Views on new Hoover constellation?

[luxlover]

Ive always wanted a vintage Hoover contsellation but can not find one, But i knowest on there site they still make them and i was wonder what you guys think or if you know anything about the new ones? are they worth buying? and also i heard the hoses arnt that good?

 

[vacman117]

I really like mine. I bought it about 4 years ago from Hoover's website. It has an insane amount of suction. The tools are really great as well. I was surprised to find that it came with an actual dusting brush and a stiff bristle upholstery tool. The telescoping wand is also pretty nice. Not very many people like the turbo nozzle, but I really like it. You just have to make sure that the wand is pushed all the way into it. It also comes with a very nice bare floor brush. Not many people like the hose, but I do. The handle is very comfortable to use, and it has a suction relief. It can stretch all the way up my stairs, which I found surprising. I really only have two complaints: since the exhaust shoots out the bottom, it blows my kitchen rugs upside down, and it shoots pet hair and dirt all around bare floors.

Hope that helps,
Chase

 

[director12]

I found it obnoxious that Hoover wouldn't add a power nozzle to the Constellation.

 

[twocvbloke]

From speaking to a couple of people who have had them in the past, they're good at invading your personal space, thanks to the stretch-hose, so unless you like bruised shins, I'd avoid it... :&#92

Plus, there's the problem of the hovering bit that made it unique, it blows all the loose, fluffy dirt about on hard floors before you can get to it, so that's quite a drawback, and there's the turbo-nozzle which can clog up pretty easily, and not actually pick up much (hence the need for a Power nozzle, which doesn't restrict the airflow to power a turbine)...

So, as a novelty, yeah, maybe, but as a serious vacuum for proper cleaning, there are better makes and models...

 

[jmurray01]

HOOVER are still making them!? That's the first I've heard...

 

[jmurray01]

Good point David (about it slamming into your legs), I never thought of that.

I personally never saw a problem with a wheeled cylinder, but maybe I'm just too boring (your answer to that is "of course not!").

 

[williamr1248]

Views on new Hoover Constellation

As stated earlier in the thread as a "novelty vac" it is great but as a vac for everyday use no.
Mine has very good suction,quiet,long power cord and fun to see operate but it blows the dust EVERYWHERE. I think it would be very hard to use if you had pet hair or allergies.
Both of my machines arrived with defective hoses. The attachments or ok. I wish they had used the old Hoover style tools and for me,the turbo nozzle is useless.
I would have preferred either a regular power nozzle or a straight suction floor tool. I also did not like the oversized floor brush or the fact that the tools are friction connect which to me was very un-Hoover style.
They started out very good with the canister itself but the hose and tools fall short.

I

 

[jmurray01]

Not just that, but the stainless steel body, although looks nice, takes it away from its heritage of yellows, blues and pinks etc...

 

[williamr1248]

Views on new Hoover Constellation

Jamie,
I agree with you. I have both the painted off white and the stainless. I was just shocked that Hoover came out with a metal machine! The life of Hoover products and the Connie took a different turn for us in the USA from the mid 1950's unto the 1960's.
When I was very young,ONLY the finist department stores,best electric appliance shops and high end furniture stores sold the Hoover. When the Connie was first out it was right up their in price with the other Hoovers. I have seen adds for it at about $89.95 which would have been a lot of money in those days. By the end of the 60's it seemed Hoover had chosen a different route. They were selling their products in every outlet possible,even discount stores. Of course a product can ride on it's name for a few years but in the end they were selling the Constellation for as low as $29.95. Hoover's days of being a high end product were over.
I think a lot of collectors had a glimmer of hope when we saw that new metal Hoover Connie!
Something interesting to me was that in our area we had a HUGE beautiful building that was the place you could take you HOOVER to be serviced.
It is such a shame of what became of the Hoover name and reputation.

 

[twocvbloke]

"HOOVER are still making them!? That's the first I&#

I don't know if they still are making them now, but they did have them for sale a few years ago, and here in the UK, as the Hoover name is owned by the Candy Group, TTI had to market it as the "Maytag Satellite", same thing, just a different name...

