Sometimes I wonder why I try

[telleutelleme]

Decided to be nice and vacuum the house today. Notice that the vacuum is merely pushing dirt around, not picking it up. Logic kicks in and I check for vacuum (duh). Maybe enough to suck up a grain of sand. Next check to see if something is clogged in the hose (this one uses the hose for both attachments and part of the path). Nada. Look in the dirt container (bagless). Nada.

Decision, vacuum is broke. I think might as well take it apart before I go get another. No dumb idea, that is always just a path to bagging up a bunch of parts to throw out and wasting time for which I will be reminded by the wife.

So, off to Sears armed with todays ad with a sale on vacuums today only (sure). Pick it up, bring home, assemble in record time and works like a champ. Even looked at the "quick" assembly instructions and paid attention. Vacuumed the carpet, looks great.

OK, that was rewarding, now for kicks lets go ahead and take the other one apart, I'm feeling manly, no risk now if it goes out in a bag. Sit down in the kitchen and go for the innards. In pulling off the tube that the hose connects I notice a chunk of dust. Pull on it and out comes about three feet of dog hair, dust, some kind of plastic wrapper and lots of twisties.

Spend the next 45 minutes tracking the path and discover a loop inside that also has a clog; which I remove. Also about 20 feet of thread( thread?) around the carpet brush. There is also a little tray I never noticed that has a foam filter in it that was totally caked in dirt. So now I'm thinking I probably didn't need that new vacuum. With a feeling of hopelessness, I re-assemble everything (right order, in record time). I fire it up and there's enough vacuum to pull a car.

So now I have a lightly used new vacuum and a perfect 8 year old vacuum and a wife who hasn't said a thing. Anybody else have this kind of good news bad news luck?

[scat4me]

That sucks....

[notdave]

We've got an upstairs vacuum cleaner and a downstairs vacuum cleaner. We also have a portable! rechargeable midivac thing for small jobs.

Having just one vacuum is so 1980s it seems.

[yellowbeard]

I'd make a return trip to Sears....why waste money?

[telleutelleme]

I'd make a return trip to Sears....why waste money?

Wasn't Sears fault I was stupid. I'll take the hit.

We've got an upstairs vacuum cleaner and a downstairs vacuum cleaner.

Upstairs / Downstairs works.

[PapaBeef]

Originally Posted by yellowbeard

I'd make a return trip to Sears....why waste money?

I worked at Sears for a couple of years.
That was about 21 years ago.
But I was in lawn & garden.
It was way too common that every time there was a storm people would come running in to buy chain saws & chippers.
And a few days later all that stuff would somehow mysteriously stop working & need to be returned to the store.
Of course when we checked the stuff out it would work fine.
They'd get all their money back every time.
It was like we were just there to loan the stuff out to people.
The problem with that is the salesperson gets charged back for their commission on every returned item. That made it tough to make a living working there.
But I guess keeping something you don't need is gonna cost you more than returning it would cost the sales person.
It's just the volume of returned stuff after the storms that would eat away my whole paycheck.

[diffeecult]

Save this experience for future ammunition. The next time something breaks and the wife says it's wasted effort to try and repair it remind her about the vacuum cleaner.

[javabirds]

You should have just quit vacuuming.

[Buckocaster51]

Not returning it is good for your Karma.

[colorado]

I haven't had a vaccuum since I returned to nature.

But then I didn't have a choice since...



nature abhors a vacuum. (bada bing)

[mal paso]

That was pretty good Colorado.











Still think Scat4me wins though

[getbent]

upstairs downstairs is a great idea... I kind of want to do that..

[bingy]

The original vac could go in the shop or the garage.

We have two daughters that live in apartments in town. They both could use a good used vacuum cleaner.

There is the "re-store" here so you can donate it, (get a tax break) and help someone else out.

Congrats on getting the old one back together... should have checked it out first.

I could have easily taken the same path.

[backporch guy]

I am currently looking at 3 weed eaters that don't work. I think I can fix one of them. If not, I will be looking at 4 weedeaters, 3 that don't work, 1 that won't work after i use it the first or second time. I hate weedeaters.

[ZZRyder]

Last night i had the strangest dream.
The Grim Reaper came into my bedroom and I fought him off with a vacuum cleaner.
I was Dyson with Death!

[R. Stratenstein]

First mistake was trying to do woman's work.
Second, you abdicated your male birthright to take things apart to see if you can get them to work, or at least see if there are any cool parts in there you can use in some other project that you'll never finish, either.
This is just nature's (fairly gently, I think you'll have to admit) little lesson to you, and her straightening out the natural vibes of the planet. There is probably some more vacuum-related payback coming your way; I don't think I'd get rid of either of them just yet, you can never predict how Mother Nature will choose to extract her vengence.

[Jupiter]

Put that puppy back in the box and wrap it. Instant Christmas present for the missus.

[DrumBob]

Yes, I have had similar vacuum issues. Our old vac bit the dust not long ago, so my wife bought a used Hoover from a co-worker who "only used it sparingly in our vacation home."

Bullsh**.

She paid $60 for it, and I had to have another $75 worth of work done to it immediately so it would work. I could have bought the same vac brand new for about $50+ more.

I recently bought a $39.95 Bissell for my music room. It's light, it gets used every two or three weeks and works just fine.

[w3stie]

But on the up-side, all future offers to help around the house will be firmly declined!

[SolidbdyJazzfan]

My reaction is that it is relatively good result, although you didn't need the additional vacuum.

We have a recent (bought within the last seven, eight years) HEPA-equipped Hoover with all the new stuff attachments and all that happy ****. It doesn't suck. And that sucks. The thing has been very weak since we bought it (serviced by a Hoover dealer and still that way).

We also have two ancient (circa late 1970s) Hoover "Decade 80" vacuums. They're amazing. Simple, extremely powerful,easy to maintain, and bags from Eurekas and other vacuums will fit them. FWIW, here's one on Ebay (I just searched for it--don't know the guy): http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-HOOV...item3a736b4ea0.

That info is offered for anyone else who might find themselves vacuum-challenged.