when did they leave this ball game?

[vacuumssuck213]

Who can tell me when these brands got out of the fun business Westinghouse now made popular for blenders and mixers once produced vacuum cleaners general electric the appliance giant to my knowledge does not produce a vacuum. Singer a popular sewing machine manufacturer made vacuums even companies like Toshiba and Sony had a few when did they disappear and why?

 

[super-sweeper]

1: Westinghouse left vacuums sometime in the 1960s.


 


2: G-E pulled out of vacuums in 1973, and sold there molds and vacuum-everything to Premier.


 


3: The Singer line of vacuums was bought-out by Bissell in the late 1990s. Just like G-E, Bissell began to produce the same machine with their name on it.


 


Hope this helps!

 

[vacuumssuck213]

thanks

Just what I was looking for shame we live in a society where everything is a dulled down copycat

 

[kirbyrama]

And how about Sunbeam? When did they get out of vacuum cleaners?

 

[super-sweeper]

Sunbeam,

Left in the late 1970s. Some of their last vacuums were also some of their best, such as the touch-and-lock, and the infamous Flower-Power Challenger canister. Singer also made some uprights for them in the late 1960s and early 1970s!

 

[kirbyvertibles]

Regina, samsung, sanyo, sharp, airway, oasis, fantom, whirlpool, bison, westinghouse. All gone

 

[super-sweeper]

So, does that mean I have to tell all their stories, too, Kirbyvertibles?

 

[hygiene903]

Yep!
Jeff

 

[kirbyvertibles]

go for it super-sweeper

 

[super-sweeper]

ok then!

I have to rewrite everything now, on a tablet! All my text randomly deleted!!! 

 


Regina packed up in the 1980s, when it was purchased for $38 million dollars. It was then sold to Phillips in 1995, and sold to Oreck in 1997. Oreck made the Regina steamer as their own. Oreck then sold Regina to Royal, which ended up being acquired by TTI. The Regina name was then put on the Dirt Devil Breeze vacuums, bagged and bagless. The Regina variations were made in black plastic!


 


Samsung is still around, you can find their new (and UGLY!

) Motion Sync vacuum at Best Buy (I wonder if Wards has it in their catalog?

).


 


Sanyo left in the early 2000s. They were best known for the Tranaformax stick vac, which ranked VERY highly in Consumer Reports. They also made the Kenmore 'Let's Clean!' Canister in the 1980s.


 


Sharp also left in the early 2000s. They made good vacuums, compared best to Panasonic. They were well known for the Twin Energy and Library Quiet upright!


 


Airway, the company of so many innovations, ceased manufacturing the then-current Signature series in 2008. The rising cost of steel and aluminum made American manufacturing too expensive.fun fact: the DeLorean's stainless steel body was made in Ireland due to costs!


 


I've never heard of Oasis!

 


Fantom filed for bankruptcy in October 2001. James Dyson decided not to renew the licensing of his Dual-Cyclonic technology when Fantom told Dyson they refused to use his new MEMA filtering technology. This sent Fantom in a downward spiral.they released the Wildcat, and it failed. Fantom stopped honoring warranty claims, and went broke. The name sold to Euro Pro. Some 'commercial' and some not-so-'commercial' vacuums under the Fantom name in China.


 


Whirlpool stopped with vacuums in the late 1980s to early 1990s. They had been Kenmore's right-hand man for their vacuums for so many years. They sold many Kenmore machines under their own name since the 1960s. I think Macy's carried them in the 1980s!


 


Bison folded around 1984. They had a BAD reputation. The legend goes that the distributor would lock all the salesmen in a room, then preach extensively to them. He would conclude with '....and I had better not hear of my machines being sold to black people or in trailer parks!'. Combined with the faults in their machines, they went down in vacuum history. Their last model was the Centurion II.


 


Westinghouse ended with their take on the Eureka Bravo in the 1990s. I know of ONE collector here that has one fully intact, another has just the base. Now, WHITE-Westinghouse made their last debut on the infamous Westinghouse Unplugged vacuum of 2001! 


 


That completes our trip to the vacuum history database, feel free to take a bobble-head Electrolux on your way out! 

 

[super-sweeper]

note:

Don't mind reply #2, I completely forgot about Westinghouse's V.I.P Bravo-look-alike, and the Unplugged!

 

[DesertTortoise]

Meanwhile new firms like Tacony and LG have entered the vacuum making biz. don't forget Sharp and Emerson Electric. Both sell vacs. You also ignored some Japanese brands that are not typically seen outside of Asia such as Nikura (their top canister is listed at 2800 watts, obviously not something the EU would smile at!). Also don't ignore a US company called iRobot and their Roomba robot vacuum. The Japanese Concorbo robot talks in three languages, even some particular Japanese dialects and has an app that lets you communicate with it through a smart phone. Robot vacs are a game changer whether the old gray beard collectors like it or not. You mean I can have clean carpet and not have to push a vacuum around the house? I'm, like, there dude!

