1977 Kirby Classic III Repair - Hard Dirt Found!

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kirbyclassiciii

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Milwaukie, Oregon
While my dad was cleaning up my 1977 Kirby Classic III's motor (the vacuum belonged to his parents from 1987 to 1998) he actually found 10 years' worth of hard dirt in the fan case. All this was collected before his parents even got their hands on it!

~Ben

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That 'hard dirt' is actually food particles. We see this in vacs used in restaurants all the time. The greasy dirt is thrown from the fan's blades and sticks to the fan case in a circular manner. Perhaps the person that your parents got the machine from, had a dining room carpet and kids. Perhaps they vacuumed up popcorn, chips, or other greasy food particles on a regular basis.
 
You know what I found while emptying my Classic 1CR? A metal rod! I need to make a thread on it, just goes to show how Kirbies can take it all! 
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You should have seen the stuff we pulled out of an Omega that resided at a local Pizza restaurant.

About once a month we had to dig dried pizza dough out of the nozzle, and greasy ??? out of the fan case.

Just goes to show that the workers really don't care what the suck up in a vacuum.

One of the other locals had a central vac--lordy-lordy the stories there with clogged pipes and rotted food exhaust.
 
That's a pretty big hunk of metal, they must have entered the fan just at the right moment to slip between the blades and whip around into the bag. Usually one isn't so lucky, and the fan just explodes.
 
I see at least a small amount of this in almost all Kirbys I work on, in most its just a little bit that scrubs right out when I wash the parts, but some have much thicker layers of it. I agree with Tom, its most likely food particles, even food thats not as greasy will still be more sticky than most types of dirt.

I've also seen sometimes a very sticky black residue on bottom plates and bruhrolls, its much nastier to get off than the food stuff, and I don't know where this nastiness comes form.
 
I try not to think of the nastiness that I'm touching (and breathing) when cleaning out a machine after aquisition. Somehow the bags are always full, even stuff I buy on eBay. You couldn't take a second to EMPTY it? Ugh.
 
<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">Hi, No the black </span><span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;"><a name="start_27280.306173"></a>residue happens to most vacuum nozzles depending what condition the carpet is in... </span>


<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">Here's a pic of it on another vacuum that came in for repair....
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">You think food is awful you should see vacuums that have been in care homes....It's isn't food inside them
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">James
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I have an elderly friend who I vacuum for and her machine has the gunk on the bottom plate, every time! Green shag rug! I asked Cookie, have you had this rug cleaned ever? Oh sure, 3 times! OMG
 

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