gmerkt
New member
Lately, I've been on one of those purging binges. You know, where your workspace gets so crowded that you can't find anything and it becomes difficult to move around? Accordingly, I haven't been out beating the bushes for new stuff much. Today, however, I got my groove back and came up with another JC Penney version of the Concept One. This one is Model 2911, in a typical '70's color combo. In fact, one of the bathrooms in my 1978 house is trimmed in just about the same coloros.
This vac was sitting with a bunch of other junkers in the back of a salvage thrift store. At first, I thought it was a Concept One, but squinted and saw the JC Penney brand. It was dirty but in pretty good condition. When I first plugged it in, no action. I rolled it across the store to another "test area" and when plugged in there, the motor worked. This has happened to me a few times before; if an electrical appliance doesn't come on when you first test it, take it to another outlet and check it again. Sometimes those test outlets in the thrift stores get so much use they themselves wear out.
When I got the machine home, I pulled the bottom plate off and while the brush roll had a good belt, the smaller belt for the power drive system was off the pulleys. It wouldn't stay on either, because it was the wrong belt. Once I got the proper belt on, the power drive tested fine. Further testing showed that the power was intermittent. It would run most of the time, but when you moved the handle sometimes it would cut out briefly. I took the power switch off and found one of the wires broken off the spade clip; it had just been lying there against the contact on the switch. I soldered the wire back on and all was well.
The machine cleaned up nicely, with some scratching on the hood still visible and the hood decal slightly marred.
Since I already have a Model 2910, I parked them together. I guess that makes me a collector of these now, since I have two of them. Unintended as it was.

This vac was sitting with a bunch of other junkers in the back of a salvage thrift store. At first, I thought it was a Concept One, but squinted and saw the JC Penney brand. It was dirty but in pretty good condition. When I first plugged it in, no action. I rolled it across the store to another "test area" and when plugged in there, the motor worked. This has happened to me a few times before; if an electrical appliance doesn't come on when you first test it, take it to another outlet and check it again. Sometimes those test outlets in the thrift stores get so much use they themselves wear out.
When I got the machine home, I pulled the bottom plate off and while the brush roll had a good belt, the smaller belt for the power drive system was off the pulleys. It wouldn't stay on either, because it was the wrong belt. Once I got the proper belt on, the power drive tested fine. Further testing showed that the power was intermittent. It would run most of the time, but when you moved the handle sometimes it would cut out briefly. I took the power switch off and found one of the wires broken off the spade clip; it had just been lying there against the contact on the switch. I soldered the wire back on and all was well.
The machine cleaned up nicely, with some scratching on the hood still visible and the hood decal slightly marred.
Since I already have a Model 2910, I parked them together. I guess that makes me a collector of these now, since I have two of them. Unintended as it was.
