Thursday, December 28, 2017

Vacuum review and improvement

I asked on FB 3.5 years ago (early 2014) for vacuum recommendations. When I was married, we had a Dyson, and did that thing ever suck. 

I got a lot of suggestions, some were expensive, some weren't, and I didn't even look at some because I didn't like the name. I bought a vacuum at Menard's, it was on clearance, and I already had some experience with the name.

Dirt Devil (turbo breeze). I have had one of those little things, and it works pretty well. 

My requirements:

No bag/canister easy to dump
not heavy
not loud
no headlight
on board hose

The Dyson always was plugging up, as was whatever we had prior to that. Of course, that german shepherd hair was asking it to do a lot, esp since Val hated to vacuum almost as much as I do, and would put it off way too long. 

DD has not yet plugged up. I noticed that it was about half plugged where the hose parts connect with the canister part, but that was very easy to pull out. 

A couple months after getting it, I was running it and it died. So of course the first thing I do is check the plug....and it was still plugged in. See...the cord is a little too short....I want to plug it in and vacuum the entire house. (I do have a small house, 5 rooms on the main floor, 2 upstairs and I don't use it in the basement). I left it for a while, and then it worked again. When I dumped the canister, I see there's a filter under there, a foam square on top of a pleated paper filter. The foam is very dirty, so I washed it. Seemed logical. Bit of a pain, though, since I have to let it dry before putting it back together....so it sits in the middle of the room for a day. 

That reminds me of my high school years....Jill (wicked stepmother) HAD to have a Rainbow vacuum....are you familiar with those? It's a weird thing, has a bucket of water on wheels, and connects via hose to a powered brush head thing. Anyway, she'd leave that bucket of water sit for WEEKS after a vacuum session. I'm really not sure why she even had such a unit, since there was only carpet in 2 or 3 rooms of that house. 

Now I preemptively clean that filter....so that it doesn't quit mid session. I just want to get it done....I want to plug it in once, vacuum the spare cat out of the carpet, a few spider webs, and be done. That's why I want the hose to be right there. And it is. But it's too short. I have to lift the vacuum to get a cobweb off the ceiling. That's where the Dyson excelled....the hose expanded like 10 feet, had a nice handle on the hose.

Now for the improvement I just made? After about the 3rd use, and having to reposition the cord, I found a 12' household duty flat white cord and just left it on there. It's almost perfect....Except that the 3 plug female end is too big and gets caught on stuff and they don't stay plugged in together. 

For a while there's been this spot on the cord. I don't know how it happened, I don't know when it happened. But it must have happened when I was using it, since I'm the only one to use it. And I grabbed it with my wet hand, and I'm not sure if it was shocking me, or some copper strands were poking me, but it didn't feel very good. So I figgered that was  a great place to cut it and splice in a 10 or so foot piece of cord, to eliminate the problems. I soldered the wires, used heat shrink tube and tape.

That cord....Not sure where it originated, it may have been a vacuum cord at one time, 3 conductor 16 awg. The DD cord is 2 18awg. I do know that I used that cord for a couple years at the Nutrition shoppe when I had my massage biz there.....that was 05-08, and it's just been in a box since. Maybe it was an extension cord that I cut up, since it was the right colour for that project. It sure clashes now, beige spliced into black.

More review? why not. Like previously mentioned, it does not plug, and seems to keep sucking even when the canister is pretty full. The canister is very easy to dump, I like that. No ridiculous light, and it is pretty light. I've used it on the stairs, where it does not excel, but gets it done. The cat must roll around on every step, and btw, the carpet is yellow. The cat is black. If I were trendy, I'd say we "rock the IA hawkeye look..."

I rather despise when some uses "rock" for "wear" or "accomplish" etc. 

So anyway. The cord works.


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