Anyone have a DirtDevil vac?

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jymbee

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Upstate NY
Seems to be quite a bit less suction power with our Dirt Devil vac since we started out this season. The collection bag was replaced last Fall along with some other work in that area and trying to remember whether there was some kind of filter or foam barrier on the other side of the door you pull off to gain access to the bag? Nothing there now which would seem to reduce the overall efficiency what with air leaks around that panel.

Also, I guess it's possible that there's a clog of some kind ion the hose between vac & house. There is a fair amount of suction so if there is a partial clog, not sure how to go about checking that.
 

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Disconnect the hose and sample the suction right at the inlet.  Just put your hand over it and compare to the hose end suction. If the difference is obvious, you have a big clog. If not obvious, you are still at square one.  You could try to pass a water hose through the vacuum hose to test/clear it.  Lay the vacuum hose out a straight as you can (outside?) and push the water hose through.
 
Got pets?  If so there's a good chance it's fur in the impeller.

We had a Dirt Devil built-in in one of our trailers.  After the first usage we never used it again because it had very little suction. 

At the time we had a Golden Retriever and a Lab.  Now we have two Goldens that shed a puppy a week.  We now carry a Shark upright.
 
Mine works great and we have 3 100lb boxers that shed like crazy . Disconnect the hose from the vac and drop a knife or screwdriver down the hose to see if its plugged and or change the bag
 
My Dirt Devil worked well - until I moved it to a different location to make room for a water filter.  In the new location, the hose droops down to form a "trap" because I did not shorten and rehang the hose.  At first, it worked fine, but slowly lost suction.  I thought the bag was full, but there was absolutely nothing in the bag.  I got the shop vac and sucked out the system from the hose inlet - and really unloaded a LOT of dirt and debris.  Then the system worked fine, but I know what is happening.

If your bag is not full and your portable hose passes the dropped tool test, then try sucking it out with the shop vac.

Let us know what you find!
 
grashley said:
My Dirt Devil worked well - until I moved it to a different location to make room for a water filter.  In the new location, the hose droops down to form a "trap" because I did not shorten and rehang the hose.  At first, it worked fine, but slowly lost suction.  I thought the bag was full, but there was absolutely nothing in the bag.  I got the shop vac and sucked out the system from the hose inlet - and really unloaded a LOT of dirt and debris.  Then the system worked fine, but I know what is happening.

If your bag is not full and your portable hose passes the dropped tool test, then try sucking it out with the shop vac.

Let us know what you find!

Thanks for the input-- worth looking into.

Someone else had messed with our setup and I can't remember if there were any foam "filters" inside the unit itself. If you take off the cover of your vac, is that just all metal? Any kind of filter in the back of the unit?
 
It's too cold to go out to look, but I am pretty sure there are foam filters in the box. Find a diagram for the unit and they will shop ALL parts, including filters. As I recall, there are two in addition to the bag, which is essentially a filter. All filters are readily available and inexpensive on RV Upgrades.
 
We also have a built-in Dirt Devil. The foam spacer between the dust bag and the screen in front of the impeller fell apart when changing bags, so i just installed a new bag and buttoned it up. That did not work, the bag directly against the screen created far too much suction blockage. I took a section of chicken wire, folded it 3X and put it between bag and screen, VIOLA it had a huge amount of suction.
That said, we bought a cordless vaccum because it is much easier than dragging 20' of hose around the MH. DW likes it so well she just bought a new Shark cordless so we can leave the old Hoover cordless in the house.
 
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