleaner and feels it - I found it was a great replacement when I first bought mine back in 2007 to replace my budget LG bagged upright. I find it great to use but long term it doesn't survive very well, not helped by its injection moulding feel and lack of versatility. No bag fill indicator, short and useless hose on the rear and wonky wheels, it certainly is built to a budget even if it does offer a good carpet cleaning performance. I did buy the long "Stairmaster" hose from EBAY UK a couple of years ago but sadly that hose mirrors the horrible "smooth" ribbed feel of the grey one on the back of the Powerlite - and it kinks in use as well.

 

[turbo500]

Jacob, do you have anymore of these? If possible, can you confirm the model number of that Panasonic in the top left of page 464?

 

[suctionselector]

Panasonic

Doesnt say Chris, but it is very similar to my grandma's MCE468 - the last Spanish one, but this one could have been later. I do have others and now have my working iMac back! So I will be soon uploading more photos!

 

[alexhoovers94]

what happened to uploading the 2002, 2003 and 2004?

 

[suctionselector]

Sorry Alex

I promise I will in the immediate future, I have Spring Summer 1999, Spring Summer 2001, Spring Summer 2002 and Autumn/Winter 2004. I will get them up soon.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Oh thanks very much, I am really looking forward to that!

Alex.