Thread Number: 26495
Kenmore High Desert Restoration Center New Inductees 		[Down to Last]

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Post# 296776   9/2/2014 at 23:45 (3,520 days old) by DesertTortoise ()        

The Kenmore High Desert Restoration Center announces the induction of two canister vacuums to the program.

The first is a mid 1980s Kenmore 4.5 peak horsepower two speed canister vacuum with wand and Powermate. All are in very good to outstanding condition as delivered. The Powermate has a broken wand release lever and the headlight housing falls off. Both should be trivial repairs. The brush itself is clean and operates well, thumping the carpet hard with the beater bar. The wand is as new. The canister is in excellent material condition with very few minor scratches and no major damage. The center has seen current year floor demos that looked worse. Only the cord release is a little sticky, but again this is a simple repair. The cord itself appears like new, clean and no damage. Both speeds work and the motor sounds good. The brush and canister appear to have been thoroughly cleaned already but will be dismantled and inspected in the near future and cleaned as necessary however the unit has already been used to vacuum the home of the centers owners. The hose is damaged but worth repairing due to the rare and unusual nozzle end seen on top of the line Kenmore canister vacs early in the first generation of 5055 bagged machines. Later style three wire hoses operate the machine, however, and are how the vacuum will be operated until the original hose can be restored.

The second inductee is a Panasonic Jet Flo MC 7190 suction only canister. It is in good to very good material condition, marred only by some severe age yellowing, especially on the belly. The facility hopes a recent order of 12% hydrogen peroxide and some Oxiclean will restore the original appearance of the yellowed plastic. Aside from that it is missing one tool (and the center knows so little about Panasonic Jet Flow vacuums they do not even know what the missing tool is supposed to look like) and it appears the pre-motor filter frame is also missing. The vacuum is fully functional, is very quiet in operation and has outstanding suction. It is also surprisingly small, smaller even than the centers previous smallest vacuum the Ryobi built license copy of a Singer DLC series canister branded a Kenmore 3.1. The Panasonic has significantly more suction than the Singer/Ryobi/Kenmore thingamabob. It came with the original hose in excellent condition, two plastic wands and a floor brush. The amount of dirt seen on the motor exhaust attests to a period of use with no premotor filter and will necessitate disassembly and a thorough cleaning in the future. The center is also making a public appeal to all vacuum restorers to help locate a pre-motor filter holder for this worthy old vacuum.

The Panasonic is photographed alongside the other new inductee and a selection of other previously restored center vacuums for sake of size comparison and to show the obvious shared heritage between 1980's Kenmore canister vacs and those from Panasonic, both of which are ultimately Matsushita products.

Enjoy. Restoration albums to follow in time.

  Photos...       <              >      Photo 1 of 14         View Full Size
Post# 297258 , Reply# 1   9/6/2014 at 13:32 (3,517 days old) by Durango159 (State College, PA)        

durango159's profile picture
Neat finds! I hope you get them working the way you want. eBay is loaded with hoses, perhaps they have the one you need.

Post# 297268 , Reply# 2   9/6/2014 at 14:46 (3,517 days old) by DesertTortoise ()        

Later hoses operate that vacuum so there is no problem turning the vac on and using it. The same relay that switches it on and powers the floor brush from the handle switch was used into the early 2000s on the Progressive series canisters before Kenmore replaced the relay with printed circuit boards. All the Whispertone series have that relay too. Any hose that works with those vac works with this one so I have been able to use it. It is a great running vac. The motor is quiet and has very good suction.

But that particular style of nozzle end and switch is pretty rare. The quality of the hose material used then was such that you never find that style end on a hose that hasn't fallen apart. The swivel end is easy enough to attach new hose to, but I don't know about the collar on the nozzle end.


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