Hoover--What were they thinking?

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Do those Aussie vacs run on 120v same as here? I wonder if there was some other company using the dial a matic name which prevented Hoover from using it in Oz or if it was just for a differentiation.
 
The poor Dial-a-Matic

The Aussie machines run on 220, I have a step-up converter to run them. My Dynamatic came to me sans its motor, so it has a US 120V motor and cord on it.
My friend John who sent me the Dyna thinks the name came from a bad telephone connection. Namely someone from Hoover Australia called North Canton and said "What do you call this thing?" North Canton answered "Dial-a-matic" but Australia heard DYNAmatic.
Now to really confuse things, in the UK the Dial A Matic was called CONVERTIBLE
 
A bad connection..lol, sounds far fetched but heck it could be true. I think they're quite smart looking machines, modern without being overboard like the new stuff on the shelves today. Still waiting for my self propelled one to show up but I'll take a standard also. Did they market the self propelled models in Oz and the UK ?
 
Pete,
As far as I know and have heard from UK and Aussie collectors, there was only one Self Propelled DAM sold overseas, and that was the sea blue/white model U6039.
As far as I am concerned, the Dial-A-Matic is a classic, and was years ahead of its time.
Something else to consider: When Hoover dropped the DAM in 1979, they sold the patents to Panasonic. Had there never been a Hoover Dial a Matic, there may not have ever been a clean air design. Look how many manufacturers make clean air machines today!
 
When you say they sold the patents to Panasonic did they sell them outright or license them. Selling them would mean they wouldn't be able to use those designs again without Panasonics permission or licenseing.

BTW I'm just reading thru the latest issue of CR, see the Hoover WT comes out on top again.
 
The legend

Pete,
to the best of my knowledge, the patents were sold, with Hoover's attitude being they'd never again make a clean air machine. They knew back then the best carpet cleaner was an open fan, center suction upright.
How much of this is all true I don't know. Look at history though, Hoover was the last to enter the clean air upright market in the late 90's. Everyone else(Eureka, Dirt Devil, Regina) had clean air machines by 1995. Hoover didn't roll out the Windtunnel until late 1997. They resisted as long as they could!
 
I also remember that Hoover was the last (even if they weren't the last they were still very late) to enter the bagless market as well!

And wasn't that first bagless machine a fan-first design instead of a clean-air?
 
DING DING DING

You are correct Austin, the first bagless machine was Elite based, and came out in 2000. The bagless Windtunnel followed in 2001
 
Perhaps not exactly that late to enter the clean air market. I bought my PowerMax self propelled upright somewhere around 1990 (similar looking to the half bag/half solid Concept). It says it's 99.9% micro filtration* right on the body of the machine. Now I'm guessing the * asterisk indicates "when used with Genuine Hoover micro filtration bags". It's still a great vacuum, albeit noisy, but now that you mention about them selling the patents, I always kind of wondered why they went to the half bag/half body design when the DAM looked much nicer.
 
Hi Jeff (hoover 1060)
I am blown away that you have some AU Hoovers in IL. Surely it cost a bundle to send them. (?)

The Turbopower Lark - what do you think of it? My mother had one for a while, I thought it was ridiculously noisy though it cleaned really well. It seemed like a larger version of the Starlight, though the S had its bag in a rigid case, not a cloth bag. They don't seem very durable, either, and don't handle very well, seem to want only to go straight ahead. Choice rated them number 1, the big heading was something about how the cheapest machine on test performed the best. (Ok as long as you wear earplugs)

Where is Roselle IL? in 81/82 I was an exchange student in Lockport IL, the family I stayed with had a mustard coloured Hoover convertible like the one in your photo.

Chris
 
dynamatic / dial o matic

I love the story about the phone connection.

More likely is that the name couldn't be used as there was already the dial o matic vegetable slicer - also from USA.

In Aus there are laws about product names, where a company can be blocked from using a name if it is similar to an existing product and might cause confusion. This means we often get unique names for products sold overseas. a couple of examples:

Mistubishi wanted to sell a small car here called the Mirage in Japan, New Zealand, most other markets. Here, the name Virage was a model of Renault car, so Mits had to choose another name - they called it Colt, as it was sold in US as the Dodge Colt.
Subaru can't call their car the Legacy, as Legacy is the name of a charity for widows and orphans of war veterans, so the car is called Subaru Liberty here.
In some states it used to be illegal to sell a product called "peanut butter" as the word butter was reserved for dairy products only, so they had to call it peanut paste. Not in my state. Still some argument about "soy milk" for the same reason, some dairy companies have threatened legal action on the ground of "market confusion" and want it re-named "soy drink".

Anyway that is geting way off the point, whatever the point was....
Chris.
 
