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Author Topic: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb  (Read 9974 times)

Offline beko1987

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Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« on: March 29, 2016, 11:45:07 pm »
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...
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!


Offline MVacs

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2016, 05:31:02 am »
What was the other Chinese machine? Just a Hoover knock off?

Offline beko1987

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2016, 07:51:04 am »
No,  its a Hoover DustManager,  but the proper horrible 2000w made in China one.  You pick both up and the purepower feels much heavier.

The other one will go to the tip one day when Ive had a few parts off it
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Parwaz7862

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2016, 09:38:41 pm »
Dustmanagers are bagless versions
Purepowers are bagged versions, though I believe you can convert a dust manager into a purepower by replacing the bag collar thing and there you go!  :icon_nod:

This thread is very good as always :thumbsup: always makes me want that certain vacuum, lol. Does the bag light work on yours? I quite like the feature

When I saw that brand new activator I was like "omg thats gonna revitalise the whole vacuum performance" .
There's a purple 1300W purepower on gumtree with a green activator with red bristles, guy wants £30

Are brand new activators available on eBay as non gen or is it a rare part Seamus had loads of?


Offline beko1987

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2016, 10:18:46 pm »
Thanks! The light does not appear to work,  but tbh I dont know if it did before,  so meh!

The new activator transformed it! He has a few,  got them a while ago apparently,  Ive never seen one on ebay,  and the ones you can buy now are all bristles and no agitation

Think it goes to its new home tomorrow,  Amy was on the phone earlier.  Hope I find my own at the car boot this year
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Parwaz7862

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2016, 10:25:22 pm »
Me too! the ad on Gumtree expired for the purple one and hasn't been relisted sadly, hopefully he will relist as I like the colour

I would love a red one with light like yours, or a black one looks nice and smart IMHO

Offline IainRoss

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2019, 11:03:39 am »
Great article about the Purepoint . Thanks for posting.
I have to fix a problem on one where the handle will not stay vertical.
Before I strip the thing down do you know whether this is something plastic on the main plastic frame ?
Thanks Iain

Offline beko1987

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2019, 12:59:54 pm »
Hi!

It'll be your release pedal. Cheap enough on ebay, you need to remove the hood, and remove the cleaner head, then remove it. Should be covered above in the pictures
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline IainRoss

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Re: Hoover Purepower U3350 - Stripdown and Refurb
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2019, 01:07:45 pm »
Thanks for the info

 

 

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