Today's Dream Machine Purchase Sponsored By AT&T

[huskyvacs]

(...but not really.)

Here's another dream vacuum I can cross of my list! It's the top of the line model Hoover Z700! This was one of my most important ones to get, which I never would have imagined I would acquire this soon! When I first became a collector last fall and started learning about vacuums, I ran across this vacuum on YouTube and it looked so weird and cool and I just wanted to get one. As soon as I looked it up on eBay I was like "whaaaattt" because at the time there was only one used one up for sale for $250 and no recent ones had come up for sale in the past 6 months. I was like "hmm this must be rare", and I started searching around more, and found out yes it was very rare.

Long story short, I added a search for the vacuum to my eBay saved searches so that I would be notified if one came up for sale. Well, I never got an eMail at all for nearly a year, until last week when I got that eMail and the one it notified me about was for sale for an amazing price of just $75. But as always happens when amazing things pop up for sale on eBay, I was broke in all my bank accounts. However, I did have this AT&T Visa credit card that had $100 loaded on it from when I signed up for U-Verse TV service back in June, and they gave me a $100 for a new member sign-up gift. Well I stuffed the card in my wallet and just left it alone for a time I really needed it. Well, as of September it would expire in just 5 months and I still hadn't used it. I was worried it was going to get forgotten about until it was too late, so I said you know what, I'll use it for this!

Well, there was still 4 days left in the auction so I placed a bid for $25 over the asking price and prayed I would win it. The days went by slow, and I checked the auction about 4 times a day to make sure I was still winning it. Well by the time there was half an hour left to go I was still the only bidder on it, and guess what? I won it! I paid for it post-haste and still had money left on the AT&T card to save for any emergency, so it all worked out! Now I normally never go over about $45-$50 for any eBay vacuum (including shipping) but in special circumstances when it's something really really special, I will go a little bit over, but never over $90. Without that $100 AT&T card I never would have been able to afford this!

So without further ado, here is the photos! They were taken on 9/27/2018 7:44-7:59pm. There was a small incident that happened with this vacuum but I will post about that further down the page.

 

[huskyvacs]

Here's the photo of the vacuum as I recived it. The seller was fairly close to me (Germantown, TN) so the shipping was pretty low ($25). Actually the shipping seemed too low, considering the reviews I read on how heavy this vacuum was. But the seller showed a photo of it packed in the box in the auction with the measurements so I assume he had already did all the weighing and measuring and that was the correct amount. It does fold down somewhat small so I didn't think anything of it.

 

[huskyvacs]

Here's what it looked like as soon as I cracked open the box. I opened the box upside down again, whoops.

 

[huskyvacs]

Here it is out of its cardboard sarcphagus, I bet you can see the problem already.

 

[huskyvacs]

So here's the nightmare to this dream find. FedEx chucked the box and it took a critical hit to the handle. It couldn't have broken in any of a worse spot as this one because the part that broke is what holds the hose elbow to the handle and provides suction to the machine. Without that elbow clamped down, all the suction just goes right out. I was thinking about superglue but I had doubts that it would hold because this is such a stress point and so many pieces had broken.

Now I did some internet sluething and managed to find a website that still sells the entire handle part (you can't buy just the plastic piece) for a little bit pricey $27.99. So I eMailed the seller and sent this same photo about it, and I told him I still wanted to keep the vacuum and that I could fix the damage and it wasn't too serious and the rest of the vacuum was OK. I told him there was a website I could buy the handle from for $27.99 and I suggested if we could work out some kind of deal on the refund, like refund me half the cost of the new part. Well without any hesitation the seller refunded me the full cost of the part @$27.99! Now how about that? A+ to him! So once I get that part ordered and installed I can test this baby out!

 

[huskyvacs]

Here's a shot of it fully folded up, it still has the product tag tied to the handle and the information label.

 

[huskyvacs]

Here's a shot of the tool caddy and cord reel. It is missing the dusting brush but that's a minor inconvenience. I also learned you need to have the plug end of the cord PRECISELY in the middle and have the cord rolled tight around the hooks, otherwise the door will never snap shut. Kind of an annoying thing on that one.

