I got this Electrolux model BX 10 floor polisher at a garage sale recently where the elderly sellers were downsizing to a condo. Don't know a thing about it. Made by Electrolux in Pointe Claire Quebec. The gent said his wife would use it on the tile about twice a year, squirt some cleaner and go at it. Well the house we just bought has a lot of tile so maybe my $5 investment wasn't too bad. Runs nice and smooth. No idea of the date but I'd guess early 60's or earlier.

That's a beauty. I love those Lux triple-brush polishers. I used to use my gold B-8 to shampoo the rugs before I became an extraction convert. I didn't use the machine much in California because I had half carpeting and half glazed tile floors that got waxed with commercial self-polishing wax. Now that I am back in Chicago and have waxed wood floors, the B-8 is back in service!

I bought her new back in 1977 to go with my beautiful gold Electrolux Super J. I am still kicking my self in the *ss for getting rid of that one. That Super J was one of my all-time favorites.

Anyway, to take care of non-sealed wood floors that are waxed, I have a whole routine that includes Butcher's Bowling Alley paste wax. Applied with a rag on hands and knees, polished with the brushes and then buffed with the lamb's wool pads. Before my dear departed housekeeper Geneva passed away, she used to do it, now it is left to me. I think it is a lost art, but the patina you get cannot be matched. A regular buffing keeps the floors beautiful!

Ida

Love the Kirby Dual 80 in the background. Charlie Lester knows about the Lux polishers - at least the US ones. That is an early one.

Hi Fred, yes it's a Dual 80 I picked up last year from a vac shop repair where the owner didn't come back for it. Needs a good polish yet. I'm loathe to use it though since there's no paper bags in there LOL

Re the Electrolux,, see the brushes in the picture, 3 are solid black bristle and the other 3 have an insert of white bristles....which is which.. I'm guessing the solid ones are for polishing only and the black/white ones for scrubbing with liquids.. is that correct?

I was just thinking when I was looking at it this moment that the color was like my Electrolux ZB88 (mfr 1957-1963) and here's a pic of them side by side... we have a match

They always made them to match the colors of the current vacuum models. I loved that the whole line had the same color scheme. Here is another set of my favorites in lovely blue - the Model L, the blue B-8 and the 1205 - gorgeous!

Interesting that they were different from the US line. In the US line, the shampooing brushes were soft black. The scrubbing/polishing brushes were a stiff tan. I will have to go back and find my owner's manual for the B-8 which shows the different brushes. I wonder if yours had a solution tank for shampoo or scrubbing solutions. My pictures don't show them because I haven't used them. I wonder if yours was only meant to be used on hard floors vs. rug shampooing.

Very nice and so shiny too, makes all mine look so dull LOL. I'm going to find myself a bench grinder/sander/polisher.
I also have the green model ZB89 and the earlier faux alligator ZB 55 (on runners)
BTW, I ordered some Sears bags for the Kenmore Handvac similar to your GE.. gave them the model # etc..well they came and they weren't anywhere near the right thing..haven't had a chance to call them back yet.
Now look what I've done.. I've got dirt on my carpet LOL

The two tone brushes, the whitish part (tan actually) are very stiff, the black bristles are softer. It doesn't appear that there would be any tank attachment place to hook it to. I know that later models I have seen had tanks on them.

I found the B-8 manual and am scanning it. I'll get it up either tonight or tomorrow. Also have the matching Super J manual. It will be fun to post them together.

If you have ever seen Fred's beautiful hardwood floors you would have to agree that all that work is worth it. Have to agree Fred that this all but seems to be a lost art. There is just nothing like a freshly waxed and buffed floor. Terry

I have to chime in with Fred and the others on polishing floors. Growing up with Kirbys, I have waxed and then did
weekly damp moping and kirby buffing of Kitchen floors. I
tell that to people now, usually while showing them the buffers with the Kirbys and they are amazed. They never paid attention to all the work mom did if they're from the 50's or older. Trust me somebody did it!! A well buffed and shiney floor back then, much like shiney clean windows the generation
before was the mark of an "Excelant Housekeeper" Which sold a lot of vacuums (door to door)for salesmen!

is a very zen and relaxing activity, despite the hard work involved. I sometimes zone off almost into an alpha state -- the droning sound of the motor and the gentle repetitive motion of pulling the polisher to and fro lulls me into an relaxed and meditative state of mind.

