Electrolux Power Nozzle Parade

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Mine is pretty much the same head as an N106 or N109 in gray but the Electrolux graphics are in red. It came with a gray Epic 8000.

You can see my tear down and refurbishment in my thread entitled Eeeewwwwww. That thing had been vacuuming up waste matter, vomit and gawd only knows what else. It cleaned up pretty nice, even saved the original wooden brush roller after cutting an inch or two of stuff that was wrapped around it off and cleaning the crud off the wood.

My impressions? It is a little more complex than it needs to be to get the job done and a touch fragile. The cover over the electical contacts in the neck is cheap, you have to wiggle a c-chaped clamp off the neck to free the upper cover (why?) and the brush doesn't get very close to the edge of the unit. The separate housing over the brush makes replaceing a brush or belt harder than it has to be. In a Hayden or Wessel-Werk head, the inside of the upper cover functions as the duct. There isn't a separate piece of fiddly plastic to interfere with belt and roller changes. The optics for the headlight are kind of over the top too. A Panasonic head is simpler, sturdier, has fewer parts and the brush gets right to the edge of the head.

Btw, those cogged belts are far from failure proof. I've popped plenty of them over the years in Haydens and Powermates and they too advertise them as lifetime belts. Laughable. I have never had the overload protector pop before a belt.

I know the Electrolux purists will now have a fit, so flame away. The Desert Tortoise has a hard, sun baked shell.
 
Dircik,

I would think that the power nozzle for your Epic 8000/C133A would be the one in reply #21--the N115K due to the red logo (I got most of the pics from eBay listings, and that one was obviously mismatched with an Ambassador). Unless your baseplate has been replaced you will find the model id (and other information such as the ratings) stamped on it. By the way, in case you didn't know or notice, the tank's model id and ratings are stamped on the inside cover of the bag chamber--the model id is typically under the hose inlet gasket. The serial id (2 letters with 5 digits in between) is located by the caster.

I do wonder if Electrolux made the power nozzle's construction unduly complicated, so that one would need to make a service call instead of performing the repair on his or her own.

As for the design of the brush roll, I have come to learn that Electrolux Corporation doesn't always have the best design and engineering--which is unfortunate. It's almost as though they have relied too heavily on their past accomplishments (e. g. Model XXX, Model G, Model 1521/Ultraluxes) to retain their customer base instead of paying attention to customer concerns such as yours or what the competition has in order to constantly improve and take an innovative approach of future revisions and models. As much as I like Electrolux products (haven't owned an Aerus one to date), I have been disillusioned by what I'd always considered a leader in the industry. While I believe Aerus has a good product line I no longer perceive that it's superior to its competition.
 
Kevin, I was typing the post from work. The vacuum is at home, so I couldn't reference the model number for that post.

The easiest heads to take apart I have seen are Wessel Werk (no prying on anything anywhere), followed by the Panasonic/Powermate/Hayden/Nutone/Centec head that has been around for more than 35 years. Both have the bare minimum parts necessary to get the job done and I give a nod to the W-W head for their simple electrical connections. No wire nuts! I would probably prefer the W-W head if the brush went all the way to the wee edges of the casing but it does not, so it doesn't clean up to the baseboard like a Panasonic head does. The W-W head has a whimpy brush motor compared to a Panasonic head and I am not sold on the superiority of the chevron brush pattern over the old fashioned beater bar.

Everyone tries to do something different but that Panasonic head was such a sound design it is hard to beat. It's like a V tailed Beeche Bonanza or a Model 1911 .45 Cal ACP handgun. Sometimes the original is just right and there is little that can be done to improve it.
 
Aerus Electrolux power nozzles are FAR from fragile. They are famous for taking abuse and keeping on trucking. Their cogged belts are famous for being glass reinforced and for very rarely ever snapping or stretching too. Many manufacturers don't have brushes "right up to the edge" or whatever. Including the global #1 makers, the German manufacturers. It's not necessarily better. It's mostly a gimmick to make people think it's better. Aerus Electrolux engineered high-velocity edge cleaning slots to take care of corners/edges and it works like a charm. Other manufacturers use this method also. The "edges" of carpet don't get walked on and don't have dirt ground in as high traffic areas do and don't need "brushed" as much. Aerus' edge cleaning slots clean from the FRONT and the SIDES of corners where brushes do not. Aerus' light bulbs might be "complicated" but they are known to last for very long periods of time. Most makers of vacuums use chevron pattern brushes too. Results show it's dirt removal to be better. Aerus remains the only maker of a power nozzle that combines commercial 15" size, L-shape, auto height adjustment, wrap around bumper, LED light, circuit breaker protection, chevron double helix brush roll, cogged glass reinforced belts, rug guards, front suction slots, edge cleaning slots, and a steerable, flat-laying design all in an ultra thin design. And now they combine automatic brush speed adjustment and noise reduction. Aerus doesn't need "purists" to defend them. Their record, while flawed like everyone else's, speaks for itself. When you take one or two features, or lack therof, and use it to declare the inferiority of something you have crossed the boundary from debate and criticism to hair-splitting. These last few posts COMPLETELY ruined this thread...
 
I’ve never had a problem with any of my Electrolux Power Nozzles and I have about nine in my collection. I cannot understand why some people here feel the need to publicly bash other brands. More people on this forum should stick to the old philosophy “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!”
 
I dunno, but in my house dust and dog hair collects in the carpet up against the base boards. The Wessel Werk head doesn't get that dirt so I have to chase the base boards with a crevice attachment on the end of the hose. The Powermate and Hayden heads get that dirt. Same vac, same suction, just using different powered brushes. It's not a gimmick.

I stand by my critique of the Electrolux head. I have disassembled, cleaned and repaired enough powered brushes to feel confident in my critique. It has more parts than are necessary to do the job and that wouldn't be horrible if it didn't make belt and brush removal harder than competing heads. Look at the complexity of something as simple as the headlight. Can you really say the complex system of lenses and the little reflector thingy on the inside of the upper cover provide more illumination than the dirt simple headlight housing and lens on a Powermate? Honestly does the added part count and more complicated manufacturing of that big fat fluted lense buy the owner of that product any more function for his or her money? It does not. It's a waste of effort. All that time spent on a fancy headlight and they miss the more important thing, getting the dirt next to the base board. I shake my head. Now flame away some more, your just heat tempering my desert sun baked shell, lol.
 

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