I grew up with Hoover meaning the cleaner… and Bendix meaning the washing machine.
Hoover is still the word I use, no matter what… but I have finally got around to calling the washing machine… just that…
(Mum’s Bendix lasted nearly 40 years and then she got another one…didn’t last quite as long… but saw her out…)
Back in the good old days, took you nearly forty years to save enough to buy a Bendix, whereas now when the washer goes wrong, you simply chuck it and buy a new one. My dishwasher is a bit old, coughs a bit give her a kick and she’s straight back at the sink doing the dishes, had her forty years, never ever had a problem. Don’t make em like they used to.
@Trev57 … you are a cheeky so and so…
I have no idea how my Dad managed to afford a Bendix, but with 4 kids and a wife who was ill a lot of the time… it was absolutely essential.
In those days, the Service Man could change parts and keep the machines working… Nowadays, the Service Man is on the dole and (as you say) if something breaks-down… it’s cheaper/easier to buy a replacement machine… I have been told that machines are built with a 5-year life expectancy… 
The Vacuum Cleaner was invented in UK by H Cecil Booth ca 1910. he also designed the Great Wheel in Vienna as seen in the Third Man. The American Hoover turned it into a mass market product.
As a UK pensioner ex pat, we are still holding on with baited breath to see what happens to us all in France. There has been much talk by Uk Government in respect of Europeans living in the UK and their rights, but so far I have heard nothing at all about what happens to we folk who have emigrated to France or any other European country. I know some of you have taken EU citizenship, which I am willing to do, but having made enquiries of my local mairie and even at the prefecture, have been told that we cannot do anything UNTIL the Brexit has actually taken place nd is finalised. You can imagine that we all feel somewhat “up in the air” and as such rather concerned.
Well, according to the papers, Tusk said there is still work to do on the Irish border and cash, didn’t mention citizens rights. Its possible that an agreement on citizens rights has now been reached. Main thing is agreement on citizens rights, signed and sealed way before negotiations go pear shaped. Davis apparently wants a special relationship, his vision seems to be, same as membership but out of the customs Union but in it, out of the single market but in it, out of the jurisdiction of the ECJ but continue to conform to all the EU’s regs regarding various standard’s, out of open skies but in it, have control of your borders but frictionless trade, lose the financial passporting rights but keep the same access to the services market. A deal more visionary than Canada’s, bigger than Norway’s. Seems to me like the best deal is for the UK to join the EU, gives the UK absolutely everything Davis would love to achieve.