I've obtained an Electrolux vacuum cleaner from one of the local auction houses, which, from a bit of research, I have dated to the 1930s and it seems to be the model Z25.
This model has featured on the forum before in April 2017 as shown here:-
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?p=941758
I used to have a couple of these type of cleaners years ago, but let them go in the house move of 20 years ago and regretted it ever since, so was pleased to obtain this one. The ones I had weren't the same as this one and were probably slightly newer, but not by a lot, and not as complete with boxes and attachments as the one I've now got.
The cleaner showed signs of dampish storage somewhere, perhaps a damp cupboard in a damp old house, or a loft or shed. The original two core black rubber covered mains lead was white with mold, also the hose had got some white mold in places and has gone a little inflexible with age.
The first thing I did was to check the resistance across the two pins of the mains input connection on the cleaner - it measured open circuit regardless of the switch position on the top. I thought that this was actually a good sign as when these motors burn out they usually read a very low resistance, so possibly bad brush contact after decades of storage or a faulty switch. After dismantling, I found the switch was O/C. I checked the brushes which actually looked to be either very little used or new. This could have indicated that the machine had not had a lot of use in its life, or that the brushes were replaced shortly before the cleaner was taken out of use, the screw caps that hold them in place were not particularly tight, so possibly replacements to try to cure a possible fault, which would hopefully turn out to be just the switch.
I noted that with a little finger poked through the slots shown in the first picture below I could just reach the armature and commutator, so I tried to rotate the motor, but it seemed to be frozen. Looking through the slots at what could be seen of the armature, it didn't look particularly burnt, so there still seemed hope for the motor. I resisted the temptation to insert a 'tool' through the slots to try to lever the motor round as this would have very likely caused damage to the armature or commutator segments. Removing the whole motor unit involved removing one particular screw with a very strange sort of sealing compound on it that almost looked like some sort of asbestos type gunge, although it did look as though the seal had been broken before. I did try to remove this screw, but couldn't easily do it, so decided to leave it at this stage and instead fix the switch and try giving it a very quick shot of mains to hopefully jolt the motor free.
I'd already checked the two core mains lead for continuity and shorts and it measured fine. It had a very '1960s' type 'Bat Brand' made in Hong Kong 13 amp white plug fitted, so I opened it up to check that it actually had a proper fuse fitted and not a nail or bit of silver paper. It had a normal 13 amp fuse fitted, although the red and black wires were reverse fitted which makes no difference for this cleaner and there's no earth provision, just the screw on the neutral needed tightening, so it was ready to go. I already had the cleaner outside and blown all the dust and muck out of it with my other more modern blower cleaner, so while it was outside I gave it a very quick shot of mains, controlled from a switched socket just inside the door of the house. The motor freed instantly with a cloud of dust as expected from what still remained within the fan housing, the filter and the bag had been removed, so success, it ran perfectly.
The cleaner runs smoothly and sucks as would be expected from one of these in good order. I was wondering if the cleaner had possibly sucked up water due to some rust on the grid in front of the fan unit at the bottom of the bag housing, but obviously not. I found that there was dirt and fluff still in the bag from the decades ago when it was last used. On dissecting this fluff I found a Green Shield stamp and a one shilling grand slam bingo slip from 'Star bingo and social club'. I turned the bag inside out and gave it a good brush and blow outside in the garden, also giving the filter a brush and blow.
The downside of this cleaner that I didn't notice at the time in the auction room was that some of the accessories are missing, in particular the all important large diameter Bakelite screw in adapter for the 'blow' end, and also one of the two long plated metal pipes. The rubber parts have all somewhat hardened with age.
I could do with finding particularly the adapter for the 'blow' end of the cleaner, although the likelihood of finding this part are slim.
Pictures of the vacuum cleaner and its box with the attachments in, shown below:-