“You suck!” That’s what I always told to my old vacuum cleaner.
Obviously, before you even think about opening up your old broken vacuum, you should consider checking the warranty, or buying a new one. Why go through the struggle of trying to repair it, which involves a lot of work and curses, probably even for no results, when you can take the simple way, and just get you a new, more efficient one.
Before we proceed, you must know how to get a better or more reliable vacuum to minimize the chances of breaking down! According to stickvacuum.org, there are 10 factors to consider when buying a new vacuum.
Anyway, after you bought the vacuum for some time, the machine will get older and problem may persist! Then, you need to know how to deal with those problems.
To Fix the Vacuum Yourself or Not?
Depending on your level of general knowledge about electronics and mechanics, you should decide whether want to try and fix it or not. This is important, because if you open the vacuum you will probably not be able to put it back in place.
One last reminder about the warranty: once you open the vacuum by yourself, the warranty is lost. You should check the manual and see if you have any instructions. If you do, follow them.
Identify the Problem of Your Vacuum – Loss of Suction
There are many ways in which your vacuum could not work. The first would be that it loses or has no suction at all. The worst would be it doesn’t turn on at all. There are some reasons why your vacuum loses suction.
Firstly, check out all your filters, and your bag. Open up the vacuum as you would normally open it up to remove its container or bag. See if you can spot any major issues here, like a broken bag or container.
Having a hole there will obviously make the vacuum lose most of its suction. Sometimes things like pieces of plastic bags or other objects could get stuck right on the filter and would block the airflow of the vacuum cleaner.
Check out your manual and see if your filters can be washed or not. If they can be washed proceed with caution, because your sink will get very dirty in the process. I will also mention that you must try to dry the filters up to about 24 hours before placing them back.
Next, you can check the hose of the vacuum and see if it has any clogs. Some things could get stuck in there preventing you from being able to clean properly. To do so simply squeeze the hose between your thumb and your index finger. If you can’t fully squeeze it means that something must be there.
To clean the hose of the blockage you can also use water. If it doesn’t work, you can try using the stick, cable, or special wire used to unclog pipes. Sometimes the hose can be torn apart by time just like in the image below. In this case you might want to get a new one, or even a new vacuum cleaner, but some duct tape might also be able to do the trick.
Another common case of suction loss, is a broken fan. Although they are made of very solid plastic, at that rotation speed the tiniest touch to a fan’s blade could end up breaking it. And this is usually accompanied by a pretty strong sound. If you blade if you vacuum sound broke up you will have very small chances of fixing it, so your best shot is either getting yourself a new set of blades, or a new machine.
What Happen If Your Vacuum Cannot Even ON?
If your vacuum doesn’t turn on at all, then it must be a more serious problem. Even if it’s just a bunch of wires that got defused because of the heat, you will still have more work to do, because you will have to open the hidden part of your vacuum.
Look for the screws of the machine, and user screwdriver to open them up. Watch out for any clicks on the plastic covers. If you pull to pieces and they won’t go off then something must be holding them in place. If you pull out too hard you can break them, so watch out.
No useless wires should be found around, so if you do find the wire with one ending pointing in the air, you definitely have a problem. Trying to find out where the wire should be, and fuse it back, with a heat gun.
Check out if any short-circuits take place. This will close the electrical system and can probably damage the engine further. If you don’t know what a short circuit is, it’s enough to mention that they are two wires that shouldn’t be touching each other, but they are. Most cables are isolated so this should rarely be the case.
Some vacuums also have a safety feature that turns off your motor when it overheats. Please make sure this isn’t the case. Wait for about 30 minutes then power on your vacuum again. If it works it might have an overheating problem. If it doesn’t then some other parts maybe in trouble.
If none of the problems above are the case, then you might have an engine problem. As the motor is broke you might take a look at it and see how bad it looks. If the wires that produce the magnetic field are all torn apart then the motor is probably useless. You can again either try and fix it (with very small chances of success and a very low lifespan if succeeded), or simply look for a new one. If your vacuum is older you might have very small chances to find a motor anywhere. Your best bet here is to try and buy yourself a new vacuum.
Why I am constantly repeating that you should get yourself a new vacuum cleaner is because parts for old electronic devices are very expensive and hard to find. Producers don’t produce them anymore because of the new products they are building.
Conclusion
So, the thing about repairing any electronic devices is that you not only need expertise, but you also need the proper equipment. If you are an engineer or have any sort of knowledge, you wouldn’t probably read this page right now.
If you don’t have any expertise, and therefore you are reading this page, my advice to you is that you should not try to repair your vacuum by yourself. It might only be a tiny problem which would cost you a small amount of money at a repair shop, which you will turn into a bigger problem that could end up costing you a lot more or even be irreversible.
