New Vacuum Cleaner purchase+ Sob Story

[kevinpreston8]

Lux...

Some good ideas and points well taken.

Most food I throw in the garbage disposal. However, even wrappers have gummed up and ended up on that ram, and tough to clean.

A few engineering changes would improve this unit alot. Eliminate the rough metal edges, provide a removable ram shield so that you can clean it and disinfect it, and make the drawer come out farther so you can clean the inside of the unit or at least get trash out that has fallen behind. Finally, they could remove the corrugation on the side of the unit, get the same strength by making it double walled with the corregations in between the sheet metal walls. Minimal further width would be needed, and you could have a smooth and easy clean outside to the metal trash bin/holder.

I have no complaints on how much this unit can compress and how it handles trash. All my complaints could be resolved by some simple engineering changes and it boggles the mind that a KA unit in 2006 suffers from such fundamental shortcomings.

 

[brettsomers]

mom who wants to get an

 

[brettsomers]

mom who wants to get an

 

[brettsomers]

third time is the charm...

you say an electric broom for mom? maybe you will find a vintage Regina, on ebay, if thats what you really want. the vintage Hoover *quik-broom* that uses the style *E* bag is one of MY favorites. they usually have a wheeled nozzle, for easy pushing. im sure one of the vacuum gurus has one to give if ur interested. many of the Hoover brooms, new and old, are worth considering. if you want new, and price is NOT a consideration, you will prolly like a Miele. their brooms use high filtration bags, with hepa filter and dusting tools as an option. the TOL Miele broom also has a powernozzle for carpets.

 

[tolivac]

The Miele "broom vac" is a nice machine-you can detach the floor tool and use a hose with it as a small canister vac.I have another form of Miele Broom vac-its the Miele "Art Roses" machine that has a short hose and a floor nozzle designed for bare or hard floors.Works great-and its the prettest broom vac you ever saw!!I use mine on all of my hard floors.Its kinda fun to use-the vac head steers just like most canister powernozzles.The Miele machines are also quiet-none of the "screamer" broom vacs.The vintage broom vac-or crumb vac I like is the Reginas with the METAL fans and fan housings.The plastic ones break too easily and the fan makes a nice "tink" when it picks up a rice grain or cerial.I have a metal Regina I got at one of the Sat AM garage sales here.The same household also had a Sears trash compactor for $50,was several years ago.The compactor was a built in model-not freestanding.

 

[insulinpumpuser]

air-turbo attachments

Has anyone in here used on of those air-turbo brushes like the one that Hoover makes? I have a Rainbow SE and a Filter Queen and both of those vacs cause those turbo tools self-destruct. I only get about 3 uses out of them and BOOM! Plastic parts go flying and some parts get sucked up. Has this happened to any of you?.....Bill in Az....

 

[panthera]

air-turbo

I have used one over here in Germany for nearly 20 years. The European models - and the good US models have a "waste gate" design which prevents the unit from being overspun. If the waste gate is jammed shut - or the idiot manufacturer didn't bother with one, as in some newer model stuff in the US now, then you need to adjust the suction power down. My Miele was built for 1000 Watts suction - and current vacuums run at least half again stronger than that.
You know you have the right suction going when the brush rotates freely in carpet, but definitely slows down compared to when held free in the air. Start below 800 Watts and work up slowly. Remember, there is no "beats as it sweeps as it cleans" here - just sweeping.
I love mine, by the way - it does a great job on cat and dog hair.

 

[compactc9]

This is probably my favorite vacuum besides a central vac for everyday vacuuming. Its the gray one in the center.

 

[toggleswitch]

Mold odor.

Sorry if this has been addressed already, I did not see it.

Could the odor possbily be ozone produced by the motor?
Sickly-sweet, strong, distincitve.

In my case, I have noticed a different smell fom ORECKS; It is when the brush-roll faces resistance, yet the belt is till turning at full speed.

P. U.

http://www.ozoneapplications.com/products/Residential/q&a_ozone.htm

 

[kevinpreston8]

Toggle...

I would not say it was sickly sweet. It is almost the exact smell as when you forget you have wash in the washer and it starts to air dry and gets that moldy smell.

