I accidentally bought another vacuum today.

[jo]

I recommend…

Getting yourself the OEM vinyl hose over generic. The handle is how to tell. The OEM handles have the round knob to open and close for suction vent the generics are different. Used OEM vinyl ones pop up on ebay periodically.

On the power nozzle, check the throat. It’s a flexible rubber and usually cracks or rips near where it ends close to the power brush and flexing causes a suction leak.

The PN4A is good but an L shaped will provide better cleaning results but it’s nice to have the original set. The L shaped PN5 was introduced during the Silverado run.

If you replace the hose with another OEM but vinyl one, keep the handle from the old one, they fit the vinyl ones too. I know how to safely take them off with no damage, a specific process. It’s good to keep an extra in case a part fails inside the handle as the parts are pricey from Aerus.

As far as the front handle goes…most Silverado’s had that setup you have but some were made with the other setup for a while. They did the same thing on the Olympia’s. So both styles are original, they just made a change for some reason. Personally I like the one like you have as mine is the same and easy to use.

You may wish to get the crevice tool, combination rug and floor tool, the 2 accessory wands, and a combination dusting brush upholstery tool and a “sidekick” mini power nozzle for a complete set.

The Silverado deluxe is one of Electrolux’s best machines and popular among enthusiasts and collectors.

Jon

 

[kirbyklekter]

Cord winder

The cord on my Kenmore canister didn't use to fully return to the machine when retracted. Someone here suggested putting some talcum powder or baby powder on the length of the cord. Acts as a dry lubricant.

So I fully extended the cord and put some powder in my hand and while gripping the cord,let the cord return to machine without stopping it until the plug came in to my hand. Did it twice and it really made a difference. Much smoother, and fully returns to the machine.

The cord winder on my model F Electrolux is making a scraping sound when retracting and I doubt using baby powder is going to fix that, 65 years of use is catching up with the machine I believe!

What is wrong with yours?

 

[ecaden1]

I am going to keep the original hose, of course I will remove the tape and put it away somewhere safe. I do plan on getting a vinyl hose, and it will be a genuine one,not a cheap knockoff.
I also have all of the tools you mentioned (not for this exact vacuum, but for my other Electrolux machines, and of course they work with this one as well) excapt for a sidekick, which is something I just discovered, and now i have to get one as it looks like it would be nice, and far better from those wind powered "turbo brushes" that some vacuums had.

 

[ecaden1]

So, the cord winder was working perfectly fine, then I took it apart and it would no longer latch in the out position. I did the good ole give it a good whack trick which fixed it, and it seems to be working just fine now. That is a trick I got used to doing every time I wanted to use my model G as it never latches out unless you kick it. I still plan on fixing it on that machine, but I am guessing something was just not seated correctly as it has not had an issue since on this machine.

 

[ecaden1]

One more question I have, and it is more about the power nozzle than the vacuum itself... Like mentioned, I have a model G and some other older style machines, which use the old style hose with the plug on the side of the vacuum for the power nozzle... I have a nice electric hose, and would like to use this power nozzle with those machines, I have a PN-1 but it is very broken. The only issue is that the PN-1 has a cord attached to it that plugs into the female end on the hose, where this newer one does not, the hose just has an extended receptacle that fits into the plug on the power nozzle when the hose is attached, Is there a short cord or something that I can use to hook this nozzle up to the older style hose? If so, what is it called?

 

[jo]

No but….You could use….

A sheath cord. It is the cord inside the plastic sheath of the power nozzle wand that came with the silverado and are replaceable and can be purchased from Aerus as they still use this sheath and wand design. But you would have to trim the prong end of the rubber to be smaller with a file so it will fit in your hose end plug and also the outer rubber shroud on the female end off as well so it will plug into the Silverado’s wand. However, a better alternative is to remove the power nozzle itself from it’s special wand down near the power nozzle and use the PN-1 power nozzle’s wand…. Provided the PN-1 wand you have is the stainless steel with the blue sheath on the upper section with the hanging sheath cord. If your pn-1 wand is a full length tan or cream plastic wand …..then no ….this suggestion won’t work and you will have no choice but to get a sheath cord and modify it or you can look on eBay or a generic vacuum store and see if you can get a generic pigtail cord is generally what they are called and usually about a foot long or so but that might not be long enough. Measure the length you would need before buying anything.

Perhaps post a picture of your PN-1 wand so I can see what you have. Also the hose and it’s plug that you would be wanting to use the Silverado’s power nozzle with.

Another option would be if you have a tan single plastic power nozzle wand you can change the power nozzle neck to one that is the short neck and then get a PN-1 metal wand set with the blue sheath and it’s appropriate sheath cord but seeing that your PN-1 is broken you may just want to get a whole new PN-1 or PN-2 wirh the stainless steel wands with blue sheath and that will work nicely with the older hose plug system. Not sure if you have the external wire wrap or the full electric hose on the older machines would be good to see pics of what you have.

As far as an earlier concern you mentioned about this power nozzle feeling loose. That is the way they are designed. The base of the neck which is part of the assembly with the wheels is designed to travel up and down purposely…it’s part of that flexible neck I mentioned. The concept is for self height adjustment for different types of carpet. If you push downward very hard the front of the power nozzle will never bog down on the carpet but instead you’ll just mash those back wheels into the carpet but the front of the power nozzle will just adjust to still glide over the top of the carpet correctly with this self adjusting feature. The subsequent L shaped models work similarly but have a more advanced spring loaded version of this type of system which is better. If you take the top cover off of your PN-4a (remove the bottom two screws then flip over and remove cover) you’ll see how the whole system works from the front flexible neck all the way back to the base of the neck where the wheel shafts ride up and down in their channels. It is understandable if you have only ever had a PN-1 or PN-2 that one would think the neck is loose because neither of those have any type of self height adjustment feature and everything is fixed except for the neck for the tilting of the wand. The PN-4 and 4a were designed for shag carpet where bogging down by pushing downward on the power nozzle could do damage to the shag carpet or not clean it as appropriately and surface cleaning of the shag long fibers was needed at an optimal height. The opening on the PN-4 and 4a is also much larger around the brush roll allowing for proper cleaning of the shag. The wheels could sink down in to the shag, but the front of the head stays floating on top. Even on standard carpet this more advanced system made for easy pushing of the power nozzle on carpet. People who had PN-1’s and/or PN-2’s were used to pushing downward harder to get their power nozzles to “dig in” especially on matted carpet were somewhat annoyed with this new PN-4 style because there is no way to get the PN-4 to do that unless you manually press down on the front of the top with either one’s foot or hand. With the PN-4 system you get the most contact with the carpet on the pulling back towards you stroke as that can tilt the front of the head a bit downward slightly but it’s still generally floating on top of the carpet.

Jon