Lewyt vs Electrolux

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retromania

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2011
Messages
1,140
Location
Anderson, South Carolina
Electrolux is the only brand of vacuum my mother ever had and most of our relatives and people we knew around here. Since joining this website I have learned about a brand of vacuum I never knew existed, Lewyt! People's excitement when they post that they have one or found one at a thrift store or estate sale. What can someone tell me about them and why are they such a popular vintage collectable?
 
I am not an expert on vacuums in any way, but........

I do have a small collection- 3 uprights,(oldest, a 1967 Hoover Convertible, undergoing restoration) 2 canisters (one new-Miele Capricorn!), and one stick.....

My guess, and this is only a guess is that the Lewyt was rarer than Electrolux. Lewyt went out of the vacuum business years before REAL Electrolux did.

Just guessing.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Lewyt is rarer than Electrolux. Especially in the US. Lewyt couldn't compete with the world renowned electroluxs.

They are both unique in their own ways. Id like a Lewyt some day.I hear they are pretty good vacuums.
 
Vacuumland

Louis is right that there is a fund of information about Lewyt on Vacuumland but I have linked to a current thread about them. There has also been an interesting thread over there about how some makes predominate in some areas over others, so that may also have an effect on why you have not seen any.

Lewyt were foreced out of business in 1960 or so by a series of law suits arising from a design they tried for a hose which carried power down to the power nozzle. The technalities are beyond me, but basically some users received shock of 110V (pah, you should try living in Europe or Aus) from the body of the machine or hose handle.

Pete K or Aeoliandave, can tell you a great deal more - I actually got to use one when I visited Dave last year. Pete has the Airway, Dave has a Lewyt and i have a GE roll-easy which I loved :)


vacbear58++3-15-2011-15-17-32.jpg
 
I believe the suite was filed by Filter Queen for Lewyt using the same filter and bags that FQ had already patented.not sure but I had found a lewyt in Texas that was similar to an older Eureka cannister vacuum I had in Maryland. they both were in a hassik with all their attachments and accessories.The Lewyt was in a tan hassik and the Eureka was in a fire engine red one.I grew up with a Lewyt, Sumbeam and finally a Hoover upright that was pink.I like the older Electrolux, Kirby and Rainbow vacuums the best.
 
Actually that lawsuit was earlier. Lewyt developed a system that used a cone shaped motor to create a cyclonic system (HA take that dyson)

Well...... Filter queen developed that system quite a bit earlier. And they sued Lewyt. So Lewyt went to a more conventional canister bag system.
 
And here is the Lewyt that got filter queen all up in a bunch! :)

Photo courtesy of vacuumland.org--- Rick W. aka Crevicetool aka Mr. Universal. :)

washernoob++3-15-2011-19-39-51.jpg
 
smiley-cool.gif
I can't imagine why that would have ruffled FQ's feathers???

 

I've never had a Lewyt but the few that I have played with are fantastic cleaners.  That square, big-wheel model is my favorite.  Do you have one, Brandon?  I don't think I've ever seen one around here...

 

 
 
I dont have one yet.

Go to odowds on NW radial. He has a couple that John and I found. Including the Filter queen infringement one. I think John grabbed that one last time he was there.
 
A Lewyt condensed timeline

Lewyt's cloth cone over a wire cage was introduced on the 1947 Model 40 and as shown used a secondary paper cone - an obvious patent infringement.

Lewyt's solution after losing the law suit was to flatten the wire frame, cover it with a very attractive double-thick plaid cloth (sidestepping the concept of an induced bagless vortex cone) and called it the Exclusive Sanitary Dustalator,
At the same time, eliminating the deep cone provided more tub volume offering the option of an inner rectangular paper dust bag - besting the Filter Queen for advance modernity and hygienic disposal. This was the Model 44 of 1948.
The model 40 and 44 have those gorgeous blue hexagonal storage containers that hold the wands upright in opposite corners and the accessories in a fitted hexagonal hatbox on top as a lid.
The same Dustalator & paper bag combo was used throughout the tub series into the late 1950s. It was the improved Model 55 in 1953 that introduced the exceeding rare powerless carpet Sweeper nozzle that looks like a pn. The next tol Model 66 debuted a handy wheeled trolley base that carried all the tools on posts, in 1954.
With the advent of the Big Wheel, Lewyt continued to offer the simplified re-designed Tub type canister in a series of colour combinations as bol entry level loss leaders well into the late 1950s
At this time - 1955 - the new square Lewyt Big Wheel series began with the matching hammertone blue Model 77. The Big Wheels use the same paper bag as the tubs.

I am ever grateful to Mr Crevictool Winkler for the complete Model 66 on the trolley, on the left. It was part of the famous NC57 treasure find.[this post was last edited: 3/15/2011-22:48]

aeoliandave++3-15-2011-21-56-30.jpg
 
OH MY!

Wow. Dave that was amazing.

Is that picture you have of you and your Lewyt with a "power nozzle" looking apparatus really not a PN? I wouldn't have thought otherwise! Sure looks like one!

How were Lewyts sold? Door to door I suppose?
 
The electric shock Big Wheel

Lewyt introduced it's first Electronic Big Wheel Model 107 with power nozzle in 1957.
The wands and hose were not electrified. Instead, the power nozzle has a long cord clipped to the hose & wands and plugs into a regular 120 vac socket below the toggle switch - it could also be plugged into a wall socket. This one worked well - perfectly safe - without shocking unless one was a really careless homemaker. :-)

The trouble began with the reconjiggered 1958 Model 111 Electronic. Its brushroll motor ran on ~22 vdc supplied by a secondary stepdown main motor winding and the DC current was carried internally down the hose and wands to the PN.

Unfortunately the varnish had a propensity for melting off the hot windings creating disastrous shorts that would send full high amp voltage to the hose wands and pn. Touching any metal part could provide a surprising strong shock because the machines were not grounded.

The 1957 patent pending application describes this potential effect in great detail, tho' it was considered unlikely to occur. I have the full patent drawings and text.

The final Model 121 of 1960 (patent granted in 1961) did not address this emerging defect and by then the lawsuits were being won. Settlements bankrupted The Lewyt Corporation, the company was dissolved, the assets and copyrights and Lewyt name being sold at auction to Shetland, among others.

The Big Wheel vacuum design was produced in Europe (no PN) for many years afterward, I believe into the 1970s, maybe 80s.

Dave

aeoliandave++3-15-2011-22-22-52.jpg
 

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