OBIO
January 20th, 2010, 12:41
I am the designated vacuum cleaner user in this household...so, I am the one who notices when the performance of the Blue Sucker starts to go down hill....and during today's session of sucking up dog and cat hair, dust mite poop and other odds and ends that find their way to the floor, I noticed that the Blue Sucker was not doing a very good job. It had lost its sucking power.
The Blue Sucker is a bagless upright made by Bissell. Deb and I have had the Blue Sucker for nearly 6 years now and it still works great....thanks to the following things I do to keep it working great:
1) The Blue Sucker, like many upright bagless vacuum cleaners, use foam filters. The Blue Sucker has 2 of them. These foam filters can quickly become very dirty and plugged up...thus reducing the amount of suction and airflow, thus reducing the vacuum's ability to clean well. Luckily, these foam filters are washable..yep...just take them out, take them to the bath tub and wash them under a heavy stream of luke warm water. It is amazing how much dirt and dust these foam filters will be packed with. Once washed, let them air dry before putting them back in the vacuum cleaner. I have two sets of these foam filters (they are fairly cheap..so I buy two new sets every years)...that way I can put in a clean dry set while the other is drying after cleaning. Keeping these foam filters clean at all times will greatly improve the cleaning performance and the life span of your vacuum cleaner.
2) The Blue Sucker, like all sweepers, begins to look pretty nasty after a few months of use....dust coming out of the seams. It is a fact of life that part of the dust/dirt that a vacuum sweeper picks up never makes it to the collection cup/bag...some of it gets trapped in the hoses, the motor, the housing....and all this dust/dirt trapped inside the vacuum cleaner reduces the cleaning power of the unit and can greatly shorten the life span of the unit.
To remedy this, a few times a year I pull the Blue Sucker totally apart and take the parts to the bath tub and wash them.....thus removing all the trapped dust and dirt and dog/cat hair. The motor...I don't wash it in the tub..but I do give it a good blowing out with an air compressor and a piece of wire to get all the compressed dust/dirt off the blades of the fan blade thingie.
Once everything has been washed and allowed to drain, I set the parts on a couple old towel for a few days and let them air dry. Once everything is totally dry, I put the Blue Sucker back together.
Vacuum cleaners are pretty easy to take apart and put together...no big mystery at all. If you have a basic screw driver set, you have all the tools you need.
After giving the Blue Sucker a bath like this...it is like a brand new unit....has all the sucking ability it had when it came out of the box 6 years ago. Total time to take apart, clean and put back together....maybe 20 minutes....but I get 4 months or so of very good performance out of it again.
While you have your vacuum apart, it is a good idea to check the belt...a worn belt will give slip...and a slipping belt stinks to high heaven in a small room...imagine a muscle car doing a smokey burnout in your house...same smell.
Well, that's today's Household Tip.
OBIO
The Blue Sucker is a bagless upright made by Bissell. Deb and I have had the Blue Sucker for nearly 6 years now and it still works great....thanks to the following things I do to keep it working great:
1) The Blue Sucker, like many upright bagless vacuum cleaners, use foam filters. The Blue Sucker has 2 of them. These foam filters can quickly become very dirty and plugged up...thus reducing the amount of suction and airflow, thus reducing the vacuum's ability to clean well. Luckily, these foam filters are washable..yep...just take them out, take them to the bath tub and wash them under a heavy stream of luke warm water. It is amazing how much dirt and dust these foam filters will be packed with. Once washed, let them air dry before putting them back in the vacuum cleaner. I have two sets of these foam filters (they are fairly cheap..so I buy two new sets every years)...that way I can put in a clean dry set while the other is drying after cleaning. Keeping these foam filters clean at all times will greatly improve the cleaning performance and the life span of your vacuum cleaner.
2) The Blue Sucker, like all sweepers, begins to look pretty nasty after a few months of use....dust coming out of the seams. It is a fact of life that part of the dust/dirt that a vacuum sweeper picks up never makes it to the collection cup/bag...some of it gets trapped in the hoses, the motor, the housing....and all this dust/dirt trapped inside the vacuum cleaner reduces the cleaning power of the unit and can greatly shorten the life span of the unit.
To remedy this, a few times a year I pull the Blue Sucker totally apart and take the parts to the bath tub and wash them.....thus removing all the trapped dust and dirt and dog/cat hair. The motor...I don't wash it in the tub..but I do give it a good blowing out with an air compressor and a piece of wire to get all the compressed dust/dirt off the blades of the fan blade thingie.
Once everything has been washed and allowed to drain, I set the parts on a couple old towel for a few days and let them air dry. Once everything is totally dry, I put the Blue Sucker back together.
Vacuum cleaners are pretty easy to take apart and put together...no big mystery at all. If you have a basic screw driver set, you have all the tools you need.
After giving the Blue Sucker a bath like this...it is like a brand new unit....has all the sucking ability it had when it came out of the box 6 years ago. Total time to take apart, clean and put back together....maybe 20 minutes....but I get 4 months or so of very good performance out of it again.
While you have your vacuum apart, it is a good idea to check the belt...a worn belt will give slip...and a slipping belt stinks to high heaven in a small room...imagine a muscle car doing a smokey burnout in your house...same smell.
Well, that's today's Household Tip.
OBIO