 

[huskyvacs]

And here's a shot of it fully extended. The Hummer of vacuums! It has some paint scuffs and light scrapes but it's nothing too bad at all, and there's nothing broken on it. You can barely see a Kirby G6 in the background, it's just utterly dwarfed by this behemoth! Now I found out this vacuum is only about 4 lbs heavier than a Kirby G-series vacuum, but it doesn't feel like it. Maybe it's because all the weight is roughly in the middle and not all at one end like it is on the Kirby. So that's all the pics and the end of story. Enjoy!

 

[nicktechtalk]

Great Find!

I too always was interested in these when I saw them. I was young at the time and didn't know how rare they would become, but that is definitely a machine I would pick up if I saw it in the wild. Enjoy it!

Nick

 

[completenutt]

Contratulations!

I know you were looking forward to getting it.


 


If  you get a chance, please post a link to that parts supplier.


 


Happy Hoovering.... Literally!

 

[fan-of-fans]

Nice find. That would be an intersting machine if I had the space. I've seen one or two of the white ones come through Habitat, but I don't think I've seen that TOL model.

Did you happen to get the extra wand and floor brush with it?

 

[huskyvacs]

Alright so things just got worse. The website that claimed to have the handle, they don't have it even though it said it was available on their website and on sale. And then I noticed that the rubber cap that goes over the cleanout port on the bottom end of the vacuum is gone, and that part cannot be found anywhere for sale. I guess it was too good to be true.

 

[electromatik]

That is one crazy looking machine.

 

[rivstg1]

huskyvacs,

ugh. I'm sorry to hear fo that! was hoping for a tpainfree restoration for proper operation

 

[huskyvacs]

Well from what I can gather the machine does not get its brushroll suction through the hose, and when the handle is docked in the top of the machine it's just that, a handle. Since it is not a critical part, I can superglue it and live with it for now until I can afford a handle and try another supplier (next cheapest is about $50 assuming they actually have it). I also have measured the cleanout hole and I can try to jury-rig a rubber flap/gasket that is the same dimensions to stick on there either on its own or tape it on.

 

[relhall]

Sounds like it's time to bojack it.

This one from Shark might need some alterations, but it's a starting point.


Good luck with your vac ~

 

[huskyvacs]

Some good news.

I took the pieces of the broken "puzzle" of the handle and just dry-fit them where they broke, and there is only a small pinky finger size hole left which does not affect the swivel coupler or the suction because enough of the rail that the hose coupler spins on is intact and holds it tight. Glue will hold it for now and it is not a stress point as far as carrying the vacuum.

I found another website that shows having a handle available for a bit more money, I will try buying that one. It will have to wait a few weeks before I can afford the part though.

Also I found several sites selling the rubber door seal part, including Sears (more expensive), it turns out the site I got that part number from had created their own part number for it that only they used in their store. That's why I couldn't find it. I searched the part without their special prefix and got at least 4 stores selling it, for $5-$8 so that's no worry now.

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh what a nightmare, and it's not even Halloween yet! This entire month I spent combing every corner of the internet for a handle. I've found and bought the handle from 6 different websites in total this month, and every time within 1-2 days of placing my order they will say the part is discontinued and out of stock and refund my money. I've repeated that process for 2 weeks.

I found that eReplacementparts had one, and it said it was in stock and would ship by November 1, but then 3 days later I get an eMail saying that it's on factory backorder with no ETA. So now what do I do? Just wait forever in hopes that someday a part will come up? They make you have to call them on the phone if you want to cancel an order, and I dread having to do that. Should I just want and see what happens after about a week after the November 1 shipment date they estimated to me?

This vacuum is 15 something years old now I don't think they will be finding any parts anywhere soon when Hoover's probably gotten like half a dozen inquiries by now I'm sure of some guy trying to buy this handle from all these vacuum parts shops across the country. lol

I'm still trying to purchase the plug as well, I will just repeat the same process in the meantime with the cleanout port plug and play russian roulette with these parts shops in hope that someone actually has it in stock like they say they do.

I will glue my old handle for now, it's a shame that a vacuum that started out with a $500 MSRP has to be held together with superglue, but it is what it is.

I advise anyone that has one, DO NOT use it as a daily driver. Keep it as an occasional use vacuum and treat it gingerly. All these proprietary parts have all truly gone obsolete.

 

[huskyvacs]

Another update - my last hope of Sears being available, nope. Out of stock and backorder. I really hate how these parts websites never update their parts pages, because it always says that it is in stock and then as soon as you order it, nope it's out of stock.

I've went through 8 websites in the past 2 months and all of them out of stock. So I'm not sure what to do now.