Restored 1205

[chris]

Got got my 1205 back from ray satterwhite at aerus richmond. His son bryan restored it and it is basically brand new. It belonged to my grandmother and was one its last leg. Not anymore. The crevice tool aluminum wands and the combo flip tool are original. I had a dusting brush body but was able to get a complete teal dusting brush from ray. Im impressed with how the pn4 digs and fluffs. I even used it with my 1453 special and you could actually see the rug being lifed and sucked up into it. My rainbows are def going into retirement for awhile.

 

[human]

Nice 1205!

It's great that you have your grandmother's 1205 back in top shape and once again in service. I see he gave you one of the best upgrades you can get for a vintage Electrolux canister—a new, vinyl hose! The woven hoses look may pretty but once they start to deteriorate and leak, they rob you of suction to the point of almost making the machine useless. A vinyl hose effectively harnesses the power of the motor and delivers it to the nozzle, where it's needed. The PN4 is also a nice upgrade from the original PN1. You might also want to consider adding a SideKick motorized handheld rotary brush to complete the ensemble. In my experience, they work way better than a turbo brush. Is your new hose an aftermarket unit or genuine Electrolux? The genuine ones say 'Electrolux' on the handle and do not have a power switch on them. I only ask because some members have reported problems getting a SideKick to work with a third-party hose, although I have not experienced this problem with mine. What all else did they do to your vacuum to restore it?

 

[chris]

I went ahead a got the OEM hose. I've used other people electrolux's with generic hoses and that's what this one had and the suction relief would not stay shut. Sadly the original motor was no good. I had known at some point it seen water and was rusted but i had hoped it could be saved. So it has a new motor and honeslty it sounds almost exactly like the original 1205 motor. Also has a new complete cord reel. It had a ton of dents mostly because of me. I put 90% of them in it when I was little and broke the handle too so thats new. It originally had the brush clip but got lost after i broke the handle so i asked it that was something that could be added and he said absolutely.
Bryan was able and to remove almost all the dents. I almost hate to use it for fear of scratching the new paint. I had thought about the sidekick but find the upholstery tool with straight suction really fluffs the nap on my stairs.

 

[jo]

The current genuine OEM hoses do t have the Electrolux name anymore because it is now Aerus, they didn’t change the name, just eliminate it. My Aerus Lux Classic has a genuine hose, but no name in the handle. The OEM hoses have the suction control as a little knob that spins open or closed on the handle and no switch for the Electric accessories. That’s the best way to tell at this point.

If you are careful when pulling the 1205 around likely you won’t dent it up...it has the bumpers so those should help. I used my Silverado for 26 years and my housekeeper did too...the only dents it had after all that time were the same ones that the previous owner put in it during its first 10 years as I bought it used when it was 10 years old. I don’t understand how people can be so rough as to dent these machines up so I doubt it will get too badly beat up if you are conscious of it now.

I’m glad Bryan was able to restore the machine...I wonder how much the motor was? Sounds like he rebuilt the motor or put a rebuilt one in it if the other was bad if it sounds the same. I’d like to get a rebuilt motor for my Silverado...it just crapped out a few months ago and love the smooth quiet tone the machine had. Not irritating at all when running so I don’t rush to wrap up cleaning because of noise.

I don’t doubt this must have been a pricey feat considering a new genuine hose too. If he replaced the brush on the power nozzle too, undoubtedly everything he did would have the machine performing like a brand new one and with all OEM parts, this should last you quite some time!

 

[human]

New Machine in an Old Shell

Wow, for all intents and purposes, that's a brand new machine! Take good care of it and it'll take care of you for decades to come!

 

[chris]

Dents

When your young you dont seem to care much about things like that but now I want to take care of things. Yeah is was pricey but i dont mind spending money for quality work and OEM parts

 

[luxlife]

Beautiful!

 

[jo]

Chris....

