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Broken belts in Vacuum cleaners.

NickD on Wed November 21, 2007 7:33 AM User is offline

Had to retire my 17 year old Dirt Devil MPV yesterday, I did put in sealed ball bearings years ago on the roller brush, but they seized spinning in the plastic not only melting the retainer but the housing that holds it. We did purchase another Dirt Devil about three years ago, was only forty bucks, but that didn't last at all. Have problems with the girls with long hair tangling up between the roller and the bearing support, that one didn't have bearings, just a metal shaft in a piece of nylon.

Tried a bagless Eureka in the 80 buck range, sales pitch sounded good, no bags to replace, but the girls don't look at that clear plastic container, it gets full and jams up the Hepa filter. If you buy a bagless, buy two, you need one to clean the other. Was crazy for buying this thing, loaded with attachments that keep on falling off, and the hose is way too short for doing anything.

House came with a built in NuTone, but no power head, looked at one for 400 bucks, was Mickey Mouse, cheap plastic clips to hold the line cord to the hose, plus my house wasn't wired for it, but it's okay for hard floors and general dusting. Daugher-in-laws friend would like to sell me a Kirby for around $2,200.00, no thanks. I use a 60 year old Electolux tank type for cleaning the cars, even have a spare motor for it, but it keeps on going, they don't make them like that anymore. Had problems finding bags for it, but see Arm & Hammer is making bags now. My now 40 year Craftsman shop vacuum has been quite reliable, but can't find replacement hoses for it nor bags, just keep that hooked up to my radial saw. But it's so noisy, can't hear myself think.

Now, just looking for a basic roller brush type vacuum cleaner, with bags, no attachments, and a roller brush that has metal cups on the ends so hairs don't get wrapped up between the roller and the housing. They use to make them this way. Looked at some Dyson's, very expensive for a piece of plastic with lot's of negative reviews. That Eureka I purchased is also a belt breaker, spend more time and money changing the belts and cleaning the roller than using it.

mhamilton on Wed November 21, 2007 3:34 PM User is offlineView users profile

I have a Dirt Devil MPV, think it's about 13 years old... had the same thing happen with the brush melting the plastic after a few years. I took the belt off and now use that just to vacuum the cars.

Also have a old Electrolux that my Grandmother bought new. Forget the model, but it's has the "Automatic" bag ejector. It had a new cloth hose put on 20 years ago, but wasn't done well or the hose was old stock, because it still leaks. Can put your hand on the hose, no change in motor noise. But take the hose off, and the suction from the front of the machine is incredible. May have to try restoring that myself, it is a nice quiet vacuum.

The only thing i don't like about Electrolux is the small bags. Wouldn't buy a new one, have heard many bad things about them. Have central vac in this house, has the power of a shop vacuum, so have to watch it doesn't pull the fringe right off the rugs! Maybe you can find one of the power brushes you need for your system online?

NickD on Wed November 21, 2007 5:49 PM User is offline

I got a 9' piece of the same kind of hose that my NuTone uses for my Electrolux, had to use a heat gun to get it on the Electrolux fittings, and used hot glue, works quite well and long enough to reach all over the inside of the car.

After some shopping this morning, purchased a Dirt Devil Featurelite, says it has a 12 amp motor, but I only read 11.28 amperes, should I take it back? It only weighs about 12 pounds, very easy to move around, the roller is only 11" long, but man with that 11.28 amp motor, it really has the suction. I pulled the roller before I even put it together, uses die cast bearing holders as opposed to those plastic ones, with double sealed bearings. Popped off the seals and slapped some grease in there, ends of the bearing holders are cupped so long hair and strings shouldn't get in there. I really didn't want attachments, but came with the tube, clevis and brush, but this time the tube and clevis drop into full circles so they shouldn't fall off and don't stick out like the others do. Has a headlamp and a vacuum operated front roller, no carpet height adjustment my girls are always setting too low. When the motor pulls down, it automatically raises the base unit, so it doesn't stall, also has a nice belt guard.

