This "sucks"... the Hoover And Other Vintage Vacuum Cleaners

[Forgotten Man]

I am sure women just went around vacuuming dressed like that in 1928.

Well, they did if they were going to be in a printed advertisement!

Right now I have to pull out that old clunker and give my rugs the "Positive Agitation" my self! Lots of cleaning to do around here, see!

 

[jamespowers]

Well, they did if they were going to be in a printed advertisement!

Right now I have to pull out that old clunker and give my rugs the "Positive Agitation" my self! Lots of cleaning to do around here, see!

Don't forget the apron.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Don't forget the apron.

You laugh, but that's correct! When we take more photos of home life of the 20s, that detail won't be over looked. :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

You laugh, but that's correct! When we take more photos of home life of the 20s, that detail won't be over looked. :eusa_doh:

lol lol lol lol

 

[Forgotten Man]

Well, keep in mind, she's "Trying out" the cleaner and she's a lady of leasure... no aprons there pal!

So, I wonder how Retrotoday is doing with his Beatty Vac... Any news pal?

 

[RetroToday]

Well, keep in mind, she's "Trying out" the cleaner and she's a lady of leasure... no aprons there pal!

So, I wonder how Retrotoday is doing with his Beatty Vac... Any news pal?

Sorry for not updating, been quite busy lately. An older friend of mine owns a small residential / commercial building that was built in the 1920s. He isn't feeling very well lately so I volunteered my services to spruce up the facade by scraping decades of deteriorating old paint off and repainting it for him.
I'm doing it all by myself - It's been a lot of work, but so much fun restoring a storefront from the 20s.

In an earlier thread I mentioned Butler's Repair Service was restoring the handle of the Beatty vacuum. I also mentioned they had their roof leak after bad rain storms we had. Turns out, the leak was quite awful, damaged a lot of the boxes of their new stock in the basement and also damaged some areas of the main floor. Thankfully their insurance company came through in their time of need.

Those pictures I took was the very last day the store looked that way. They took the bad occurance and turned it into an opportunity to dry out and properly renovate the store.
Regrettably that means all their customers repair projects are on temporary hold. The guys there were genuinely apologetic and I told them it was no problem at all, I just hope they recover quickly.

I've run the motor a few times to see if the rough running re-packed bearings smoothed out after a while, but it still runs pretty rough. I have to make a big note for me ask my friend about the bearings he can get me... So in a nutshell, the Beatty is still a work in progress.

I like the Hoover photos you've conjured up by the way, nice work.

Take care till next time,

 

[Forgotten Man]

Hey, good to hear from you sir!

Did I make mention that I have strong reasons to believe that my 700 model is from Canada? I was looking at the Canadian ad you posted and noticed little details... the cord from the motor to the handle is on the same side as the one I restored, the other 700 model I have is on the opposite side... and you can see that in the ads from the US.

I'll take some photos of the differences I noticed between the US and Canadian HOOVERS soon.

 

[RetroToday]

Hey, good to hear from you sir!

Did I make mention that I have strong reasons to believe that my 700 model is from Canada? I was looking at the Canadian ad you posted and noticed little details... the cord from the motor to the handle is on the same side as the one I restored, the other 700 model I have is on the opposite side... and you can see that in the ads from the US.

I'll take some photos of the differences I noticed between the US and Canadian HOOVERS soon.

Thanks FM,

I don't believe you mentioned before that one of your Hoovers may be from Canada, but I could have missed that. Interesting that there were those subtle differences between the two Countries, I wonder what the reasoning was behind those decisions?

Didn't they put builder's plates on Hoover vacuums? I'm a little surprised the Canadian one doesn't actually read "Hoover Canada - Hamilton Ontario".

Looking forward to your comparison shots.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Well, it didn't occur to me until I took close looks at the Canadian ad you posted... I looked at it and noticed many things that my 700 has... such as the placement of the motor cord and the plug that goes into the handle from the motor cord. Also, how it illustrates the "slinky" styled sleeve over the cord... on the American models, it seems to cover the whole cord... but on the first one I acquired only goes half way then its just black cord like in the illustration in the ad.

I have some free time this morning and I'll post some photos! For now, I won this on ebay and I'm very excited! No, it's not a scissor brace or the original bag but, it's a small grouping of original HOOVER name badges for the front of the cleaners. There are four early ones... and one orange and black triangle 700 badge!

I wanna keep one of the earlier ones... but the others I'll let go... if anyone needs early HOOVER badges, I'll give'em a good deal These are N.O.S. by the way... opening bid was 14.99 and with free shipping! No one bid!

