Retractable cord when I pull the cord out, it won't stay pulled out. It just reels back in without pushing the button on top of the canister. what's going on with it?

Depending on which model of Electrolux you have and how far out you have pulled out the cord (most of the Electrolux canisters have a yellow tape around the machine end of the cord to alert you not to pull it out any further), you might have to take it apart to fix it. However, the first thing that I would try would be to stand it on the end (the hose end at the top), and pull short jerks on the cord to see if it will correct itself and retract. If that does not fix it, I would stick a screwdriver in the hole where the cord comes out of the machine and attempt to wind the cord reel back up which will slowly wind the cord back up on the cordwinder. This usually cause the cord to wind back up. If that does not work, then the only option is to take the machine apart to fix it.

If you're talking about the cord that you pull out from the reel located at the rear of the machine, you'll have to take the top cover off first. Usually two philips head screws located under rear exhaust cover and one maybe two near the front end. Once that is removed, there will be two more philips screws, one on each side of the top rear of the machine and one on the bottom. Remove all three of them, pull about a foot of cord off of the reel and get it to catch, the using the heel of your right hand, hit the very back of the machine, (the rubber bumper part) on the top with a motion pulling toward the back. This may take a couple of tries if you're not used to removing this part, but one or two swipes should eventually loosen the rear cover. Once it is loosened you may carefully pull it out of the back end of the machine and take off the two wire connections. This will free up the cordwinder assy. so you can take it to a spot where you have some room to work. Now lay the assembly on it's back and take the four screws, one from each corner of the rear cover, out and lay them aside. Thread the cord plug through the opening and wind the free cord back onto the reel, allowing the spring to pull it slowly out of your hand and then wrap the plug end around and around the reel till the spring is unwound, then you can remove the "C" clip from the center post, sometimes hidden under a cardboard washer. With the clip removed you can gently pull the cord reel up and off the post, carefully bringing the rewind spring up and off it's post as well. If you've tested the cord and are sure that it's your problem then you can cut the remainder of the cord from the reel and throw it away. The reel is easier to deal with without the cord on it. Turn the reel over so the back cover is exposed, there should be three screws that can be removed so you can take the connections loose from the posts inside and make ready for the new cord. Once you've attached the new cord and tied your strain relief knot, like the one you removed, you're ready to wrap the cord onto the reel and just reverse the procedure. When you get ready to put the loaded reel back into the cordwinder body, just before you put the cover on, wrap the plug end around the reel three times. This loads the spring so that it will pull the cord completely back into the unit. And it doesn't hurt to drop a spot of oil onto the top of the post for the spring.

spring in cordreel is sprung. cord is probably on last leg. Go to vac replacement parts online store and order a new one.

Sometimes you can help get the springs working again, by gently pulling the cord out a little further and then let it slowly in while pushing the cord retract button.

HI smarger,

First, remove the hood and tool compartment covers. At each corner of the cover, by the cord retract button, is a screw. Remove these two screws. Pull the button off. It is difficult to remove but just keep pulling until it's out.
Under the button there are 2 more screws. Remove these and you can take off the cover to expose the cord reel.
There are 2 screws on the back of the bracket that hold the reel onto the bracket.
Good luck.

Hope this helps. If it does, I'd appreciate a 4 thumbs up. Thanks,

Handie Andie

Maybe there is a button on it that you press while pulling the cord,my iron has one.

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Usually when a Miele canister just stops working all of a sudden, it's a lot of the time caused by the cord reel going bad. The internal cord reel has a metal spring that's used to get power from the cord, to the rest of the vacuum. Over time this spring starts to loosen, and eventually will get so loose that it will no longer transfer the electric current. This is the most common problem that I we see on Miele canisters. The good news is that this repair is fairly simple to diagnosis and repair.

