Dream machine find!

[fan-of-fans]

So I went to an estate sale today near my house. As soon as I walked to the garage, I saw the Sears Kenmore Home Cleaning System sitting right in the middle of the room!

Nothing was priced at this estate sale, it was all just messily sitting around.

Went through the house, they must have been Sears people. There was a 70s or 80s Kenmore range, a Craftsman electric power washer. They even had a Kenmore Heavy Duty black and red twin fan upright inside!

Anyway, saw nothing else so decided I'm going for the Cleanmore. Asked the lady running the sale how much and she shrugged and said $5? Plugged it in and it ran.

It has the hose, wands and floor tool but nothing else. Seems to be in good shape it just needs wiping down which I'm doing now.

Only thing is I know I'm gonna be in hot water for dragging this thing home. But I thought I'd never know when I'll see another. I've only seen one before at Habitat, and it had the Spraymate for $20 but I had passed on it.

And if I had room I'd have gotten the Twin Fan, too but this Cleanmore I've wanted since I was really young so I got it.

 

[jrdavis]

dude- thats awesome

it's awesome finding stuff like that. Good going. there's been so much stuff I wish I hadn't passed up before- I didn't know the things I passed up on would prove to be as rare as hens teeth! ya did good. say- your screen name "fan of fans" do you have a thing for antique electric fans?

 

[paul]

Congrats on getting the Cleanmore, Cole; happy for ya!

 

[justjunque]

Congratulations Cole!

I love to hear about someone finding their "dream" anything!
Is it avocado? Or were they not available in avocado?

Barry

 

[fan-of-fans]

Thanks guys, this really made my day, I just knew there might be something there and there was. It's fun when you find something so close to home, when it's something you've wanted.

jrdavis, yeah I sure do collect antique fans. Although I really only have two that are probably true antiques, an Emerson 21666 and Westinghouse 16464 both six wing fans. Mostly though I collect fans from the 50s-70s and even some newer ones. Been liking fans ever since I was a toddler, probably got my first at 3 years old.

Thanks Paul, it definitely was a happy feeling to see it.

Barry, not avocado, these came out in the late 70s which was just after Sears' avocado vacuum era so blue was first, this one is late 80s and is gray with orange trim. Not sure where that fits in because gray and orange isn't a Kenmore color scheme other than Cleanmore AFAIK. An avocado Kenmore Sears Best canister is definitely another dream machine for me though.

 

[jrdavis]

fan-of-fans I've got the old vacs and fans and lots of other stuff. You know fans and vacs are really the same thing-a vac just has a way to catch the dust and dirt it stirs up. ever heard of the AFCA?

 

[broomvac]

Congrats on securing a dream machine! It’s always so satisfying to find something you have been after for years.

Admittedly, I had to google what a “Cleanmore Home Cleaning System” is. After seeing some pictures, I realized that I had encountered one of these before at one of the local thrift shops. It was avacado green, IIRC. Unfortunately, I passed it up, not knowing much about it. I like uprights, so canisters almost never come home with me.

Had I come across that twin fan upright, however, I would have scooped it up. I love commercial uprights, but that’s just me.

Have fun using your new acquisition.

 

[fan-of-fans]

jrdavis, I have heard of the AFCA. I even attend their nearest meet for the last few years.

broomvac, you saw an avocado one? Cool, I've never seen one like that.

------
So I have a couple of questions about this machine now that I've been cleaning it and inspecting it.

1) I've seen some of these have a round cloth filter similar to what a GE Swiveltop or other round canister might have. Mine does not have this filter, and I'm not sure whether it originally came with one or not. Does anyone know where I could find one that might work?

2) From my understanding these are supposed to be able to take bags for dry vacuuming. I just looked and found there is no bag mount or adapter inside at the hose inlet. Again I'm not sure it ever had one, it looks to me that the previous owner only used it as a carpet cleaner and not a vacuum, so maybe they removed it. Could something from a shop vac work? The hose intake port opening is 2-1/4".

3) These machines are quite loud. I was wondering if a shop vac muffler could be fitted to the exhaust port and quieten it down, or do those even do anything? The exhaust port measures 2-1/4" in diameter.

4) There is a note next to the pump motor plug that says "This receptacle may be used with all Kenmore Spraymate attachments rated 1.0 amps or less."

