Pictures soon to come!

O got my first Filter Queen from an older woman who bought it in Arizona from a (now defunct) dealer over there.  She used it regularly, but still had some "For Demonstration Purposes Only" filter cones with  it.  I cleaned it up as best I can and am waiting on new batting material.

How do you remove the black plastic around the handle on top?  I really need to clean the metal underneath the plastic "web" on top.

How does the performance of this model compare to the current 90th Anniversary?  This machine is pretty quiet, has a bit over 80 inches of water lift, and I have yet to test the airflow.  It feels decent, but I suspect later models have more "oomph."

Are there any maintenance issues I should be aware of?  Known flaws, wear points, etc.  It sounds good, so I don't think I need to take it into a shop.

Thanks and feel free to share your Filter Queen stories!

Switched out the batting today.  The old stuff was pretty dark, though it isn't as bad as I would have thought for a machine this old.  I have it loaded up with a genuine bio-cone, charcoal cone, and medi-pure filter.  It registered around 25k on the particle counter, but it is hard to tell what is what considering that this is a flow through motor and it is old and dusty.  Most everything I see would indicate that very little gets past all the cones.

The power nozzle is apart waiting for a new brush roll and belt.  The headlight is still working!  She has a few scuffs, and the lower edge of the decal sticker was ripping up so I added some tap to stop the spread.  It was filthy inside and out, but otherwise in good shape.

The elderly woman likely bought it from "Southwest Systems," a Filter Queen dealer in Yuma, Arizona (160 South 3rd Ave. Suite C).  I have a letter in an old envelope of cones that says they had changed their address in 1999.  I tried to Google them and it appears they no longer exist.  I always hope they left the business for good reasons (retirement, etc.) rather than the business failing.

Behold the other goodies!

Oh, and I do have the hose and such.  It's in great shape but needs to be wiped down.  She was using this machine regularly.  Used to use her Kirby G5 too, until she moved into a place with very little carpet.  Based upon some of the spare tools she had, she must have purchased at the minimum:

An older, 2nd Generation Kirby, likely traded in for the G5

An Electrolux

A Sears branded machine of some kind

A Hoover

And her Filter Queen

That's a lot of potentially fantastic machines!

I did the same when I received my 70th anniversary one.  I didn't know there was a charcoal batting though, nice. I checked the brushes and cleaned it all inside and out b/c I wanted to start 'a-fresh' to learn what it really could do/sound/feel like.  I've been pleasantly surprised using it, but am a tad bummed at learning its flow limitations too ( from Blackheart's findings and from my own gauge testing).  This teal green is definitely my favorite color that they produced.

I may have worded it funny, but there isn't charcoal batting, just an extra charcoal cone.  Three cones in total.

I actually think the silver and black model looks really good (one model behind the current).  I do want to get a 90th anniversary though.