Update on my recently-acquired Electrolux model E

[mjhoshaw]

Greetings all,

This is the one that I asked a question about hammertone blue color variations. Yesterday and today I broke down the motor, replaced the front bearing, flushed and lubed the rear bearing, etc. and then decided I might as well clean it up. It had a bunch of brown spots on it that looked like a spill. After cleaning the entire body I waxed it, and now the paint color is much closer to my Automatic E. Sadly there is some fading/discoloration at the tops of the rear cover and filter housing, which I attribute to the motor being badly overheated at some time. Not totally roasted - the field windings still have a hint of red color - but definitely hot. However, it still runs perfectly. It's a tribute to Electrolux of old that their motors could be so abused and still chug on for years. If only they used thermal protection back then.

It cleaned up beautifully. Photos to come after I finish reassembly.

Best,

Joel

 

[mjhoshaw]

After images

Here are the images. It's not perfect but I'm pleased to display it, and it runs like new. It doesn't have the anti-tip piece around the front caster but it does have tin-plated fan housings, so I'm guessing it dates to 1955. The current cord has eyelets on the wire ends and appears to have been installed by a 'lux branch office. Of course the original cord was black rubber, but I think this cord looks good against the blue paint.

Too bad no one is making braided hoses for this and the many other fine old machines out there. Modern hoses look all wrong to me.

EDIT - the original manual is dated 1955, so my guess about its age is correct.

Joel[this post was last edited: 8/27/2021-19:33]

 

[hygiene903]

Nice work, it's beautiful!
Jeff

 

[jo]

While the cord…

May not be original…it still is a nice genuine cord and shows the quality of a genuine Electrolux repair!

I had one of these but I gave it to a friend and I think after some time he threw it away. I’m looking back with regret I gave it to him.

These originally had after filters in them.

I have an original hose from the first one of the two I had over time. I got it in the early 1990’s. It has the original matching paint on the machine end and the braiding is real fabric…not plastic! I believe the early model E’s had the cloth braiding. Amazingly…it DOES NOT leak to this day! I keep it with my Grandmother’s model XXX which I have. It was made of a different construction that clearly lasted much longer. That model E came with a chrome cordwinder much like the ones on the model XXX’s and LX’s….another indicator that it was an early E. The chrome cordwinder really weighed the machine down.

Jon

 

[human]

Regret...

Jon wrote:
I had one of these but I gave it to a friend and I think after some time he threw it away. I’m looking back with regret I gave it to him.

I reply:
I know the feeling. I once loaned a Kirby Heritage I to a now former girlfriend, after which she promptly tossed her Oreck in the dumpster. I should have seen that as a warning sign. Several years later, she left my Kirby behind in her old apartment when she moved, despite my making it clear that I'd like to have it back whenever she was done with it.

A couple of years later, I gave a Hoover QuikBroom Supreme to another friend of mine but this time I made it clear it was hers and distanced myself from any outcome. Sure enough, she called me up about a year later to tell me she'd smashed the nozzle end trying to dislodge a clog. What the hell did she expect to happen if she repeatedly banged the thing on a hard floor? It apparently never occurred to her to take the nozzle off and fish the clog out with her fingers or a coat hanger. But then she had the audacity to ask for another vacuum and I was fool enough to bring her an Electrolux Discovery Plus (Discovery II with awkward onboard tool storage) but made it quite clear it was the last vacuum she was ever getting from me.

I recently donated three surplus machines to my church's rummage sale and I'm glad I'll never know their fate beyond depositing them in the church basement.