 

[Forgotten Man]

Ok, let the fun commence!

Now, here's the photos of the 700 I believe to be Canadian...

Notice the "H" on the switch! And the spring that the cord comes out of from the handle! Also, notice the nuts that hold screws in place on the grip!

Now, the American 700...

Now, notice that the switch is different, no "H" or a cord spring suport... originally would have had a short rubber sleeve coming from the handle that now hangs around the bottom of the plug. lol

 

[RetroToday]

Thanks for sharing the extra pics of the differences, FM.

Hmmm, wonder why such subtle changes? Was the cord placement due to a higher rate of left handed people in Canada?
If only we could go back in time and ask.

*Great ebay find by the way on those beautifully preserved NOS Hoover plates. You must have been very happy to win those. :eusa_clap

 

[Forgotten Man]

You know, one thing I've noticed about things made in Canada by the same companies here, there always was some differences... Maybe it's a rivalry thing or, I could be wrong. The Dodge motor company (division of Chrysler motor company) in post war years were very much different then the Dodge's of the states. The Dodge body number here was D-24 and the number for the Canadian market was D-25! And when you see a 1946-48 Dodge D-25, you'll notice that the body is a '46-48 Plymouth body! Just with a Dodge grill! Very interesting isn't it?

Yes, the badges are great and I can't wait to get them! Looking forward to place a NOS badge on that cleaner of mine!

 

[RetroToday]

You know, one thing I've noticed about things made in Canada by the same companies here, there always was some differences... Maybe it's a rivalry thing or, I could be wrong. The Dodge motor company (division of Chrysler motor company) in post war years were very much different then the Dodge's of the states. The Dodge body number here was D-24 and the number for the Canadian market was D-25! And when you see a 1946-48 Dodge D-25, you'll notice that the body is a '46-48 Plymouth body! Just with a Dodge grill! Very interesting isn't it?

Yes, the badges are great and I can't wait to get them! Looking forward to place a NOS badge on that cleaner of mine!

One thing I know for sure, radios were made with differing model numbers between the US and Canada. Distinct model designations between the two really came into effect after 1930, before that they were (for the most part) exactly the same.

I hear from many people that Canada was more strict when it came to electrical appliance safety codes. While both vintage radios essentially look the same on the outside, the actual 'guts' on the inside of the cabinet differ (sometimes quite a lot) because of those enforced Canadian electrical codes.

Maybe that's another reason for the subtle changes in your vacuums.
The cord on the other side may be less of a tripping hazard? Who knows...

This is kind of fun - vintage domestic detective work. lol

 

[Forgotten Man]

This is kind of fun - vintage domestic detective work. lol

Yeah, it's kinda like a puzzle!

 

[Forgotten Man]

Well, I got the badges in the mail today... pretty neat! I'm not sure as to what machine will be crowned with the mint orange and black badge! I'm starting to believe that the main machine I've worked on has its original badge... all orange. Canadian models may have had just orange badges... not sure but, it may go to the other 700 I have... not sure.

The other earlier badges are pristine! Two from late teens or early, early 20s models... the other two 20s! One's from a model 541 and the other a 543.

 

[Forgotten Man]

BUMP!

lol

Any news on the Beatty Cady Retrotoday? I've been wondering what happened to our happy vacuum thread... it used to really "SUCK" people in... now it just... well, sucks... lol

Anything new in old vacuums?

 

[RetroToday]

BUMP!

lol

Any news on the Beatty Cady Retrotoday? I've been wondering what happened to our happy vacuum thread... it used to really "SUCK" people in... now it just... well, sucks... lol

Anything new in old vacuums?

Hi FM, thanks for the continued interest.
There has been some progress on my Beatty Cadillac vacuum, but there's still some of those 'little hurdles' to jump over.

In early September the people over at Butler Repair Service were finally able to get to replacing the missing on / off toggle switch from a rusted out 'donor' floor buffer from the 1950s.
As you may remember, they had a bad flood which halted a lot of their customers' repair jobs, including mine. It was a long wait!

Mangled power cord near missing power switch, as found

New toggle switch for the power cord.

Now, as far as the remaining problems:
Although it looks much better, the cord is not supported properly at the handle. There is the original piece of coiled wire somewhat holding it in place, but I feel a gasket of some sort is missing which firmly attaches the coiled area to the handle (so you don't rip the power cord off of the toggle switch if you pull on it).

-The repair service people recommended that I replace the cord, but they wanted to use a modern cord.
Hmmm, where can I get cloth covered cord in this gauge? [huh]

-Still have the old worn-out bearing problem. I've given one to my friend to see if he can find a proper match.