Now, it was not like you would turn it on and it would instantly smell, in fact, the air coming from the exhaust only had a very faint odor. But vacuum a room for a few minutes and the whole room would smell. Disgusting. I have never had this happen with all the vacuuming I had done in my life. It was also a bit of an ego thing as when I fix things they usually stay fixed.

That's why I go back to the hose as possibly being the culprit. After I soaked in bleach/laundry detergent, I tried it out and the exhaust smelled like mold with an overlay of bleach! So, I am back to the hose again.

I did not throw it out "all the way". It's over by my trash cans but not in the trash. Thinking what to do, really tired of messing with it. I may just do a final investment and replace the hose just for laughs, it could be a "back house" vacuum at that point.

 

[Designgeek]

Re. the moldy smell in the vacuum: Probably the hose. I'll bet it picked up something wet at one point, and that did it. Try running it without the hose and see if the smell comes back, and if not, replace the hose.

Re. compactors: First, put your wet sticky food waste down the disposall as far as possible. Second, if you have wet drippy stuff that's not food waste, do this:

If you get milk or other beverages in cartons, when you're done with one, give it a quick rinse by shaking about 3/4 a cup of clean water in it and then pouring it out. Now open up the top of the milk carton. This takes less than a minute. Now you have a nice little container for wet drippy stuff that won't go down the disposall. When it's full, fold over the top and toss it into the compactor like anything else.

Luxflairguy's info is good. Also do this: When you have a bunch of wet sticky stuff in there, put a layer of something dry on top before compressing the load. For example a single page of newspaper folded normally, or one of those junk mail flyers. (Your recycling bin won't miss an occasional piece of paper.) This will at least keep the wet stuff from clinging to the compressing ram. BTW those things probably generate about a half ton of pressure so they should be treated with due care.

A removable ram cover would be nice, but it would have to be fastened to the ram itself in some manner that was both secure and easy to undo to remove. This is not an easy design question to solve without creating other complications. Best bet is to wipe it down with a disinfectant such as a Lysol product or Pine Sol, or straight bleach, but check to see that the manufacturer says it's OK and won't cause corrosion or other damage to the equipment.

Last but not least:

A compactor may save you on the trash bill when the city is measuring your trash by volume, but measurement by weight is on the way.

How it works: a little barcode tag on your wheelie-bin, and a device on the refuse truck that reads the bar code and weighs the bin as the lifting mechanism is picking it up to empty it, and then the data get stored onboard the truck and automatically read into the city's billing system when the truck goes back to empty its load at the transfer station.

So get a compactor to keep your kitchen a bit neater or reduce your trips outside to empty the kitchen bin into the wheelie bin, but don't get one expecting to "cheat" on the city refuse collection rates.

 

[tolivac]

turbo Brush-Possibly the Blast port is clogged or the brush hasn't been reassembled properly-most can be taken apart for cleaning or changing the belts.Long things like hair or threads can clog the turbine fans-you then need to take the attachment apart for cleaning.
I don't think I would be putting "drippy things" in my compactor even when wrapped-the pressure will cause the wrapping to burst releassing the gross contents-just throw that into the trash--or how bout the disposer?Thats where both machines can be used together-the compactor for non-food waste and the disposer for the food waste.Home compactors can generate up to two tons pressure before the motor compactor mechanism "stalls out" and reverses the ram for another cycle.I would refrain from putting yucky and food waste in the compactor.That ram can compress that smelly stuff into all kinds of places where it would be hard to clean out.
the weight measurement method is interesting-but not yet out here.I will continue to take my waste to the trash transfer station-they can compact it in the large Marathon compactor.People just love to watch their trash get smushed.Plastic trash bags make a nice loud "POP" when crushed.And looked-the fluids compressed out of the trash run onto the ground under the compactor.Makes a "LOVELY" smell on a hot day.those Marathon units are fun-used on at another workplace.Had a 15Hp power unit on it-crunched anything you put in it.also dropping off the trash at the transfer station is free-no paying for trash service.Its very close to my house-drop off the trash while doing other things on the way.