Uses a bag, but I am kind of frugal, especially with a dog around here that fills it up fast. Use a heat gun to soften the glue where the bag folds, unwrap it, reenforce with some masking tape and use three office staples to hold the fold together, can't leak. The pop off the staples, dump the bag, and reuse it a dozen times or so.

All in all a very nice engineered unit fixing the many flaws I have seen in the past with a full year warranty, best part was the price, $29.99.

I did check on line for a powerhead, 400 bucks.

mhamilton on Wed November 21, 2007 8:13 PM User is offlineView users profile

Found a picture of the same Electrolux, now I remember it's a model G. Is this the same as yours? Mine has an original style rubber/cloth hose, but this one in the picture has a plastic hose:



I wonder if I can get any original looking hose? I will have to do some searching. Would like to keep the cloth hose look, although plastic would certainly work great.

The new vac was a great deal. I remember we had an upright Panasonic costing hundreds back in the '80s.

NickD on Thu November 22, 2007 6:44 AM User is offline

Electrolux is the model Automatic F and only consumes 635 watts, has plenty of good suction with the low power, feel these new 12 amps jobs are better heaters than suckers.



Kind of recall when my mom purchased this thing in the early 50's, she was a sucker for door to door salesman, got it on time and I think she paid around $250.00 for it, a lot of money in those days, on time, Electrolux would come around every month for either a ten or fifteen buck payment. She got all the accessories with it, recall an air motor buffer, that power head like yours, a paint sprayer, some other stuff, but when I got home from the military, not much of it was left, just what you see plus those two tubes with the floor brush. Not really interested in restoring this thing, the only reason why it's still around, it still works, seemed to have pitched many vacuums over the years.

I still have her 1935 Toastmaster waffle iron and toaster, they still work, ha, they don't make them like they use to.

bohica2xo on Thu November 22, 2007 1:33 PM User is offline

Nick:

My mother still has an electrolux like that one, in pristine condition. The powerhead is no better than anything else on the market today - I have fixed it many times. She has virtually every accesory with it as well... you need an ME degree to use some of it.

Take a deep breath, and buy a DC17 Dyson. I don't know what negative reports you have had, but I can't say anything bad about this machine. Simply the best vacuum I have ever owned. We have pets, and my wife is a cleaning fanatic. The vacuum in our home runs twice a week, the whole house. It works exactly as advertised, which is a big surprise in todays world. I don't really care about ratings anymore, just performance & ergonomics.

Performance.
The DC17 sucks as hard as any other 12 amp unit. It seems to apply this well to the floor. The filter assembly really works!. The usual "odor" associated with bag type vacuums is gone. No redistribution of fine dust in the room. Pet dander, copier toner, etc. actually stops in the cyclone & stays there. Have you ever had contact with a Cockatoo? They are covered in a fine powder that they generate. No problem for a dyson.

Ergonomics.
While a cannister vacuum sounds like a good idea, it is really a pain in the ass. The majority of area you vacuum is floor. This means dragging a cannister and a powerhead. The down side to uprights is usually a crappy transition to hose use, and poor hose performance. The DC17 solves that issue completely. Clean a room and never reach for a component. The "handle" extends to form a decent length wand, detaches from the unit... & conceals about 12 feet of hose. You can vacuum the stairs all the way up with the unid sitting on the floor in front of the stairs. There is no connection to make, the transition to "hose & wand" is simply pull & go. The attachments ride on the unit so it is all available. The "low profile" attachment is the only one I ever found to surpass electrolux. It will reach under most furniture (about the same height as the electrolux part) and it works great.


I guess if you really want to nitpick, there are two slightly negative aspects of the DC17:

Appearance.
Moulded in bright purple plastic and festooned with all of it's attachments it looks like an LSD induced dream of a cockroach carrying it's babies. Thankfully appearance does not affect performance. You will get over it.

