September 24, 1992
Dear Everyone:
I finally figured out what was wrong with my vacuum
cleaner. It was busted.
For some time now, I've been trying to clean my
carpet with my Eureka® upright vacuum cleaner and it wasn't working.
It was hard to push and it
wouldn’t pick up so much as a piece of lint.
It's been this way, pretty much,
since “Jeannie” borrowed it. “Jeannie”
borrowed it because her vacuum cleaner was in the shop because it was
busted.
Do we see a pattern forming here?
Usually, when a vacuum cleaner doesn't work, it's
because the bag is full. Let’s
face it, how often do you replace the bag?
As often as you notice that it's
not picking anything up anymore. It's
not like you do it every week, or even every month, right?
But this time, “Jeannie” had already replaced the
bag (she also had noticed that it wasn't picking anything up).
So I looked under the cleaner and
the roller was jammed with
hair. “Jeannie” has a long-haired
cat, remember? That's why she
couldn't wait until her cleaner came back from the shop.
So, with a pair of scissors and a kitchen knife and
a lot of swearing, I managed to cut away all the cat hair.
I also dug out a quarter that had
been caught up in the roller. (I
got to keep the quarter. Call it
a service charge.)
Now the roller was free to spin around, but the
vacuum still wasn't picking anything up.
And it was still hard to push around.
But, I'm
a busy person, with more important things on my mind than cleaning the
carpet. That's one of those
things that you save until the weekend to do and then, suddenly the
weekend is over and you haven't gotten around to doing the carpet, so it
can wait until next week. Or the
week after. Or the week after
that.
Until one day when you notice that the carpet
really is getting pretty grungy and it
is, after all, an investment.
So you really ought to get off
your rusty-dusty and get the vacuum cleaner fixed.
On the weekend, of course.
To prepare for this Weekend Project (Get Vacuum
Cleaner Fixed), I started browsing through the Yellow Pages and found
that there are several establishments in the general area that will
service (or sell you) a vacuum cleaner. Including
one that advertised pick-up and delivery.
I figured, this vacuum isn't that big.
I can put it in the car myself.
All this started me thinking.
I 'll bet that roller isn't
supposed to be able to spin
around freely. I'll bet
something is supposed to be
attached to it and that something broke, probably about the time that
quarter made its entrance.
So I tried turning the vacuum cleaner over and,
sure enough, there's a plate on the bottom of it that's astonishingly
easy to remove. And there was the
broken doohickey that supposed to make the rollers go around.
Mind you, I did all this
without my
Complete-Fix-It-Yourself Book, because that was still at “Jeannie’s”
where I'd left it after she got a pair of pantyhose wrapped around the
inside of the drum. But last
week, I made “Jeannie” find the Book and confirmed that I could replace
the doohickey (called a "drive belt") as long as I got the
exact same make and model as the original.
There was a minor delay at this point because I had
to take my car in for its 67,500-mile Poke-and-Prod and by the time I
got back last Saturday, the vacuum cleaner service and parts place was
already closed. But Monday night,
I went straight from the vanpool pick-up-and-drop-off point to the
vacuum cleaner service and parts place (I had cleverly written down the
Make and Model number of the cleaner, including the Serial Number, just
in case).
It took the sales clerk all of 5 seconds to hand me
the package of new drive belts (they come two to a package).
And it took me all of 15 minutes
to take the plate off, vacuum out the interior (with the canister--I
have a two-vacuum household), and install the new drive belt.
Most of this time was spent
trying to convince the belt to stretch far enough to fit over the drive
post.
Total cash outlay: $4.33.
If you count the quarter I got
from inside the vacuum cleaner, it only cost me $4.08.
I'm getting pretty good at this homeowner stuff.
I can now repair leaky faucets,
call the plumber when my hot water heater's nipples get corroded, and
fix the vacuum cleaner all by myself.
And the next time “Jeannie” wants to borrow my
vacuum because hers isn't working, I'm going to 1) lock mine up; 2) flip
hers over and see if it's just the drive belt.
Love, as always,
Pete
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