Dirt devil hand vac motor odor

[kirbyman65]

I found a dirt Devil hand vac in its box with all the attachments for 8$ best find I’ve had from this small thrift shop. But recently it’s been making a odor from its motor, I’m not sure if it’s burning out or what.

 

[human]

Can you describe the odor? If it is an electrical odor, it could need to have the carbon brushes replaced. If it's an odor from something that's been sucked up, other steps may be necessary. I have a Oreck BB mini vac that had an obnoxious dog odor when running. I solved it by removing the bag and spraying lavender scented Lysol (Generic Walmart version, actually) directly into the hose with the machine running until the scent lilacs started emanating from the exhaust, which took about 10 or 15 seconds. I then stopped spraying, but kept it running for a couple of minutes. When I was satisfied the odor was gone, I put in a fresh bag and called it done. Thus far, the dog odor hasn't returned.

 

[kirbyman65]

Hard to explain

I would say it smells similar to a burning electric odor. In this case how much do you think brushes will cost

 

[panasonicvac]

I'd first clean out the commutator in the armature before messing with the carbon brushes. Usually that solves the problem because dirty commutators can cause a burning smell and brushes would be fine in the end.

 

[kirbyman65]

thank you!

I will do that thanks!

 

[kirbyman65]

Fixed!

Thank you for the suggestion I took it apart and used steel wool and sand paper to clean the commutator the burning smell is finally gone!