I'm surprised they didn't call it a Vax though as they do with all the other Hoover-US products that come to the UK as Vax... :&#92

 

[jmurray01]

Yes, it is such a shame that HOOVER is no longer the desirable much sought after brand it used to be.

Back years ago (my mother informs me) when you needed a new Vacuum Cleaner you initially went in search of a HOOVER, regardless of the costs, but now we just go for the cheapest possible Vacuum Cleaner.

It is a shame people don't still have the brand loyalty they used to, like back in HOOVER's golden years.

 

[jmurray01]

"I'm surprised they didn't call it a Vax though as they do with all the other Hoover-US products that come to the UK as Vax... :&#92" That's very true David. So does Candy own Vax too then ?

I never knew of this Maytag Satellite - I'll have to look it up!

 

[twocvbloke]

No, TTI owns Vax, hence why they offer Hoover-US products (owned by TTI) in Europe & the UK as Vax products with some minor alterations...

I think there are the odd one or two Maytag Satellites on ebay now and then, obviously not being sold under the familiar Hoover Constellation name, people didn't really know it was on sale, so there's not too many about... :&#92


As for brand loyalty, for those who haven't been conditioned by the worldwide anti-free thought movement, there is a lot of brand loyalty still out there, as can be seen on this forum with people preferring specific brands (even if the reasoning is somewhat questionable), so it's still there, though it's mainly from the few, as the many prefer just anything that makes a whiney-whirring noise and pertains to pick up dirt... :&#92

 

[twocvbloke]

I should also point out, it's easier to just search the "Cleaning, Laundry and Vacuuming" section for just "Maytag" as nobody on ebay seems able to spell "satellite" properly....

 

[jmurray01]

Very true. I'll admit I do have a brand loyalty, if you wish to call it that, to HOOVER. I do very much like Electrolux and Numatic, but nothing beats (pun intended) a HOOVER in my opinion.

Where exactly was the Satellite sold ? I don't remember seeing a Connie style machine in any Argos catalogues etc... I think I'd have noticed! Ha ha.

 

[jmurray01]

That is also true David, the amount of times I've seen it spelled "sattelite" is unbelievable.

 

[twocvbloke]

I not too sure who sold the Satellite, a lot of Maytag products here tend to remain well under the radar when it comes to retailing them, I think I once saw them at T. K. Maxx, or TJ Hughes, or one of them stores who piles high and sells cheap stuff that went out of business in the past 5 years, it's just one of them things that's been missed...

 

[sebo_fan]

The Hoover Satellite/Connie was never intended to be sold at Argos. It arrived at Comet and eventually sold at Currys and then Miller Bros before they went bust. Same with Maytag upright vac - sold at John Lewis, Currys and Comet before disappearing.

In the UK, not all the franchise sellers sell all the same vacuums. Dependent on the market and the type of consumer they are trying to attract, brands offerings are divided between them all. This is why if you were to go through several of the catalogues like Kays catalogue or Littlewoods online you might find an exclusive Hoover vacuum that hasn't been added to the home brand UK websites yet

 

[jmurray01]

A bit like the Whirlwind which is (the name at least) exclusive to Argos ?

 

[eurekaprince]

I owned one for several years and here are my comments:

Pros -
-very powerful
-very quiet
-very long hose that stretched to almost 10 feet
-excellent turbo carpet nozzle that really cleaned surface litter well (Consumer Reports rated its carpet cleaning as "good")
-very long cord
-easy to change cloth HEPA bag

Cons -
-downward exhaust kicked up too much dust before you were able to remove it
-came with a "kinked" hose that needed to be replaced twice
-so called "horse-hair" bristles on tools were actually very rough and abrasive
-if you used the on-board tool caddy, you could mar your walls or furniture when the floating canister went sailing into the walls because the tools jutted out too far from the machine (the bumper did not prevent damage to your walls in this case)
-when the removable brush part was removed, the upholstery nozzle had such sharp edges as to make it dangerous to use on fabric
-the suction "relief" hole in the bag chamber drew in dust from the air around the machine, allowing dust to accumulate inside the bag chamber (bypassing the bag) and potentially allowing it to be blown out the exhaust

I finally sold the Connie to a newlywed couple for $60. They loved it. But ever since then, I refuse to buy any canister cleaner that does not blow the exhaust upward from the machine like my new Electrolux canister does.

