Out of the Workroom and Into Service

Further to my Aerus Lux 9000 Makeover post, here he is back in service. I did the living room and bare floors to give him a good workout.

The full ensemble shot. Assuming the Aerus Lux 9000 was introduced in 2003, that makes him 15 years old. Not too shabby looking for a 'teenage' vacuum, I have to say.

Just for the hell of it, here are the Aerus Luxes (?) 9000 (top of the line cylinder) and 6000 (top of the line upright) posing together. As mentioned elsewhere, the companions for these two machines were the Lux 7000, Lux 5000 or 5500, can't remember which, and Lux 3000.

Matching graphics, colors, and logos. Pity about the scar on the Lux 9000, but what can you do?

Aerus Lux 9000 Makeover

Its great to tear apart a vacuum again, after not having done it for a long time. The Aerus Lux 9000 desperately needed a new motor housing, as the original one had literally cracked into pieces (not sure how this could happen, but it did). The housing also smelled a bit, as did the motor and fan unit, so, I decided to pop a new motor in there. Luckily, I happened upon this:

Yes, the rubber seal at the back of the bag chamber is a little dirty, but of course it'll be wiped off before installation. Otherwise, this is a complete unit, consisting of motor and fan unit, motor housing, wiring, circuit boards, hose inlet, and auto-shutoff system hoses. The only thing I'm retaining from the original mechanics is the cord winder. I might mention that I also need to put on a new cord winder pedal and front door latch, and these are on the way.

Naturally, after I 'tore the guts' out of the machine, I washed it as thoroughly as I could, and let it air dry. As a matter of fact, I scrubbed it with soap and water, and then water and vinegar.

The base of these Style R machines is riddled with ribs and narrow crevices, so I gave up on getting all the dirt out, but its definitely cleaner. The wiring harness seen is the old one, and will be replaced.

Here is the machine partially dismantled, with the cracked motor housing. Oddly enough, I can't remember where the motor and fan unit is. I did take it out a while ago, so it must be hidden in a box in my storage room somewhere.

I'll definitely add to this post when the new motor and harness goes in, and, of course, after everything is installed and the machine is running.

My patio could use a paint job, for sure.

UPDATE 2018-09-15: Things are getting closer to completion. The motor is in and fully connected up; now, I just have to wait on my front door latch, connect up the auto shutoff system hoses, 'nail' everything down, and it'll be good to go. The cord winder pedal is brand new.

UPDATE 2018-10-08: I finally got around to finishing off this project. Here is a test of the new motor:

Note that things are not completely 'nailed down' yet. I just stuck the top cover on and put in a bag to test things out. I'm happy to say that the motor sounds and sucks strong. Yay! I tested it first with a crappy old hose that I wouldn't miss if it blew out, and then, when all was good, I tried my good hose. Everything worked like a charm.

Finally, here is the completed machine. Everything is installed...the cord winder and rewind pedal are in place, the motor fully connected and screwed down, bag chamber snapped in place, wire harness and auto shutoff hoses connected, front cover, with mechanics and latch, fully connected, two halves screwed together, and bag, carbon filter, and HEPA filter installed. The Aerus Lux 9000 is back in business as a working machine. Perfect. Note that the Sidekick is there merely to test if the electric accessories worked properly, which they did, and also note that my patio, which needed a serious paint job in the prior pictures, has received one.

On a purely personal note, this is the first time I've ever seriously worked on one of the Style R machines, and I'm quite happy with the result.

My Style R Electrolux and Aerus Lineup

Just for the heck of it, I felt like taking some shots of all my Style R vacuums. I don't have all of them, of course*, but this is a good representation of machines from the beginning to the end of the run.

Back row, left to right: Aerus Lux 9000 C134F, Aerus Guardian C154B, Aerus Lux Guardian C154E .

Front row, left to right: Electrolux Guardian 75th Anniversary C134A, Electrolux Epic 8000 C133A, Electrolux Renaissance C104H, Electrolux Renaissance C104A.

Electrolux Style R models, clockwise from top (Guardian 75th C134A, Epic 8000 C133A, Renaissance C104A, Renaissance C104H). These are much better looking than their Aerus counterparts, partly because most are missing the HEPA filter and are thus much more streamlined, and partly because gray is a nicer color than pale blue:

Aerus Style R models (Guardian C154E, Guardian C154B, Lux 9000 C134F):

As an addendum, here is this week's cleaning team: the white, grey, and red Epic 8000 and Epic 3500. It's certainly a fetish with me, but I do like to use similarly colored and/or styled machines when I'm using them in pairs, not to mention the fact that I like to use all the original and/or matching attachments with a particular machine.

It's difficult to say whether one of these is my favourite. Certainly, the Renaissance C104A blows the others out of the water in terms of looks (and for that matter, it does the same for all other Electrolux and Aerus models, before or since), but the two newest machines, the C154B and C154E, have more power than the others. Like I said in another post, comparing machines is difficult. Each model or series of models has something distinctive and interesting about it. In short, there's good to be found in everything.

