3 Holiday Dangers For Your Vacuum

3 Causes of a Broken Vacuum: Your family’s unwanted Christmas present

Why is January our busiest month for repairs?

Christmas does not only bring joy and happiness to households nationwide, it also brings broken vacuums. In our many years of repairing vacuums, we see time and time again broken vacuums to the point of no return. The vacuum's motor must have free flowing air to run, when they can neither blow out nor take in air, they will stop working all together. Listed below are a couple of common reasons for the mass amounts of vacuum clogging that occurs during the holiday seasons.

# 1: Pine needles

This is the main factor we find when taking apart malfunctioning vacuums. For those of us who still prefer the smell and look of a real Christmas tree, piles of fallen pine needles are left lying on our floors. People’s natural reaction is to reach for the vacuum and suck those puppies up….but not so fast. The long needles get into the hoses, air channels and bottom chamber, wreaking havoc on your vacuum's motor. Large clumps of needles get taken in all at once and all it takes is for a couple needles to get stuck. Then all the rest of the needles continue the log jam process till there is no longer adequate airflow. Please remember to change your vacuum bags to help combat this problem.

# 2: Ash and other fine powders

It’s a cold Christmas day and you start a nice warm fire before opening your presents. Life is good, the room is warm and toasty and little Timmy couldn't be happier with his new toys. After the fire has died you reach for your vacuum to clean up the ash you spilled while cleaning up the fireplace…..WRONG! This scenario we just described will get you a broken vacuum and possibly a burnt out motor. The nature of fine dust and powder is very restrictive to vacuum motors. They find their way into the intricate parts of the motor completely restricting airflow and functionality. If your vacuum happens to have an “auto shut-off” function you might be saved. If not, then it is off to Vacuumcleanermarket.com to purchase a brand new vacuum. Your old vacuum will only be useful as a large expensive paperweight.

# 3: Large holiday debris

After opening up your presents you begin to clean up. In the trash goes the paper bows, toy wrappers and the Christmas cards that no one reads (not us, we read them all). It’s been a long day of eating cookies, drinking nog and watching movies…all activities that have us tuckered out so you decide to use the vacuum to clean up the rest. What you didn't see, was some ribbon, an unused screw to your new entertainment system and other potential landmines left on your floor. Long strings of ribbon are not a vacuums best friend. They wrap around the brush roll causing loss of pick-up ability and possible brush roll seizing. The screw you didn’t see can break the plastic fans inside your motor. The wire ornament hook unseen on your floor can become lodged inside your vacuum.

The moral of this story is that your vacuum is inevitably going to take more abuse during this season. Unusual cleaning situations put your vacuum's health at serious risk. In an effort to keep your vacuum functioning at the highest level, refrain from vacuuming up pine needles, ash and large debris. The best practice here is to sweep your flooring and try to remove as much as possible before vacuuming. We also recommend changing your vacuum bags and filters regularly during this time of the year. This helps the vacuum breathe and achieve peak performance. The common household vacuum is not meant for these tasks and your vacuum can pay the ultimate price. We have seen hundreds of people lose their vacuum or accrue large repair costs from vacuuming up items they did not know would cause damage.

Please follow these guidelines and make your holiday season a little jollier by saving some money. Thank you and Happy Holidays everyone.