Eengstro’s Blog » Kenmore http://blog.eengstro.com Just another typical white geek Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:49:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Kenmore vacuum, back from the dead http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/23/kenmore-vacuum-back-from-the-dead http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/23/kenmore-vacuum-back-from-the-dead#comments Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:06:28 +0000 Eengstro http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/23/kenmore-vacuum-back-from-the-dead/ I noted that my Kenmore vacuum tried to swallow its own brush bar recently. I was surprised to discover that the vacuum was still covered by an extended warranty that I had purchased. I say this is surprising because I normally don’t purchase extended warranties. Naturally, I discovered this additional warranty coverage several days after I had purchased the Dyson. Oops. That said, I’m keeping the Dyson; it’s too good of a vacuum to return.

The itemized ticket shows that Sears spent about $58 fixing my vacuum. The extended warranty cost about $20. So, I guess that extended warranty was worth it.

]]> http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/23/kenmore-vacuum-back-from-the-dead/feed 0 Kenmore 35726 vacuum, K.I.A. http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/11/kenmore-35726-vacuum-kia http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/11/kenmore-35726-vacuum-kia#comments Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:53:45 +0000 Eengstro http://blog.eengstro.com/2007/08/11/kenmore-35726-vacuum-kia/ A few weeks ago, my two-year-old Kenmore 35726 vacuum (Epinions here) suffered an interesting failure. While vacuuming, I began smelling a burning odor. I stopped, and took the cover off, expecting a failing belt. However, the belt and brush agitator were fine. I put it back together and resumed vacuuming. A few minutes later, it began emitting smoke and spraying bits of plastic from the underside. This time, removal of the cover revealed that the right end-cap of the brush agitator had melted. The agitator, no longer supported on the right side, then struck the underside of its cover, liberating parts of it onto my carpet.

I was never a very big fan of this vacuum. Emptying its bin was a dirty chore, as most of the dust would compress itself onto the filter rather than settling into the bottom of the bin. The most effective way to clean the dust off the filter was to beat the filter against the inside of the Dumpster. Obviously, this was rather messy.

More importantly, the parts that suffered damage in the failure were very flimsy plastic. I was quite annoyed to discover just how flimsy the guts of this vacuum were.

I may still fix this vacuum at some point (possibly for donation), but in the meantime it has been replaced with a Dyson DC07. What finally sold me on the pricey Dyson was the five year warranty and the bottom-empty bin. And it really sucks — in a good way.

(Note: the cyan Dyson DC07 “original upright” sold at WalMart only has a two year warranty. If you want the five year warranty, you need to buy a yellow DC07 “all floors” at a normal store.)

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