Vacbear, by 'light & easy' do you mean the ex-Hotpoint cleaner? These carried on for a good deal of years, well into the 1990, by which time they had foot operated on/off switches, and a round handle identical to that of the electric carpet sweepers. By this time they also had two plastic hooks attached to the handle to store the mains lead instead of a pocket on the dust bag. A version exisits with a large bow on the front cover, the bow being the logo of the Empire Stores catalouge.
The thing about these cheap cleaners was that they never seemed to come in for repair, so I saw so very few of them. One could be forgiven for thinking they obviously didn't break down, but I suspect the truth is they did not last for long and were never all that good when new, so when they did go wrong people may not have wanted to throw good money after bad. If one considers also these cleaners could be purchased on weekly terms, I would hazard a guess that the consumer may not even have noticed the repayments to any notable extent, thus cushioning the blow when the cleaner broke down.
I saw many Goblin and Moulinex cleaners come for repair. It struck me that these cleaners retailed for a price where the consumer would consider a repair.
