A fair old while ago, one of SWMBO's Aunts told me that she had been given 2 old 'hoovers'. She has some bagless samsung upright, which is at the end of it's short life, and was interested to see if I could do anything with the cleaners she had been given. I told her that of course I would love to help, bring them round.
Much time passed, but one day, when I was adjusting my throttle cable on the car, she arrived bearing gifts
One vacuum is a crappy horrible shitty chinese piece of toss, the other is a Scottish Hoover Purepower!
A quick look at the pair revealed that the Dust Manager(less) was missing a key part of it's 'cyclone' assembly, backed up by auntie mentioning that most of the dust missed the bin, and she had to clean the filter off after every use
. Luckily, the PurePower had been spared any abuse as it did not have any bags.
I told her to leave them with me, and I would get the best one working. What I actually did was throw the DM into the shed, and take the PurePower inside for some love!
I had a genuine filter kit and some bojack bags for the PP, which helped it's case, plus, it's a fairly early PurePower, made in Scotland when there was still a shred of UK-Ness about Hoover, although I imagine that when this was built (1999), the executives were touring the sweatshops of china in readiness for the move...
I thought this meant it was made in Wales, but someone far more knowledgable than myself said that the warrant was in the Merthyr name as that's where the head office was (washing machines were made in Merthyr), the vacuums made in Cambuslang (backed up by the Back to the Floor programme that I had forgotten about, which showed piles and piles of these, and the early Telios machines in the warehouse as no one was buying them!). The PP machines have their fair share of issue's, having been pared to the bone by this stage, really early ones are reported to be much better, this is a 'middle' one I think, they are really cheap and nasty now
So, possibly the last UK Hoover model there is. Let's see what it's like (If I was doing a video I'd have put on a RustySkull type voice there...) but I'm not, I'm typing this with everyone in bed, and my 'night' lemsip pill kicking in, so you'll have to provide your own version of voices there!
It has all it's tools
The dusting brush was full of fluff
which soon picked out revealing a very good condition dusting brush
The upholstry tool was ok
Extension tube and Scabbard
The very long hose comes off the machine
and strips apart for washing
At the back of the cleaner is a door
behind which sits the post motor filter
behind which sits alot of dust
The pre filter sits inside the bag compartment
We see our good friend Plaster Dust here
and a good deal of it seems to have got past the filtration system too, but then not even Dyson or Sebo are immune from this
Whilst the filter door is in my hand, the catch pops out the top
The top handle is held on with 2 screws
Inside sits a part threaded peg that takes one of the screws
Behind the top handle sits an screw
and behind the bag door sits 2 more
which releases the switch housing
The switch and bag full LED cover pop out of the cover
The mains cable (top right) is removed to stop it getting in the way
and the rest of the wiring can be dismantled
This is the pressure switch that activates the bag full/blockage light
and once removed releases the plate that holds all the wiring together
Moving down now
and the bag holder screws also release the rear hose clip
The bag entry port releases the tool holder
The rubber bag door seal pulls away too, which releases the spinal wiring and bag full light air tube
The clip that holds the 2 tools on pops out with a little help from a flat bladed friend
Top half of the machine done, it's time to move downwards. To get the hood off, the height control knob needs to be removed
and (awful picture alert), removing the 2 screws from the back of the hood enables the hood to be removed
The underside of the hood was a bit dirty, and the seal was mullered
Brushroll felt guides removed
The Purepower is the last (I think) Hoover to come with a proper Activator. Sadly this one was very worn, and the bearings seized on one side. It span, but sounded like crap
I kept the end caps incase they ever came in handy one day
Time to split the floor bit from the body bit now, there's one of these either side, which flick out
and free up the lower chassis
The rear wheels are ok, but have the trademark purepower 'fat girl' wobble that some DC01's get when the wheels are on the way out
The front bumper guard lifts off
2 more brushroll felts lift out
This bit was a bit do or die, this is where most Purepowers, from the very early ones right up to the one's being sold today break
It seemed to work ok, but would there be any hidden damage?
some tentative flicking of tabs
and it was released
Luckily, all in good order. It was a bit stiff to operate, hopefully a good wash and polish will free it up a bit
Tiny seal sits where the hose goes
The centre wheels are held in with a metal spring
which once removed allows the assembly to pivot right up and slot out of the chassis
The top part of the height adjuster mechanism slides over to a cut out and lifts out
That part done, it's time for the last bit, the motor! Motor cover unscrewed
and the motor and seal removed
Fancase seal removed from the motor
This is the same motor that was in my Vortex, and it's in much better condition than that was (before I replaced it with a NOS motor anyway)
Not being wound up to 2000w probably helped it here
With the motor removed, the machine was stripped! The washing machine had finished too, and I learnt a lesson...
Purepower filters don't like being washed...
So, plastics washed and polished, rubber seals cleaned and the motor dusted down, it's time for re-assembly
The motor fan was surprisingly clean, so I left it alone and refitted the fancase seal
The motor housing seal was a pain to get fitted correctly, but we got there in the end
air tube fitted
Motor fitted
and the motor housing cover screwed down to hold it all together
Because all the wires were flopping about, I wired it all back together first to keep them out of the way
and fitted the bag door seal to tuck them away even better
The front and back bits were screwed back together
Switch wired up and LED placed
Mains cable fitted
Tool clip fitted
Switch housing screwed down
and it's time to crack out the new parts!
Pre motor filter fitted
A bag
The bag door catch was refitted
as was the bag door itself
Post motor filter fitted
and the cover refitted
Moving on to the lower chassis now, and the wheels were re-assembled, with the hub caps looking much shinier
Height adjuster refitted
wheels refitted
release pedal fitted
Brushroll felts fitted (this picture highlights that not everything came up spotless sadly)
The polish residue buffed off the bumper too after looking at this picture
The lower and upper parts were mated once more
and that, for now, was that. I refitted the hood to avoid it getting lost/broken, and gave her a final hand polish to get rid of the fingermarks after re-assembly (I machined it whilst it was in bits)
Not 100%, but a big improvement
(The hose had not dried fully at this stage)
I forgot about it for a few weeks, as several Dysons came in to be fixed, so eventually I grabbed the hose and put that back together
which made it look more like a Vacuum Cleaner again
and that was that, again for the moment.
Until today!!! Waiting for me at work were 2 small parcels taped together to form one parcel for postage reasons
These had arrived on Thursday, but I was off work as we were away, and my colleagues were very exited to know what was in them. Then very disappointed when I opened them
I wasn't upset though, far from it, Yvonne, who sits opposite me said my face was hilarious as I opened them, how can I get excited about these she asked? I said "In the same way you get excited about your card making stuff", and suddenly she understood
I only bought one, but to apologise for the the delay with postage the guy sent me 2, which was very kind of him! Thanks Seamus!
The bristles are immensely stiff
So, off with the hood
and out with the new belts I bought but did not open until now
Ta-Dah!
and the result?
Bootiful! It really does groom well. Next step is for it to go back to Amys Aunt, and see if she wants to keep it. If she doesn't decide to want it, it will find a place in the loft! If she does want it, I'll buy a pack of microfilter bags as the crummy paper ones leaked a bit of dust just from that demo video! I won't even ask her to cover the £15 the belts and brushroll cost me, as it was worth it to refurbish a Purepower.
Now I want one for my collection of course! I have a spare brushroll now though, better find something to fit it too...
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