Btw, iRobot makes a lot of very trick military and police robots, from ground crawlers equipped with sensors, bomb disposal gear, grenade launcher/shotgun combos (thing is maybe knee high with two grenade launchers, 16 grenades and two shot gun barrels with reloads, nasty little critter) to autonomous submersibles used by the US Navy for a variety of covert underwater tasks. Trying to operate one of the ground robots smoothly with their hand held controller using the sensors on the robot viewed through a computer screen takes real skill and practice, but a demo by an Air Force robot the controller untied my boot with the robot arm! That level of tech can be cruising around your hose sucking up your dogs hair and whatever it tracked in. Pretty cool if you ask me.

 

[dustin]

GE *Did* have a few models out in the early 2000's, sold only at Walmart, they were not true GE's though, but rebadged Eurekas.

 

[Gr8DaneDad]

DesertTortise,


 


I agree completely with your position, with one exception, robot vacuums may well become a game changer, but they aren't there yet. They are moderately effective on surface litter and hard floors but have neither the capacity nor power to deep clean a carpet and run time is still fairly limited. I have a Roomba and it does a lousy job in small rooms with a lot of furniture and often gets stuck under the edge of the sofa because it fits under some areas but then can't find a way out of others and will get stuck under a bit of trim or my favorite spot to find the darn thing, under the front of the lazy boy, run up part way on the base,  and then it can't get enough traction on the broadloom to back itself out. They have improved tremendously, but still have quite a way to go.


 

 

[marks_here]

And those robot vacuums

Are the most listed on Ebay for parts/repair vacuum...which is something considering how expensive they are they don't last.

 

[DesertTortoise]

Interesting to know Gr8DaneDad. I have wondered how they do in rooms with lots of furniture. Do they shut off after a period of time when they get stuck or just run until the battery quits.

With dogs dribbling water from the water bowl (both dogs drink then kiss over the bowl and water goes everywhere), or tracking water in on wet feet from the tub outside I was concerned about a robot vac sucking some water up, shorting out and catching fire while I am work blissfully ignorant of the catastrophy. Otherwise I would have one at least for the kitchen.

 

[Gr8DaneDad]

well it depends... on what I'm not sure, but most of the time it shuts off after not moving for some period of time but if it's wheels are just so, it'll run until the battery dies or maybe it just got stuck near the end of a charge... If I'm home I don't let it run because the younger 2 pups try to kill it, so it only gets exercise when the dogs are outside or limited to their room right off the garage and I don't witness it or I'm working in my office (which is really the dogs room, but they let me use it sometimes) and don't notice it's stuck. It also has a hell of a time if it runs off the carpet into the kitchen... it can't get back up on to the carpet and back to base.

 

[DesertTortoise]

Sounds like they need to make one on rubber treads. It would look like a powered brush with the brush the full width of the thing and treads behind the brush. Might even have some sort of automatic height adjustment to clear things like the junction of tile and carpet or permit it to mount an area rug from a hard surface.

 

[kirbylux77]

Kirbyvertibles

You totally forgot about Lewyt when you made that list of vacuum companies that are gone.

Lewyt went bankrupt in the early 1960's, & bought out by SCM Corporation, which eventually put Lewyt out of business in the early 1990's. Then, around 1998 if I remember correctly, SMC Corporation, a producer of ceiling fans, bought the rights to the name & for a few years sold a line of cheap Chinese canisters & uprights. I think they finally shut things down around 2001 or 2002. Their vacuums were so cheap that when they took them to vac shop distribution companies, like Buckeye, they turned them down!

Super-Sweeper....Sanyo didn't leave in the early 2000's, they were bought out by Panasonic in 2009. Up to that point, they were still making vacuums under their own brand name, as well as rebadging vacuums for Euro Pro & Hoover. Even to this day, there are still a couple of Sanyo designs floating around with the Panasonic name on them.

Dustin....yes you are right, those WalMart GE's were made by Eureka. BUT important to note, however, that the upright designs were NOT shared by Eureka. The GE uprights were totally separate designs. The only other name they ever got was the Volta name, which was sold in Canadian Tire here in Canada. The only design Eureka vacuums ever shared with GE was their powerhead canister, & even then they did not get a quick-release PN neck or direct-connect plastic wands, just stainless steel wands.

As for the robot vacuums....in my opinion, they are NOT vacuums. They are merely robotic motorized carpet sweepers, which explains why they only surface clean. It will take another 20 years before they ever truly get to the point they could replace or clean as well as normal canister & upright vacuums, if they ever do get to that level. The fact that Dyson had a prototype of a full size robot vacuum that actually looked like a downscaled normal vacuum, & they didn't put it into production, tells me that it will probably never come to fruition.

One thing I am wondering....about Premier....when exactly did they separate from General Electric?? I know I read that Premier bought the GE designs in 1973, but I always thought that GE owned Premier & the Premier line was the lower cost line. And does anyone have any pics or information on the Sony vacuums? Now that definitely has me curious!

Rob