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Always wondered how good Hoover's small appliance line was. How good were these? I actually prefer the look of the BOL model with that big Hoover sign on the dial.
 
Again, My Hoover Parts/Service Manual

Covers these irons.

Vintage Hoover irons seem to be highly sought after if fleaBay and other sites can be a reliable source of that information. More so if the units are MIB.

Not sure whom Hoover sourced their irons from, or if they were made in house.
 
UK Hoover Irons

We had the 4001 version here too, although there were variations of that model with spray (white handle knob etc) and (possibly) "Shot of Steam" too - I know that particular concept was Sunbeam's but you get the idea.

Interestingly the sole plate design for your version was only used here for the first Hoover steam irons, and was replaced in 1962 with a diamond shape, which carried on right to the end of production of this model, in around 1979/80 I think. Hoover manufactured their own irons in the UK, although in High Wycombe (in 1956/57 at least) rather than Perivale, Merthyr or Cambuslang. High Wycombe is about 20 miles from Perivale, further west of London, I believe the factory there originally made cloth bags for Hoover upright cleaners

Here is a pic of the iron, I had forgotten they still did handles in this colour so late on, I thought they had been dropped after the earlier "pancake" version

Al

vacbear58++8-11-2010-17-36-4.jpg
 
I like mine

I use two irons as daily drivers.
Usually I do my ironing with a GE 1975 H2F110WN. White with blue cord.
However i alternate with a Hoover 4460 (Very similar to the 4001-01 but in butterscotch).
I REALLY like the Hoover iron. Its soleplate is very shiny and slick. Perhaps that is why I like it. It just glides over fabric. The only iron that ever compared to the Hoover for slick soleplates (in my opinion) was a new Rowenta. The Rowenta was great while it lasted (about five years) whereupon it spewed black crap onto my clothes and wouldn't respond to a cleaning.
The Hoover does have a lot of gurgling and boiling noise. But it steams well. I only use distilled water or else it spits.
Both irons I bought new-old-stock in original boxes. Both were about $5.00 each.
I also wondered who made it. Knapp-Monarch? I know Hoover was in bed with them.
 
I recognize that black and chrome

Hoover iron. That was the one I used growing up. I had no sisters so our mom taught my brothers and I how to iron. The original cord on this iron became ragged and the wires were exposed. Never feared, my dad replaced the cord with a back electrical cord. I think we had that iron for 20 years.
John
 
Hoover... more

I forgot..
One thing I really like about the Hoover dial is the fabric selector:
DYNEL
VEREL
ACRILAN
CRESLAN
FORTREL
Gotta wonder what it all means. I just wing it.
However, I now sometimes get the urge to go shopping and request the salesman to order me some new Verel shirts or Verel undies. I feel MUCH more virile in VEREL!
 
I had the Hoover P4013 iron for a few years, it was my favorite iron, until mother knocked it off the ironing board and broke the handle off. That iron steamed more than any other I had.

Currently I'm using a late 50's Hoover iron and I have a NIB P3007 on the shelf.

The Hoover iron was the first small electric introduced by Hoover shortly after WWII. I know at that time it was made in house, and I'd assume they continued to make them in house
 
Verel & The Lot

Are all man-made fibers, with Verel being a mondoacrylic polyester.

Unlike natual fibers such as linen and cotton, which previously had been ironed damp with a dry (and often hot and or heavy iron), man made fibers including rayon must be steam ironed.

For one thing being thermoplastic, man made textiles will melt at the temps used for cotton and certianly linen. Also any creases ironed in will be permanent.

These "wash and wear" or minimal iron fabrics required steam irons that not only produced steam at all settings (not all models did and some still won't), but kept the soleplate at the proper temperature to prevent scorching, melting and otherwise damaging fibers.

Steam ironing man made textiles actually prevents fiber damage and protects them from the heat from the iron.

P.S.

To get around the fact many irons then or even today will not produce steam or enough of it at low temperatures, ironing shoes were invented. These are the soleplate like things attached to a spring one sees for commercial irons, though they can be found then and now for home irons as well.

The idea came about as an evolution of the pressing cloth, and allows one to set the iron at it's highest temp without risking damage to whatever one was ironing. Thus one got to use the iron at it's full strength and get all the steam required.

Many older and even some irons today will not provide much steam unless set above "woolens" or even "cottons". An iron set too low will spit and dribble water because the soleplate/internal heat is not enough to create steam.

All irons, aside from those fed from steam boilers must create steam inside the unit, hence the problem. The physics of water cannot be altered inside the iron, that is water will "boil" or turn into steam only at a certain temperature. Thus makers have to devise clever ways to produce steam (even at low temps), whilst not making the soleplate so hot it will ruin man made fibers.
 
Launderess - Thanks

Thanks for the info on man-made fibers. Actually makes me think that Hoover was more in tune with the fabrics than the simplicity of the iron may lead us to believe.
It really does iron well, synthetics and all. Good ol' USA design!
 
Very nice - thanks for the scans and pics. Hoover seems to be one of the brands that wasn't as popular around here. I've only seen a couple of Hoover irons and they usually are over-loved and not worth bringing home. That blue early-sixties model with the large dial is just beautiful, Vacbear!!
 
Steam Iron Vent Wars

Once makers of irons got the steam thing down, the next big thing was the amount of vents (holes) in their iron's soleplates.

Early steam irons had perhaps a handful of holes arranged around the top outer ring of the soleplate, then all heck broke loose.

All the appliance makers tried to one up each other by adding more and more holes. The appeal to Mrs. Average Amercian Housewife was that all those vents meant *more* steam, which in theory one supposes gave better ironing results.

If one looks at the Hoover advert above, the TOL model has about 62 vents, while the "budget" (one assumes" model comes in at about 8.

P.S.
Onboard water tanks for making steam killed off the "stream-line" design of irons that had been popular from about the 1930's until after the war.
 
steam holes war

At Rich's, we mostly sold GE irons, but because we sold Hoover vacuums, we sold that BOL Hoover iron and were told by Hoover that the number of steam vents really made no difference in ironing performance. Never before today have I seen rest of the Hoover iron line. Very nice, but I, too, wonder about the resources of Knapp-Monarach being involved in Hoover irons.
 
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