Sebo's and... Baking Powder (Advice Needed)

[weltron]

Alright, I have a question.

I left for the day to go to a small dinner. I get home to find that my girlfriend has used my 3 month old Sebo Dart to vacuum up baking soda. I am not happy. I know it's not good for vacuums. I took the hose off, rinsed it out and it is drying as we speak. I changed the bag. Is the anything else I should do? Pre motor filter? Will this hurt it? I did not feel anything in the bag chamber so I think the bag caught it all.

 

[madman]

I'm sure it's fine. If you want to pull the pre-motor filter, just tap it out on something and see if there's anything coming out of it.

 

[electroluxxxx]

I am positive that it is fine, these machines are extremely good at filtering and if you are using HEPA bags I am sure nothing leaked through. As for cleaning up baking soda, it won't hurt it especially if it is once in a great while. if it's every time you use it that could be a different story. Then again it is a well thought out clean air design.

 

[suckolux]

As long as it's a clean air machine with decent filtering the only thing I would worry about would be possible brush roll bearings if that was even involved. Years ago when carpet fresh and all of their cousins came out people were putting that down every time they vacuumed that was entertaining

 

[mark40511]

I have a dumb question

what do you mean by "clean air" machine?

I live with someone who uses baby powder occasionally. I can tell when they use it. I tell them the stuff is horrible for them and the vacuum, but I get ignored. Luckily, I don't think they use it too often. I can tell when I walk across the bathroom floor immediately. I've used my upright vacuum with a HEPA bag and I haven't had any problems with leaking through the bag or causing the bag to clog. Of course, it wasn't like I was vacuuming up a bunch of it. But if someone vacuumed up a bunch of flour or baking soda I'd DIE

 

[joshp83]

Mark...

Clean air (or "Bypass") machines pass the working air through the bag/filtration medium prior to hitting the vacuum fans. Conversely, dirty air (or "direct air") machines pass the air through the vacuum fans before hitting the bag. Machines with a puffy bag are direct air/dirty air machines, like the Kirby. Clean air machines with good filtration should be more tolerant of jobs like this.

Your Rainbow wouldn't like baby powder, ash, baking soda, etc. so much, as "non-wettable" dirt is more likely to skip off of the water and pass through the machine to be caught in the HEPA filter. Rainbow used to sell AquaWet to reduce the surface tension of the water to help catch non-wettable dirt but they don't make it any more. You can DIY it by adding one or two drops of JetDry for dishwashers to the water to do the same thing. Doesn't hurt if you're forced to use your Rainbow for a job like that, just don't go overboard or it might create a foam problem.

 

[ridgidwd0670]

dont 4get u can use a wet/dry shop vac equipped with fine dust or hepa filter & hepa bags. Definitely use suction only rug tool with shop vac 4 vacing carpet

small shop vacuum:
https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/6-gallon-nxt-wet-dry-vac

rug tool:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-All-Va...817263?hash=item4216c47caf:g:tlMAAOSwg8taRaGe

 

[ultralux88]

I wouldn't worry about it, with the HEPA bags in these nothing will be making it past that. I'd be more upset about the mess in the head of the machine. Easily cleaned up though, but I avoid getting the stuff wet unless you can be sure you've washed it all out, as it'll dry kinda like plaster. My question is; was the baking soda a dry spill, or did they pull the old routine of pour the baking soda over a wet spill and vacuum immediately?

 

[weltron]

@Ultralux

To answer your question, I'm pretty sure she was using it to pour baking soda over a damp carpet and then vacuum it up to "remove odors". I don't think she used the floor nozzle because when I checked that and the inner pipe that ran into the hose,it was clean. My hose end was plastered however. I took the hose off, washed it, changed the bag and I just put it back together this morning and ran it for the first time. It acted like nothing ever happened.

I told her to never use it again for that stuff. Unbeknownst to her, she'll be getting a shop vac for Christmas.

 

[ultralux88]

Oh that’s disgusting! I figured they did that. Where people get off thinking they can suck up damp baking soda is beyond me! I see it all the time at work, sometimes you really just want to let these people have it...

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I never put any kind of powder, etc

on any of my carpets. And, that awful "Love My Carpet".
A good vacuum for carpets, a good Floormate (successor to the Floor A Matic, successor to the floorwasher.. These are really all you need. Nothing to 'sprinkle'.

 

[ultralux88]

While you're Floor-A-Matic is quite nice...

What people are doing these days is, when, say, the dog dishonors the carpeting (they'll usually break out the paper towels or so on bare floors) is sop up some of it with a paper towel, or pick up the chunks, then they dump a ton of baking soda, stomp it in, and then immediately vacuum it out. They may wait a few minutes but they don't let anything actually dry. I know this is what people are doing because I've had to chisel the results out of even Miele vacuum cleaners! Some have admitted that's what they did too...

BTW, Just wondering how Hoover's line of hard floor machines came into this... Anything on your mind you'd like to share with the class??