*Just to keep it straight, I don't have the Electrolux Guardian 75th Anniversary C134B, Electrolux Guardian Encore C134C, Electrolux Lux 9000 C134D, Electrolux Guardian C134E, and the Aerus Lux 9000 C154A (assuming this model exists). Funds permitting, and reasonable prices offered, I'd like to add these to the collection.

A New Year's Resolution?

I don't know how much of a conscious decision this was on my part, but for a month or so now, my vacuum usage habits have slightly changed.
 
Having more than one vacuum means you can, if you choose, use a different vacuum when you feel like it. When you have 40+ vacuums, you're positively spoiled for choice. My normal pattern was to use a different vacuum each day, or sometimes multiple vacuums in one cleaning session for different tasks.

Of late, however, I find myself using only two vacuums in a single week...an upright for the carpets, and a cylinder for the bare floors and dusting. Here is my current weekly 'set': the Renaissance and the Epic 3500. It may or may not be a coincidence that they have more or less matching colors.

One reason for this is that my vacuum storage/display room is in a bit of a state at the moment. I really need to properly organize and display my machines, but that's another story. This room is also in the basement* of the house, so I've found its easier to carry up the two machines at the beginning of the week and leave them upstairs for the duration, or until I want to change them.

Another thing I've found is that the Style R models and the uprights are really the only machines that get used anymore. They're just too damned convenient. Once in a blue moon, I'll bust out an older model, but this is becoming rather rare. I also have decided to not get any more machines, unless they're on my wish list, and all of those are newer and useful models. My vintage collecting days are done.

At any rate, I daresay the next weekly set will be the Aerus Lux Guardian C154E and the Epic 3000, but who knows? One of my resolutions this year is to organize both my collection and its storage space. The other is to (hopefully) complete my wish list, as seen here.

*For whatever reason, the vacuum I use most in the basement is:

Somewhat Shopworn, Still Certainly Serviceable

Sometimes, taking a chance on a less than stellar looking vacuum can pay dividends, as evidenced by more than a few machines in my collection. The same goes for my latest acquisition, an Aerus Lux 9000 Model C134F. When I first saw it advertised, I was hesitant. According to the description, the power nozzle didn't work, it was missing the dusting brush and combination rug/floor tool, and it looked fairly dirty. On the other hand, it was all original, not to mention cheap. I could have gone for a "better" one from some vac shop, but it would have cost at least twice as much, and vacuums from such sellers don't come with a "perfect" guarantee. All in all, it turned out to be worth it.

Here is the young fellow, cleaned up as nicely as possible and ready for service. Yes, the hose is discolored, but its airtight, the switches work properly, and its been disinfected, so its good to go.

The suction motor sounds and sucks just fine. It sounds pretty much exactly like the Guardian 75th Anniversary I have, as a matter of fact, and the suction is more or less the same. Perhaps they used the same motor in all of the machines in between these two, I don't know. As I suspected, the machine was fairly dirty, both inside and out, but one of my favorite things to do is to clean and detail vacuums, so I gave it a fairly thorough cleaning and disinfecting, inside and out. The one part of the Style R machines which I haven't been able to clean properly is the side bumper...Magic Eraser doesn't seem to work at all, and I haven't yet found anything else that works.

The seller had indicated that the power nozzle needed a new motor, but rather than bothering with it, I just transplanted the "Lux" top cover and blue bumper to another power nozzle I had. As an addendum to this power nozzle, I'm not sure what that little extra piece is on the elbow (the gray piece in the first picture on the power nozzle), but it makes the top cover bloody difficult to remove. I've seen other elbows with it and without it, so I'm not sure if its completely random, but I don't like it, and I doubt if it serves any practical purpose.

(Update 07-28-13: In fact, I've long since removed the bloody thing! I assume its there to give a little extra support to the elbow, but I wanted it gone.)

Top view. The logo is a bit scarred, but things can't always be perfect.

Side bumper logo, with "handwritten" script. I may be wrong, but this script seems to hearken back to earlier models, I can't remember which ones.

Ratings sticker. This seems to be the first ever "Aerus" branded Style R model, and, wonder of wonders, it doesn't even say "Electrolux" anywhere! Going by the attachment compartment door logo, the company really wanted to emphasize the new name, as opposed to later models.

Going by the graphics, the Aerus Lux 9000 appears to be the top-of-the-line companion to the Lux 7000 and Lux 5500, but given the company's propensity for releasing models in wild profusion in short time periods, I'll make that claim with reservations. 

As I pointed out in Note 6 here, I'm not sure why the company issued a machine identical to the Guardian in every way, and called it "Lux 9000". The only sensible reason is that it wanted to get rid of the "Guardian" name. At any rate, I'm quite happy to have another useful and serviceable vacuum.