About three weeks ago, a woman emailed me in response to my wanted ad that I had on Craigslist looking for vintage vacuum cleaners. She sent me pictures of two very old General Electrics that were found in an attic of a deceased relative. She told me they both ran but wasn't sure how well they ran. I really had to think it over as she wanted $50 each for them. I told her right off the bat that I couldn't do that much and that they would likely need a lot of work. We agreed on $30 each, but things came up and I wasn't able to see them right away. She emailed me a week after we talked and said that she was going to list them for $25 each on Craigslist. I told her I was still interested and set up a time to meet with her. I purchased both of them for $25 each yesterday. I plugged them both in and they powered right up. She told me that their relative had actually been dead for ten years, so this was the first time in at least a decade that they had been ran. I was very happy to see that the GE Deluxe was a two speed!
I took them home and tried to clean them out as much as I could. The older of the two's bag collar is rusted to the housing so I'll have to WD-40 that to get it off. I turned it upside down above a trash can to dump out the dust from the top of the bag. I believe it's the original bag as the iconic GE logo is faintly visible in the middle of it. It's a model 69 from around 1926, based on the patent dates. It runs fine but will need to be serviced. I took low grade sand paper to get the thick dust off the metal, then polished it. It turned out nicely.
The other GE is a General Electric AVF19 Deluxe that has a low/high speed switch. This one's brushroll is in close to MINT condition, as well as the bag. The only thing is that the collar on the top of the bag is rusted and semi-fused to the bag, so I had to dump all the nasty dirt out the tiny entrance to the bag. I'm not worrying about it much though as it won't see much use. It also had a General Electric light bulb in it! I put in a new bulb and it works! I finally replaced the belt, oiled the brushroll bearings and polished the metal. It turned out OK. There doesn't appear to be any missing pieces on the machine. Based on a forum on here, this was made around 1948.
I'm really happy with my finds. They really compliment my GE hand vac and Swivel Top very nicely! The model 69 is my very first straight suction only upright in my collection.
A little Mother's Mag and some elbow grease and they'll look even better. As for the bag slide on the AVF19, it can be loosened up if you work with it, but do this patiently and carefully, so as not to damage the bag in the process. Looks like you have some nice vintage machines in your collection.
Jeff
Post# 338261 , Reply# 2 11/29/2015 at 08:29 (3,070 days old) by FantomFan(Rochester, New York)
I just love General Electric cleaners! They are well-made, aesthetically pleasing, but often under-appreciated. I have several GE machines and hope to find more examples as nice as these!
Post# 338263 , Reply# 4 11/29/2015 at 09:04 (3,070 days old) by FantomFan(Rochester, New York)
Comes to the Rescue!
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