I own a Smart Vac 4870! Now what?

[amtraksebo1997]

Update:

So some parts that I ordered for this came in, those being belts, filters, an upholstery tool, and a turbo brush. Fun fact, if you buy Arm-and-Hammer, Filtrete, and Durabelt branded aftermarket parts for a Eureka, you're technically buying genuine parts for it. This is because Electrolux (the European one) had some sort of partnership with these brands, and made all these parts for them to be sold under. They also owned Eureka and Sanitare starting sometime in the 90s I think. Don't believe me? Look at your pack of bags or filters under those brand names. It should say Electrolux Home Care Products somewhere around where the copyright into is.

Anyways, the 90° wire connectors came in too. I think I'm gonna put off replacing them until I get the replacement switch I ordered. I'm still waiting on that, a pack of bags, a brushroll, a set of screws, and dusting and crevice tools. Those are coming from Evacuumstore.


Focusing on the Power Paw specifically, I know it's not the right one for it, but I specifically wanted it for the Risor Visor feature, as it seems very useful. However, I can't figure out how to remove the brushroll from it. Could someone please explain?

Also, I can't figure out how fo get off the suction diverted assembly. Again, a little assistance would be nice.

 

[cheesewonton]

Update:

So some parts that I ordered for this came in, those being belts, filters, an upholstery tool, and a turbo brush. Fun fact, if you buy Arm-and-Hammer, Filtrete, and Durabelt branded aftermarket parts for a Eureka, you're technically buying genuine parts for it. This is because Electrolux (the European one) had some sort of partnership with these brands, and made all these parts for them to be sold under. They also owned Eureka and Sanitare starting sometime in the 90s I think. Don't believe me? Look at your pack of bags or filters under those brand names. It should say Electrolux Home Care Products somewhere around where the copyright into is.

Anyways, the 90° wire connectors came in too. I think I'm gonna put off replacing them until I get the replacement switch I ordered. I'm still waiting on that, a pack of bags, a brushroll, a set of screws, and dusting and crevice tools. Those are coming from Evacuumstore.


Focusing on the Power Paw specifically, I know it's not the right one for it, but I specifically wanted it for the Risor Visor feature, as it seems very useful. However, I can't figure out how to remove the brushroll from it. Could someone please explain?

Also, I can't figure out how fo get off the suction diverted assembly. Again, a little assistance would be nice.

Electrolux AB of Sweden bought Eureka back around 1974, after which they split off the Sanitaire line of commercial vacuums as a stand alone company. but still part of the Electrolux Group The Electrolux Group's brand for bags and filters is Menalux.
Arm & Hammer is an American company owned by New Jersey based Church &. Dwight. Filtrete is a brand name for 3M filter products. Durabelt is based in Ohio and owned by Jim Hammond, a former engineer for ARCO and NASA.
Electrolux AB sold Eureka to the Midea Group in 2018 and sold Sanitaire to Bissell in 2019.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

.

Huh... guess I'm not as versed in my Eureka lore as I thought I was...

Still though, what I'm saying is that Electrolux had sort of deal with these brands, where they would presumably make these bags, belts, and filters, and then have them be sold under those names. Why? Idk money presumably, either way, it's very interesting.

 

[centralsweeper63]

I remember Bissell had a partnership with 3m/filtrete. I can imagine a partnership with other brands.

 

[cheesewonton]

I remember Bissell had a partnership with 3m/filtrete. I can imagine a partnership with other brands.

3M/Filtrete is just a supplier. Bissell and Eureka don't make vacuum bags. They buy them from another company and have their branding put on them. Same for filters and belts.

 

[centralsweeper63]

I understand that.

 

[cheesewonton]

I understand that.

I wouldn't assume a partnership of any kind. Aerus has bought their power nozzle belts from three different vendors.

 

[centralsweeper63]

True.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

Update:

Well, the verdict is in. This thing rocks!

To start off, I've finished cleaning out and reassembling the machine. I replaced the 90° connectors with one from a pack my dad bought off of Amazon, as well as the switch itself. I ended up not using the replacement brushroll that I ordered, as it was not colored black, and did not spin as freely as I would've hoped. For filters and bags, I went with a pack of Vacuum America Clean HEPA bags, and with Arm and Hammer HEPA filters. I want to ensure thing has virtually zero odors. And guess what? It works great! The only problems I've found are that 1., there's a hole in the hose close to the wand-end of it (debating weather or not to try and patch it or just look for a new hose altogether). 2., There's a rattling noise that comes from the clutch when the brushroll is running. 3., there's a piece of plastic just above the brushroll-end of the belt that keeps a metal tab resting on top of it. That piece is snapped, but not gone. Replacing it would presumably mean replacing the entire bottom half of the cleaner head, which I'd prefer not to do. It also still holds on fine, I'm just worried about it one day coming off. And finally 4., I believe the clutch is starting to go out, evidence being how the brushroll doesn't shut off when the machine is in the upright position. Idk what I should do on these things right now.


Anyways, I thought I'd give my thoughts on it after completing a whole house cleaning with it.

First the pros:

*This thing agitated like a beast. I don't think I've seen such good vibration of dirt from my other machines at my mom's house. The weird thing is that it didn't produce as impressive of carpet lines as was expecting, though.

*The machine filters well. Definitely not surprised by this, considering I was using a HEPA bag and filter. Seriously, I cannot recommend HEPA bags enough to people.

*It's not overly heavy to carry. This suprised me a lot, because I'd known that these had a reputation for being heavy, bulky machines. It still is, but less so when I'm carrying it.

Now to the Cons:

*Tool suction isn't as good as it could be, thanks to the aforementioned split in it. I mean, it's not a horrible amount of suction loss, but enough to make it noticeable.

*Tying to figure out the proper height for my carpets is not the most straightforward. There's a lot of them, and no matter which one I choose, it always sounds and feels like it's making proper contact with the carpet.

*Hard floor use isn't as good as a canister. This goes without saying, but I just felt like mentioning it. Like I said, I got this mainly for my carpets upstairs anyways.

*The Power Paw is... okay. It bogs down a lot when in use. At first I thought it was because of the split in the hose, but even when I covered it with my hand, it still bogged down. I also am not sure on how to entirely disassemble it, so if someone does, please let me know. Besides this, it works okay, and I love the Risor-Visor feature (Sidenote: I know this isn't the right turbo tool for this specific model, but I chose this one over it for the Risor-Visor alone). I wish more manufacturers made similar turbo tools that copied this design.

*The tool holsters on the back are not the greatest. The one for the crevice tool is fine, but the ones for the upholstery and dusting brushes are not great. It feels like each time I remove the former, I'm going to break off the trash that hold it in place, with the latter, it feels like the bristles are going to be warped and dishaped from how it sits and removes from its slot. On that note, I'm not a fan of the extension wand set up. It's very finicky to use both of them if you're already using the wand thar rest insides the other. You have to take that off and but the outer wand on first, than the inner wand. I've seen much, much better set ups.

Overall, I can see why these things were as popular as they were. You got a lot of bang for your buck, as they came with a lot of premium features for a reasonable price.

 

[centralsweeper63]

I would say to put it on the lowest height setting you can push it on. The lower the better, I think, because it doesn't have beater bars. Put it on the lowest pushable (if that is a word) setting there is.