Riccar RSL4 Supra Lite Very Noise/Slight Burning Smell

Karl Whisenand

• 1554 Answers
• Posted on Apr 01, 2008

SOURCE: burning smell

Unlock the sweeper brushes and take them out. on each end is a cup bearing and should be free of debris.
then check around and under the belt and likely there is debris wrapped around it.
the post is getting hot as your pulling too much of a load.
though if it continues the motor may have a bad set of motor brushes (inside the motor) or bad wiring (kinda unlikely).

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.