Hoover--What were they thinking?

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Colors

My mom has a brown-and-white Convertible with reddish accents on the bag. My grandmother had the exact same thing, so it must've been a common color scheme. My '60s Hoover Portable is beige and gray, definitely not my favorite colors, but it was 5 bucks. Interestingly enough, I swung by a yard sale today and found an aqua-and-white Celebrity, but they wanted waaaay too much
 
Fear not Fred...

We'll find the right handle for that model 69 yet. For now we'll consider it to be a work in progress!
 
87 Constellation Photos!!!

Here are some photos of my Model 87 Constellation, as requested above...

It actually wasn't an air switch.. it was electric. The Celebrity from the mid 70's was the machine that had the pneumatic (sp?) switch. (I have one of those as well, if anybody is interested, I suppose I could take pictures of that as well.)

Hoover had problems with the switch in the handle... and it was promptly discontinued. It was introduced January 1, 1959, and was last produced April 4th, 1960. They only made 84,396 machines... so they are relatively rare.

Such a wonderful idea, but they needed to put it back in the oven and let it bake for another few minutes.. Same goes in the 70's; nothing but problems (so I've heard) with the air-trigger on-off switch.

If demothing needed to be done, one would put mothballs in the bag then push the override switch (where "Constellation Eighty Seven") is written, and that would complete the circuit.

Of course, it's a low voltage system... But those hoses were known for ripping, and because they stretched, the tiny wire running through the hose would develop issues, and the switch in the hose end wouldn't work.

But, let me say, flipping that little switch and having the Constellation turn on sends a shiver down my spine. It's very cool! ((As you read, Fred passed out and almost lost his home to Charlie)).

Enjoy the pictures!

http://automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/00ShowCollectionGETD.cgi?dir=/COLLECTIONS/HOOVERWHEELAWAY/
 
I had a constellation and when my mom seperated from my dad she accidently left it there and he threw it to the dump :-(
 
Dynamatic

Hi Guys,

The Dynamatic was the vac we had when I was growing up.

The original one mum had, had the height adjustment as shown in the picture. A later one I got at a garage sale had auto height adjustment. While we had the Dynamatic, she insisted that we never needed a cannister cleaner, she did it all with the white stretch hose connected on the back.

It was a great cleaner but very very loud.

Mum had another hoover from the mid 80's after that, it came in blue or brown, was two speed with a retractable cord (Upright) That survived until she got the Dyson in 2000.

Regards

Nathan
 
stretchy hose on the Dynamatic

Wow, would I love to have a stretchy hose for any Dynamatic or Dial a Matic! In the US we had the non stretchy Tufflex...

The second Cleaner your mom had Nathan sounds to me like a Concept One, also a very nice machine!
 
You got it

Hi Jeff,

Thats it, it is a Concept 1. Its still sitting in her garage, but its looking pretty worse for wear these days. Also those Type A? bags I think (Pretty apple green colour, single use only) are pretty hard to find now. There is a little ma store near us that has them, but most of the bigger stores no longer carry them.

Was it the Concept 1 that also had the power assist, or was it another model that looked the same?

I'm pretty sure I got rid of a lot of that stuff the last time she moved, but I know there are a few vac's left. I think I just kept the non powered ones. But I'll check for a hose the next time I'm over there. In the US did you have white platic pipes with those oh so easy to break off plastic nipples?

Regards

Nathan
 
Thanks Nathan...

the hose would be awesome, as my friend John in sydney has not been able to locate one yet.
Green type A bags are available here easily, any time you'd like some just let me know!

Here in the US, self propelled Concept Ones outsold the non self propelled ones by a mile!
 
Here's a pic of my PowerMax which was pretty much a gussied up Concept. I bought it new around 89 or 90. Has all the features except for a cord retract. Height adjustment, dirtfinder headlight, edge cleaning, on board tools, auto tool engagement, variable speed motor, power surge, and a handy little drawer on the top of the bag to insert a vacuum tab air freshener, adjustable to boot. It's an excellent cleaner if it wasn't so noisy, if you have the slide set down low it's not so bad.
 
Nice PowerMAX Pete

That was the top model, and not around very long either.
You should find the month/year it was made as the first 4 digits of the serial number.
The Powermax was the old Concept II, only with the tool caddy in place of where the Helpmate went.
I agree they were very noisy... the motors deteriorated very quickly on those cleaners!
 
0492
april 1992,,, hmmm I thought I bought it a little earlier than that. The only "problem" I've had with it that I fixed myself was that control wire that goes up into the sliding handlgrip to shift the machine forward or reverse, it pops out on occasion.
 
Thats an earlier model PowerMAX

Those made their debut in the stores in Feb or March of 1992. The black one was not around for long, so I would say thats a very collectible machine.
I have a blue one downstairs in my "work in progress" line. Its got many issues!
 
Fred, thanks for sharing the Constellation pictures! Beautiful machine (and great color...I would have guessed that this was from the late 60's), the Model 87, and I've always wanted to see how those hose switches worked! But that wire couldn't get any smaller--no wonder they had problems! This was a good idea, IMHO, but in need of some serious re-engineering.

I've seen 2 Model 87's on eBay (and bid up to $125 on one), and one had an intact handle switch, but it was probably non-functioning by then. Next one I see...:)

I'm also a Celebrity fan...and prefer the Air-Ride to the wheeled models. How exactly does the pneumatic switch work and what seemed to be the problem with these? I'd love to see pictures of it!

--Austin
 
I didn't know there were other than black. Could you post a pic of it regardless of what shape it's in. A small vac store near me has a Concept self propelled I wouldn't mind getting but he wants about $75 for it and it's a little scratchy to look at for that amount. I don't think I've seen any Concepts here that weren't self propelled they must have been a popular seller. When they brought the Windtunnel out in Canada you could get the self propelled version then those disappeared and all you could find were the regular ones. But now I see they might be back again as a local store has the new bagless Windtunnel selfpropelled on sale for $239 Cdn. quite cheap considering they used to sell for well over $300 here. I can't remember what I paid for that PowerMax, I got it at Costco, but it was in the $300 range I think
 

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