One of the major advantages of a Hoover cleaner with a foot operated switch is the reduction in materials, as Vacbear said. But not all the savings were in the materials (not to mention labour) used to make a cleaner with a handle-mounted switch unit, a lot of savings went into packaging too. The cleaners with foot switches all had two-piece handles, something which was difficult to have on a cleaner which required wiring to be fitted through the handle. The two-piece handle and removable bag allowed even the largest of Hoover cleaners to be packed into the smallest of boxes. I am not sure how it worked, but I was given to understand that cleaners made in the USA were not often made for other countries, whereas a good deal of cleaners built in the UK were for the export market.
The UK 912 commercial cleaner always had a handle-mounted switch and this cleaner came packed in two boxes; one for the cleaner and one for the long one-piece handle. This I assume would have been very inconvenient and costly if used for all the cleaners in the Hoover range. The reason for the cord hooks on being on the right of the cleaner (as one stands behind of it) on cleaners with handle-mounted switches is because most cleaners were designed for a right-handed operator. Hence, the foot controls for the handle are on the left for ease of use and the cord hooks on the right so as not to get in the way of the user. This was made possible due to the mains lead leaving the cleaner high up the handle, in a middle position which enabled great movement, and could be taken to the left for cleaning and to the right for storage.
On cleaners with foot switches, this was not possible, because the mains lead passes up the side or rear of the handle, but has to be bolted to the side of the cleaner so as not to foul the bag hook. This means the lead can only sit on the left or the right, but not both, so it was decided to make it on the left to suit a right-handed user. With that in mind, it was then nessecary to fit the cord storage hooks onto the left of the handle too, as there was no way of taking the mains lead across to the right hand side for storage unless it was stretched across the front of the handle.
On Junior cleaners, the same thinking applies, although of course the side-mounted dustbag dictates the position of the flex hooks, and the mains lead is bolted to the rear of the handle simply because the side-mounted dustbag makes this possible. Indeed, bolting the lead to the rear of the handle would have been preferable on all models, had it been physically possible to do so with a rear-mounted dustbag.