Waste cannister.
The cannister is a wonderful design, with an easy dump. The down side is that it does not hold 15 pounds of crap like an old Kirby - it is smaller. You need to dump it more often, and should get in the habbit of doing so after each use. Unlike a tidy bag, you get to look at what is in your filth through a nice clear cannister. Plan on dumping it twice (or more!) the first time you use it We were surprised at how fast it filled up in a "clean" house.


B.

-------------------------
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi, page 446.

NickD on Thu November 22, 2007 2:54 PM User is offline

Here's the culprit for filling up the bags quickly,



He even looks guilty.

Think I was to harsh on the Eureka breaking a belt, forget my daughter caught her cell phone charger cord that broke that belt, how would a Dyson handle a charging cord if it winds up on the brush roller and stops when the wall wart hits it? The thing with the Eureka is that culprit shown above with tons of shedding dog hair, on top of the removable canister is an opening with a removable strainer, easy to remove. But difficult to put back in as it has four keys that have to go in four slots then turned to lock it, that area gets jammed with dog hair and dirt, but can only reach it when the canister is out, so all that dirt falls down at the base of the machine. How is the Dyson doing that?

Admittedly, didn't look real close at the Dyson, just saw another hunk of plastic with a 400 buck price tag and a 12 amp motor, and all thee bagless units look pretty much the same, has to be some finer points to look at. The motor blower assembly in my 17 old Dirt Devil really looked great, was going to keep it, but why? Tossed it in the trash can. Amazing what little space a vacuum cleaner takes when disassembled and the plastic smashed. Also how quick you can take one apart with a power screwdriver, prybar, and a pair of side cutter pliers, course, you will never put it together again, all those plastic snaps are broken off. Stumping on plastic parts also relieves a lot of tension.

An advantage of the built in vacuum cleaner, it exhausts to the outside of the house, no noise, no odor.

bohica2xo on Thu November 22, 2007 5:07 PM User is offline

Nick:

The DC17 has a torque limit clutch that makes an awful noise when you wind up a chenille throw in the rolling brush... No harm to the dyson (chenille throw DOA). The dyson cannister comes off as a closed unit, and can be reinstalled by a blind man. No way for anything to fall into the machine.

I have plenty of dog hair to go with the bird dander, thrown seed etc. Plenty of long human hair as well, between the wife & sister.

The Dyson replaced a sears unit with the brush motor built inside the roller itself. That system worked ok, it would blow the thermal breaker on the unit if you locked up the roller. The drawbacks to the sears unit were clumsy hose attachment, short hose, broken accesories, suction loss with a half full bag...

Buy a Dyson someplace like Target, and use it for a couple of weeks. If you hate it, return it.

B.

-------------------------
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi, page 446.

Edited: Thu November 22, 2007 at 5:09 PM by bohica2xo

steve325is on Fri November 23, 2007 11:03 AM User is offline

I just bought the Hoover Elite at Target to replace a 20 year old Hoover bagged model. The old one was working fine, but didn't clean as well as I wanted and we just got new carpet.

The new one is great, except that the attachment hose is too short. I was always itchy after using the bagged vacuum, not with this one. It has three filters, including the Hepa. Can't beat it for the price!

Anyone want to talk about food processors or toaster ovens?

-- Steve

Hoover

Edited: Fri November 23, 2007 at 11:04 AM by steve325is

NickD on Fri November 23, 2007 12:39 PM User is offline

You win Bohica, the DC17 is my kind of engineering, $550.00 price is a little stiff, but it is also a very heavy machine at 33 pounds that my wife would have to haul up the stairs, so she has the deciding vote.

Ha, food processors, I like a knife and mixing spoon, easy to clean and store away. Was given a Black & Decker toaster oven, can be used like a regular toaster, except it doesn't pop up, but does have a push button timer and a light dark knob. Wife uses it all the time, she loves it for roasting a piece of meat or fish, I just grab something out the refrigerator and eat it cold, men are tough, right? Had to go mail order to order an undercounter bracket for this thing, they don't sell them in stores, leaves a lot of free counter space underneath.

I like my over the range microwave, use that to defrost the meat first before eating it, not that tough, anymore, LOL.

bohica2xo on Fri November 23, 2007 4:09 PM User is offline

Nick:

At least Dyson put the carry handle at the top of the balance point, so you can pick it up like a well balanced briefcase.

