The Vintage Hoover Emporium

Continued from Standard 1.

'These new lightweight Hoovers are the finest and most beautiful cleaners to have ever come from the oldest and largest maker of electric cleaners. Designed by famous stylists, they are smartly streamlined, with new colour schemes, new decorations and smart new bags...'

Manufactured: Perivale, Greenford, Middlesex, West London

Motor: 2-speed, 360w, air-cooled, Hoover-made unit

Bag: Slider-top, flecked black with black band

Chassis: Highly-polished, die-cast aluminium

Handle: Metal with rubber grip

Brush-roll: Patented Hoover ‘Agitator’

Sold Alongside: Models 370, 450, 925, Dustette 100, Minor 200B

Price: ?

Info:

The exquisitely-styled Model 800 was introduced in 1934. It was part of Hoover’s ‘Jubilee’ range, which celebrated the 25^th year of King George IV’s reign with the words ‘Jubilee Cleaner’ printed on the bag for 1935 only.

Mechanically similar to the models which preceded it, the 800 introduced a new, more powerful 360w motor. It was the first British Hoover to include a headlight, known as ‘The Dirt Finder’, which was styled by Henry Dreyfuss. Taking Hoover’s American ‘Hedlite’ as a starting point, Dreyfuss did away with the clumsy, awkward protrusion on the front of the motor cap, relocating the bulb underneath the cap itself. The cap was then adorned with a streamlined Art Deco motif suggesting aerodynamic speed and efficiency.

Click to view the American instruction manual for Model 800

Click to view the English instruction manual for Model 800

‘When redesigning the Hoover, we have endeavoured to produce a series of machines that are a sheer joy to behold while at the same time their efficiency has been considerably increased...’

‘Every part of our existing machines was reviewed so that Model 825 should have beauty in every detail...’

Manufactured: Perivale, Greenford, Middlesex, West London

Motor: 2-speed, 360w, air-cooled, Hoover-made unit

Bag: Slider-top, flecked black with black band

Chassis: Highly-polished, die-cast aluminium

Handle: Metal with rubber grip

Brush-roll: Patented Hoover ‘Agitator’

Sold Alongside: Models 375, 475, 925, Dustette 100

Price: £19.19.0 plus £3.3.0 for dusting tools

Click to view the instruction manual for Model 825

Click here to view an advertising booklet for Model 825

Henry Dreyfuss' patent for the 825's styling

'A totally new idea in electric cleaners...'

The Hoover Model 160 Cleaning Ensemble, introduced in Britain in 1938, represented the first major redesign of the vacuum cleaner since it's initial launch in the UK. The streamlined form was the work of famed industrial engineer Henry Dreyfuss, and was Hoover's first real attempt at stimulating the consumer market with a styled product. Previous cleaners such as the 450, 800, 475 and 825 had included styling touches, again by Dreyfuss, aimed at updating the appearance of the cleaner, but the 160 was unique in that the cleaner's appearance was an equally important consideration as the performance during the design process.

Dreyfuss' design ethos was based around the idea of concealing the workings of the machine under a streamlined 'skin' of metal and plastic. The hood took on the teardrop form of aerodynamic automobiles and locomotives, its smooth simplicity suggesting both cleanliness and speed. The dirtfinder headlamp shone out through a rectangular opening at the front of the structure. The chassis was made of magnesium - billed by Hoover as 'the new airplane metal', magnesium was 1/3rd lighter than aluminium, but stronger. The hood, and the casing of the motor itself, was made of phenolic resin, further reducing weight.

Another refinement introduced with this model was a handgrip halfway up the handle for carrying the cleaner. A toolkit was included as standard with this cleaner, and due to a newly designed insertion system, they could be attached to the cleaner while the motor was running, an improvement on the older system which involved a fiddly process to fit and remove the tools, and had to be performed with the motor switched off.

Click to view the instruction manual for Model 160

Hoover Model 150 - 1935-39 (U.S. only)

Pictured below is the 1935 US Model 150 on which the 160 was based. The 150 had the older pitchfork-style handle bail, but included 2 extra features which did not make it to the UK; one was an air-pressure activated bag-full indicator, which showed a red dot through a small window in the chassis when the bag needed emptying. This was a first on any vaucum cleaner. The second was a carpet-height regulator, which the user operated by depressing the handle-release pedal as they changed from one floor covering to another, allowed the user to quickly and conveniently alter the height of the suction opening to the required level. The wrap-around motor band was also slightly different to the British version - there was no royal crest on the 150, so the title 'The Hoover Cleaner' was uninterrupted across the front of the band.

Henry Dreyfuss' fee was $25,000 - an astronomical sum for this type of work back then. Buyers purchasing the cleaner by instalment paid a $1.50 down payment.

Nearly 170,000 units were built.

Click to view an advertising booklet for Model 150