Hoover Decade 80 U4381-030 Upright Vacuum 

This is my vintage Hoover Decade 80 upright vacuum (from somewhere in the early to mid 80s), model U4381-030, that I bought on eBay. This is one of the vacuums I've been wanting to get for a while ever since I bought my Decade 800 ( • Hoover Decade 800 U450... ), since it's a little bit older and admittedly better built than the Decade 800. What makes the Decade series of the Hoover Convertible lineup so unique compared to the original Convertible is that they come with high end features like a more powerful 6 amp motor with power surge, that's basically a momentary high speed switch that returns to the original setting when you let go of the power switch. The Decade cleaners also come with a unique edge cleaning headlight that make a very nice light beam which is what a lot of people love the Decade 80 and 800 machines for, myself included. The Convertible series was made back in the mid to late 50s and was Hoovers best selling vacuum back then way before the Elite series. These did come with an optional attachment kit with a special converter that mounts on the bottom of the machine so you can use a hose and above floor cleaning tools. It features a 6 amp motor with direct air design and takes top fill Hoover Type A bags (this example is running the HEPA bags that are getting hard to find but worth it in the filtration and increased performance). The suction is great, and the airflow is fantastic (even for having a later 6 blade fan), and the agitation is great for a machine that's as old as this is, being that it has it's original brush roll with decent brush strips and beater bars. My only complaints about this machine is that it occasionally makes loud rattling noised from either the brush roll or the bottom plate, and also the fact that said bottom plate doesn't stay securely in place due to the latch design (which I should point out is the later design before they fully transitioned into plastic bottom plates), but other than that I absolutely love this vacuum and is certainly better than anything Hoover makes today.