Dyson & Sebo Vacuum Cleaner Repair & Advice Forums
Other Vacuum Cleaners & Site Suggestions => Vintage Vacuum Cleaners & Appliances => Topic started by: MVacs on September 20, 2010, 02:38:30 am
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The G-Force
'G-Force' was the name given to Dyson's first widely-available vacuum cleaner. It was the first vacuum cleaner to use "Dual Cyclone" separation technology. The G-Force was licensed to the Japanese company Apex Inc., and only available on the Japanese market. It was not sold under the Dyson name. James Dyson later used the money he earned from the G-Force to start up the UK Dyson company we know and love.
The vacuum cleaner industry in the early 1990's was uninterested in new technology and firmly stuck to the idea of paper vacuum cleaner bags (sales of which are worth a not inconsiderable £250 million every year by the way), major manufacturers turned James Dyson and his invention away. Hoover laughed at him.
James Dyson eventually licensed his design in Japan, the home of high-tech (like taking coals to Newcastle, no?). The Japanese loved the over-priced pink G-Force and, in 1993, the royalties allowed James to manufacture a Dyson machine under his own name, the DC01 was born. A multi-millionaire and world-wide success story was also born!
The original G-Force looked like this:
(https://manchestervacs.co.uk/dysonimages/gforce.jpg)
If you look carefully, you can see similarities to the DC01.
As Dyson aficionados, we at Manchester Vacs, take a great interest in James Dyson's products from day one. Anyone who has read his book "Against the Odds" knows the story of James Dyson. His book details his first forays into design and marketing on other people's behalf. It explains his moment of realisation when he made the quantum mental leap from a sawdust extracting machine in a wood yard to cyclonic vacuum cleaner design. It then covers the more than 10 years he struggled to make it a mainstream product and delves into the nasty things big multinationals will do to slow you down.
It describes the huge lengths he went to during this period to get to the point where he was making vacuum cleaners. How much personal debt he accumulated. How much he spent on legal battles with multinational companies trying to cheat him. How it affected his personal life. It is easy to sympathise with him while reading the book and in similar situations it is hard to imagine many people would have continued.
One of his early inventions -- before vacuum cleaners -- was the "ball barrow". It looked like this:
(https://manchestervacs.co.uk/dysonimages/ballbarrow.jpg)
It is easy to see where the inspiration for Dyson "The Ball" models came from; the Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner models feature an almost identical ball design to his early wheelbarrow inventions. The idea of a ball in a wheelbarrow was to prevent the barrow from sinking in wet grass or the slop to be found on building sites like a regular wheel might. It's a great idea that readers of his book will learn was ripped off from him by an American company.
Please don't send us e-mails asking for a Dyson G-Force. They were only sold in Japan and are a very rare machine in the UK today. If you can find one, we expect it will be worth many hundreds of pounds.
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I have been very lucky to have seen one of these at a customers house here in Cape Town.
He brought with it when he relocated from Japan
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I have been very lucky to have seen one of these at a customers house here in Cape Town.
He brought with it when he relocated from Japan
Tell him we'll give him fifty quid for it! :evilgrin0002:
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What :o he turned down £100 but thats ok I know his son very well and he is a old duffer :evilgrin0002: so its off to the home soon. His son already said he will give it to me :biglaugh:
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I have a g-force! I was emptying my late grandmothers house, may she rest in peace.
Anyway I was clearing her house and in the shed she had a very battered G force with a snapped handle and a shattered bin. I'm unsure of how she acquired it but she seemed to have a collection of vacuums, her preferred ones being a very battered DC03 that rarely got emptied (usually I did it) and a pro-action bagged upright that was £34.99 but not actually that bad!
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I wonder how she came by that in the UK? Where's the photo? :icon_nod:
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I have a g-force!
We'll have that if its available? It would make a nice shop floor feature when refurbished. email us a few photos if its available.
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After a tip off from a forum member, I found one of these for sale on eBay recently. It was badged as a KLEENEZE ROTORK, and described as a "1984 prototype Dyson".
[attachimg=1]
It came with some advertising blurb that came with it from the 1984 Ideal Home Exhibition. Interesting the word "Cyclon" on there; they mustn't have dreamt up "Cyclone" yet.
[attachimg=2]
And even some magazine articles from that time.
[attachimg=3]
I did start the bidding, but missed the end of the auction as it finished at a funny time of day. Was it someone here that bought it?
