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Thread Number: 29357
/ Tag: 80s/90s Vacuum Cleaners
Got my eye on a Hoover Quik Broom II |
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| Post# 327949 6/24/2015 at 22:47 (3,221 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina) | ||
So I've gone into this Goodwill store a couple of times in the past week and there's a nice looking Hoover Quik Broom II there but they want $20 for it. I had one of these about 20-25 years ago and got rid of it because it wasn't that great on carpets. But now, most of my house has hard floors and I've been thinking it would be nice to have something like that to sweep up with. I'm just having a hard time justifying it right now, especially in light of my excessive vacuum cleaner purchases in recent months. My reservations include the fact that it's bagless and I hate emptying dust cups. The one I had before was bagged. Also, there's nothing it can do that my Electrolux canisters can't. I would just be a little more convenient, that's all. At $10 or $12, I probably wouldn't hesitate but $20 is just enough to hold me back. Then again, I look on eBay and that's on the low end of the asking prices I see there. I just don'l know.
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Post# 327952 , Reply# 1 6/24/2015 at 23:04 (3,221 days old) by gottahaveahoove  (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640) |
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Perhaps ask if they'll sell it for $15.00 | ||
| Post# 328044 , Reply# 2 6/25/2015 at 22:11 (3,221 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina) | ||
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My name is Human and I'm a vacu-holic...
I just couldn't help myself, but now it's mine. I didn't realize it when I looked it earlier, but the machine is actually a three-speed Quik Broom Supreme model S-2155 with a four-amp motor, definitely a step or two up from the one I got in the mid-'80s and got rid of in the late '90s. The cord is perfect and when I plugged it in at the store, turned it on and the motor ran smoothly through all three speeds. I initially thought it was a pukey olive green but when I got it out in the daylight and away from the store's weird lighting it's actually a nice hunter green.
But what a strange design with a permanent cloth bag above a hard plastic dirt cup. I still don't like dirt cups and I have to confess that I was a bad citizen as I was leaving the store. The dirt cup was about a quarter full, so I dumped it out under the store's shrubs before I put the thing in the back of the car. Of course, fate had the last laugh when I got the thing home. I tried it out in the hallway and there was zero suction; it just pushed the dirt around. I ended up taking the entire nozzle foot apart and pulled out easily five times as much crud as had been in the dirt cup. Whoever had owned it previously must have never, ever cleaned it. Don't get me started...just don't... De-crudding the machine was a nasty job but that turned out to be the easy part. Getting it back together was the real challenge. It took several tries to get the rear wheels, the red rocker that extends and retracts the bristles, the little plastic bar that connects the red rocker to the bristle bar, add the little tiny rollers on the front to all line correctly at the same time so I could snap it back together and put in the screws. It reminded me of what I hate most about plastivacs and why I now have a deep appreciation for my metal monsters. At least this one is old enough that even though it's made of plastic it's not made in China. The tag on the back says it was assembled in Mexico from U.S. made components. I guess that dates it to maybe the early-to-mid-'90s, before NAFTA sent everything to China. I'm still trying to decide whether it was worth $20, but I've got 10 days to make up my mind. One thing's for sure. If I return it for a store credit, I'll definitely be taking it back in better shape than how I found it. | ||
| Post# 328053 , Reply# 3 6/25/2015 at 23:52 (3,220 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina) | ||
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Okay, here are a few photos of this beastie. I don't understand why the Web site reversed the sequence in which I uploaded them. The color is a little off. It's not teal. I'm not sure if Hoover encodes the date of manufacture into their serial numbers, but if the first four digits are a date code, it would have come off the line in October 1994.
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Post# 328087 , Reply# 4 6/26/2015 at 11:51 (3,220 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640) |
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I'd say | ||
| Post# 328168 , Reply# 5 6/26/2015 at 23:14 (3,219 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina) | ||
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I still haven't made up my mind. I'm going to put it through some further paces tomorrow, including putting it up against an Electrolux canister with a floor brush. My only other complaint about it is the cord is a bit short, only about 15 feet, although that is easily remedied with a drop cord, of which I have several.
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| Post# 328733 , Reply# 6 7/7/2015 at 01:06 (3,209 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina) | ||
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I guess I'm keeping it.
Well, the ten-day return period has expired, so I guess I'm keeping it. I swept the kitchen with a broom and dustpan this afternoon and then went back over it with the Quik Broom to get what was left behind. I think now that the floor is clean, the Quik Broom will be useful to help keep it that way, along with the hallway, the bathrooms and the parts of the dining room that aren't covered by a Persian rug. The one thing the Quik Broom absolutely sucks at is cleaning the carpeted bath mats, although I did figure out it would do a better job if I used pull strokes (back toward me) only. Push strokes (away from me) just redeposited the dirt back onto the mat. Fortunately, the machine is light enough and the mats are small enough that it's feasible to do it that way.
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| Post# 328743 , Reply# 7 7/7/2015 at 08:23 (3,209 days old) by BikerRay (Middle Earth) | ||
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