BYERS VACUUM primarily serves Champaign County communities such as Champaign, Urbana,  Mahomet, St Joseph, Savoy, Rantoul, Tolono, Philo, Sidney, Thomasboro, Ogden, Homer, Dewey, Fisher, etc. However, we have a number of customers coming from Vermillion County, Piatt County, Ford County, etc. towns like Danville, Oakwood, Catlin, Fithian, Tuscola, Monticello, White Heath, Villa Grove, Charleston, Paxton, Gibson City, Roberts, Farmer City, Mansfield, Deland, and others..

WHY BUY FROM BYERS VACUUM?

• Machines purchased from Byers Vacuum get priority service. Should you need a repair, as long as you own your machine, it will be done ahead of machines not purchased from us. Sometimes we are doing repairs in 1 or 2 business days, and sometimes we are running a week or more behind.
• We sell machines(especially the new ones) that we expect to be able to get parts for for years to come. Many of the importers of inexpensive imports sold at the chain stores assume you will not bother to repair their product and don't offer many parts or accessories.

NEW USED & REBUILT VACUUMS

We warranty what we sell, New, Used, or Rebuilt. Our quality rebuilt vacuums let you afford the Kirby, Electrolux, or other premium vacuum you've always wanted but just wasn't in your budget. Our new Miele canisters have the best filtration available, a host of features, and German craftsmanship. Oreck is the leader in light weight yet durable uprights. Sanitaire by Electrolux gives you the highest airflow and 6 height adjustments for superior cleaning on a wide range of carpets. Riccar has a large selection of American made uprights with On Board Tools, many of them under $400. The Riccar Vibrance line has one of the longest hoses on an OBT upright. The Riccar 2 motor Tandem Air uprights give superior air-flow for an OBT upright, and the ability to turn the brush off with the flick of your thumb. Lindhaus has some interesting products from Italy. Metropolitan builds a traditional metal tank type vacuum in the USA. Perfect imports a replica of the traditional metal Electrolux. Eureka, Fuller Brush, Carpet Pro, and Cirrus offer some lower priced units. Whatever your needs, Byers Vacuum probably has a vacuum for you, and that's what we specialize in, finding out what your needs are, and finding the vacuum to best do the job for you. Even cleaning the new FRIEZE and SHAG carpets.

Why We Don't Work On Some Products

     The vacuums in the list above we don't work on are mostly because we do not have parts available. Some, like Shark, the importer knows is an inexpensive product that is usually not economically repairable. The commercial brands, like Advance, Windsor, Castex, etc. usually only sell parts to their dealers, which are usually janitor supply businesses who specialize in maintenance equipment and supplies for hotels and other large commercial users(customers who buy floor wax in 5-55 gallon quantities).

     Dyson is a somewhat unique situation. The product is expensive enough(in spite of being made in Asia) that parts should be available. Dyson wanted independent warranty centers to do his warranty work at low cost, so he wouldn't have to pay American wages. Since most independents saw no reason to work for him at a deep discount from what regular customers pay for a repair, he had difficulty obtaining warranty centers. So he decided not to sell parts to anyone except authorized warranty centers. Since most people who work on vacuums and are knowledgeable about them don't like bagless and would say negative things about them ( I have the Reuters News report of the court case in England where his "no filters, no clogging, no loss of suction" ad was banned as being false[I've never seen a Dyson that didn't have at least 3 filters, and they DO clog]), he also decided an authorized Dyson service center has to buy 12 Dysons a year. That was to make it hard for a service center to say negative things about a Dyson since they have to sell them. That is why we cannot get parts for Dysons, because we chose NOT to become an authorized Dyson service center. We will put a service plug on the end of the cord, that is the ONLY repair we will currently attempt. There are some aftermarket (imitation) Dyson parts available, but I have heard that some of them are not well made. The situation could change in the future, if quality parts (genuine or otherwise) become available.

Carpet Extractors

     We also do not work on any brand of carpet extractor, such as the Bissell ProHeat, Hoover Steamvac, etc. Years ago we had a man from Vermilion County pick them up and work on them. We just acted as a drop-off center as a customer convenience. Too many customers got mad at us because the products are cheaply constructed and fail easily, so we stopped accepting them. The man that picked them up no longer lives in Illinois, so I know of no one who will work on them.

