I have that same model of vacuum. Over time I've replaced the belt (3-4 times), brush roller, switch, and cord, and installed a retrofit top-fill bag kit. Total cost maybe $75. Go!
(Or you can go spend $450 at Costco on a Dyson Transformer Whatsis plastic molding technology tour-de-force. Good luck finding parts in 20 years, or in 5.)
Sermon on the Curb. "Blessed are the small, dry things, for they shall be vacuumed easily. Blessed are those things within a reasonable distance of an outlet, for theirs is the kingdom of accessibility."
@6, mom had a Hoover like that, fine and dandy, until one day she got seduced by a Kirby salesman. Motherfucking 90-pound multi-attachment behemoth that roared like a lion. I delighted in the chrome and used to polish it. I polished the goddam vacuum. And I wondered why nobody in my famly even feigned surpise when I came out.
@8, as a toddler I insisted my mother purchase me a two-foot-long, anatomically correct plastic bull in lieu of a doll. I vividly remember sitting on that bull and watching teevee for hours, or lying on the floor and stroking its shiny pink balls.
There's no real point to this story. My mom hated vacuuming. TGIF!
@10, let me disenvapor you. 11-year-old me on a sunny afternoon perfect for playing outside, sitting cross legged on the kitchen linoleum surrounded by vacuum cleaner bits, Barry Manilow's live double album playing on the hi-fi so I could sing along while memorizing his every inflection (especially tricky, his medley of commercial jingles), a Windex-spritzed old t-shirt wrapped around my index finger so I could bring out the gleam in every crevice of the Kirby Classic III. Even now, mentioning the Kirby makes me want to run out and buy one online somewhere: http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-…
@15, holy fuck that is a grim link! And I didn't know they cost so much - my mom must've been in one of her manic-throw-money-at-everyone moods. Surprised she didn't buy one for day and another for evening.
Rob!, I have - in addition to my wonderful Hoover upright - TWO Hoover Constellations: One new, as in your link, and one old. (I prefer the old, and have loaned the new one out to a dear neighbor who has hit some hard times)
I use the Constellation for hard surfaces, upholstery, and the stairs between the upper and lower levels of Chez Vel-DuRay
Are you talking about the derelict with a shiv sleeping in the dumpster on the right?
(Or you can go spend $450 at Costco on a Dyson Transformer Whatsis plastic molding technology tour-de-force. Good luck finding parts in 20 years, or in 5.)
There's no real point to this story. My mom hated vacuuming. TGIF!
And your mom! Blessings on her poor gray head, how could she be expected to withstand such tactics as these?!
Whatever that vacuum's problem is, it can probably be fixed.
I use the Constellation for hard surfaces, upholstery, and the stairs between the upper and lower levels of Chez Vel-DuRay