IEC TRISTAR CYCLONIC VACUUM

[bobofhollywood]

One of these excellent alien head looking vacuums fell out of the sky into my house. I think I'm gonna love it, but would like to know more about the thing. I was able to learn that cyclonic action means that the air passes around the dirt in the bag rather than through it,,,with the dirt being held in air suspension rather than clogging the pores of the bag - so, like a Dyson, which is also cyclonic, it is supposed to never clog!

Can someone here let me know what I've got? How old might it be? I can tell you this..the crevice tool and upolstery brush are of a translucent plastic with gold glitter embedded - looking very 50's, yet the machine seems to only be about 15 years old tops, I'd say.

I'll supply a photo tomorrow which may help illuminate.

 

[tolivac]

Great find-where to begin!A freind and I used to go DTD on our weekends and sell these machines.And for the Cyclonic action-we had a clear plastic lid to put on the machine so the customer could see how the action worked-and as part of the demo you would dump a 10Lb bag of sand into the cloth bag-put a dirtmeter filter in it and let the prospect try the vacuum when it already has 10lbs of sand in it-they are usually amazed when it is compared to their clogged Hoover or Bissel bagless vacs-we got LOTS of those as trade-ins.Is your machine sort of a metallic silver grey color-did it come with the "TurboBrush" power nozzle-these were the last of the really good ones.then the EXL series came out-those have magnesium bodies and a design sort of like older Lux machines.then came the Mg1 and MG2 machines.Yes I put the transparent lids on mine and watch the cyclone action in the machine-this design came about in 1948-the manufacturerer of these machines used to make aircraft parts and cast parts during the war-they got the idea for the vacuum-the cyclone action-as a result of wing vortexes on airplane wings-the machine is based on aircraft technology.The angle of the intake --15 degrees-the same pitch as most airplane wings.The machines bag can be almost full and still have full power.Only very fine dust collected alone can clog it-but then pick up some coarser heavier material and it works again!they are pretty neat machines-now there are other vacuums that use a similar technology-Vortex Force,Miracle Mate,Patriot,I have an example of each of these-they are good machines.The vertical bag and angled hose intake makes a diffrence in performance.

 

[appliguy]

Actually the first one of these machines were manufactured i

under the name of Compact. You can see a mint condition 1940 model at 137.com....Charlie Lester got it from a women who wanted it to have a good home, she just gave it to him if memory serves. If the Compact was sold DTD it was called the Revelation. They started calling it Tri-Star about 1978 I believe. PATRICK COFFEY

 

[skip]

Hey Patrick,
No that's not correct about the compact C1 Charlie lester had, His friend found it at a flea Market and bought it for Charlie, At first Charlie was discourage because it was so fithly he didn't think it would clean up but to his suprise it did and he kept until 2 years ago when he sold it on ebay and Joe Dupuis from canada won it for 155.00. I fact I have 2 C1 compacts in my collection. It's the airway Charlie has that the Lady gave him. and then the Lewyt he has also was given to him, well in fact he has been quite luicky as he has gotten alot of Vacs given to him

Skip...

 

[tolivac]

I'll have to check my TriStar-Compact history charts I have at home-thought the first came out after WW2-since the company had no more manufacturing for the military-they developed the Compact vacuum as an item to make and sell after the war.In one of the history charts I have at home-have the charts for TriStar and Kirby-they show a C1 machine.I also makes sense the machine could have been "invented" by them in 1940-as WW2 stepped up then production shifted from vacuums to aircraft,parts and other military items they used to make.

 

[bobofhollywood]

summertime picture

Here's a shot of my cyclonic. Should I put this in the summertime picture thread?

Bob

 

[hoover1060]

fabulous picture Bob!

Thats a new-ish Tristar, from the 90's sometime I would guess.
They are very sturdy, powerful, and pretty low maintenance machines.
I'm not an expert, but thats my guess as to its age. I am sure someone on here will be able to do better than me..

 

[petek]

I've run across two Compacts at the thrifts but both were in such a terrible state paint wise and for lack of parts that I didn't bother with them. I'm still waiting for a more pristine one to show up eventually.

 

[gansky1]

Great machine, Bob. You'll like this cleaner. I saw a very similar model at an estate sale not long ago and they were asking $625 for it!

 

[skip]

Bob that's a 1999 Tristar and right after that one came the tristar exl the grey one with the new style. Down here where I'm at We called the model You have the blue jean model

Skip...

 

[air-waycharlie]

Carmen TriStar Miranda

Love it as a hat but it would be hard to balance when walking up or down stairs----kind of like Lucy with that headress when she wanted to be in a movie.

 

[bobofhollywood]

1999

Oh thanks so much guys. I had a feeling it was newish - possibly within the decade.

That's EXCELLENT. I do like this machine quite well already.

Are the crevice tools normally made of that clear material with glitter in it? They're very pretty.

 

[air-waycharlie]

Glitter tools

Yes, those are the correct tools and they were a selling point. They are very expensive to replace to take good care of them! If they need a cleaning, run them through the dishwasher and take them out before the dry cycle and hand dry them.

 

[tolivac]

Yes that machine shown is like the one I bought new in 1998 from the DTD salesperson in Manassas VA-the salesperson came from Woodbridge,Va and I still have the machine-its still in excellent shape-been thru a move and still have all of the speckled parts.Did your machine come with the "Pignose" HEPA filter-that was another selling point of the machine.A really well stocked vac shop should be able to get them.That older filter is lots better than the "lux" style one included with the EXL-and Mg machines.

 

[Cybrvanr]

I've got one of the bright orange compacts from the early 70's. It's a great machine! You're right about the cyclonic action and fine dust. I sucked up a bunch of drywall dust when I was working on my kitchen. It stopped vacuuming real good, but when I then moved to vacuum the rest of the house, it started working again!

Is that a Hammond S series behind you Bob?

 

[Designgeek]

Oh, I see!, yours has a cord holder of some kind built in (which is not insignificant)!

We had one of those, in light green, when I was a kid. Holy cow, nothing I've used before or since has had that kind of suction power. We used it without disposable bags, the dirt container itself was easy enough to shake out into the rubbish bin outside without raising a big cloud of dust. Ours did not have a cord holder, so we'd just wind up the cord and put it in a pile on top of the cleaner.

Re. the cyclonic action: I can't imagine a way to keep dirt from getting suctioned to the sides of the bag, but I figured that the suction flow would compress the dirt downward uniformly, and as long as there was exposed surface area i.e. as long as the bag wasn't completely filled, it would maintain full suction. Whatever was actually going on in there, it worked superbly well.

 

[compactc9]

The bag does fill from the side opposite of the motor. I never would have believed it without seeing it.

I have that same model of Tri-Star, Its a early-mid 90s one. Great vacuum.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

TriStar!

That's a model that I want in the worst way... and never seem to be able to find for a reasonable price. *love the glittery tools* But through friends/luck, I always seem to come across things I'm looking for sooner or later.



~Fred

 

[Designgeek]

Re. fill from the opposite side from the motor: Possibly because the air path on that side is narrower, so the air flow is more constrained, hence faster? And then as the container fills, the airflow is constrained around the outer edge starting at the front, concentrating more suction toward the motor side?

Someone spent a lot of time designing that one. Simple, subtle, and clever as can be.