“He worked out of our home going door to door selling and repairing Hoover Vacuums,” Dick Pate said. “He did that until 1950 when he opened his retail vacuum shop in the Krebs Furniture Building at 3rd and Court Street across the street from the Hamilton JournalNews building.”
When Krebs Furniture closed, the business moved first to the Hamilton West Shopping Center and then to 1209 High St. to share a building with Frank’s brother Joe, who founded Pate Appliance.
“Uncle Joe did small appliance repair and vacuums other than Hoover while Dad did all Hoover products,” Dick Pate said. “Dad continued doing business in that location until my son Doug and I formed a partnership and took over the business in October ‘97.”
The father-son team continued doing business in that location until May 1998, when Dick’s cousin Mike Pate, owner of Pate Appliance, built the Pate Appliance Service Center on South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and F.E. Pate Hoover moved in.
In 2008, they acquired Pate Appliance’s vacuum business and changed the F.E. Pate Hoover moniker to Pate Vacuum Sales & Service to better reflect that it services nearly all brands, makes and models of vacuums and sells Hoover, Royal, Dirt Devil, Eureka, Sanitaire, Electrolux and Dyson vacuums.
It’s also an authorized warranty service center for those brands.
“We sell all brands of parts for many different manufactures,” Dick Pate said. “We pride ourselves by locating those hard-to-find parts and accessories.”
The business also sells Heat Surge fireplaces and is an authorized dealer service center for those products, as well as Fisher-Price Power Wheels.
Pate said the business, which matches prices on all comparable products, draws from a broad base.
“Since we are the authorized service center for so many brands of vacuums and Power Wheels and Heat Surge fireplaces, we get people from all over Butler and Hamilton counties, as far north as Dayton and from as far south as Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana,” he said.
Goals for 2013 include increasing sales and service and exploring other business opportunities, including central vacuum systems.
In recent months, Pate Vacuum’s biggest change has been trying to keep up with a deluge of new vacuum technology, Pate said.
“Since we are an authorized service center for many brands, we’re expected to keep up,” he said. “It seems that something new is coming out all the time.”
What makes it all worthwhile and enjoyable is meeting and dealing with customers, Pate said.
“We pride ourselves for being a customer-oriented business,” he said.
For more information, call (513) 863-6996 or visit www.patevacuums.com.
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