Used Vacs in your house?

[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.

 

[turbomaster1984]

Things were more expensive back in the "old days" th

Im another one who dosnt not know where you get these sweeping comments from JM.

Based on what?

I certainly know that my 2009 Hoover Freespace when stood on would probably come off better for wear than the 1974 Hoover Freedom.

Likewise a turbopower vs the Purepower we have.

As for running the motor for hours on end to see which one died first, I would have no idea which would nor would anyone.

 

[jmurray01]

Based, Robert, on the fact there was more metal used in place of plastic and the plastic there was, was thicker.

Take, for example, the "stair test". The normal vacuum cleaner faces falling down the stairs at least once in their life in most cases (be it slipping from the operators grip while vacuuming stairs or toppling over while sitting at the top of the stairs), with an all metal Vacuum Cleaner, the worst that would happen is a dent. With a plastic one, the best you can hope for is a hairline crack, but normally it is a full on crack or even a chunk missing.

Another thing is the motors. In dirty fan ones for example, the fans used to be metal, but most modern day ones are plastic, hence fins snapping off more often. In clean fan models, there is so much post-motor filtration that the motor runs hotter, hence reducing the service life.

I'm sure Benny would know a lot more about it than I do, based on the fact he ran a Vacuum Cleaner repair shop for years, but I'm just telling you my opinion.

 

[turbomaster1984]

JM your totally missing the point here.

Lots of things have gotten better in quality. Look at the turbopower 1 compared to the turbopower 2.

which do you think will stand up better to abuse like being rammed into a skirting board or a door?

 

[jmurray01]

Yes, SOME things have gotten better in quality, but in most cases, they have gotten cheaper (thus lesser quality) due to manufacturers wanting higher profits.

 

[powermate1970]

well......

with 106 vacuums at my house at present, there is always a little dirt around. LOL If they are really dirty, they get a quick "once" over in the driveway before going to my vacuum "twilight zone" (as my girlfriend calls my work area) in the basement!

 

[electroluxkirby]

I found a couple vacs in the trash a few years ago and as I was taking them my neighbors told me they had a problem with fleas, so I did all my cleaning outside and far away from the house. I washed them with warm water and bleach, and washed the vinyl bags with warm water and Pine Sol.