Got a Vax Mach Air...
..for my mother!
The old Hoover 'Turbopower 3' was performing really badly due to its rapidly diminishing bristles. Even mum noticed that it was taking her hours to clean the house, despite the bags, filters and belts being regularly replaced. She eventually decided that she needed a new machine (the agitator has become obsolete).
I looked online, and saw that Argos had the machine listed. However, when I got to the shop, there was no sign of it in the catalogues. A shop assistant had a look at her stock computer and saw one solitary model in the store room. She keyed the code number into the till and I bought the machine.
The machine is very lightweight to use (mum thinks it looks like a space-age toy!). She has used it, and likes the way the carpet pile is reactivated. It gets a lot of grit out of the low-pile looped kitchen carpet, which is a good sign.
She is less keen on the hose attachments:
the stretchable hose is a little too short for her,
the hose is lacking a decent handgrip,
the multi-function tool is awkward for her to grasp and use, and it lacks the angles of a more conservative Hoover style of dusting brush. So...
...I decided to experiment, and found that the old Hoover 'Turbo 3' tools and tubes will fit onto the Vax hose. Therefore this problem is solved.
A slight design flaw I noted:
when placed upright when turned on, the agitator stops - as it should. However, when using the tools in this mode, slight flexing movement of the 'spine' of the cleaner allows the agitator to switch on and off. This also occurs if you lift the machine when it is turned on - the 'foot' has a wee bit of flexibility - just enough for the agitator motor to re-engage. When placed on the floor, the brush stops again.
