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durango159

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
1,989
Location
State College, PA
Went to yard sales today and haven't found much over the past couple of weeks. However today I got 2. A Windtunnel Bagless and a Windtunnel Supreme bagged. The bagged Windtunnel doesn't say Supreme, but it's 15" with stretch hose, dirt sensor, same bag door as Supreme with allergen filter on outside, so its basically the Supreme Model. Possibly a refurb, as the bag door has no stickers on it other than the Hoover icon. It's U5458-910. The Windtunnel bagged was marked $30, I had $19 in my wallet, so I offered that!! The Windtunnel Bagless was marked free for parts. I turned on both machines briefly with no belt, no brush, no filters and no bag door connected. They sound good. The next pictures will tell you why I did that! The bagless model does have a dirt cup/ and filter, at the time of this photo, they were already soaking in a sink. Filter was relatively awful- of course, bagless chamber was full- of course!! Why would we expect anything less!

durango159++7-28-2012-21-57-59.jpg
 
Windtunnel Bagged

This was the agitator on the Windtunnel bagged. I tried a scissors to clear some off, when I actually found the bristles on a small area it was full proof that this agitator was unsalvagable. I wanted to try and see but this is a goner!!

"I wonder why my vacuum doesn't groom the carpet anymore."
----Maybe if you used those 10 fingers on your hands or a scissors at least once a month and cleaned your agitator, it wouldn't look like this, you'd have clean carpets and not be heading to Wolly World right now to destroy another machine!

durango159++7-28-2012-22-03-41.jpg
 
Windtunnel Bagless

"Why won't my cleaner pick up anymore?"
--First empty the dust bin, this one was full,
--Second, check and replace your stretch belt quarterly.
--Third, if you checked the belt, you'd see that you're Windtunnel cavity was clogged and most of this was actually pulled out of the main suction duct channel where the hose reaches the agitator cavity. You my friend probably didn't vacuum too ofter, so your machine choked from how much filth it found.

durango159++7-28-2012-22-08-6.jpg
 
Unsalvagable

While I can see bristles on the agitator that was on the bagless machine. They are quite heavily worn, looks like they've been run on quite a few hard surfaces. I need 2 brushrolls, 2 belts, exhaust filter for bagged model, 2 attachment compartment doors and a full set of attachments for the bagless. This is what happened when I attempted to clear the really bad one too. Definitely not salvagable. Bristles are short, completely spread apart, bearings are in bad shape. A good thing the belt broke otherwise the motor would be in bad shape. Hoping it sounds just as good when the new parts go on!!

durango159++7-28-2012-22-12-12.jpg
 
We're clean!

Did everyone enjoy their shower?? Good now dry off so that Rob can put you back to work. Today we washed in Wisk and some Tide with Bleach. I decided since I washing so many filters with everything else to just stick with laundry detergent. Otherwise I'll usually use Armstong floor cleaner with some Lysol disinfectant. I always have sort of disinfectant, or a bleach cleaner in when I wash parts. I want it all spotless and smelling fresh.

Notice I did wash the Hoover TwinChamber filter. Hoover claims not to, but I've done this procedure on other TwinChamber filters and they come out great. When the machine turns on, it smells a little like Tide too, which is nice.

The key to all of this is thorough rinsing. First I rinse in hot, to remove all the extra dirt and germs, then I rinse in cold to ensure all extra soap dissipates. Cold water is better at removing soap. Some of the plastic parts get Soft Scrub to remove tough scuff marks and lighten scratches. Works good.

Notice the Windtunnel bagged door looks strange, it just the lighting and a few water marks, the bagged door is actually in excellent cosmetic shape.

durango159++7-28-2012-22-19-0.jpg
 
I got a wind tunnel supreme today too. I can't wait to get some bags and try it out.
 
That brushroll from the bagged machine looks exactly like what my aunt's long hair did to my Grandpa's Bissell Cleanview. Long hair paired with a worn belt can't spin the brushroll fast enough to repel/ throw off the hair.
 