These little 'snags' have slowed progress a lot, but it will all be done when I have a little more spare time to deal with this fun stuff.

Any more progress on your Hoovers, ForgottenMan?

 

[Forgotten Man]

Wow, small progress but lovely never the less!

Question about the cord... is it looking kinda bad in spots or is it pretty much all in tact? Remember, even if the outer black sleeve is coming off in spots that the two wires inside the outer covering are insulated as well... If it’s falling apart, you could send away for a good replacement cord from a guy I know on line who has lots of replacement cord mostly for old fans but, has others that would work for a vacuum cleaner I'm sure.

The cord I had put on the Hoover isn't cloth; it's just a normal rubber insulated thing... I've been trying to figure out if the original was cloth covered or not... From what I've been told is that Hoover was using more advance cord on their cleaners by the time the 700 model came around... earlier models had cloth covered cord but, I've never seen a close up photo of the cord on a 700 or have seen a 700 that hasn't been tampered with over the last 80+ years. Since Hoovers were so well built and since people hung onto them and had them fixed over the years up into the 50s and 60s, they were just reconditioned and kept on being used for years... thus narrowing the field of original untouched Hoovers by quite a bit. That's why you can find other makes from the early 20s and early 30s with original bags and such is because they were used for a bit then put away when a new cleaner came along... Hoovers just kept on going and people kept them up.

I haven't done anything to the Hoover as of late, the last thing I did was put the new cord on after I painted the handle... And the Hoover plug... now, I was looking at photos of the plug that the 700 has... mine isn't to a 700 but its hard to say what model it may be too... can't say. There really isn't much info out there for vintage Hoover's that I know... there is a site that some guy in England put up about Hoover's and there's an online forum but no one ever really answers me... kinda dead there so, yeah.

Hard to find info about vintage vacuums... not many are into them but, enough are to keep them around for some time and make them run again!

Still on the search for the black dust bag and a scissor brace... we shall see.

 

[RetroToday]

Wow, small progress but lovely never the less!

Question about the cord... is it looking kinda bad in spots or is it pretty much all in tact? Remember, even if the outer black sleeve is coming off in spots that the two wires inside the outer covering are insulated as well... If it’s falling apart, you could send away for a good replacement cord from a guy I know on line who has lots of replacement cord mostly for old fans but, has others that would work for a vacuum cleaner I'm sure....

Thanks FM,

The fabric surrounding the wires is actually in very good shape. The only fray is up near the handle that was created when the switch was badly modified, long before I found it.
That section of wire can be easily cut off, which will only shorten the cord by a few inches. You can see the fray in the closeup photo I posted above, the small white area is where you can see the white coating of one of the wires inside.

The main problem is with the old rubber that surrounds the wires just underneath the top fabrid. The rubber has become brittle and has taken on the shape it has while it's wrapped around the wire harness mounts.When you uncoil the wire, it looks like a big 'zig-zag' of cord.

The guys at the repair shop told me the wiring is no good - it works, but intermittently. The power sputters on and off, which probably means the actual wire is broken somewhere inside.
I especially don't want to create an electrical arc near old fabric.

A little new good news, I found another repair place in Toronto that specializes in electrical work on antique and vintage appliances. Going to try them soon.

I have used sundialwire.com for some of my old lights and fans. Is that the wiring place you spoke of?
They have heavier gauge wire, but I don't think it's quite like this vacuum cord.

 

[RetroToday]

It's ALIVE!!!

After a Summer of restoring / tinkering with my old 1920s Beatty "Cadillac" vacuum cleaner, it's finally working well!
I was able to set some time aside, and got 'er done.

To remedy the problem of the noisy motor, I took it to that repair shop specializing in older motors. They suggested I add a couple washers beside the ball bearings, it looked as if just a spacer was missing. Apart from that, the brushes could use a good cleaning.

I added two washers, cleaned of the areas where the brushes contact, then added a new rubberized power cord, with a little help from my Dad.
Plugged it in and fired it up.... and it works like a charm, it's quite a powerful vacuum! Turns out the bearings weren't worn out after all! Yessss!!!
Soon after I was done the repair I started cleaning up the floor around the legs of my 1930 Victor Radio-Electrola. Took these photos as I pushed the vacuum around.

So happy it's finally working. Thanks for the continued encouragement Forgotten Man.

I will have to borrow my friend's digital video camera soon to record it in action.
More photos of my Beatty here.

Vacuum off, cloth bag deflated

Vacuum on, cloth bag inflated

Cleaning around the Electrola

Cleaning around the Electrola