Mourning the loss of a beloved friend

This morning after successfully cleaning a 16 X 20 livingroom carpet and a good half of a 16 X 16 nasty beige diningroom carpet, my beloved, much used Hoover Steam Vac began to have health problems.

First it was a leak that almost went unnoticed, until I saw a black spot on the carpet that hadn't been there before. Attempts at resuscitation, by adding more duct tape to what was already holding it together, failed but enabled the heroic Steam Vac to finish cleaning the nasty beige dining room carpet.

At the end however, its trusty motor was making a very high pitched whining noise as well as a very low pitched grinding sound. At this point I decided to put it out of its misery and not go on to the one last carpet that needs cleaning. As I pulled the Steam Vac off the diningroom carpet one last time, my decision proved to be correct as the Vac left a trail of black, greasy water behind it.

The Vac was a faithful cleaner throughout its 8 year life. It cleaned the many carpets in this house over and over as I used to clean them every 3 months and went to an every 6 month schedule only in the last two years when my arthritis forced the issue. Not only was it faithful to clean my carpets, but many times it was lent out to clean the carpets of others. The Vac never complained.

So good bye good friend and thank you for all your hard work. Barring a sudden miracle at the hands of T (seeing as how I didn't let the smoke out of the motor), you will be out on the rubbish heap next week. I'd keep you for an example to all the carpet cleaners that will assuredly come after you, but you would only add clutter to the house I was trying to get clean for the holidays. I'll have to rely on my memories of all the times we spent working together to get me through until I can afford to replace you.

RIP

 

I don't know. I really loved my old one and don't exactly have the budget for a new one. I'll have to do some research and some sewing too!

Thankfully, I won't need to clean the main carpets again until about Easter so I have a while. I'll borrow my MIL to do the one bedroom carpet (mine of course) that still needs cleaning.

T did say that he MIGHT be able to fix it if the motor noise I heard was from the drive belt getting wet...if there is a drive belt...but I have to wait until he gets time. By that time, I'll have enough to buy a new one!

 

Dyson vaccuums are where its at! Of all the vacs I've gone through it is still the best I've had and so far I haven't been able to kill it. I've had mine about 5 years or so now, maybe longer as I tend to forget how long I've had stuff and just the other day realized that my "new" dishwasher is nine years old and my "new" washer is 6 years old.

On a more positive note, after doing about a minutes worth of shopping the other day I found that a new steam vac isn't going to cost as much as I feared, but the new model isn't nearly as heavy as my old one. I'll have to find out if Hoover makes a heavier model, though a lighter version might be better for the old arthritis.