I sold both of those at Sears and lived with people who had the bagless version... never liked the bagless one bit, but the "Supreme" model was pretty cool. Of course I prefer the self-propelled models, but that translucent bag cover was really cool. Aggressive suction and agitation make it very powerful, but it's loud and lack things like a brushroll off when upright or for bare floor feature and the hose is so short. Looks like you did a great job with the clean up! Congrats! We'll make an upright man out of you yet :o)
 
Oh yeah

I've never seen a brushroll that bad in my life! I thought some of mine were bad when I got them, but they can't even come close to comparing! I think that one should win some kind of award for the worst condition possible!
 
I have a Self-Propelled, but the headlight was never functional. Also, the brushroll doesn't turn off anymore except when upright.
 
I've never seen...

...such a brushroll condition!

It always amazes me to see how filthy some vacuum cleaners are when offered for sale at yard sales, thrift shops and so on. I know that vacuums are to be used to vacuum up dirt, but to see such filth makes me wonder just how clean some folk's homes are.

Kudos to you for your finds! I've always been partial to the transparent blue that Hoover used on the Windtunnels.

Joe
 
Well I can safely say I've never seen a brush roll so dirty!

You've done a great job of cleaning it up though, you should be proud.

I know how good I felt when I cleaned up my Dyson DC04 which was (if it is possible) in even worse condition than that one. At least the brush roll was clean except for a few threads though.
 
That brushroll is disgusting. Did they never look under the damned thing !?

The brushrolls I have on powerheads or air-powered heads (i've no uprights) I clean after every use. To be honest I would have thought that most people would have thought to do that or at least look at them regularly.

2 great finds though, well done & at least they're now in caring hands.

Dave
 
A vacuum is a housecleaning tool, why should I have to clean it!!!!!


It truly amazes me how neglectful people get with these. Chuffle-- if people have vacuums with agitators in this condition, I'd say that is a realization that these people's houses are not very clean.

The only other time I saw brushroll in that condition was borrowing the vacuums from Residence Hall desk during my first year of college. EVERY TIME I tried to use a vacuum from the residence hall desk- the agitator was completely full of hair, probably not as bad as above but not far off, and of course belts were broken. Of course the desk never had spare belts so once I cleaned agitator I still couldn't really use vacuums. They were Elites too!

That's why I only lived in a residence hall one year. The next year I moved into my fraternity house which had a Hoover Caddy Vac. I eBayed a factory reburfished Hoover PowerMax Deluxe S3607 canister for $80 as my vac that year.
 
Bobby, don't get too excited on making me an upright man. The bagless
Windtunnel is probably going to be sold. We're not fans of bagless in the house but a free find, this machine will yield mostly profit. Hopefully I can find a buyer that will take care of it.

I've used Hoover Windtunnel Supreme's in the past. They're great on carpet. However can't use them on bare floors cause the brush is extremely aggressive with no on/off switch. Without adding an additional hose, these machines were terribly designed for attachment use. The suction is terrific and tools aren't bad either but the hose sucks in so much it yields about a 2' cleaning radius, with knocking over the machine.

I need to find a decent Hoover Decade or Convertible, then my upright status will be better. Eureka Bravos look really nice, but why do they have to wake the dead?? Too loud. Years ago, my parents purchased a 12AMp Eureka Bravo II Boss Powerline, Hardbagged unit from BJ's Wholesale Club for $100. No headlight, newer front hood design- with the high rise where the motor and headlight would be. It was black with Gold font and underlining. It cleaned well, but was terribly loud and filtration was not good, I was always wiping the exterior of the machine from all the dust on it. I never have to wipe my canisters like that!! Also the machine always smelled like burnt rubber. I was constantly cleaning the agitator cavity, agitator ends and replacing belts and checking that the height wasn't set too low. The unit lasted 16 months till the motor had problems. It was replaced with a Hoover TurboPower 5000 canister S3577. The S3577 was bought as a floor model, and did not have as good a suction as other PowerMax's. When the cord winder stopped working after about 6.5 years, it was moved to the attic as a spare vacuum and we borrowed parts from it as some of the other PowerMax's needed a little work. The S3577 suction motor now feels stronger and is working in the case of my old S3607 which my sister's ex-fiance destroyed the motor trying to suck up water. The S3577 power head is still around as well and works good. The 2 wire plug allows it to be used with their old Dimension 1000 which is used as a spare. The Dimension 1000 has bad filtration, broken cord winder and original Quadraflex Powermatic is long gone.
 

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