What is this UK Dialamatic?! Huh?!

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westfive73

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2012
Messages
9
Location
London, UK
Hello people, I have a conundrum I can't solve or even understand...

I have a Hoover U6023 and it looks a lot like a Hoover U6003, except the handle is not burnt orange and the badge is the wrong way round. By that I mean Dialamatic is large font and Automatic Power Drive is small font.

The plate shows its 240v made by N.Canton for UK. But my confusion is that I understood the UK Dialamatics to be called convertible. So how did this come to be and does anyone know anything about it at all? I would be super grateful to learn more!

Thanks all for reading
Bradley

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1969 Model U6003

I have that exact model in my collection. Mine is labeled a U6003. I’ve been told that there was an early model as well as a late one. This is an early model while the later one had a red label and matching red handle.

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It could be that the very first UK Convertibles were still labelled with the American name Dial-a-Matic. Then at some point, Hoover decided to drop the DAM from the UK versions. Maybe that is one of the very first UK Convertibles exported from the USA!!!
 
Just a guess but I don't remember seeing any power drive dial-a-matics in earlier English adds. Could that have been an import to "test the waters" so to speak? See if there was market for it there before re tooling to produce them in England. In which case it would have just been a US machine with the motor changed.
 
Hey guys thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts ideas and insights! This has turned into quite a mysterious machine! I know UK had a couple of the non powerdrive dialamatics - I think two tone pumpkin/beige, a blue/white and possibly a yellow/white. I don't recall ever seeing a powerdrive model Convertible though.

So that is interesting to see the identical 6002 with the identical decal on the hood. Does yours also have a cream handle control like mine? It's also interesting that they are identical yet 5 years apart in production...

I spent some time reading the internet and couldn't find any entry and then I found one website that talked about a stroke which affected Hoover a d was so significant that it almost took it to collapse. The factory in Scotland in the 70s was producing vacuums for UK by then incidentally.

I know that for a period there were a couple of USA made Hoover Convertibles that were imported to UK during the 70s during a strike period. One with a flower bag, beige hood and very slim and wide headlight. Also a red hood and possibly grey/red bag that user a hood style similar to UK senior ranger, except a mechanical readout on the top showing carpet height settings.i also think that there was a celebrity, constellation and floor polisher imported (all UK motors) during this period and used to own the floor polisher (wood style trim on the front, maybe polisher deluxe in scrollm font written on the front?).

So with this in back of my mind, I continued reading article and found this part which referee to the strike being 1974-1975! Bearing in mind the production date of my machine is 07/74...

I'm wondering if my dialamatic was a consequence of the strike and maybe using up older parts of the 6002 before they changed the look to the different decal style/handle colour?

This would make sense as the other machines imported during this period all looked like exactly their USA counterparts!
This would make my machine quite rare but even more rare as the fact that standard non powerdrive dialamatics (convertible) were not popular in UK. Therefore the uplifted price on this model for the powerdrive would have made this super expensive no doubt and I can't imagine many were sold! The fact I have this survivor is making me feel very fortunate, that is if I am right in my assumptions.

Would be great to hear your thoughts on my ruminations 😁

Bradley

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That makes a lot of sense now. The strike in the UK caused Hoover UK to import cleaners from the American factory in Canton, Ohio. The US factory needed to install 220v motors and compatible wiring and UK plugs before shipping to the UK market. Makes sense that this would result in the appearance of a 220v Power Drive DAM in a UK home.

Love orange Hoovers and Eurekas of that era!!! 😀
 
eurekaprince

I also think the strike of 1974-75 at the Perivale and/or Cambuslang factories led to certain imported cleaners (the 1348 Lightweight Upright and the 918 Heavy Duty Commercial, the respective U.S. equivalents of the 1346A and 912A) being finished in the U.S.

~Ben
 

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