It made £315
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Hi there
The Cyclon was the first production vacuum cleaner designed by James Dyson, although only around 500 were made. Basically they were financed by Rotork, Dyson's former employer and design partner, distributed by Kleeneze and made for them in Italy by Zanussi. If you compare it with the G-Force made later by Apex in Japan under a licensing agreement the two are similar but not identical. The G-Force has a pile adjuster, a bumper around the cleaning head, differences to the wand and I think some differences to the Cyclone unit. I happen to have a Cyclon in my Dyson collection which I acquired recently. I don't know if it is the same one that was on eBay but the manual for mine is black & white. You can see it in action on YouTube if you follow this link I am not sure how many are left. I only know of one other?
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I never noticed they were not quite the same!
I thought I would put the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/v/G1Fv4RxH3hM
How did you come by yours Bendini?
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Hi there
Thanks for putting the video into the thread. I got this Cyclon from eBay. I had bought a DC15 motor from the same seller previously and spotted it as soon as it was listed. It was on a best offer listing and I negotiated a deal pretty much straight away. The seller is also a collector and has the other one I referred to hence this one being available. They are obviously very rare and I would be interested to know how many are still about?
Thanks
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For any random Googlers who land here, I wanted to point you to this topic as well: We Have a Kleeneze Rotork Cyclon Restoration Project (https://manchestervacs.co.uk/DysonForum/index.php/topic,1814.msg9755.html#msg9755).
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So we now have a Dyson (Apex) G-Force. A Japanese import. Brand new, never run, with original box, tools, spare belt, belt removal tool, etc. :king:
[attachimg=1]
(That is the earlier and similar looking Cyclon Rotork in the cabinet behind it).
In the same deal I also picked up another Cyclon Rotork, so now we have two of those. One will shortly be for sale if anyone is interested. The G-Force isn't for sale.
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Wow, growing quite the collection of early dysons! Glad they have a good home.
I bet that cyclon will fetch quite a good sum.
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Wow, growing quite the collection of early dysons!
In the same collection came several very early DC01's, a DC02 Recyclone, a DC03 Clear, 2x DC04 Constant Max (both colours), a DC04 De Stijl, and a few others. I'll be doing a museum topic when I have decided which ones we are keeping.
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Wow, box, paperwork, WOW! Pictures? Have you turned it on yet? Never use it to pick anything up though. You storing it in it's box to avoid it fading or getting it's display case tinted with anti UV stuff?
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Oh, its going in the case. I think half the enjoyment in some of this stuff is letting interested people see them.
Not much sun in our place, so no fading I reckon........
Wow, box, paperwork, WOW! Pictures?
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
[attachimg=4]
[attachimg=5]
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display case tinted with anti UV stuff?
Oh come on, he's in Manchester, has it ever seen the sun?? don't they all have webbed feet?? :underchair:
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display case tinted with anti UV stuff?
Oh come on, he's in Manchester, has it ever seen the sun?? don't they all have webbed feet?? :underchair:
True that! :biglaugh:
As Jeremy Clarkson once wrote, "I was driving up the M6, I saw the sign for Manchester, so I turned my wipers on......"
So now there is a Rotork Cyclon for sale, and the info is on this topic (https://manchestervacs.co.uk/DysonForum/index.php?topic=2378.msg17366#msg17366).
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OMG!!! You are SO lucky ;D ;D ;D Really happy for you
Well done on getting it :thumbsup: 8)
Wow though, words fail me
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It's old stuff that interests me, even though I'm not particularly interested in that because of the fact it's a Dyson or even one of the first Dysons, I am interested because of the fact it's relatively old, and therefore carries some good history with it! even though it's essentially new lol.
Nice, work ;)
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:bow:
So tell us briefly about the lever on the front...
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I think it is just a height control, to be honest I haven't tweaked it to see.
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What? You mean you haven't read the Japanese instruction manual? :))
It appears to be the only visual difference I can see. Any more?
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The G Force has a stainless steel soleplate like a DC15, the cord hook that breaks got redesigned, general little tweaks as with any face lift I suppose.
I haven't really looked at it in any depth yet, I unboxed it and pretty much just put it in the cabinet.
We have been busy. :underchair:
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We have been busy. :underchair:
Slightly off topic but just curious
Roughly how many Dysons do you sell a day and which model(s) are most popular? ;D
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We have been busy. :underchair:
Watching the BIDS role in on the CYCLON ??? lol :))
Its getting there slowly... :thumbsup:
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We have been busy. :underchair:
Slightly off topic but just curious
Roughly how many Dysons do you sell a day and which model(s) are most popular? ;D
Commercially sensitive question.