Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Carmine,

This will probably fall under your area of expertise and experience, but all are welcome to contribute. As I transition from being unemployed to being self-employed, I am looking for more specialized services to offer my clients.

There are specialized 'rug dusters' for sale which tap the accumulated dirt, dust, sand, and grit out of Oriental rugs by laying them face down over a grid which gives the debris room to fall. These cost upwards of 4,000.00! These have been developed as an alternative to the huge stationary 240 volt dusting machines. All of this to replace regular vacuuming with a Hoover 300, 700, or 150, the ones with the dual divergent agitator bars, with shorter agitator bars and bristle strips in between on each side.

The magic of the Hoover was that the 5,000 taps per minute during slow motion vacuuming set up a wave pattern that  vibrated the rug, dislodging the dirt, sand, and grit. It was not accomplished with tremendous suction, though the airflow was good, it was the balance of enough suction to keep snapping the rug up after each tap. The sand was not actually beaten out of the rug as much as the rug was pushed down leaving the sand in mid-air to be caught by the airflow generated by the fan, as explained by the laws of Newtonian physics.

My question is this: Short of finding and restoring a few 150 Hoovers, is there any alternative? Would any later model Hoovers accept the dual divergent agitator? How late? A current Guardsman, maybe, with some alteration perhaps?

A Kirby with a cloth bag has been suggested to me. A G series will not accept a full-fledged sani-emptor, and probably is too powerful to sustain the tap/snap action. A cloth bag would yield too much airflow, and a hepa bag too little as it fills. A Heritage I with a cloth bag seems the only other possibility. The Sanitaire Vibra-Groomer I is not sufficient, about the same as the standard Hoover agitator with just one strip of beater bar per side.

The idea of being able to restore neglected Oriental rugs with simple thorough vacuuming for good pay is very appealing. As I understand it, Hoover abandoned this configuration of agitator because as area rugs gave way to wal to wall carpet, it did not grab and hold the wall-to-wall carpet as well as the newer, less expensive to produce version, which had just the one spiral strip per side. Hoover could have ruled if they had stuck to being a status symbol. Imagine being able to switch out the roller and bottom plate to adapt the vacuum to whatever carpet/rug/floor needed to be cleaned. The mind boggles, while the Hoover just beats, as it sweeps, as it cleans...

Trebor

DIB, I'm glad you're getting the point. That said . . .

I hope you'll also reflect upon the aspect of how product can "degrade" when entrepreneurs are allowed to merely buy names and blueprints and the nature of the game is purely about making money. I have no idea if you dabble in stocks and the like but if you do -- what do you care most about? The return on your investment or the thing you've invested in? From that comes decisions regarding "quality" or "profit".

That is a great sadness for me. Hoover, Eureka and Electrolux, just as instances and names not to be sneezed at, existed long before Dyson and have near a hundred years of innovation under the belt. Yet when times get hard and the public is not prepared to meet the cost of bright ideas AND once illustrious manufacturers falter and fade due to decreasing revenues what is there to do but sell and try to back out of "business" gracefully?

Bigger companies, with mind sets thoroughly ensconced in the corporate ethic, absorb such manufacturer's hard earned names and hold onto them till the last drop of worth is wrung from their names. I would much prefer if TTI would have rebranded Hoover but why make it hard if you can get a free ride for a while? TTI is not doing all that much new -- it is still riding on Hoover's coat tails believe me. Electrolux AB is cheapening Eureka and Aerus is doing little with the heritage gain by the acquisition of "American" Electrolux. In any event, the larger part of this is all sham.

What is important is that whatever vacuum you buy is efficient and affordable. Miele is great but why not an affordable spin on it. Why not a more accessibly priced look at cyclonic machine other than Dyson.

Venson

Venson,

Society is far ahead when the creative are protected.  

With regards to the Miele design copy...  There is zero mechanical gain buy wrapping the Hoover in a Miele design.  It is to deceive and syphon Miele sales.  Protecting what you made keeps innovation alive and betters society ultimately (including the creation of jobs).  Shifting Miele money to China helps who exactly?  Again, the product is a suction machine at its core and wrapped in Miele.  I do not like Miele’s ways.  I do not like gang bangers too, but if we look away when a gang banger steals from or destroys another gang banger it will eventually grow like cancer and then the innocent are harmed.  So, I will defend Miele, Oreck and others when monopoly giants take their work.  It is only a matter of time before Oreck is forced to close down all/near all U.S. assembly plants in order to compete with the Hoover Platinum Bag.  And speaking of Platinum, did not Oreck come out with a Platinum about a year before Hoover launched their Platinum line?  The pilfering goes on and on.  Their ways are a caustic.  I’d much rather see Miele profit and build innovative and stylish appliances than watch this knockoff company profit via pilfering and hurt the innovative/close the innovative down.  The high price of low cost knockoff vacuums is something to consider.


DIB

DysonInventsBig wrote:
And before that Panasonic had and still is running with a Platinum line. 

Dusty

Two infomercials...  on left - Oreck, on right - Hoover.


http://www.google.com/patents?id=uH8JAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:6446304&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2009&as_maxm_ap=12&as_maxy_ap=2009&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&num=100

The two lovely ladies are sisters too!  One happens to be an ORECK fan and the other a HOOVER/TTI.  Wonder who did the commercial first?  She can sue her sister and the family can live unhappily ever after.

Carmine D.

Model2 wrote:

No problem sleeping at night.  3 grand daughters less than a mile away tire me out daily.  No problems waking in the morning either.  A yellow lab with a cold nose and wet tongue works better than the alarm clock.  More than pet peeves, the aches and pains of years of use and abuse make getting out of the bed difficult.  Thank you kindly for your concerns.

Carmine D.

Hoover was not the first to copy Oreck,

Panasonic/Kenmore

Bissell dual fan, now offered as Tacony Powerflight and Tornado

Good Housekeeper/ElectraPure

Royal and Hoover with their commercial lightweights

Simplicity and Riccar, which clean far better than Oreck, and are more properly identified as the vacuums Hoover copied with their Platinum lightweight bagged model, which by all accounts, presently rules the category.

Trebor

Trebor wrote:
I'll say this...  it is hard watching this Chinese giant walk all over American corporations and potentially harm American workers and/or corporations who belly up and deliver answers and creativity.        DIB

DysonInventsBig wrote:

You'll be in for a harder time when the Chinese buy Volvo and Saturn just to name a few likely brands they are honing in on as we post here.  Business is business.  Only the strong survive.  That usually means those with the deepest pockets when money is in short supply.

Carmine D.

mole wrote:

I'd probably, if still in business, carry both canns and put the HOOVER and MIELE right along side each other and let customers pick and choose.  That's how free enterprise and freedom of choice work here.

Carmine D.