I'm wondering which company in Germany makes these vacuums? I also have a smaller "dirty air" Clarke (502, I think) that says it's made in Germany.

Guy

Clarke was a long-time American brand, dating back to the 1920s if I recall correctly. Originally based in Michigan, I think. They used to make nearly all of their own equipment, very good commercial vacs, floor scrubbers, buffers, etc. In the 1990s they were acquired by ALTO, an international company that encompassed nearly a dozen brands, including a German vac maker known as WAP. In 2004, Nilfisk-Advance acquired ALTO, bringing former competiors Advance and Clarke under one corporate owner.

Don't know if that Filtra-Vac is a rebadged WAP, but it seems likely.

Now if you want a REAL Clarke from the good old days, look for the 579 -- American-made carpet cleaning power, all 74 pounds of it!

hi all,

The company "Fakir" makes them. They started this very shape and design in the early 70s. The small household version was called "compronic" and the larger commercial uprights had/have this typical L-shaped head.

Fakir later on called themselves "Fakir/nilco" (no idea if this should indicate Nilfisk Co.), they use the nilco brand chiefly for the larger commercial machines.

Also they are sold as Wap Alto (formerly known as "Wap", they originally made ton-shaped shopvacs back then and still today you can see many coin-op vacs by Wap at the gas stations here).
But since I have never understood who sells to whom and who rebadges what, I hope there is someone in here who can shed some light on this sister-brother-cousinship of all those firms.
Have a look:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/images/B00014CV7K/sr=1-15/qid=1191524976/ref=dp_image_0/303-9834255-2872259?ie=UTF8&n=3167641&s=kitchen&qid=1191524976&sr=1-15

http://www.reinigungsbedarf-donath.de/reinmasch.htm

http://www.office-netshop.de/shop/gallery/ART_6420120.html

http://cgi.ebay.de/WAP-ALTO-STAUBSAUGER-%2F-B%C3%9CRSTSAUGER-FILTRAVAC-18_W0QQitemZ200158514947QQcmdZViewItem

If you guys want to google for janitorial supplies and commercial vacs in general, just type in "gewerbelich +Reinigungsmaschinen" (= commercial cleaning machines) or just "Bürstsauger" (= upright vac).

If you need a vocabulary/dictionary for vacuum words, I can provide one for German, Dutch, French. (.pdf or .html format) Just indicate.

Greetings from "Staubsaugerland" :-)
Joe

I went to a couple of those sites. The other "Clarke" I have is just like the Fakir TK 300! Mine is dark red machine, with black cloth bag.

What is the perceived quality of this brand of cleaners?

Danke!

Guy

hello Guy,

Fakir has always been a budget-priced brand, but this last decade they lost some of their business ground due to the fact that
a.) the 2 major retail chain stores "Media Markt" and "Saturn" brainwashed the nation to buy lowest-priced plastic crap (no name canisters for 49,- Euros and less).
Their slogan: "Geiz ist geil" (your greed is hot/sharp/sexy).
So most people end up with no-name machines ("yogurt cups", "plastic bombers") that go dead after 1 year or so. "so what?" they say and return to "Geiz ist geil" to get the next one.
b.) Dirt-Devil Germany (Royal) pushed the red cyclone canister "Centrix" in competition to the Dyson and was very successful. (like a cheap "VolksDyson")
c.) in the commercial market the yellow Kärcher machines gained a lot of the market through some new "try for a month, then buy or return"-campaign aimed at small cleaning businesses.

Today Fakir no longer produces these uprights, only the round canisters are practically unchanged since their introduction and they are quite widespread (schools, workshops, computer cleaner services, hotels, student homes and such), because they are practically indestructable. The older ones (from the 80s) have scratches all over from years of hard abuse but most are still going strong (maybe a new switch or new spring for the cable winder, but hardly more than that)
so if you want a "no-frills" down-to-earth vacuum for little money, you buy Fakir.
No comparison to Miele, Lux, Kirby high-end machines of course, but no "Made in King Kong" crap either. Just good, reasonable cleaning power for a "it will not hurt me" price. Nothing glitzy, but plain sturdy and idiot-proof design. The service is quite good, you get parts for years to come and the design hardly ever changes.
You start your own business but have not earned the big money yet to invest? You get Fakir.
The quality is practically among Bosch/Siemens/AEG but somewhat more longlife.
Hope this helped.
Joe

Very interesting...I certainly know in the area I live in, the majority of people are quite comfortable with cheap, non repairable stuff. Who want's to pay $350.00 for a vacuum, when you can get one at WalMart for $79.00!

Guy