Clean air and such

Pete,
Clean air refers to motor/bag position. A clean air upright would have the motor behind the bag, pulling the dirt into the bag, such as the DAM or Panasonic.
Dirty air would have the motor in front of the bag, with the dirt passing thru the fan and being pushed into the bag, such as Kirby, Convertibles ect.
Publicly, Hoover told people they dropped the clean air DAM because they knew the dirty fan cleaned carpeting better.

To Chris(Gizmo):
It took me a long time to get any Hoovers from Australia. My friend John was not finding much of anything at all. He's got some connections now, and has a regular pipeline of them coming thru. I've also sent him quite a few machines, so we just trade back and forth. Its pricey to ship back and forth, but neither of us really cares. I think my most expensive Aussie machine would be the U7008 I won from ebay last year. It was listed as local pickup in Brisbane, and I emailed the seller to see if they'd be willing to ship it to Sydney for me. She was, so I bid and won the vacuum. She shipped it to John, and he sent it Airmail to me. By the time the cleaner arrived on my front steps, I had shelled out about $300 USD. Yeah pricey, but the machine is beautiful, and the wonderful lady I bought it from even sent me the owners manual seperately, as she discovered it after she'd shipped the cleaner.
Turbo-Lark: I like it, very good cleaner, but for me the handle is too short. Mine is not super loud, but I do have a UK made turbopower Jr which is ear splitting.
Roselle is a Chicago Suburb, just as Lockport is. Lockport is a southern suburb, Roselle is northwestern. I'm about 8 miles due west of O'hare Airport along Irving Park road. Distance from Roselle to Lockport would be 40-50 miles I'd guess.
Thats some interesting insight on the Dynamatic name too.
 
I love those Aussie Convertibles as well...any Hoover with a foot switch is wild, IMHO! Thanks for sharing!

Was the "real" Convertible called the Senior in the UK? I saw one of those on eBay (also with a footswitch, that appeared to be from the 80's) and should have grabbed it.

--Austin
 
UK Hoovers - we have those too!!

In the UK, the full size upright was designated "Senior" This started after the little model 375 Junior was introduced.
I have some UK Seniors as well. Here are 2 of them: 1955-1959 model 638 and a 1972 model 6525C.
The 638 has been converted to 120V, I know a UK collector who wanted a US model 29 so we swapped. I sent him the shell of a model 29, he sent me the shell of a 638. Note the 638's footswitch coming out from under the base, below the handle release and furniture guard.
The 6525C is still 220V. This was my first UK Senior, and I am amazed at the quality of it. Here in the US the Convertible sold like gangbusters, so they were always looking for ways to cut costs, make them cheaper, make more money. Hence you'll find some major differences between a 1958 US model 65 and a 1968 model 1060.
This UK 6525C is made with the quality of a US model 65. I've seen a handful of overseas made Seniors/Convertibles in the past couple of years. They were not "cheapened" at all.
The sound of this 6525C is the best part. Most of us should know what a US convertible sounds like, the UK and Aussie models have a deeper, beefier growl to their motors, a sound thats much more BUTCH than their American cousins.
Mr Webmaster: any way I can post a little video of this running?
 
A very unusual Senior

This is model U4186, vintage 1980 and according to my friend Kev in Scotland the last UK model designated just "Senior" from here out, it was called the Senior Powerplus, and later on just Powerplus.
This is all original. The base(plastic) is covered by a rubber shroud to protect furniture. It uses top filling bags like our Type A bags, but the UK bag is more the size of a type Z bag, and reusable.
The footswitch is very cool on this, its activated by the handle release pedal. Step on the pedal to lower the handle, and then keep pushing to activate the switch. Its not tied to the handle, but the release pedal.
 
U4186 switch

Here's the underside. The switch is just above the wheel on the left side of the pic. Note the part of the release pedal that activates the switch...(look straight left from the data label)
Note also the agitator painted to match the cleaner...
A really neat setup...
 
Colored Handles

Someone on this forum asked about the colored handles and when they went to white from matching the handles to the machines. I just noticed on a picture above, from Fred Stachnik's collection, which I will put here again, it was the Model 69 convertible. From left 29, 63, 64, 65 (first convertible) 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70. Jeff and Fred S. are the definitive historians here, by there collections. Amazing!!
 
BTW - My New Housekeeper Loves the 69

I have it my upstairs master closet. I can tell that she uses it every time she is here because it is moved and the cord is wound differently than I do. She has good taste. She can use any number of machines including the central vac, but the Neptune Green 69 must strike her fancy. I don't mind, since I know that the rug is getting as clean as it can!!
 
she has good taste Fred...

Model 69 was the first DELUXE machine to have the white handle. The model 32 Special was the first white handled Convertible, starting 1960
You're also right about the housekeeper using that model 69. It might only be 425 watts on the floor, but IMHO those Convertibles were the best performing vacuums made, and will outclean anything.
 

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