     A few years ago I commented to a customer in the carpet cleaning business, "I bet you have over $20,000 in equipment in your van, not counting the price of the van." His response was "double that". What this means is a professional has $40,000 worth of equipment, compared to a $100-$300 home unit. Of course the home unit isn't as good. The plastic is quite thin and fragile, the seals are poor, the pumps are poor, the hoses crack quite easily. IF you consider it costs $20 or more to rent a unit, and you pay $200 for a unit, and it lasts more than 10 uses, you've come out ahead, especially if you don't live near a store that rents them. Just don't look at it as an appliance, look at it like a disposable razor. I personally have trouble looking at things that way. I was brought up it's wasteful. AND we're running out of landfill to fill with disposable products. (I wash plastic spoons and reuse them, so that shows where I'm coming from).

This website is a work in progress. We just started it in September 2011. Much more material will be added as time permits.

Why Would Anyone Buy a Used Vacuum?

Why would anyone buy a used or rebuilt vacuum from me when they could buy a cheap Chinese vacuum at the big box store? Several reasons. We guarantee what we sell, and after the warranty is up we give discounts on parts and labor on machines we sold. Plus, machines we sold go to the head of the line to be repaired. Most of our rebuilt vacuums were much higher quality and much more expensive when they were new. If you like to think GREEN and RECYCLE, what better way to keep stuff out of the landfill than to use it instead of contributing to the balance of trade deficit by buying a cheap Chinese vacuum.

Why Would Anyone Repair a Vacuum?

     Why would anyone repair a vacuum cleaner? Why not? It's the GREEN thing to do, not putting old vacuums in the landfill. It might also be more economical than buying a comparable vacuum. We give FREE ESTIMATES on repairs, so it's your decision. While the big box stores sell lots of Chinese vacuums for under $100, better vacuums cost a lot more. Some (Kirby, Aerus, Filter Queen, Rainbow, TriStar) sell new for well over $1000(most of what we sell new is a lot less, but more than $100. Our average new vacuum sale for the 1st 10 months of 2011 was around $330.) Our average repair for the 1st ten months of 2011 was under $36. I'm not saying we can fix yours for $36, but we fixed a lot for that or less. Let us give you a FREE ESTIMATE.
      If you have a $59 vacuum that needs major repair, it probably isn't worth bringing in, unless it has sentimental value. To give you an idea what repairs cost, on machines not purchased from us(machines purchased from us get a big discount on labor and 10% off on parts), the minimum labor for a minor repair (like changing a belt, unclogging a hose, etc.) is $10, but there is NO charge if we don't repair it. replacing cords or switches runs around $30 labor and 5-$20 in parts on most machines. So if you have a vacuum that you know needs a cord and say also has a worn out brush($15-$30 on most) and say a $15 filter you know is shot and you don't think the machine is worth the $70-$90 that would be, then it isn't worth the gas to bring it in. A phone call (359-4VAC) explaining what model it is and what the problem is will get you a closer estimate, but I can't tell everything a machine needs without seeing it. But as I said, if you KNOW it needs these things, that gives you an idea. If you had a $250 vacuum that ran fine but you knew it needed those things, it would probably be worth doing. On a machine that doesn't run, I want to have approval to fix it if it's the cord or switch, with the understanding that if it's the motor or there are other things wrong we will call you and if you don't want it fixed, we'll give it back no charge. Many years ago I took a dozen or more screws out of a vacuum, found it was a bad switch, and called the customer with an estimate. She said "that old vacuum isn't worth $5". While $5 went a lot further 35 years ago than it does now, the principle is the same. If  a dead machine isn't worth $30-$45(broken wire, or bad cord, or bad switch) we won't take it apart. We like to give the estimates at the time it comes in, because we have so many repairs to do that if we took everything apart and called, and couldn't reach half the people, or they said "let me ask my spouse", we'd have machines apart all over and might get parts mixed up. So we don't want to open it up unless we can hopefully finish it and close it up again. Most dead machines are not the motor, but a cord, switch, or broken wire.

     I'm glad you found my website. I have an unshakable faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that God is with us at all times, even when it's not apparent. I know that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and yours. No sin is too terrible that the blood of Jesus doesn't wash us clean. All you have to do is repent of your sins and ask Jesus to be your Lord & Savior.

Donations to Recycle

     We take our cardboard & metal to recycling. We will gladly accept donations of metal vacuums or quality plastic vacuums(to scrap parts from to keep another vacuum out of the landfill). We do not need cheap plastic vacuums as there is almost nothing to recycle and no one will spend the money having one fixed so we don't need parts from them. Nor do we want Hoover Steam Vacs, Bissell Pro Heats, or other carpet extractors, as we do NOT work on them at all. If you have any questions, please call us, 359-4822. Please do not just abandon plastic vacuums in the parking lot, as they take up a lot of space in the dumpster, and we may have no use for them.

     If you know of a local recycler who will take ABS plastic(what most vacuums are made of) or styrofoam (which some are packed in), we would be interested to know this.