I'm planning to get a Kenmore Drymate attachment for this, if I can figure out how to fit a bag and filter to it. A Drymate is rated 2.0 amps. Will this be too much load for the receptacle? I'm thinking it should be fine, because the pump plug piggybacks the Spray mate, so technically if the Spray mate uses 1 amp and the pump uses 1 amp (maybe?), the Drymate by itself should be fine. You wouldn't use the pump with the Drymate.

Thanks for any help or thoughts on these you might have. I know these might not be a machine everyone knows about but any thoughts would help me.

 

[broomvac]

I knew I took a picture of it!

I dug through my phone and found the picture of the green one. I meant to post this with my earlier post, but I couldn't find it, so I was just going off of memory.

Here she is. Disclaimer: Now that I look at it, this may not be a true "Home Cleaning System," but it sure looks similar. I think it is wet/dry, too. Keep in mind, I know absolutely nothing about these things. I just figured it was special enough that I should snap a pic of it.

It looks as though the person who owned this made some kind of muffler out of cloth.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Interesting sighting there. To me it looks like that's wet/dry vacuum but it does look very similar to what I have. I think that's basically what's on the inside of the Home Cleaning System, they just designed a cleaning solution tank to fit around it.

I did a little research on the filter question I had.

It seems that my particular model was made before these were supposed to take bags. The manual shows that an optional Super Cloth filter was available so I imagine what I got with mine, the wands and floor tool and nothing else was all it originally sold with.

The Super Cloth filter is no longer available, and in theory I could mount the bag adapter to my unit but it too is NLA.

I'm thinking a shop vac cloth type filter that fits over the bottom of the motor assembly might work with my unit, but could it restrict airflow too much?

Also, does anyone tell me what the diameter of the hose opening on a typical shop vac paper dust bag is? I'm wondering if a 2-1/4" to 2-1/2" hose adapter might work. I could insert the 2-1/4" end into the hose opening and fit the bag to the 2-1/2" end, but that may be too big. Any ideas?

Another idea I had is to buy a Shop Vac hose inlet deflector/bag holder, drill holes in it and mount it to the inside of my tank. There's already two screws there that should work.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Well I got it all cleaned up and it looks good. I still need to figure out the bag situation. I bought a 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 bag adapter but it's too long. I may just go with a filter banded over the motor.

But I think this is a really cool machine and I like how it's basically a shop vac. You can see how it looks like one, when separated from the solution tank "nest". There appear to be slots for wheels on the vacuum tank too. One thing this does not have that the 90s ones did is a latch to hold the tanks together. If you try to pick this up with that big handle the tanks slide apart. Kept doing that at the estate sale until I realized you have to pick it up from the sides.

But how many shop vacs can shampoo and have button lock wands and a PN option? Pretty unique. You can see I have a spare Kenmore canister floor brush on it in the last pic. I'd really like to get the full set of white attachments these came with plus the matching Spraymate. The later dry power nozzle option would be cool as well.

The pump is in the bottom of the tank and looks a lot like a sewing machine motor. The cord comes up and plugs into the plug. There's a switch too for two pump speeds. High for carpet, low for upholstery. If you use the Spraymate it plugs in first then the pump plugs into the Spraymate and you use high speed. The later dry powermate plugs in there too and you use high for carpets or off to turn the brush off for bare floors.

The only problem is like most shop vacs it is extremely loud. It's almost as loud as my Shop Vac and I can hardly stand to use it. I looked at the motor but it looks fine. The bottom housing is rusty but the windings and armature and stator look great. I guess these are just noisy.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I think I figured out the bags. The 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 adapter will fit but is a little too short. I think with some glue or double sided tape it should stay in place though.

I bought some small Shop Vac bags to try but the hose opening in the cardboard was only 1-1/4", too small to fit. Then I tried the larger 5-8 gallon bags and these have a 2-1/2" hose opening which is what I needed. It's a tight fit, but they will fit on the hose adaptor. This should work very well, and they should fit into the tank.

The only issue is that water diffuser is in the way. My idea is to just remove it and make a similar one out of plastic, and glue it to the motor top unit. You only need it if you're vacuuming water to keep the water from going into the motor. Otherwise you could remove it and replace it whenever you went from wet to dry vacuuming but it would be a hassle and probably strip the screws in the plastic.