Used Vacs in your house?

[coppercitymt]

Greetings all, I have to ask what dose everyone do, to insure when you drag home a used vac that all the nasty stuff that may come with it such as bed bugs fleas and such, don't end up in your house? Do you have some kind of cleaning ritual you do? Is the testing done in some kind of shop space or garage?

 

[kirbyloverdan]

I never buy or

pick used vacuums from the trash . If I buy a used one from eBay it has to be very clean and as new as possible and only high end used machines . Todays thrift store and trash vacuums are way to disgusting for me so I usually just buy brand new vacuums .

 

[kenkart]

I have picked up MANY!

From the trash, I empty them before I bring them in!, If really bad, I clean them outside!!

 

[jmurray01]

Well that's great if you can afford brand new cleaners, but some (myself included) can't and you can't buy a brand new vintage Vacuum Cleaner.

 

[kloveland]

Unfortunately that’s the way it goes!

My 66 and 33 are still very distinguishing! I plan to clean them up this week, for me half the fun is cleaning them up. I know I’m not alone here. I try not to bring dirty vacuums into my main living area, but it does happen. I’m just glad I’m not living at home anymore. My mother and especially my sister would give me grief over bringing a dirty vacuum in the house, every time! I've never had an illness due to a dirty vacuum cleaner.

 

[bagintheback]

I leave all my thrift stores vacuums in the garage until I can do a basic cleaning. I always change the bag and use compressed air to blow out any dust from the motor housing.

 

[jmurray01]

Luckily none of my Vacuum Cleaners have been really filthy, but just in case, when I buy a Vacuum Cleaner, I always replace the bag (unless it is brand new), clean the filters, clean the entire Vacuum Cleaner, polish the body (more for aesthetics than hygiene), then put it to use.

 

[danemodsandy]

Eric:

If you know what you're doing, even a really nasty vacuum can be cleaned up like new - and that means inside as well as out. It's not work you want to do in the house - a garage or workshop is best for the purpose. Complete disassembly, cleaning of every individual component, and reassembly is very often part of the process. When that is done, a vac can be every bit as clean as it was when new.

One of the reasons for making the effort is that new premium vacuums are very expensive, and premium vacs often end up in thrift stores, on the curb, or in yard sales for reasons having little to do with being worn out. The cleaning and restoration efforts we put into them pay handsome dividends in the form of money saved. I have around $400 invested in my TriStar CXL - but a new TriStar can go for five times that much.

So, we just LOOK crazy. Actually, we're crazy like foxes.

 

[jmurray01]

Couldn't have put it better myself Sandy!

 

[kirbykid]

sicknes

once i got nemonia from a old kirby.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Any used ones that come my way

always get emptied, etc outside. In bad weather the old screened porch. Filthy things never get 'inside' the house. Some are fun to clean, giving them a good "going through". Never experienced bugs, etc.

 

[briguy]

I always take used bags out & discard outside & blow out loose crap in my trash dumpster. I like to take apart most of my vacs to the extent I can & clean & disinfect as well as possible inside & out. To me that's the fun especially finding a treaure that is really dirty & restoring it to almost like new condition. I am however trying to be more cautious in recent times, as I am a bit concerned with bringing home bed bugs in an old vac. They seem to be prevalent in so many places recently. In all my years of collecting though, I have never gotten an illness or encountered bugs of any sort so far.

 

[tolivac]

Like others,change the bag,or empty the machine,vacuum it out with the M1,Wash or clean parts as required.Its Yard sale day-will I find any treasures?Report coming later.

 

[eurekastar]

I once discovered some mice nesting the Sani-Emtor of a Kirby I found at an Estate sale. I guess they ate through the bag. That bag got tossed for sure!

 

[coppercitymt]

Thanks for all the answers, I found a Panasonic MC-E91N in the dumpster at the local thrift store, my third vac now. That got me thinking what do others do for bugs and such. I am not worried about illnesses, you can pick those up everywhere. I was talking about household bugs. Thanks again!

 

[coppercitymt]

Edit, the Panasonic don't have bugs, just a thought if one did!

 

[kirbyloverdan]

Jamie

You absolutely can buy brand new vintage vacuums . I have purchased many on eBay and tag sales . Brand new in boxes .

 

[danemodsandy]

Eric:

Is the Panasonic a plastic-bodied vac?

