Electrolux Silverado Deluxe canister vacuum

The majority of what I take apart is either the victim of obsolescence, shoddy construction, or most often it seems, a combination of the two. Buet every once in a while, I run across a relic from the Bygone Era of Solid Construction that finally gave up the ghost after years of service. I always feel a twinge of guilt when I scrap them and only keep a few arbitrary and minor trophies instead of keeping the whole thing and repurposing it. Case in point, this Electrolux. It sat on my floor for close to a week while I tried to think of something that I could make out of it that would use the body, but in the end, I couldn't come up with anything.

A bit of online research revealed this vacuum to have probably been built circa 1972 to 1975. This machine is skirting 35 years old, and it's design is very much of it's time. A lot of the parts are some sort of high-impact plastic, but the main body is steel, as is some of the accenting (note the shiny piece on the top). Visually, it falls somewhere in between the Jet Age swoopiness of the late 1960s and the stoic utilitarianism of early 1980s appliances. It's not as iconic as the old Kirby vacuums, but it's still a rather striking design for something that sucks up dirt and cat hair. And for some reason, the overall shape sort of reminds me of the Landmaster from Damnation Alley.

That's the motor right there. It didn't want to come out, which goes to show that my rule of disassemblability=quality does not always hold true.

The settings control is mechanical rather than electronic.

The top piece comes completely off. The rubber tube coming out of the main body channels the exhaust air into the air vents on that top piece, and it obviously wasn't cleaned out very often. It strikes me as odd for whatever reason that the main body doesn't have much indication beyond the screw holes that the plastic piece fits there. No indentation or recess stamped into the sheet metal or anything.

A vacuum cleaner with hubcaps. Seriously old school.

I wish I had enough reason to justify keeping more than just this small selection of parts. Or at least more storage room in the apartment. But even as the bulk of the old Electrolux goes on to the landfill, a few pieces remain behind as reminders of its 30-plus years of existence. And hell, even if I end up throwing the parts away, it still got soething of an online obituary, which is more than most vacuum cleaners get.