Thread Number: 32984
/ Tag: Recent Vacuum Cleaners from past 20 years
Westinghouse Wired (Fantom lookalikes) |
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Post# 360785 , Reply# 1   10/12/2016 at 13:32 (2,752 days old) by hooverkid (PA,USA)   |   | |
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Post# 360893 , Reply# 2   10/14/2016 at 01:41 (2,750 days old) by myles_v (Fredericksburg, VA)   |   | |
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You may mean the Westinghouse UnPlugged. It was a Fantom Wildcat with a 2 foot long battery pack strapped to the back.
I had one such a long time ago. It wasn't that bad for a cordless upright! It included two huge batteries and one huge battery charger, nothing at all close to the batteries and charger for the current Hoover Air Cordless. It was very flimsy though. The last thing that broke on mine was the plastic dirt bin, what a shame. |
Post# 360950 , Reply# 3   10/15/2016 at 09:46 (2,749 days old) by NickTechTalk (Winter Park, FL)   |   | |
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The Westinghouse Wired was a slightly different version of the Fantom Fury, and the Cyclone XT was the Westinghouse Wired Deluxe. The unplugged was something completely different. |
Post# 360974 , Reply# 4   10/15/2016 at 19:33 (2,748 days old) by s_matt37 (Utah)   |   | |
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The unplugged was actually just a cordless Fantom Wildcat. |
Post# 360978 , Reply# 5   10/15/2016 at 21:12 (2,748 days old) by NickTechTalk (Winter Park, FL)   |   | |
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But I was wondering, since the Wildcat had extremely poor build quality (handles breaking off, etc.), was the Unplugged any better in its build quality or was it near identical? |
Post# 360983 , Reply# 6   10/16/2016 at 00:37 (2,748 days old) by myles_v (Fredericksburg, VA)   |   | |
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I've never used a Wildcat but I will say that the UnPlugged had very bad build quality and nearly everything else was identical to the Wildcat.
I've never heard of the Wired though, that's why I assumed you had meant UnPlugged. I understand that the Wildcat was from after Iona stopped using the dual cyclones from Dyson, but hearing about the Wired makes me wonder what kind of thing was happening between Westinghouse and Iona/Fantom? With the UnPlugged I'd assumed it was after Iona lost control of the Fantom name, and that somehow Westinghouse ended up with the Wildcat design. |
Post# 360986 , Reply# 7   10/16/2016 at 00:53 (2,748 days old) by myles_v (Fredericksburg, VA)   |   | |
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Okay, so the limited amount of info I found by googling it was that the original Fantoms were made in Canada, buuuuut the Westinghouse labelled Fantoms were made in China.
I found some interesting reviews on Amazon from 2003-2004 at this link www.amazon.com/gp/product... CLICK HERE TO GO TO myles_v's LINK |
Post# 361002 , Reply# 9   10/16/2016 at 14:17 (2,748 days old) by myles_v (Fredericksburg, VA)   |   | |
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That looks like it's after they went bankrupt and lost the dual cyclone licenses. And looking at the bins in other photos I've found I've come to the conclusion that they had changed the cyclone design to a single cyclone.
Some reviews I read about them mentioned a foam filter that clogged extremely fast so that just further confirms the idea that they switched to a single cyclone. |
Post# 361056 , Reply# 13   10/17/2016 at 13:49 (2,747 days old) by FantomFan (Rochester, New York)   |   | |
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The Fantom Wildcat was originally intended to be CORDLESS. A few months ago, I found
a business report from Fantom Technologies with very detailed information about the design of this vacuum, as well as the then recent introduction of the Fantom Fury "Special Edition" and "Limited Edition" models. They even included a picture of the soon to be Wildcat. I suppose they changed their mind on the cordless aspect. I wish I could find it. If I do, I will post it here. I believe it is from 2000. I have all three colors of the Wildcat, as well as a Crosswind 600 XL. The Crosswind does not run. I can clarify that it is very similar to the Cyclone XT, with the exception of the cyclone design. I also think the plastic is of a slightly lower quality than the Cyclone XT's. |
Post# 361072 , Reply# 14   10/17/2016 at 17:56 (2,746 days old) by NickTechTalk (Winter Park, FL)   |   | |
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Do you have any Wildcats (working or not) that you would be willing to sell? |