Eureka!

You might recall this post, in which I described fixing my vacuum cleaner.  Well, it turns out that I hadn't done such a wonderful job as I thought.  Sure, it seemed to be vacuuming my bedroom rug okay, but I did have to run it back and forth more often than I thought I should have.

Yesterday, I tried using the hose-and-tube attachment to get the little bits of grass and whatnot that had collected at the base of my bed.  Surely they should've been sucked up, shouldn't they?  When I placed my hand over the tube, though, I felt nearly no suction at all.  I pulled off the tube and looked through it; no blockage.  I placed my hand over the hose; little suction.  After shutting off and unplugging the vacuum (safety note:  always disconnect your power source before you work on anything), I opened the compartment, and the bag fell out.  It was (for all intents and purposes) empty, and no debris came with it.  Where was all the stuff I had been vacuuming over the past several months?

I saw that dead leaves from my office plants clogged the exit of the suction hose, even though I (thought I) had cleaned them all out months ago.  After several attempts to get them all, I knew my fingers wouldn't reach far enough, so I looked at where the hose entered the other side of the vacuum and figured out that I could remove the hose.  I did so and removed more leaves.  Some dust fell out, too.  Finally, I had cleared the blockage.

Okay, then, why was the vacuum still not picking up the little bits of grass and whatnot?  I removed the hose again.  Naturally, it was too long and wiggly for me to look through, so I held my hand over one end and blew into the other.  Nothing.  Aha!  It must still be clogged.  I placed one end over the trash can and blew into the other end.  Nothing.  I blew harder; I might've felt something shift.  I took a deep breath and blew again -- and two sausage-like clumps of dust fell into the trash can.  (Eww.)  I blew again, and two more followed them; then I was blowing clear.

Okay, I really mean it this time.  I well and truly fixed my vacuum cleaner.  When I turned it on, it growled and clung to my rug like an animal.  It sucked up everything on the first go and didn't leave trails for me to revacuum.  It even sucked up the little bits of grass and whatnot.  Yay!

On top of that, I tried it on my vacuum storage bags (see also this post).  First off, the hose pulled itself onto the vents on the bags like a predator on prey.  Second, the air left the bags as quickly as intended.  You see?  The problem wasn't the bags; it was the vacuum cleaner.

Well, one of the bags was the problem.  After I finished and shut off the vacuum, I heard a hissing sound; it was air leaking into one of the bags.  I located the hole, covered it with a small piece of packing tape, and resuctioned.  It held.  That's two things fixed.  Am I a genius, or what?

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is why two bags slowly regained air by last night.  I think I'll open and reseal them before suctioning today.  If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll just cram them into moving boxes right away, so they won't have any room to expand with more air.  My brain is tired; I don't want to have to solve any more problems this week.