Vax 121 Boxed - Used 3 times

[beko1987]

This is the other thing I picked up today, this ones a keeper however! 100 mile round trip later and:

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Belonged to the sellers mother in law apparently, been used dry about twice, never used wet or for shampooing!

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Is this the newer style of hose? My nans and others I;ve seen have a different style

From VAX 121

I forgot how tall the poles are when together!

From VAX 121

Lets keep emptying the box

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Bag of unused washing bits

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Cloth bag

From VAX 121

Evidence of use in the recovery bucket

From VAX 121

Newer style casters

From VAX 121

Together!

From VAX 121

Small tools

From VAX 121

More slight use of the dusting brush, should be ok after a wash!

From VAX 121

There was also this. Box is in bad condition sadly but it's nice to have. It has seen some use though, so needs stripping and cleaning (why anyone would use it I dont know, it's a horrible horrible turbo brush. My nan has one too with her 121, remember it being crap when I was 5 too!

From VAX 121

And these. Both full but not sealed. De-foamer has lost its label too

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Paperwork! (I love paperwork!)

From VAX 121

Can these be dated? Has a pre-modern area dialling code which must put it before 1990ish

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Reckon I should fill the guarantee out?

From VAX 121

From VAX 121

Gave the front room a quick vacuum, the noise brings back memories!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DmSQA4-UGLY?list=UUv0y2E43HyJMX85p-Wxro0Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Debating with myself wether to christen the wet tools and do some vax-ing, but I know the wash tool will never be the same again! Will maybe keep an eye out for a second hand one to ruin some more.

This also becomes a birthday present, my mum offered to pay half as my pressie, which is fine by me!

3 NIB (or used 2 or 3 times) boxed vacuums in 1 week, hope this roll continues! Aquajet is now pretty much being used normally, Eva spilt her dinner again tonight so out it came to shampoo it up! Vax can be a timewarp piece

 

[vintagerepairer]

All I could tell you about the age was that it's a very late machine, as can be seen by the round plastic on the hose handle and the double castors. The old single castors were incredibly unstable and I could never see why Vax didn't make the change to double sooner.

As the Vax 2000 replaced this around 1991, and as this design of hose was short lived, this cleaner must be approximately 22 - 23 years old.

 

[beko1987]

Excellent, means I posted in the right forum! The hose end does look more 2000'ish than what I've seen before on 121's.

 

[vintagerepairer]

The machine end of the hose is the same on all 121 cleaners but the wand end here is different. The 2000 cleaners had a totally different wand to begin with, and the hose you have there was not seen again until the 8000 series upright went into production around 1993. Later, it became the standard wand for all Vax cleaners until around 1997.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Well done on getting it! How much was it?

The one I have must be earlier as it has different smaller tools, but like yours it came with the Turbo Nozzle & Paperwork, I must say Vax were very informative then!

Just a heads up; the 121 did not discontinue sale when the 2000 was launched, after 1992 it was known as the base model the 'Vax 1000' which continued sale next to the 2000, which was a more modern version. The 2100 which had Variable Suction Control & the Top Powa 4000, which had a pump aswell as Variable Suction, It says so in my Automop instruction manual.

Hope you get the best out of it.

 

[beko1987]

Didn't know the 121 lived until that late, although it makes sense as the 6131 lives on and thats ancient now!

Paid £40, which I was happy with. Happier now it only cost me £20! Still debating whether to break its washing virginity, got a rapids head in the garage which might work...

 

[vintagerepairer]

That's interesting about the Vax 1000. I knew there was an overlap between the 121 and 2000 but I didn't know about the model number change.

When the 2000 went on sale, this was originally a stand-alone model, but was soon joined by the blue 4000. The 2100 and 4100 didn't appear until about 1994. The former was the same as the 2000 but with electronic power control, and the latter the same as the 4000 but with turbo head and auto mop as standard.

 

[sebo_fan]

As the owner of the Powa model (4000) we also had that dreadful turbo brush and the Automop- Hoover, Miele, Sebo and Morphy Richards all had the turbo brushes too but instead of fitting silly metal sliders on the base, the other brands had wheels on them. Miele had a rotary dial air outlet suction dial, SEBO with a simple vented grid,permanently covered over with just a metal slip.

 

[dysondestijl]

Great I'd love one like that

 

[parwaz786]

I hate tgat power plus turbo head, it came with my dc14 and it span slowly

 

[beko1987]

Had another play

And put the washing kit together for the first time ever.

 

[turbo500]

it came with my dc14 and it span slowly

the speed at which an air driven turbo brush spins is defined by the suction generated by the machine. The problem their was more than likely down to the fact that the DC14 was crap full stop, rather than the actual brush itself.

Out of interest, did you get this Vax turbo brush with it? Dyson turbo brushes are actually nothing like these old Vax ones, so it wouldn't have come with one new like that.

 

[beko1987]

Always used to get excited when Mum set ours up back in the day

 

[beko1987]

Stand-off!

