Thread Number: 8924
Anybody ever work on one of these critters?
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Post# 98809   5/22/2010 at 02:11 (5,059 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

Okay, this is a Hoover Model F6030-900 carpet cleaner, trade name "Steam Vac." There are a number of similar designs on the market. I've worked on another Hoover similar to this but with a hose made of superior material. The other one belongs to one of my daughters and we've borrowed it a few times to clean carpets. These machines work quite well for their intended task. Since borrowing one, we've kinda wanted one of our own but have held off. Recently, I was driving down a local street and this one was sitting on the curb on Spring Cleaning Day, waiting for trash pickup. I stopped and went up to the house to tell the owner I was taking it, and she said it worked but had a broken hose.

I took it home in my '72 Ford station wagon that I use for scrounging. This machine has a dual feature in that it will clean carpet with a set of rotating brushes and in that case the detergent is applied directly into the area of the brushes. The other mode is a hand operation and that's where the hose comes in. Via a selector switch, the operator can use the hose and various hand attachments to clean upholstery, carpeted stairs, around edges, etc.

It didn't take long to find the ruptured hose. It is of a notorious material, at least in my experience. It is clear and the spiral winding may be seen inside it. As it ages, it embrittles and crimped turns are the first casualties.

These machines are pretty busy inside with lots of parts and little hoses going here and there. In addition to repairing the hose, I took the turbine out that powers the brushes and cleaned out the ducting. I also thoroughly cleaned out the big nozzle that sucks the dirty water and detergent out of the carpet as it had about a half-pound of dog hair glued inside it.

These machines are mostly plastic parts, but reasonably good quality as plastic goes. The real weak link on these is that clear made-in-China hose. I've had another run-in with that material before, see below.

I repaired this hose by cutting off the kinked, broken end, and regluing the fresh section into the socket. This was more difficult than it sounds, because they use some pretty tough glue which all has to be cleaned out, plus there is a smaller line inside the hose which is for supplying detergent to the accessory on the far end. The connection for this must also be reamed out and reglued. I used epoxy for this smaller line, and silicone sealer for the outer hose.



Post# 98810 , Reply# 1   5/22/2010 at 02:12 (5,059 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

Closer pic of the labels:



Post# 98811 , Reply# 2   5/22/2010 at 02:13 (5,059 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

This is what the hose looks like. Very bad stuff.



Post# 98812 , Reply# 3   5/22/2010 at 02:14 (5,059 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

Now I said I'd had another run-in with that type of Chinese-made clear hose. First time, it was with a Hoover Model H3000 hard floor cleaner. It has a short length of that material from the vac to the holding tank. I had to make one out of two of these machines.



Post# 98814 , Reply# 4   5/22/2010 at 02:17 (5,059 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

Also lots of little plastic parts in this machine. It works good, though. I'm not real sure either of these things or the many others like them were even meant to be repaired. I think they were meant to last a few years, or several carpet cleanings, then be discarded when they broke down and the owners expected to run out and buy another one. Luckily, there are plenty of broken ones out there to be used as donors for parts.



Post# 98844 , Reply# 5   5/22/2010 at 13:43 (5,058 days old) by vintageroyal611 ()        

You appear to have one of the last SteamVacs made in North Canton before the TTI takeover. Whats the serial number on that beast?

Post# 98857 , Reply# 6   5/22/2010 at 15:26 (5,058 days old) by portable (Corvallis, OR)        
Those Floor Mates

portable's profile picture
were notorious for the short hose failure you found. An awful lot of them that were tossed had nothing more wrong with them than that.

I can't speak for the Steam Vac, though the one I had (earlier version) had problems with dribbling solution from the hose. It was either a weak spring action at the hose-end, or a bad seal. Brett Schiewe bought mine and fixed it.


Post# 98889 , Reply# 7   5/22/2010 at 23:11 (5,058 days old) by vacman117 (Chicago, IL)        
*JEALOUS*

vacman117's profile picture
I have wanted one of those Widetrack Steam Vacs with the headlights so bad for so long! My cousin used to have one when I was younger but threw it away because it was "leaky". Great find!

Post# 98897 , Reply# 8   5/23/2010 at 00:14 (5,058 days old) by gmerkt (Edmonds WA)        

Well, I'll have to tell my wife that there are other people out there who dink around with these things. She thinks I'm crazy, along with my vintage pressure cookers, etc.

The serial number on the Steam Vac Model F6030-900 is 05010001356. I hadn't noticed the "made in USA" tag on it, but did notice all the hecho en Mexico parts which should've clued me in, as stuff made in China doesn't say that on it.

I still say the clear plastic hose is made in China, but I could be wrong about that. The Floor Mate is made in China and has the same hose that is a frequent failure part. Yes, I've seen a number of those sitting in thrift stores with ruptured hoses.

I'm bound and determined to find a substitute hose for that clear krap, but haven't yet. I don't know how long my resection job is going to last on the Steam Vac, but so far so good until I get the substitute hose.

Oh those headlights aren't just decorative. They really put out a surpising amount of light.

Somehow it gives me perverse pleasure to recondition or somehow bring back a sick appliance to a state of usefulness. Cheating the manufacturers (wherever they may be) out of a bit of planned obsolescence or selective part failure to promote replacement tickles the doo-doo out of me. Real joy comes from reconditioning with improvised parts.


Post# 98916 , Reply# 9   5/23/2010 at 14:07 (5,057 days old) by vintageroyal611 ()        

your steamvac was made in may of 2001. DEFINITELY a North Canton machine. hold on to that one!


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