 

[jmurray01]

I admit, up facing exhaust ports are the best.

I was vacuuming the hard flooring the other day with my 2008 JMB SC1056 cylinder and as I pulled it into the kitchen it kicked up lots of fine dirt and dust I was just about to suck up, making quite a mess. It has the exhaust port on the back.

 

[sebo_fan]

Id really like to know who is responsible for the knowledge you've built up JM! I'm really trying here! No Whirlwind is NOT an exclusive name to Hoover vacuums sold in Argos, it is just a sub-name given to many of Hoover's products. Whirlwind branded machines either replaced older machines that were the same save for colour changes on the bodies, slightly higher power and different "livery". The Whirlwind series was first sold through catalogues before reaching Amazon and then Argos.

Exhausts facing upwards have their disadvantages too though - the best one is the Airbelt design on the Sebo cylinder vacs, diffusing air away from the owner. The worst exhaust in my experience is that of the Electrolux cylinder vacs (Powerplus models) where the central vent is on the rear heel of the vacuum. When made to go upright and left there for some time when cleaning stairs, stairs can get hot because of the exhaust.

 

[eurekaprince]

You are correct, Jamie.

It seems that the majority of canister cleaners made in North America in the last 50 years blew exhaust out the back of the machine, or worse, down from the bottom of the machine. North America's Electrolux vacs may have been the only ones not to - even those made by the company that split off from the European "mother" corporation.

It seems that Europe "got wind" (pardon the pun!) of the problem by the 1970's and began to show canister vacs with top-side exhaust ports.

Even to this day, top-rated Panasonic and Kenmore canisters blow exhaust out the back of their vacs (often through their cord reel ports) - sending any surface litter flying!

I even prefer canisters that rewind the cord into a port on top....like the unique design of the Eureka Rally in the early 1990's

 

[jmurray01]

The reason I stated that I thought the HOOVER Whirlwind was an Argos exclusive is because in the Argos catalogue it says "Whirlwind - Only in Argos!".

As for the positioning of the exhaust port, the second worst thing about having the exhaust on the rear is that, as you said, when it is placed in an upright position for stairs etc, the flow of air is blocked and thus it will overheat quickly and easily if left for too long.

That's what I love about having the exhaust ports on the top of my Electrolux Tango, because I can sit it on the stairs in an upright position without fear of overheating.

 

[eurekaprince]

Sebofan,

Just wondering about the Sebo airbelt exhaust diffusing design:

Is the air diffusion so effective as to eliminate any "wind" coming out of the belt? It would seem to me that no matter how well it diffuses the air, there will still be some blowing effect around the sides of the canister. Just curious....

 

[jmurray01]

Hold on, what are you talking about ? A belt on a cylinder ? I'm befuddled...

 

[eurekaprince]

Jamie - Sebo calls one of their canister designs an "AirBelt" design because the bumper "belt" around the perimeter of the canister body is also the exhaust mechanism. It seems the exhaust is directed into a very long "belt" around the canister body which decreases the "blow" effect of the exhaust. Just wonder if it works well or at all.

 

[jmurray01]

I see!

 

[sebo_fan]

Eurekaprince et al (who are interested)

The vacuum air exhaust is diffused to the sides of the Sebo canisters - even the old C larger canister has the Airbelt. As you will see from the diagram it diffuses air outwards to the sides. SEBO did this for two reasons - one to provide a viewable thick cloth bumper to protect the home and the machine from scrapes, two to diffuse the air to the sides so that you don't ingest a face full of "clean air" from top exhausts like Miele and other brands.

It's quite an ingenious design though because the bumper is a Lycra cloth that is stretched over a foam bumper with viewable vents. You can replace the Airbelt quite easily but must be cut to size for the smaller K canister, so air gets through the foam vent holes and further absorbed by the Lycra belt. There are various colours you can buy too, so you don't have to put up with the default blue.