Unusual Kenmore canister?

[justjunque]

Hey all,

I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures. I know that would have helped immensely. But, my phone can no longer take pictures.
And I'm posting it in Contemporary, because it looked fairly new to me; but I honestly don't know.
I was at the local Savers today, and I saw a Kenmore canister vacuum that struck me as odd.
It wasn't something that I was considering buying, so I didn't get as much information from it as I should have.
The thing that stood out the most to me was the extremely bright orange color of the vacuum and power nozzle. Is that an uncommon color for them?
All I can give you for detail is that the power nozzle said "All floors" and 12 amps.
Besides the color, it caught my eye because the thrift stores around here haven't had much for canister vacs lately. In fact, the last one I did see was the Hoover PowerMax that I bought.
The Kenmore had some scrapes and scuffs, and a slightly crushed area on the hose.
And the piece on the back of the power nozzle, where it's supposed to be able to dock onto the canister, was broken.
In general, it looked in halfway decent shape, and had the owner's manual shrink wrapped onto it.
I think they wanted around $14 for it.
I was just curious if I passed up something rare.

Barry

 

[panasonicvac]

Was it this one?

 

[justjunque]

That definitely looks like it.
Is that a bright orange, sort of like a traffic cone? Not a metallic copper color?
It had a slide control on the handle that appeared to be the power on/off, and to control the brush roll.

 

[huskyvacs]

It is traffic cone orange. You cannot miss it.

I have seen those maybe 7 or 9 times in eBay searches while looking for vacuums to adopt into my collection. People always want prices of up to $100 for them so I never bothered. But I do see them often coming up for sale, so they must be fairly recent.

 

[justjunque]

Thanks, guys!
It definitely didn't look too old, but it certainly hasn't been babied.
Assuming it works, it would probably be worth the $14. And, if it was a few years ago, I'm pretty sure I would have hauled it home. I'm trying to be more selective about what I buy now.

I'm on a drip coffee maker kick right now, but I'm still passing on a lot of them. The only thing I allowed myself there was a 4 cup Mr. Coffee, Jr a few weeks ago.
Man! It's not easy to find the little 4 cup basket filters these days! After several unsuccessful attempts, and being reluctant to spend the crazy money for them online, I finally found a generic package of 200 at a local grocery store. I think they cost me less than $3. And that package should last me the rest of my life, since I only plan to use the machine occasionally.

If that Kenmore is still there the next time I get to that store, I will take a closer look at it. It's weird, but I kind of like the unusual color.

Barry

 

[fan-of-fans]

Those are fairly recent, yes, around 5-10 years old. There was a lower end model at the same time without the quick release power head that was a lime green I really liked.

 

[suckolux]

I had the lime green

 

[panasonicvac]

Kenmore had an older model that's pretty much the same as the newer orange one but it's teal and white. They also had another older one that's orange as well but white everywhere else and it's pretty much the same as the newer green one.

 

[justjunque]

Thanks all!
From a little bit of searching, it looks like the newer Kenmore vacuums, probably including the one I saw at the thrift store, are made in China, by a company called Cleva. (I think that's what it was)
Does that sound right? I've never heard of that brand before. Do they make a decent quality vacuum?

Barry

 

[suckolux]

I believe you are correct, they also make the vacmaster shop vac. I've had a couple of kenmore's and the vacmaster by them and I honestly think they're better than the old ones.

 

[justjunque]

Well... I won't be getting this particular orange version. I went back to that store today, and it was gone.
So was the new-in-open-box drip coffee maker that I was planning on grabbing. I saw it last time, and I walked away because it wasn't "vintage enough".
Then, the more I thought about it, I decided to get it anyway because it was unused and the price was good. I guess I snoozed and loosed.

 

[huskyvacs]

It happens. Even before you leave the store. People grab stuff like the tazmanian devil anymore. Always put it in your cart and go around the store with it for awhile. Look over your cart before you check out and make the decision then, that way it's yours until you decide it isn't.

I usually always only go on 50% off day so even if I buy something I don't want, I didn't pay much for it to cry about and I can just re-sell it, so it's win-win.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Yeah I’ve definitely had my share of Missoula and regrets not getting something.

And that model you saw was actually made by Panasonic, one of the last cleaners they made for Sears.

The newer Cleve made models still seem pretty good. Cleve got Panasonics designs and tooling when they took over and from what I understand, hired on some of their engineers. So it’s similar to when Panasonic themselves took over from Whirlpool.

 

[dysonman1]

I have no problem with Cleva vacuums. Parts are available and they are not breaking down in warranty. They are labeled Kenmore as well as Titan (I sell the Titan).

 

[fanofvacuums2]

I currently own both the Panasonic models like the ones in this thread and the 200/400 Series ones manufactured by Cleva, and I personally think the Cleva models are better.

The only thing that is better about the Panasonic models is the on-board attachments and slightly better floor tool. I do like having the attachments on the canister.

The main thing about the Cleva models that is better is that they now put metal axles in the rear wheels of the power nozzles, which were known for wearing and popping off the nozzles of the Panasonic models.

Also, they now seal the motor housings all the way to the exhaust filter, so they technically are sealed systems. On the Panasonic models, I like to joke that the air leading into the exhaust filter was merely a suggestion. Especially with the bag dock that leaks a little bit of fine dust, I appreciate that they seal the exhaust. The 200/400 Series models use the same main motor housing as the older Panasonic models, but they tape the front of the motor housing against the motor gasket to make that seal, glue the holes for the motor leads to seal them, put a seal on the keyed upper motor mount, and add seals where the filter housing clips onto the motor housing. Though the Panasonic models used the same basic design, they had none of those measures taken to seal them, so that is why they leaked so much.

I do appreciate that Cleva is providing parts for their units such as the canisters and a lot of their uprights. They seem to outsource some models such as the Intuition, a lot of the bagless uprights excluding the CrossOver, and so forth, but they have their own factories and parts stock for the canisters and so forth. I rarely see the Cleva Kenmore models in for service for silly reasons, especially the uprights, but the canisters are not terrible.