dustin
Well-known member
I have a light gray 1993 soft bag Elite that used to belong to my great aunt, then my aunt and uncle have had it for the past 7-8 years. 8 years ago, it was in nearly mint condition, worked flawlessly, and had all the attachments. Unfortunately my aunt and uncle are not the world's cleanest people (oink oink, get my drift....) and could care less what condition it was in as long as it made noise when switched on, and the bag filled up eventually. I had replaced the belt just before they got it (at that point it was not mine, my great aunt had gone in a nursing home and they got it). 8 years pass, and I end up with it, now filthy, the height knob broken off, sounding horrible, missing all the attachments and with the same belt still installed... I decided to tackle it today. I had wiped it off last week and serviced the brushroll bearings (it was so thick with dust, dirt and cigarette smoke residue, there was no telling if it was light gray, dark gray or black) I completely disassembled it, and washed everything that could be removed, including the bag, then dried and reassembled it. I used a sanding stone on a dremel tool to smooth out the edges of the fan slightly, replaced the bag and belt, and gave ot a test run. WOW! it actually runs good and picks up again! I vacuumed the laundry room with my Dirt Devil platinum force, which is an excellent cleaner, and then used the elite and after about 10 minutes had picked up about a cup of sand. I have used several vacuums on that carpet, and thought it was clean. I was really impressed, I have always thought of elites as a good everyday type cleaner, but not overly good at deep cleaning.
