Vacuum Power Heads on canister vacuum

[tomdawg]

I was talking to a Vacuum dealer in town, he was saying there are companies that make the vacuum power/suction head itself, but not the actual power nozzle head. ( the brush roll head thingy)
He is a Miele dealer and said Miele makes their canisters but have a different company make the power head. I cannot, for the life of me remember what the name of the company he mentioned.

I had a Rainbow vacuum for a weekend trying it out, I told him, I loved how it fluffed up my carpet really well compared to my miele upright.
He believes rainbow may not even make their own power nozzle and maybe I can find the same one out there that is like the rainbow power nozzle.
Any of you guys know anything? or is this guy making this stuff up?

 

[madman]

He may have meant that some companies subcontract the design and manufacture of power nozzles to other manufacturers.

 

[blackheart]

Miele Powerheads

Wessel-werk makes them the SEB228 is very much like the EBK360, but the SEB228 lacks a headlight and runs at a lower wattage.
There is also the SEB217 which is similar to the EBK280

The SEB236 though is different from other Wessel products.

I know long ago Rainbow used Eureka powerheads, but regarding their current ones i've never seen them anywhere else and I think they're produced by Rainbow.

http://wessel-werkusa.com/wwusa/electric-brushes/

 

[eurekaprince]

Because powered carpet nozzles are critical to the carpet cleaning effectiveness of power nozzle canisters, I always wondered how vac-makers like Eureka could allow competing manufacturers to sell cleaners with the same power nozzles. For example, what benefit could Eureka possibly get by allowing Compact to sell cleaners with the Eureka power nozzle? Weren’t they in competition with each other?

I can understand companies allowing a central vacuum manufacturer to sell their systems with a “borrowed” power nozzle design because they are aiming for a different market. But it does not make financial sense to me to a allow a competitor to sell a power nozzle that is giving your own product successful carpet cleaning results.

In other words, why did Eureka allow so many competitors to use its great Roto-Matic power head? It makes no sense to me.

 

[human]

I agree it's a less than ideal arrangement, but it may come down to the idea that something is better than nothing. Even if a consumer chooses to purchase the competitor's vac, they still get a piece of the action by supplying the power nozzle. They also may supply replacement parts (brush rolls and belts) to the third party vacuum manufacturer.

Another reason it might make some sense is the third party may be underwriting part of the R&D costs. I have a Samsung GX-20 digital SLR camera that is a re-badged Pentax K20D. It was the last of a series of four camera models Pentax made for Samsung under a technology sharing agreement. Samsung supplied sensors and related technologies that Pentax needed to go digital.

 

[kirbylux77]

Brian, it could be that Eureka & Hoover, when they sold their power nozzles to other companies, they never saw them as a direct competitor. Think of it this way - yes, Rainbow, Compact/TriStar, & Fairfax may have been selling vacuums, BUT they were selling them door to door, not in vacuum repair shops & in department stores. Therefore, they most likely were willing to sell to them as they thought the door to door brands exposure was so limited they weren't much of a threat to their own products.

Devin - Yes, the Miele SEB236 is different from the other powerheads Wessel Werk offers, but don't forget it is nothing more than a modified EBK340. I have never thought highly of their powerheads, only average cleaning performance & quality at best. There are other competitors, such as Sebo, Lindhaus & Tecnica, that excel at making powerheads. I think the fact that Wessel Werk powerheads aren't recommended for commercial use says something about them.

 

[n0oxy]

tecnica?

Have not heard of this brand, what power nozzle do they make?
I believe Rainbow makes their own power nozzle now.
Regarding Eureka power nozzles and Hoover as well, you would think that they would have been some of the first manufacturers to come out with a power nozzle canister, but that wasn't the case. They were actually the last ones. By 1960, Kenmore, Electrolux and Lewyt had come out with them, and I think Compact and G.E. were close behind. Eureka did not come out with a power nozzle until 1972 and Hoover came out with there's in 1974, very late to the game for sure. I'm not sure about Hoover but I think when Eureka came out with there's, it really took off. This was probably the Rotomatic design.
Mike

 

[kirbylux77]

Mike, Tecnica is the company who supplied the first style powerhead used on the Vortech Force canister vacuums, before they switched to Wessel Werk. The second one I linked to is their copy of a Sebo 350e. I remember our local vac shop getting one of these to try many years ago, very nice copy with the only real difference being is the Tecnica has a height adjustment wheel hidden on the side. Sebo actually used to offer a version of the 350 with that height adjustment wheel, but it's rarely seen, so I thought at first that Tecnica was being cheeky to copy it.


https://www.hibbert.ca/buy/product/pw350g-tecnica/11846?ID=/Tecnica/mfr-1OU

https://www.hibbert.ca/buy/product/pw380-tecnica/13415?ID=/Tecnica/mfr-1OU

 

[fan-of-fans]

I remember seeing on here that Filter Queen and Royal used a GE power nozzle, but it was after GE had ceased to make vacuums if I remember.

I always thought Panasonic made their own power nozzles for their vacuums and Kenmores, but it looks like they go them from Cen Tec. Because on Cen Tec's website they still show ones like Panasonic had even though they no longer make vacuums, including some that look like current Kenmores which are made by Cleva. So apparently Panasonic and now Cleva get their PN from Cen Tec, who also uses them under their own name.

At one time even the late model Air Way vacuums used Cen Tec nozzles.

Even Eureka offered a power nozzle to some companies that was the F&G upright head mated to a wand to use as a power nozzle! I don't remember if it had a fan like a tandem air setup or if it was just a brush roll.

 

[kirbylux77]

Cole, Filter Queen did obtain the rights to use the GE powerhead, but I really do wonder if they actually owned it. After all, Metropolitan, Royal & a few other makes used that same powerhead with a different cover, & it was also available as a generic fitall powerhead. And yes, GE did stop making vacuums in 1972 I think? But, Premier still continued to make vacuums for at least another 10 years in America, & it is thought that Premier was a division of GE, so it wasn't so much that GE stopped making vacuums but just changed the name they sold under. Here in Canada, GE wouldn't stop making canisters until 1986 I believe.

As for the Panasonic/Kenmore powerheads, it's the other way around, they actually did make their own powerhead. It was Centec that was buying the powerheads from Panasonic, primarily to sell them with central vac hose kits. Just like Hoover & Eureka did, both Panasonic & Centec also sold that powerhead to other manufacturers, like Airway & Royal, for use with their own vacuums. Since Cleva now owns the Panasonic designs, they are also now selling their powerheads to Centec.

Speaking of the GE powerhead, it looks like Samsung copied it for their Quiet Storm canisters, later to be called Quiet Jet. Slightly restyled on top, with a larger headlight lens & no height adjuster, but look at the bottom plate & the brushroll - dead giveaway to it's origins!

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Samsung-Qui...896719?hash=item3fbce2728f:g:k3kAAOSwNClceavP

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks for that post Rob. Makes sense.