Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Singer Vacuum Systems.  I vaguely remember these but were they any good in the 90s?


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The Singer System upright, that you have a link to, is the upright that had not changed much over  the years.  The previous model designation was the U series uprights.  Its present model designation is the SST series.   Your linked SST was made by Ryobi Motor Products around 1990.  I did not care for the SST(or similar) machines.  They were difficult to push on thick carpeting, because of their cheap, small rear wheels and the bottom plate design.  Think of pushing one of these on a 70's shag.  The Singers that were self propelled were easier to push than the non self propelled models.  I liked the self propelled models.  The self propelled models were as easy to push as say a non self propelled Eureka or HOOVER.  Singer uprights w/beater bars cleaned carpeting better than the bristles-only models of uprights.

The Singer uprights were very noisey.  These vacuum cleaners used a smaller motor w/twin fans. 

Ryobi would later change their uprights to the HB(hard body) series and SB(soft body)series.  These came alittle too late for Singer.  I thought that they waited too long to change their design.  These uprights would resemble HOOVER Elite series uprights.  The HB/SB uprights would be loud also.

Singer System was also a designation for two of their canister series.  Their last canister series would resemble the Eureka Express canister series.  I thought that these were much better than what they were marketing before. 

I remember seeing that Singer System upright in ads (KMart was one IIRC, as well as the Damark catalog) in the early-90s when I was little; saved the ads for a "vacuum scrapbook" of sorts.  Fast-forward 15+ years, at our club's gathering this past June, and I wind up pulling a Singer System canister out of the basement of a vacuum shop that was about to close along with 2 power nozzles for it.  That was the only one that appeared to be decent-looking enough to save, everything else was pretty bad.  Another member was digging around for parts for the Singer Golden Glide canister he found (which bore a striking resemblance to mine) and came across the electric hose for mine.  I dug up some chrome wands that fit, although I found out the originals were plastic. 

The power nozzle is an interesting T-shaped design with two headlight bulbs, unfortunately, the sleeve-bearing brushrolls in both are frozen.  I think, though, with enough PB spray I'll have no problem getting them unstuck.  Worst case, I'll end up making one good one out of two.   Surprisingly, for a cheap canister, this one apparently was still working when it was traded in.  I plugged it in, hit the switch and after who-knows-how-many years of sitting in that damp basement, it fired right up with no strange noises. 

There's also an interesting Singer "Simon" upright on eBay right now.  I'm told it was about as well made as the Regina Housekeeper...;-)