And I ==love== the smell of paste wax! That distinctive scent always takes me back to my childhood when my mother and many other housewives would clean and polish their floors with paste wax or Johnson Wax Beautiflor -- Beautiflor is another wax with a very distinctive scent and it smells really, really good! The whole house "smells clean" after waxing the floors.

I have a nice collection of electrolux floor polishers myself. I will posts pictures of them as soon as my computer is set right. It crash Thrusday night and I lost everything so I'm in the slow process of getting it back together. Speaking of polishing floors with paste wax. I did that just Yesterday, I use johnsons Paste wax love the smell of it. I bought a molle floor polisher from ebay it is an exact copy of the Uk Karcher floor polisher but it is yellow in color. Boy Do I love it, But I'm still going to get me a Karcher from the Uk anyway, I love there appliances an awfull lot. In Fact I also have a electrolux floor polisher from there but waiting on a friend to ship it to me.

Skip...

I remember well the smell when mom used to wax our floors. I think she used something called Aero Wax and her GE two brush polisher (green). Those machines were very common around here. They (science I suppose) say the sense of smell is the longest surviving memory of all your senses and I believe it.

That's a great polisher, Pete, it should come in handy if you have a lot of hard surface floors. Terry has recommended to me a polish that the company apparently puts out that I should try and find sometime. My place is too small for a polisher of that size, but certainly in a home it would be a time savings.

Wow Fred I had no idea you could still get that type of floor in modern homes. I can't remember the last time I've seen a can of paste wax, although the hardware store down the street from me probably has it, they have just about everything (LOL).

Here is a picture of my look alike Karcher polisher

Skip...

When I was a "big kid" (from 10-12 yrs old), I used to do chores for a little old lady in our town -- was supposed to do stuff like cut the grass, trim the hedges, wash her car etc., but somehow vacuum cleaners and floor polishers always got involved! She had a brand-new Electrolux Model G that she kept in the green leatherette trunk she had gotten with her Model LX, and had the power nozzle.

She had a huge home and a vast living room with acres of powder-blue wall-to-wall carpeting that was so thick you'd sink to your ankles in it! I loved vacuuming that carpeted floor with her Model G and Power Nozzle. She also had the matching light aqua B7 3-brush floor polisher.

She had hardwood floors in the upstairs bedrooms and hallways, and she insisted on using a special wax called "Bowling Alley Wax" which, at that time, came in an orange can with black lettering. It too had a very distinctive scent.

The lady loved the stuff and it did seem to last a long time - it's a very hard, very glossy wax. Y'all paste wax fans ought to try this stuff and see what you think of it!

I just googled and discovered you can still get it -- see link. The last time I was at Home Depot I noticed that they also carry a variety of waxes including Bruce liquid wood floor wax and, yes, Bowling Alley paste wax.

Electrolux liquid floor waxes are excellent but don't smell as good as Johnson's Paste & Beautiflor wax.

btw I have found that most domestic floor polishers are ineffective. You really need a machine that is heavy and has a lot of torque to heat up the wax and melt it, which is how both the cleaning and buffing happen --- the 2-brush household machines pretty much just swirl the wax around without really burnishing it into the wood. The one exception is the older Electrolux B7 and B8 --- they are heavy and high-speed and do a great job. The newer Electrolux/Aerus machines made of plastic do not do as good a job. These were designed to serve mostly as carpet shampooers with hard floor cleaning and polishing a secondary function and just aren't heavy enough.

But the best thing by far is a 10- or 12-inch commercial machine. I have a couple of very old Clark machines (see link in second posting below) that not only look terrific but just do a fantastic job!

see link--

I also have a page of photos from "Spring Cleaning 2001" when I used a variety of machines. See link.

Of course my favorite polisher of all is the little air-powered floor polisher that was sold from the 1949 Model XXX through the early Automatic E and then the new Turb-O-Tool came out. This is because of reminiscing of course -- functionally the polisher is just about useless except very small spaces such as short hallways and bathrooms.

But it does make a great sound, an eerie warbling wail along with loud hissing of suction. And with the lambs-wool polishing pad, it does add a final bit of gleam. So wherever I do my floors I always use the Electrolux Floor Polisher and Scrubber as the final step!

OK - Here it is - the 1978 Owners Manual for the B8 Floor Polisher and Carpet Beautifier shampooer. It has been added to the Owner's Manuals section.