Yes you are right, though I seemed to like to keep stuff new when I was little and often wouldn’t even play with some of my new toys! “Saving them for someday” and several never got played with as I grew out of them but were usually on display on the shelves in my room at least. I’ve since decided I need to stop “saving stuff for someday” as I’m now 51 and gentle use is ok! Otherwise I will never enjoy whatever the product is. This goes for my vacuums too! I need to start enjoying them more and rotate them into use. Though my partner and I do want to have more than 1 home in different parts of the country as we get into retirement years to stay in during different seasons and so perhaps they will all get distributed to the different properties and put into use that way is actually my intention. Right now I live in a single story home so it’s hard to justify having more then 1 set up for regular use, but if we end up with 1 or more multi level homes I’ll want to have a vacuum for each level for convenience.

Glad you are happy with the restoration. It seems you are very happy with the money spent and that’s all that matters and this OEM restoration is really the only way to go for a true valuable and best restoration. It’s like old cars...when the “numbers match” it’s worth a lot more than when the car was rebuilt from a series of others.

Jon

 

[real1shep]

Unless......

he had another 1205 motor, most likely he put in a Lamb motor....most dealers do.
They're OK, but I prefer the original motors.

A lot of the problems with any old tank is that most people just think they're some old tank and so when something wet gets spilled on the floor, they grab the old tank.

That you can NEVER do with an Elux. When I was restoring Diamond J's, once you start breaking things down, you can see if it ever sucked up any water/liquid. All the cad-plated parts they use will be rusting.

Kevin

 

[chris]

Don't know what kind of motor but I can tell you theres no pvc adaptor between the bag compartment and motor.

 

[jo]

Maybe you should ask what motor you got?

Since you paid for this maybe you could perhaps ask Bryan what he put in for a replacement motor? Tell him your friends on vacuumland are curious as to what he is doing for these restorations and it might bring him more business from some of us. I’d love to know because if he is truly into restorations he may have put in a restored and rebuilt 1205 motor he had on hand and it sounds like he may have. Let us know what he says. I’d really be interested to know.

Yes, an Electrolux should never be used to pick up anything wet. Some bagless machine can tolerate a little moisture into the dirt bin.

Sometimes accidents happened when people would use the rug washer turbotool attachment and end up sucking up the shampoo. If one ever sucks up water a
Or anything wet, they should stop immediately and check the bag, if it’s wet throw it away immediately and put a dry one in after insuring the hose and wands are allowed to dry completely before restarting the machine. I am surprised at how many Electrolux’s I’ve rescued have signs of moisture having been sucked up at one time or another. I’ve never done this myself so have found it odd that a lot of people have been stupid enough to do this.

Jon

 

[human]

John wrote:
I am surprised at how many Electrolux’s I’ve rescued have signs of moisture having been sucked up at one time or another. I’ve never done this myself so have found it odd that a lot of people have been stupid enough to do this.

I reply:
One of my graduate thesis advisers had an email signature that read: "Anyone who thinks they have designed something to be completely foolproof has vastly underestimated the ingenuity of a complete fool."

 

[jo]

Funny!

Oh that is funny! Of course the vacuum wasn’t designed to be foolproof and could easily suck up water but why someone would do that is beyond me. I guess these idiots don’t think about how it works and where the water will go or the damage it could do, not to mention the electrocution hazard!

Even the wet vacuums you have to be careful with to make sure water doesn’t get sucked inside the motor if it tips over. I’m even very careful with my Hoover steam vac to make sure to watch that suds aren’t making their way into the Air only suction port of the dirty water bin. Sometimes if there’s too many suds they will and don’t trigger the “full water bin” float stopper as that is triggered by the solid water level.

With all the new vac and mop products coming out on the market to Vacuum and wash hard floors We will probably see people in the future pouring soapy water on their floors and then sucking up water with a dry only vacuum assuming it can scrub the floor and suck up the water into the bagless dirt chamber, but most of these aren’t water tight.

I’m one of those people that has to know how something works and knowing how a dry vacuum cleaner works makes the logical realization that sucking up water is not something that should ever be done with a dry vacuum.

Jon