MetroVac
Vacuums, pet dryers and air blowers assembled in New Jersey by a company that has been at it since 1939.
🏭 American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where MetroVac products are made
The sentence MetroVac publishes is “our products are all made In USA from domestic and international components.” Companies that intend to overclaim do not append that second clause. MetroVac does, on its About page and again in its FAQ, and this profile takes it at face value.
The company timeline records that in 2013 MetroVac and its employees moved into a new 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Oakland, New Jersey, having outgrown the 32,000 square foot Suffern, New York plant it had occupied since 1968. Two plants, two dates, both published by the company.
The company traces itself to a pawned pocket watch: Hyman Gulker pawned his for fifty dollars and gave the money to his daughter and son in law, Pearl and Israel Stern, who launched The Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Company. MetroVac says the business is now in its third generation.
The Federal Trade Commission reserves an unqualified Made in USA claim for goods that are all or virtually all of domestic origin. MetroVac does not make an unqualified claim. It says its products are assembled in the USA from domestic and international components, and this profile carries the American Manufacturing emblem for exactly that reason. Buyers who need to know the origin of a specific part should ask the company.
The story
The MetroVac story starts in 1939 with a fifty dollar stake. Hyman Gulker pawned his pocket watch and handed the money to his daughter Pearl and her husband Israel Stern, who had been selling vacuum cleaners door to door. The Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Company was the result. The company records that Israel was good enough at selling that a former employer offered him a hundred dollars to come back, and that Pearl answered for both of them: nothing doing, we are on our own now.
The early business was distribution and reconditioning rather than manufacturing. That changed as MetroVac started inventing. The company says it unveiled the first 110 volt handheld vacuum cleaner in 1957, the first 12 volt automotive handheld that ran off a cigarette lighter in 1964, and the dual voltage Metro Duo-Volt in 1970. Demand pushed it into a 32,000 square foot plant in Suffern, New York in 1968.
The product lines that most people now know MetroVac for arrived later. David Stern joined in 1984 and drove the Air Force pet dryers, which the company says put it at the top of the pet grooming dryer industry by 1989. The DataVac computer cleaning systems and the Air Force Blaster motorcycle dryer followed. In 2013 the company and its employees moved into a 60,000 square foot facility in Oakland, New Jersey.
Why they matter
Small electrical appliances are a category that left the United States almost entirely. MetroVac is still assembling in New Jersey, and it is candid about what that does and does not mean: the assembly is American, the components are a mix of domestic and international. That is a more informative statement than a flag on a box.
MetroVac is also a company that documents itself. Its timeline names founders, dates, plant sizes, cities and specific product firsts. That is unusual, and it makes the company easy to check, which is precisely what an origin claim should be.
The company describes itself as third generation and family owned, and names Jules Stern as President and CEO. The Buy American Campaign records that as MetroVac own description rather than as a verified ownership structure, because no ownership filing is published. What is verifiable is the assembly location, and it is in Oakland, New Jersey.
Shop MetroVac products
The Buy American Campaign store stocks fifteen MetroVac items spanning the company main families: Air Force pet grooming dryers, the Air Force Blaster line for motorcycles and cars, DataVac electric dusters, handheld and canister vacuums and replacement parts. Each of them falls under the assembled in the USA statement MetroVac makes about its whole range.
MetroVac questions
Where are MetroVac products made?
MetroVac says every one of its products is assembled in the USA, at its 60,000 square foot facility in Oakland, New Jersey. The company also states the components come from domestic and international sources.
Why does this profile say American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA?
Because MetroVac qualifies its own claim. Its published wording is “made In USA from domestic and international components,” and it describes the process as assembly. The Buy American Campaign uses the emblem that matches what the maker actually says.
How old is MetroVac?
The company was founded in 1939 as The Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Company, by Israel and Pearl Stern, using a fifty dollar stake from a pawned pocket watch. MetroVac publishes this in its own timeline.
What does MetroVac actually make?
Handheld and canister vacuum cleaners, Air Force pet grooming dryers, motorcycle and automotive dryers including the Master Blaster, DataVac electric dusters for computers and printers, and Magic Air pumps and inflators for marine and camping use.