In order to test and see if the cord is the problem, rewind the cord all the way back into the canister, and move the canister to the closest wall outlet. Now only pull out the cord far enough to plug it into the wall. With the vacuum plugged in, use one hand to slowly pull the cord reel out of the canister, and use the other hand to to continuously push the main on/off foot switch pedal on and off, on and off while you're pulling the cord out with your other hand. Does the vacuum motor make an sound like it's starting up, or does the motor come on at all while you're doing this? If it makes a noise like it's trying to start, this means that your cord reel is bad and needs to be replaced. If you don't hear anything while you're doing this, it still may be that the cord reel is bad, but it also may mean that either the switch or the motor could bad. In my 10 years of fixing Miele canisters however, I find that probably 70% of the time it's the cord reel that needs to be replaced.
If you need to purchase a cord reel to try and replace it to see if this fixes it (don't worry, we have an excellent return policy if it's not the problem) , here's a link to the exact cord reel for your Miele:
Miele Cord Reel For S500 Series Models

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The first thing you'll wand to do is open up the bag housing, and remove the vacuum bag, as well as the exhaust filter which may be either the Cloth Super Air Clean Filter, or the HEPA Filter catridge which is blue in color. If you're using the Super Air Clean filter, remove the filter, and then remove the bracket that secures the filter in place as well. Simply pull straight up on the bracket and it will come out.

Once the bag and the filter have been removed, you'll need to take off the entire tool lid. While the vacuum cleaner is open so that you can see into the compartment where the bag just was, you need to pry two arms from the tool lid off of the main body housing. Simply put a screwdriver behind one of the blue arms, and pry inwards. Here's a picture of what this looks like;


Once you have removed both of these clasps, the tool lid will pull straight upwards and off, leaving you with only the bottom part of the canister. This is how the vacuum cleaner should look now;



Now you'll need to remove the black speed control box from the canister. There is one screw in the front of the black speed control box that needs to be removed. After the screw has been removed, turn the vacuum cleaner around so that the back of the machine where the cord reel goes into the vacuum is now facing you. If you look where the black speed control box meets the bottom part of the canister, you can see two clips that you'll need to release before the variable speed control box can be removed. Simply put a screw driver and push in on the clip while lifting the black speed control box at the same time. Here's where the clips are located on the vacuum;



Ok, now that the speed control box has been removed, it's time to separate the colored plastic from the base of the vacuum cleaner. There are 7 screws that need to be removed in order to get these housings separated. I have circled the location of each screw in the picture below;



After removing all 7 screws, you can then simply pull upwards on the colored plastic housing, and remove the housing from the base of the vacuum cleaner so that the motor and cord reel are exposed. Once you have exposed the cord reel, you'll need to remove the internal wires (white wire is in the higher posistion, and to the left of the lower right side black wire), as well as the rubber hose part. The rubber hose part simply pulls off, just like the wire terminals do. After removing these parts, you'll need to remove one more screw with your screw driver. Here's the picture of which screw needs to be removed;



After the final screw has been removed, you'll have to remove the rectangular shaped wire harness that sits at the top of the cord reel. Pay close attention to how this wire harness is correctly seated which will save some aggravation when putting the vacuum back together. Here's a picture of the wire harness that needs to be removed from the old cord reel;



Once the wire harness has been completely removed from the old cord reel, you may simply pull up on the cord reel and remove it. The new cord reel will come completely assembled, with all the parts and compontents that your faulty cord reel had. You simply need to line up the screw hole on the new cord reel with the hole in the bottom of the base of the vacuum. When installing the new cord reel be very careful that you don't pinch any of the wires down by putting the cord reel on top of them. The wires have a specific place they go, and you'll be able to see the correct path for these wires when paying close attention. Also remember to install the rubber tube back onto the new cord reel as well. Once the new cord reel has been installed, and screwed down, pull the plug out a little ways, and guide the plug through the colored top housing first, then screw the 7 screws that hold the upper housing to the lower housing back into to secure these housings together.

That's about all there is to that repair! Please feel free to request a repair clarification if you have any questions about the repair that I can help you with, I'm always more then happy to help.

If this repair guide was helpful to you, please click the thumbs up icon in the bottom right part of this solution to rate it has helpful.

Thank you so much,

Chris Jones
GoVacuum

try pushing the cord back in whilst depressing the retract button

Returned the sweeper to Costco for a full refund and bought another.

Wasn't able to find any diagrams either, but there should be some screws to take out, and the top and bottom should separate. Don't let the cord reel spring unwind if it hasn't already done so. If it hasn't, one half of the reel should come aprt so you can re-attach the cord. then put the reel back together and let it wind the cord on the reel. If the spring is unwound and/or the reel wasn't made to come apart, then you will have to replace the cord reel asm.