UKH

Looking for some advice from either someone who deals with these sorts of things professionally, or at least a skilled amateur! One of the darling children thought that vacuuming the vacuum's own cable up would be an interesting experiment, and then on realising what had happened not actually turning the vacuum off, just letting it continue to chew up its own cable. This has resulted in needing to replace the cable.

Replacement cables are easily available from leading river-themed web emporiums, but having started taking the vacuum apart, actually getting to where the cable is attached to the motor seems impossible. The cable does though run up through the handle of the hoover and I thought I could cut the old cable there and then neatly splice in the new cable. The splice would then be hidden away and less likely to electrocute us if a pull on the cable broke a splice put in mid cable. But what is the best way to join the new and old cable? I fixed a cut hedge trimmer cable once with some orange two pin connector plug that I bought from Amazon for a couple of quid and that works fine. But I'm not sure if I want a plug on a hoover cable (mid cable) or alternately it it would fit in the handle of the hoover. Looking at loads of different wire connector-thingies on Amazon which are either crimp or heat shrink, but not sure what is suitable for a mains power cable.

Thanks for any advice!

In reply to TobyA:

I would be very surprised if the mains cable goes anywhere near the motor. Is there not a switch first?

In reply to TobyA:

The cable will go to the switch first. See if you can get access to that and replace the whole thing. They normally have crimp-type spade terminals, like on a car, for quick assembly in factory.

Failing that, take it to an appliance guy. 10min job.

Or YouTube, search for instructions on how to take it apart

In reply to TobyA:

If it was me I would just go with scissors and duct tape. Never had any issues. But it probably wouldn't pass safety check :-p

In reply to sbc23 and Oceanrower:

Thanks chaps, of course it must go to the switch first! I followed it down through the handle and could see it going into a moulded part of the bottom the hoover and it just looked quite inaccessible down there, but the switch is a footpedal thing, so I should see if I can open it around there.

Thanks again.

In reply to RomTheBear:


Did that first with the hedge trimmer and it worked but decided I should try a bit harder! So have you actually done a vacuum cable like that? A couple of friends suggested to me as you sometime pull on the cable of a vacuum when hoovering to be a bit wary of just splicing the cable.

In reply to TobyA:
Or do it the easy way.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/chocbox/54936?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=GoogleLo...

In reply to Oceanrower:

Thanks Oceanrower - that's exactly the sort of thing I wanted but I didn't know what they were called and hence where to get them from. I'll pop into screwfix later! Cheers.

In reply to TobyA:


Yes I know, I just use more duct tape :-p

Ps: I deny all responsibility in case you or anybody gets electrocuted :-p

In reply to TobyA:

For a good repair, splice the cable by soldering it, having offset the splices for all three wires. All three wires should then be individually sleeved; and the entire cable assembly also finally sleeved. (Of course, you have to fit all the sleeving *before* you do the soldering.)

In reply to TobyA:

Somewhere in the hoover, probably near where the cord first enters, there will be a clamp of some type. The clamp grips the cable, and relieves the strain on it, so that when the cable gets pulled it doesn't pull on the solder/crimp/screw terminal which makes the electrical connection. If you do end up cutting and splicing the cable, do it further into the hoover than the clamp. That way, if the cable gets yanked (and it probably will at some point, on a hoover) the strain relief clamp can do it's job. What you really want to avoid is catching the cable on the end of a table, and pulling the splice apart and the cable out of the hoover. That would leave you with a live power cord with bare ends lying at your feet.

Taking the switch apart is good advice, that is likely to be where the end of the power cord is. If that doesn't work and you're left splicing it, then screw terminal strip is a good way of making a connection. You buy strips of 15 or so terminals, and cut off the as many as you need.

Make sure the replacement cord is the right type for a vacuum cleaner. It should be thick enough to carry the current, don't use lighting flex.

In reply to Jack B:
Thanks Jack!


Yep, that seemed the obvious danger.


Yes, very good point. I've ordered 10 mtrs with a plug attached that is sold specifically for vacuums - its two wire cable with the Hoover I've got, as I saw you can get 3 wire too, so I'm sure that has to be the right thickness.

Thanks again for all the suggestions folks.

In reply to TobyA:

Do the job properly, replace the cable upto the switch as someone else sugested. The "choc block" is an accident what to happen or even worse. If you are not sure take it to be repaired by a competent person.

In reply to TobyA:

Thanks for all the advice folks. The replacement cable came today and after 45 minutes of taking out more and more screws and disassembling the hoover, eventually I managed to get into the inner sanctum and get the wires off at the switch. It was tricky but eventually got the new wire in, reconnected everything, put it all back together and was quite amazed when it worked! My major bike maintenance never goes that smoothly.

In reply to TobyA:

Be sure to congratulate your kid for some truly out of the box thinking. Watching the cord getting sucked into the vacuum and waiting for the motor to finally mangle it so badly that it stopped working must have been pretty cool.

In reply to Jimbocz:


Testing how black holes work ?

In reply to TobyA:

That sounds less of a technical challenge than I was expecting. I read the title as 'Replacing the power cable in a vacuum'.

In reply to Dave Garnett:


In my old line of work doing politics stuff I'm trying to think if I ever needed to write about "replacing (vince) Cable in a power vacuum"...

Don't you have to weld titanium in a vacuum? Always sounded tricky.

In reply to Dave Garnett:


...on a treadmill.