I just looked at the roller on our DC17. More than a year in use, and not a single strand of anything wrapped clear around the roller? I have never opened the roller cover (it takes a coin) so I can say it has never been serviced. I just realized that there is a clear cover over the top side of the roller, so you can look at it without turning the unit upside down...

Food processors? BAH. I still make pasta with my bare hands, a rolling pin & a big knife.

Now, the toaster oven is a different matter. With an electric oven at the cabin, I had to train the wife to use the toaster oven whenever possible. Once she saw the difference on the bill, the big oven rarely gets used.

B.

-------------------------
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi, page 446.

steve325is on Fri November 23, 2007 4:49 PM User is offline

If Nick were a caring husband, he would buy his wife an upstairs vacuum and a downstairs vacuum

-- Steve

NickD on Sat November 24, 2007 5:12 AM User is offline

Quote
If Nick were a caring husband, he would buy his wife an upstairs vacuum and a downstairs vacuum

Ha, always had upright vacuums upstairs and downstairs, but not at almost 600 bucks each including sales tax. Have to think about that. You mentioned a Hoover, reminded me, that we had one for years without belt breaking problems, gave it to my oldest daughter, think she still has it. Recall back in the 60's a guy coming over to sell us, I think it was a rainbow, took a piece of cloth and held it to the nozzle with a rubber band and when over our sofa to embarrass us with the dirt it had. Asked him if I could have a piece of that cloth, he looked at me strange, but said sure. I put that on my old Hoover and went over the same spot and even got it blacker than his. Guess who's face turn red, then?

It was Hoover that started all this vacuum cleaning stuff switching over from coal fired boilers to an electric motor.

Other problem I have is that my wife and daughter are just not accustomed to vacuum cleaners, every home I was in, in SA had some kind of hard floor, wall to wall carpeting is new. Wife knows enough to lift a lamp cord, daughter goes right over it, but neither seem to realize the bag has got to be emptied once in ahwile. Maybe they have a point, spill something on a hard floor, just wipe it up, carpeting can be a disaster. Should think about getting rid of more carpeting, would solve two problems.

mhamilton on Sat November 24, 2007 1:47 PM User is offlineView users profile

I guess it's a fad, like everything else. I remember my Grandmother's house, a beautiful Tudor Revival with oak everywhere. In the '50s it got all covered up with wall to wall carpet, and then in the '70s was acres of gold carpet, gold wallpaper, gold upholstery... Now the first thing everyone does is pull up the carpet to refinish the wood floors.

I would also dump the old carpet to bring back those nice wood floors, but don't want to give up carpet in the bedrooms. No need to step on those hard, cold floors on winter mornings.

NickD on Sun November 25, 2007 5:31 AM User is offline

When will someone make a quiet portable vacuum cleaner, watched this 12 year kid on Discovery Science, had a huge vacuum cleaner collection and loved them every since he was one year old. When asked what he didn't like about them, they are too noisy.

You don't dare remove the carpeting from these half a million plus homes they are throwing up today, will find particle board. Especially don't remove the carpeting that surrounds the Jacuzzi, you will find what they did with all the old sidewalk forms, including the mud and cement left on them. Carpeting hides lots of sins.

bohica2xo on Sun November 25, 2007 3:46 PM User is offline

I have about 900 square feet of nice ceramic tile in this house. More than half of it is covered with area rugs... and it still needs to be mopped about twice a week!

I pulled the carpet out of the bathrooms (yuck), but I put down actual wood flooring - Bamboo in fact. None of this "wood like" snap together garbage. Screwed & glued down, it has never had a moisture issue & is much warmer than ceramic tile.

As for the noise issue, if you don't like weight & bulk then you will not like the muffler it will take. I am a poor judge of appliance noise, since I am nearly deaf. I just take my hearing aids out, and even a gas leaf blower sounds quiet.

B.

-------------------------
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi, page 446.

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