I own a Smart Vac 4870! Now what?

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amtraksebo1997

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 13, 2022
Messages
403
Location
Vacmasterthegreats basement
As I mentioned in my previous thread about my trash-picked Panasonic, I treated myself to a new vacuum cleaner for my birthday. In this case, I decided upon a Eureka The Boss Smart Vac, more specifically the purple "Pet Lovers" edition, as I like its color the most out of all of the Smart Vac models (not that I don't like the others, I just like the purple color the best).

This isn't just going to a collection piece, though. Assuming everything goes to plan, I want to take this thing this thing to my mom's house and use it as a daily driver, as what I'm using is my Nacecare Henry and my Bissell Lift Off 3554. I like them both, but sometimes using the Henry is cumbersome, and the Lift Off was meant to be more of a collector's piece, and I don't want to risk breaking it by using it constantly. So I decided on the Smart Vac, as it sounds like it'll have good cleaning performance, filtration, and airflow.

Unfortunately, my mom doesn't take too kindly to me bringing in new vacuums to the house. She's mainly concerned about how sanitary the machines are. I get that, and that's why I'm in the process of cleaning it out with Lysol wipes before I take it over there. I also need to get a set of belts, filters, and bags for it (kudos to the seller for not including a bag full of their dirt and dust).

Additionally, there's some other things I need to get for it, such as some extra screws, because the ones that hold down the front hood and the clutch mechanism are missing. I also need a set of tools for it, including the turbo brush and its holster.

So far, the thing turned on. However, when I got it it was extremely loose on its right side, which is probably because the hood and the clear plastic base were not screwed down correctly/at all. Caused the shaft to make an awful grinding noise when it hit something he belt chamber. Other than that, I think the motor sounds fine, just needs a cleaning.

Finally, and this is probably the most concerning problem to me, is that when I opened up the top of the main body and inspected the power switch wires, one of there turns out to have some exposed copper, and both plastic bits of the connectors are burnt. This is making me wonder both how to go about fixing it, hopefully what I have will suffice.
 

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Little bit of an update...

So I cut off the rubber coverings of the connectors for the switch. It turns out that the connectors on the switch are alright (although the one attached to the stripped wires have some oxidation on it). I've got a few theories as to what happened here, they mainly came from people who are more knowledgeable with electricity. Theory #1: The machine experienced some kind of power surge, causing the wires to the power switch to heat up and slightly burn. Theory #2: Since there aren't a lot of places for heat to escape in the top housing, the wires again heated up and were slightly burnt. Theory #3: The switch is going bad, and somehow that caused the wires to... you guessed it, heat up and slightly burn. Theory #4: It's some sort of combination of these factors. I'm thinking the simple solution would be to wrap some electrical tape around the damaged parts, but to be on the safe side, I ordered a new switch and some of those connectors and the rubber coverings. Hopefully that prevents anything bad from happening, but what do you guys think is going on?
 
The 'burnt' plastic bits: if you are talking about discoloration on the clear insulation covering the crimp on terminals, that is from factory heat shrinking. No need to worry about that at all.

The missing insulation: my guess is its rubbed off from contact with the handle.
 
I don't think these are heat shrink covers. I would assume that if they were, the process of heating them up might melt the wires. Even if they are, I cut them up to remove them, so I'll have to get new ones anyways.

Also, I'm not sure how simple rubbing and vibration from using the machine could cause that type of damage to the wire.
 
If you’re talking about the clear plastic pieces covering the terminals, it looks like he shrink in the picture. Even if it’s not heat shrink, if it is not shrunk and tight to the metal a little bit of brown discoloration is normal.
 
herbicide

I am referring to those. Like I said, I don't think they're heat shrink coverings, but regardless, I still need to get new ones, as apparently they were there to prevent electricity from bypassing the switch, preventing the machine from turning off, or something like that.
 
Ohh. now I see... I zoomed in and see that one in the top is indeed burnt. I'm not familiar with that switch, but I am a 'semi retired' electrician (old career); They are probably there to keep 'accidental' operation as if the two connectors touch the vac would turn on.

The burn is in a weird spot, It may be nothing; the vac may have just momentarily overloaded and got hot there, but I would say the safe move is to replace that switch.
 

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