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Great for shampooing - what I do is put hot water & carpet cleaning solution in a spray bottle, having thoroughly vacuumed the carpet, spray the carpet & use the Hoover Floor Polishers carpet cleaning heads to scrub it in. Leave it 5 - 10 minutes then put warm water in the Vax & extract it out.

Doing that will find you with more dirt in the tank as you've let the solution soak in & you've actually rinsed it out of the carpet, not just done a once over which can leave the carpet attracting itself to more dirt.

Did you get any dust bags wiith your Vax beko1987?

 

[parwaz786]

No, the dc14 was NOT crap, worked 100%fine and had full suction, I know, I stripped it down and cleaned everything, still mafe no difference, dyson dc14 is good!

 

[parwaz786]

It was on the eand at the xarboot sale, see my birmingh carboot thread to se

 

[turbo500]

I beg to differ. 3 of my neighbours have DC14's and they're all awful. Bad design, terrible build quality, forever getting blocked, decent suction but crap on carpet.

 

[thekirbylover]

dc14's

are just an average performing vacuuming, with a well thought out design, they block if you suck up something stupid with them, personally I would rather use my other vacuums but if it was the only vacuum in my house it wouldn't be the end of the world, I've never had build quality as an issue then again I am using turbo power 1's, and yes they are crappy on the carpet but aren't most clean airs?

 

[parwaz786]

Michael has a point, and
All Dysons #i used were excellent, that included 9 DC01's, a DC02, a DC03, 4 Dc04's, a DC05, 6 Dc07's, a DC08, 3 DC14's, a DC25, a DC27 and a DC41, but the only CRAPPY one of these lot is the DC41, NEVEr would I pay over £30 for one, thats how much I hate it, its a joke!

My uncles DC27 was quite powerful, my DC14 is the one I would use for daily use, my neighbour has a dc33 and they love it, so does my uncle and his battered dc04 absolute

 

[beko1987]

HiLo, no bags apart from the cloth one, but I have a full genuine pack in the garage somewhere, will put it in the box when it goes into storage, as I don't intend to use it, want to keep it minty fresh!

Has anyone used a rapide head? Want to use it to shampoo but not use the brand new wash head, as it will be ruined with one use. Are the rapide tools any good? Never used one!

 

[sebo_fan]

Do you mean this "Rapide" floor head?

I bought one when the original full size clear one went on my Powa. This one is absolutely rubbish. For a start the feeder tube is designed to go to the underside - and ended up buying new tube from a garden centre to stretch it into the floor head - plus it seems to scratch carpets if that makes any sense - it puts the shampoo down fine but it is terrible at sucking up the dirt and excess water put down. It does have an interchangeable sole plate for hard floors but I was never impressed with it.

Vax have recently put out a "spin scrub" floor head for their most recent canisters.

 

[sebo_fan]

The Spin Scrub - shown here. Amazon UK sells it for £41, Vax selling it for £49-99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vax-Genuine-Multi-Function-SpinScrub-Premium/dp/B00A881CEM

 

[hi-loswitch98]

These new rapide heads are designed for the newer Vax models which have a clip on the end of the washing tube - it won't fit on older models as you just push it in & as you can see from sebo_fans above, it has to have a clip to secure on the clip located on the undeside where the extension tube goes.

Don't waste money on one -- when you go car booting try & find another Vax with one in - I'll keep a look out for you. These new heads are ****.

 

[beko1987]

No its got a hole in the top for the solution tube. May see if I can borrow my nans wash head, failing that there's a whole Vax minus hose in awful condition but has the wash head! Seems a bit excessive though

 

[hi-loswitch98]

I would probably recommend the Vax 121 head from your nans - they tend to suck up moisture better. Going ti any carboots?

 

[beko1987]

Doubt it this weekend, unless there's one on in Peterborough this weekend!

 

[spiraclean]

Sam,

If the head you speak of is the black Ultra Rapide one as pictured below, it will work just fine with your 121. The Rapide 5130 I had years ago came with one of these, and that was a gravity fed machine too. Both this and the standard clear wash tool are fully interchangeable, although which one you like best is a matter of personal taste.

Back in the day, this tool was sold as an optional extra in much the same way as the turbobrush and AutoMop, enabling existing Vax owners to upgrade to the newer style wash head. The main selling points were that the Ultra Rapide had a double swivel neck, making it more manoeuvrable, and wheels to help it push more easily across the carpet. I seem to recall Comet having these on sale at the time for around £25, usually displayed with other consumables such as bags, filters, shampoo etc.

Personally I always thought the Ultra Rapide head was far better than the current style we have now. It was designed to work on both pumped and gravity fed machines, and being slightly narrower, concentrated the suction down into the carpet better. The new one is utter garbage, as is the SpinScrub head. This is why I would no longer consider Vax if I was in the market for a 3-in-1 canister.

 

[sebo_fan]

Oh I much prefer the original one our Powa had (like the 121/101). Didnt like the rapide one at all.