Do fabulous vacuum finds ever end...I got my convertible !!

[hoover1060]

Sears-Singer-Ryobi...

Pete,
The Singer you haver was made by Ryobi, I think they aquired the Singer stuff sometime in the middle 80's.
Your blue Kenmore would have been made while it was still Singer.
I have several of the twin fan Singers, as well as a Canadian Lewyt and Sunbeam from the 70's made on aliminum chassis instead of plastic. These were very good vacuum cleaners, but yes ear-splittingly loud.
The metal base ones are slightly quieter, and a little on the heavy side.

 

[jmm63]

We had a Kenmore upright very similar to the blue one, I just remember it was a piece of junk. Always limping along and so LOUD, it was replaced with a "Sears Best" powermate canister in 1977. The canister is still being used in my mom garage, however, the powernozzle is long gone.

 

[westytoploader]

GREAT finds Pete...glad you finally found your Convertible, and what a model to find!

I really like those Singer/Kenmore/Sunbeam/Shetland-Lewyt/etc. twin-fan uprights...there's a vintage Singer on eBay right now that I'm eyeing. I've seen a few of the later "Singer System" machines (with that funky "pull-up-and-turn" height-adjustment knob) in thrift stores, but they were too new for me. One of my aunts also had a black Singer Commercial twin-fan after her Eureka Bravo died...I went with her to get it (refurbished vacuum) and played with that thing for HOURS. Even though I was only about 9 I do remember that it pulled the carpet up! Unlike the home Singers it was quite durable, and actually had a chrome handle and rubber grip. Had a high-pitched whine to it but wasn't the noisiest machine, IMHO. Would love to know what happened to that one...

Also, I noticed on your Singer that while there is a headlight lens, the lens that juts out from the housing is missing...notice the groove where it's supposed to fit. Not a crucial piece (I personally don't like them) but thought you might like to know. The earlier, more vintage machines such as the Kenmores didn't have them.

--Austin

 

[westytoploader]

Also, one of the strangest (and most inconvienent IMHO) characteristics of these machines was that you had to lower the handle to turn it on. Were there any twin-fan machines with a regular foot or handle switch?

 

[hoover1060]

Twin fan cleaners..

Austin,
The automatic switch started on these cleaners first with the Sunbeam variation, and in the middle 70's Sears. Before that, the switch was a metal toggle, either on the back of the handle, or on the handle bail itself.
When Ryobi brought back the "Singer System" cleaners in the middle 80's, most of them were the automatic handle switches, a royal pain in the A**...

 

[hoover1060]

Lewyt and Sunbeam

Lewyt is from Canada, I'm guessing early 1970's?
Sunbeam is late 60's deluxe model with cord reel.

 

[hoover1060]

A trio of Singers...however..

Patti, Maxine and LaVerne they are NOT, as the noise they make is anything but musical!
Left to right:
1974 Golden PowerMaster U49A
1970 PowerMaster U45
1978 Commercial model(with Sanitaire bag)

I call the room where I keep these cleaners "The choir room"

 

[hoover1060]

handle switch

2 speed-3 position switch of the Lewyt

 

[veg-o-matic]

Ooooh, I'm lovin' that Sunbeam!

veg

 

[petek]

Trust Jeff to have scads of them LOL

Austin, I don't believe this model had a second headlight lens. The one that's on there now is dark, like sunglasses. If you look at the catalog above you'll see that item A does have a wraparound lens but items B & D like mine don't either. Looking closely at mine, there isn't anyway I can see that a wraparound lens could clip on to anything or even friction fit like item A above unless the lens cover that's on there now is removed to give it somewhere for holding tabs to clip into the body. The rest of the models above don't have headlights per the catalog. My guess is that item A, the most expensive non commercial,was given that extra touch along with the cord-away a rug pile dial while the less expensive ones still kept the pile lever and no cordaway or extra big lens cover.

 

[hoover1060]

headlight lens

Austin & Pete:
What you see on the newer Singer is the cutout for a different lens that was used on the more deluxe Singers by Ryobi. That lens somewhat resembled the wrap-around lens on the Kenmores and my Sunbeam
Jeff

 

[GESwivel]

Pete,

The Singer made vacuum cleaners actually cleaned very well with their beater bar agitators. Their twin-fan uprights would create alot of noise compared to many other vacuum cleaners.

The vacuum cleaners were also harder to push. They had very narrow, cheap rear wheels. It was difficult to push on thick carpeting. The self-propelled models were an improvement, but not much. Their drive was on the rear wheels, which were also wide.

You will want to add another company to the long list Singer made vacuum cleaners for. They made vacuum cleaners for Kmart.

 

[hoover1060]

Singer made...

Singer, Kenmore, Lewyt(Canada) Sunbeam, Westinghouse, and Kmart.
The Kmart brand was called "Flor-Genie" and if memory serves they were made about 1977-78 somewhere around there anyway. There were three models, a plain one, a more deluxe 2 speed model, and the super deluxe model with cord reel and box top bag.

 

[GESwivel]

Flor Genie

Yes, you are correct, they were called Flor Genie. Kmart also used Singer canisters under their Flor Genie brand. The line only lasted a short time.