I literally bought the vacuum today. I was using the upholstery brush on a piece of furniture. The vacuum was sitting on a shaggy area rug and started sucking the rug up. (I thought because the hose was connected to the upholstery brush, it wouldn’t be sucking on the bottom. I’ve never had an upright vacuum cleaner before.) A tough thread from the rug got wound around the agitator brush and it looks like the belt broke. Forgive my cluelessness, please: but the belt looks like a rubber band usually, right? When I turn the vacuum on now, I don’t feel any suction from the bottom. Should there be some, even without a belt? If I unplug the hose, to use the duster, say, it does have good suction there. So — my question: did I just do a dumb thing and break the belt and replacing it will fix the problem or is there something defective about this vacuum cleaner? Should I return it? If it is just the belt, what do I need to know about upright vacuums to not keep breaking the belt? Thanks.
Oh, by the way, before this all happened, it was doing a great job on the carpets. Its suction was so hard, it was pulling itself across the floor.
You might check to see if your new Windtunnel is a self propelled model. Some of them are and that means there are two belts on the underside, one running the agitator, (a black, flat rubber band type), and (a V-belt), which runs the propulsion system. Any time your vac is turned on it will be making vacuum, which should be pulling from the bottom unless you remove the hose on the side to attach the wands or brush. Once that hose is off, there will be no more suction at the agitator until you reinstall the hose in it’s connector. If you let the agitator set and run on a shag carpet, it most likely unravelled some of the fibers and wound them around the barrel of the brush roll till it couldn’t turn anymore, thereby stopping the belt, and burning it in two at the motor shaft end. The motor shaft is a small polished shaft, about the size of a pencil, that will burn it’s way through a belt in about 20 seconds, if the belt isn’t moving. Also depending on the type of your machine, it may or may not have a switch on the nozzle, (where the brush roll is), that can turn it off when the handle is in the upright position. Check this. The vac isn’t defective, you just need to read the User’s Manual more thoroughly.
More than likely because it is made with the intention of breaking fats and having most people buy another. Its called "installed obsolescence
those things are crap, ours does not suck anything up and its only 6 months old
i would myslef by a dyson alot better
If you were using the hose, then there is no suction coming from the brush area of the vacuum at that time..BUT the brush still spins.
There could have been a flaw in the band causing it to break, or if you smelled burning rubber, the friction of the rug caught in it could’ve caused it to break. There will still be suction when the brush is not turning.
If you just bought it, take it back and say it doesnt work properly. They’ll give you a new one.
Now you know why I bought a Bissell Healthy Home and junked the Hoover. I’ve never had so much aggravation from a sweeper! They are truly a piece of junk!
I went through so many belts (and I wasn’t sucking things up that shouldn’t be), it was repaired twice under warranty and broke a third time shortly out of warranty. Tried to get satisfaction from Hoover on the three repairs = a lemon and they didn’t even want to talk about it. That’s when I went with my first Bissell, a $90 model. The stuff the Bissell pulled out of my carpets that the Hoover was leaving was astounding! I wasn’t sure if I should be grossed out or happy!
That first cheap Bissell is still running 6 years later; the catch the holds it in the upright position broke and it became a real pain to use. So it has been relocated in hubby’s wood shop as his dust collection device and I got the Bissell Healthy Home sweeper. I am very happy with this sweeper and feel it’s way better than any product that Hoover has ever thought about making. I’d never go back……
Take the Hoover back, tell them it’s a piece of junk and get a Bissell…….