Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Dyson is in the news frequently and so a dedicated thread.

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Air-Way put themselves out of the upright market by copying Hoover's Agitator for their powerhead. Hoover successfully sued them for patent infringement. Air-Way claimed that since their beater-bars were mounted on rubber, their design was distinct from Hoover's, but the courts ruled against them.

Air-Way are also notable for being the first brand to introduce disposable dustbags on their machines; or as they called them, 'cellulose filter fiber dirt containers' . Hoover then offered similar disposable bags - 'Hygienisacs' - made of treated pulp-felt, as an option on their machines in 1929. There's some confusion as to what happened next; Air-Way did take Hoover to court, and my understanding was that it had again ruled in Hoover's favour, because the Hygienisac was re-useable, and the Air-Way bag was not. However, an Air-Way expert advised me that this was not the case, that Air-Way won and Hoover had to stop making them. Certainly, the Hygienisac wasn't around for long, but I couldn't say which ending is correct!

WRT the wiper-blade, it was originally included to stop uprights with revolving brushes from scattering debris when used on hard floors. I know Sebo have included them for quite a long time. They seem a little redundant on uprights where you can switch off the brush-roll for hard floor cleaning, but I guess they help focus the airflow in front of the nozzle, and prevent debris from being missed by guiding it into the airstream.

My ORECK XL Classic has the wiper blade too on the rear of the sole plate that goes the length of the brush roll.  One pass forward is all that it takes to get anything/everything up and off the barefloor for the entire swath of the nozzle.  But as I've tried to tell HARDSELL many times, the trick to get the best performance from the ORECK is to turn it on.

Carmine D.

The HOOVER Handi-Sacs [with the bag clips for the top openings] were reusable papers that were very expensive, labor intensive, and messy.  They were standard equipment on two new HOOVER upright models offered in the USA: The HOOVER 61 [circa about 1949] and HOOVER 62 [early 50's].  Then they disappeared in favor of the disposable Type C papers on the HOOVER 63, 64 and all the bottom fill Convertibles.  But the HOOVER Handi-Sacs were still available for many years for customers who still had these bags in their H-61 and H-62.  Most customers hated them for the cost and the mess.  And vacuum repair shops offered work arounds to avoid the reusable papers in favor of a straight cloth bag/disposable paper. 

Carmine D.

Hi Venson:

Among other things, it claimed to be an excellent hair dryer for women.  Maybe that's where dyson got the the idea for the Airblade

Carmine D.

In all my years of the business [1949-1992] I never saw a hygiensac paper in use on any HOOVER upright [probably because it was an option and additional expense, not standard equipment].  Tho, I did see the advertisements, envelopes, and boxes that the bags came in.  All the HOOVER models of this vintage always came with the straight cloth bags.  Starting in the 1950's and after many were converted by vacuum stores to the replacement zipper with disposable F&G bags, as I mentioned with the Handi-sacs.  The hygiensacs were consumer duds just like the handi-sacs that followed.  Not HOOVER's finest hour by any means.

Carmine D.

The concept's really quite amusing, especially the notion that sticking the plastic handle through the open door of a gas-oven to obtain warmth was a good idea!