gmerkt
New member
Okay, this is a Hoover Model F6030-900 carpet cleaner, trade name "Steam Vac." There are a number of similar designs on the market. I've worked on another Hoover similar to this but with a hose made of superior material. The other one belongs to one of my daughters and we've borrowed it a few times to clean carpets. These machines work quite well for their intended task. Since borrowing one, we've kinda wanted one of our own but have held off. Recently, I was driving down a local street and this one was sitting on the curb on Spring Cleaning Day, waiting for trash pickup. I stopped and went up to the house to tell the owner I was taking it, and she said it worked but had a broken hose.
I took it home in my '72 Ford station wagon that I use for scrounging. This machine has a dual feature in that it will clean carpet with a set of rotating brushes and in that case the detergent is applied directly into the area of the brushes. The other mode is a hand operation and that's where the hose comes in. Via a selector switch, the operator can use the hose and various hand attachments to clean upholstery, carpeted stairs, around edges, etc.
It didn't take long to find the ruptured hose. It is of a notorious material, at least in my experience. It is clear and the spiral winding may be seen inside it. As it ages, it embrittles and crimped turns are the first casualties.
These machines are pretty busy inside with lots of parts and little hoses going here and there. In addition to repairing the hose, I took the turbine out that powers the brushes and cleaned out the ducting. I also thoroughly cleaned out the big nozzle that sucks the dirty water and detergent out of the carpet as it had about a half-pound of dog hair glued inside it.
These machines are mostly plastic parts, but reasonably good quality as plastic goes. The real weak link on these is that clear made-in-China hose. I've had another run-in with that material before, see below.
I repaired this hose by cutting off the kinked, broken end, and regluing the fresh section into the socket. This was more difficult than it sounds, because they use some pretty tough glue which all has to be cleaned out, plus there is a smaller line inside the hose which is for supplying detergent to the accessory on the far end. The connection for this must also be reamed out and reglued. I used epoxy for this smaller line, and silicone sealer for the outer hose.
I took it home in my '72 Ford station wagon that I use for scrounging. This machine has a dual feature in that it will clean carpet with a set of rotating brushes and in that case the detergent is applied directly into the area of the brushes. The other mode is a hand operation and that's where the hose comes in. Via a selector switch, the operator can use the hose and various hand attachments to clean upholstery, carpeted stairs, around edges, etc.
It didn't take long to find the ruptured hose. It is of a notorious material, at least in my experience. It is clear and the spiral winding may be seen inside it. As it ages, it embrittles and crimped turns are the first casualties.
These machines are pretty busy inside with lots of parts and little hoses going here and there. In addition to repairing the hose, I took the turbine out that powers the brushes and cleaned out the ducting. I also thoroughly cleaned out the big nozzle that sucks the dirty water and detergent out of the carpet as it had about a half-pound of dog hair glued inside it.
These machines are mostly plastic parts, but reasonably good quality as plastic goes. The real weak link on these is that clear made-in-China hose. I've had another run-in with that material before, see below.
I repaired this hose by cutting off the kinked, broken end, and regluing the fresh section into the socket. This was more difficult than it sounds, because they use some pretty tough glue which all has to be cleaned out, plus there is a smaller line inside the hose which is for supplying detergent to the accessory on the far end. The connection for this must also be reamed out and reglued. I used epoxy for this smaller line, and silicone sealer for the outer hose.
