Oreck Magnesium today

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fantomfan57

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Joined
Sep 6, 2013
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Location
Austin Texas
While looking for vintage real wood paneling at the local Habitat Restore, I found a Magnesium covered in fine white dust. It was only $5 so I said, why not.

I downloaded the User's and Service manuals as this is the next vac I will be working on.

Question, does anyone think, if the circuit board is fried, it would be possible to bypass the board?

I dislike that newer vacs have boards in the first place.
 
My grandmother has the magnesium it's a good vacuum if you can get it back in working order, i often find myself going to it when I'm wanting to do a quick cleaning because of how light it is

But to answer your question i have no idea it depends on what the board controls i know it controls the light and shuts off the vacuum when you get something stuck in the brushroll so you might have to replace

Also check for clogs these things clog easily if you don't use them right or accidentally suck up some spill on the rug
 
Disdain

This is probably the coolest looking vacuum. It is one of shoddiest vacuums in my opinion.
It to me looks like a Ferrari with a 3 cylinder engine. I compared it to the riccar rsl4 I knew it was a step down. I didn't realize how big of difference.
Just my .02 not for me but I'm not you.
Les
 
A vacuum is just a motor on a stick, of course you could bypass the circuit board. However, solid state electronics don't generally stop working, with few exceptions. Physical damage, vibration damage, power surges, and then the worst one: design flaws. But still, as a general rule for troubleshooting, suspect the computer last. Modern day electronics are usually pretty robust.

Unless you're going with blue car theory. That is, if the computer on a particular model is a known troublemaker.
 
The Magnesium is one of Oreck's newest and best models - it has 4 star ratings on Amazon and still sells for $500.

Why would you intentionally cut the wiring apart and bodge it together? It would ruin it. To pay $5 for it is a really amazing deal!
 
Huskyvac

If you look in newspaper or local classifieds brand new in box $140.
If you want a great lightweight rsl20a or a riccar could be had 200-300. It has metal brush roll lifetime belt and the vacuum actually vacuums probably top lightweight.
Orexks have been liquidating firesale everything.
If you can get it for five bucks use it until it does. Trying to mess with computer you could and most definitely burn up motor or something rather quickly. If you know sone try soldering circuit board if something isn't working. Bypassing cpu is way too much work for a average $5 vacuum. Use it enjoy it.
Les
 
Success!!!

Ashamed to say, but this is the route I took. It was excessively dusty so I took it outside and did a light rinse followed by a bask in the sun for hours while I worked on another vac. Did this to make it cleaner to work on.

I dismantled it according to the service manual and logic to find a HUGE clog of drywall debris and dust crumbles. After a long time of cleaning out the clog using a variety of implements and vacuuming up the mess, I wiped everything down (carefully) and let everything dry properly.

All the removed non-electric parts were bathed, dried and readied for assembly the next day.

Long story short, it looks great and sounds wonderful. Just waiting for bags to arrive by mail.

Thanks everyone for reading and or responding.
I edited this 2 times looking for spelling and grammatical errors, so I think it is clear and correct.
 
Glad to hear it works! It still amazes me to this day what people expect vacuums to do, and how abused they get. I have a poor little Miele someone used as a garage car & shop vac and it's in poor shape. I hope to get it like new again.
 
I know what you mean....

new acquisitions DEMAND to be restored! Just kidding....maybe.

Waiting in the wings are, a mint green Hoover Suitcase vac. and a Eureka straight suction, royal blue, uses H bags. (yes, that is all I know right now) I have not looked for the ID sticker yet. Did I mention the Hoover is a mint green!!?? HAD to get it just because of the color and the $15 price. I have no bags for it...yet.

So far I know the Hoover's bag broke. So that may be a challenge.
 
Eh?

Doug your post appears blank aside from the heading, did something fail to load?

Anyways congrats, on the find, and the bypassing. That's certainly a great price for it. They're interesting machines and very very light. A shame they didn't take better care of, but suppose if they had it probably wouldn't have made it's way to you.
 
Actually,

I never intended to bypass the circuit board on this one or any one. I just felt if it is ever possible, I would remove them from the vacuum, if it would work.
 
I just bought one of those OLreck Magnesium vacuums for my collection-mine has the pushbutton switch on the back of the bag housing.The switch turns the machine on at high,low,or off.The button must control a circuit board in the vacuum.The Magnesium is incredibly light,but powerful-doesn't bog down in my carpet as others used to..In the instruction book they show a version that has the pushbutton switch in the handle.This control a button cell transmitter in the handle to a receiver board in the base that turns the motor on at high,low or off.Feel this way is silly.The button on the back works fine for me.The dealer here is closing out older Oreck vacuums.Got this one a quarter off its usual price.
 

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