I'm getting a horrible sour/sweaty like smell blowing out of my Henry when vacuuming, i've tried to clean the filter, but its still just the same & the smell also seems to be in the head o

SOURCE: Electrical Burning Smell from Henry HVR200 Vacuum Cleaner

Hi! Highly unlikely that you need a new motor.  Highly likely that you need new carbon brushes.  The smell is caused by excessive sparking between the worn brushes and the copper commutator segments.  Most carbon brushes (and from memory I suspect this includes Henry's) have a copper wire buried in their last few millimeters, and you really need to change them before that becomes exposed.   The longer you run it like this, the more likely you are to damage the commutator, so change them sooner rather than later.  When you change the brushes, you can smooth off the commutator with very fine abrasive paper (the objective is to smooth it, not scratch it!), and then blow all the dust away (or **** it away if you have another vac, of course).  Incidentally, you don't say if you are using a paper bag in your Henry. Some people, because the top-hat filter is so good, try to manage without a bag.  This is false economy!  You should always use a bag. I hope this helps! I value feedback, so please remember to rate this response.

SOURCE: my hoover smells of ammonia

Hello,
I too have a problem with a bad smell coming from my henry hound hoover, but thats probely because i haven't used a hoover bag. I took the cloth filter out,banged all the dust off, then sprayed it with 'RugDoctor' pet stain remover for carpets and upholstery. It still smells a bit, but not half as bad as befor. I have now ordered a reusable,zipable,washable cloth hoover bag especially made for Henry's. It cost £8.80 from ebay with free postage. Hope this helps Nikki.

SOURCE: I have a Eureka Altima vacuum cleaner that doesn't

That means that you need to replace the belt. Here is the belt you need to replace and the manual which has instructions:

Eureka Altima Belts

Owner's Guide

Nova Buchanan

• 3 Answers
• Posted on Apr 29, 2010

SOURCE: How to replace power cord on Hoover WindTunnel upright vacuum

The aforementioned solutions probably never even attempted this fix on this model. The handle does NOT need to come off. but the 5 screws on the front housing DO: 2 above the light and 3 below it. Then to get the colored housing off you need to access 2 screws on the underside that are beneath the agitator roller. To do that, obviously the 4 screws holding the bottom plate need to come off too. Here's a link to a schematic that might help as you attempt to do this, (assuming that you still do!) http://www.elkypro.com/hoops2005/vacuum_parts/hoover/U5461-900.html

Once you have the main body housing cover off, then you can access the 2 screws atop of each trunnion cover that holds the motor assembly cover halves together. If you've made it this far, then gently pry apart the motor halves keeping even as yo do. Now you can see all the wiring necessary to cut and splice. Happy cord replacing! As for me, I am headed for the store, as I am not so sure I can remember how to get the darn thing put back together. But it was fun taking it apart!

SOURCE: I have Hoover Widepath Bagless 12 Amp Windtunnel

Hi There,

When a vacuum cleaner smokes, it is usually only one of two possible problems.

It could either be that your motor burned up, or that your belts burned. The belts on this particular model are notorious for breaking, but the fact that your machine doesn't come on at all after this happened, sounds like it may be the motor.

Both of these issues have a unique smelling smoke. If the smoke smelled like an electrical burning smell, this indicates it's your motor. If the smoke smelled more like burning rubber, then it's probably your belts.

If the smoke smelled like burning rubber, here's a video that we've recorded showing step by step how to inspect, trouble shoot, and replace the belts on your vacuum cleaner. If you open it up and the belts are still in tact, then this probably is a more serious problem of the motor burning out.

. I'd be more then happy to walk you through more advanced diagnosing if this doesn't fix your problem, please just use the comment box here on the Fixya repair page.

If this was helpful to you, please be so kind and rate my repair helpful, or leave some feedback for me. This is really appreciated by the Fixya community if the repair solution was able to fix your problem.

Thanks again,

Chris Jones
GoVacuum.com