If it is, it may be a little tricky to disassemble if you want to clean it thoroughly inside. Some plastic vacs have snap-together pieces that are tricky to release without breaking the little tabs that hold them together. Proceed carefully if you want to try this. OTOH, some plastic vacs are screwed together, which is much easier to deal with, though it's possible to strip a screw mount if you're careless, which I'm sure you wouldn't be.

This is one of the reasons I like metal-bodied vacs so much - they respond much better to disassembly and reassembly, since they're usually held together with screws that go into metal.

 

[jmurray01]

I'm not denying that Dan, but it is incredibly rare to find a Vintage Vacuum still in the box and if you can, it costs a lot of money, which I for one don't have.

Besides, I much prefer buying an old cleaner and fixing it up to like new condition. Much more satisfaction than getting a new one out of the box already in great condition (although I can see the pleasure in that as well).

 

[twocvbloke]

For me, I don't care to be honest, dirt gets in regardless tracked in on clothes, shoes, pets and all that, so a dirty vac is not really going to be any different, it's just more "concentrated as it were", but for me, I have a rule, any vac I bring in must clean up it's own mess when it's fixed up, though as I usually acquire bagged vacs, I just pop the bag off and take it out to the bin outside, or in the case of my first two juniors,detach the sodden and rotting bags at the site I found them and leave them where I found them...

Any dirt spilled indoors isn't a problem to me, I don't suffer allergies, and I keep any spillage to a minimum, so cleaning dirty used vacs indoors I'm happy to do, plus it's warmer indoors than it is outside here, being in the great wet north of England...

 

[tolivac]

Als--no vacuums at the yard sales-Its baby junk and old clothes time-no vacuums.

 

[danemodsandy]

Rex:

I know what you mean.

Pregnant women must think they've died and gone to heaven with today's yard sales, but the rest of us aren't finding so much.

 

[coppercitymt]

Sandy

Yes it's a plastic body vac, but it is screwed together. I am use to working on plastic, before I started on vacs all I did was computer and electronics repair getting tired of that now, been doing that since I was 8. Anyway I toke off the whole top end and washed all the plastic in the bathtub. Then scrubbed the housing really well and washed the two filters. Having a little bit of smell problem with this one, kind of smells like mothballs and something eals funky ;-) I am still waiting for the bags off eBay so I have not had a chance to run it and air it out yet.

 

[danemodsandy]

Eric:

If you're familiar with working on plastic-bodied appliances, then you'll be fine.

Here's a trick I've used with stinky vacs that didn't respond to disassembly and cleaning:

You need one of the correct paper bags for your machine, some tape, a small rag and some Febreze. Saturate the rag with Febreze and all it to dry completely. Cut the bag open and put the rag in it. Tape the bag closed again. Now install the bag in the vac and allow it to run for a while. This can be repeated several times if needed. It is important that the Febreze-soaked rag be completely dry, so as not to introduce moisture into the vac's motor, and the rag should not fill the bag more than about half-way, so as not to reduce airflow too much. Perhaps this will help your vac; it cured an Electrolux Diamond Jubilee of mine that had a horrific dog smell when I got it.

 

[gsheen]

As some of you Know I run our vacuum shop from our house, although its a completely seperate building on our property to our house things like bugs and dust and stuff still concearned me. I set up a huge air cleaning system for our workshop because of this. It turned out to be  very good investment because they are very strict on air pollution in our area and had I not fitted the unit I would have been shutdown.


 


We vacuum out all the machines , strip them down , wash them completely to remove any dust and grim. It just makes the customer happy when they get there vacuum back that it smells clean and fresh. 


 


I love to work on old vintage vacs and I prefer it when they need lots of work as it makes me prouder to own it once its rebuilt.

 

[jmurray01]

"I love to work on old vintage vacs and I prefer it when they need lots of work as it makes me prouder to own it once its rebuilt." My sentiments exactly!

 

[gsheen]

I wish there was a enough of a market for vintage vacuums to open a business rebuilding them that would be great 

 

[twocvbloke]

Well, when people see that new isn't always better, they may think again...

I think that most people don't looks at old vacs as an investment cos of it's association with dirt, and not knowing who's used it and what they picked up with it... :&#92

Still, we know better...

 

[jmurray01]

We sure do David!

The general consumer doesn't like older vacuums because they think of them as being crap due to their age, but quite the opposite.

Things were more expensive back in the "old days" thus they were made to a higher standard.