wow? why all the hate on this topic? bet none of you ever owned a newer Eureka and lived with it for months to see them beyond hearesay and vile judgements.
i bought this same model Altima at goodwill for $10 in 2014 and put about $40 in parts into it. It suffered from bad owners that battered it, and then from its weeks of neglect at the hands of being used as a Goodwill store employee vacuum full of lint and gross hair strands miles long and broken bits of plastic and even an earring was in there! They almost run it into the ground.
after my TLC and OCD on cleaning it to spotless condition, it's an amazing vacuum and it literally crawls along the carpet by itself in the upright position when left on and sitting idle, thats how good the suction is. many times i park it and leave it running to move a table or the couch out of the way, and as I am doing so, the silly thing starts driving away and creeping across the carpet while i'm not looking. first time i used it on my living room rug, I Had about 2" of fine dirt in the bottom of the cup and it always fluffed the carpet up very nicely and the carpet that is well-worn was so soft to walk on. Also the little duster brush accessory in the tank is a hoot to get it to spin around and "charge up" , and its a neat little cat toy when you wanna horse around on the job. i never had much luck with the power tool accessory brush.
as for the suction loss, check the seal gaskets on all 3 front access panels as well as the ends of the hoses and make sure everything is situated good. also check all the hoses, especially the one that goes to the brushroll on the lower right of the unit, for cracks, or holes. also pull off the square hose end on the back of the unit in between the cord reel and verify there is no obsctructions within the hose area or the machine itself within that cavity.
i remember one time i got wood spliters from a wicker basket jammed in my Eureka Optima and I had to take the entire back suction tunnel panel off and run a long dryer lint cleaning brush down it to knock the debris out.
Also make sure the right filter parts are in the vacuum as well. i couldn't get a new filter for mine right away, and my suction power had dropped from the dirty filter, so i just took it out entirely and the suction skyrocketed. I;d say just strip the entire unit, do a full clean on all the parts, and you should find the culprit, reassemble and profit.