Indeed, Charles, that is the wax I use. I started with the Bowling Alley Wax but Geneva insisted that we use Boston Polish Amber Wax which is what I use now. It is the same as the Bowling Alley Wax with a tint for wood - beautiful!! You cannot use this on floors sealed with Polyurethane. You will fall on you *ss. Paste wax should only be used on floors finished for use with paste wax. I discovered this when we had hardwood floors installed back in the late 70's here in Chicago by Florida Flooring. Geneva knew the routine back then, and carried it over when I came back and she came back to take care of the house here in St. Charles.

All this talk has caused me to flash back on my dear Geneva. That lady was 76 when she passed away last year. She was like a member of the family. She was from the old school of cleaning - hand wash the woodwork and polish the silver. She started with Ed (my partner of 21 years) before I moved in. She worked for all of his family. I cried when we moved to California and I had to say goodbye. She came back to work for me in her seventies when I moved back to Chicago after Ed died.

She drove to St. Charles from the West side of Chicago and got to the house before I left for work every Wednesday morning. She had her breakfast and coffee and we chatted before I left for work. I had a great deal of respect for that lady. The first year I was back, it got into November and she said to me "Boy - you better get that furniture down to the basement!!" She was referring to the Brown Jordan patio furniture that was on the deck. It used to be around the pool in California, and I forgot that it needed to be brought in before the Chicago winter - something not necessary in California. I said "Yes m'am! and it was down in the basement before she came back the next week.

Charlie Watrous met her on one of his visits and told her that she missed a spot while vacuuming with her favorite vacuum - the Lux Ultralux which she carried up and down the stairs even though there were vacuums everywhere in this house. I grabbed him and took him out before she could get her hands on him. She was not to be messed with!! Charlie said she was like Idela in "Driving Miss Daisy." Damn, I miss her.

Fred

Does anyone know if there is a wax that can be used on floors that have been sealed with polyurethane? The oak floors in my house are sealed and over the years they have lost some of their shine. Is it possible to wax them to bring back that lovely shine to them?
Thanks!
Steven

There is a whole routine to restore polyurethane floors, but I don't know what it is.

Two of the bedrooms upstairs have their original hardwood floors intact and the 3rd bedroom had it removed and carpet put in..why on earth he did that unless it got damaged somehow. I'll have to try and figure out what if anything they've waxed them with. Hopefully they didn't urethane them but they need some spit and polish. The laundry room, sunroom, foyer, kitchen and diningroom all have been refloored with 12 inch white ceramics. The 3 steps leading up from the foyer and that hall are wood as well. The bathrooms are all the original 4 inch ish hexagonal ceramic tiles from the 50's. So I have a multitude of floors to contend with. And that's not counting the livingroom, main stair and upstairs hallway with wall to wall and the downstairs with wall to wall berber except my workshop which is 12 inch lino tiles I think.

Yep, that's the stuff, although the can I remember from the 1960s had more ornate "Old English" style lettering on it although the color scheme of the graphics was the same.

Speaking of tinted wax, one day I was at a "99¢ Only" store near my church. I saw a whole shelf full of gallon cans of Bruce Floor wax -- about a dozen each of clear and "mahogany" tinted. At a dollar a can, who could resist?! Yes, I bought the lot of them!! I use the tinted wax on the hardwood floor of the organ loft at my church.

I am attaching a couple of photos here - the first one is the very first Electrolux B7 polisher, introduced in 1958 when the Model F was out. Note my nearly complete collection of Model F stuff! And in fact this photo is not complete -- I have gotten more "F" stuff since I took that one -- see photo on the link attached.

Here is the first B8 -- the main difference between the last B7, in the same light aqua color, is the fold-down chrome handle instead of the T handle; also the B7 had a two-speed motor whereas the B8 has but one.

This is, I think, the most beautiful of all the Electrolux electric polishers. This one features the very rare aqua-colored detergent tank with the oh-so-1960s starburst motif! This color tank was made for only a short time - all those thereafter where off-white and bearing only the ELECTROLUX logo on them.

see photo

big lawn mower style handle on it!! well made though

This Electrolux Polisher is the match to my Candian Electrolux Model 86 canister vacuum cleaner

The polisher that matches the Canadian Z86 is made of metal and finished in the same maroon color as the cleaner. It looks nearly identical to the first photo posted in this thread.

The one on eBay is two-tone white and dark tan and is made of plastic.

My Bad But I really thought being it's candy apple red and cream it was the match to the 86.

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