iridium disaster!!

[vacuumfreeeke]

Just want to let you know what happened to me and see if you would have an idea as to why. My ex wanted to get a Kenmore Iridium after I showed him one at Sears when they first came out. He bid on two on Ebay... accidentally won them both. One was NIB for 215 dollars. The other was 180... a slightly used and marked floor model. He didn't know what to do with the other one and I told him that I would take it for my collection because that is a pretty good deal on such a new and nice machine. The cheap one was advertised as "brush not turning". I assumed that it was the belt or overload protector. They both came and we played with them. The NIB one worked perfectly. When the slightly use one came, the suction was fine, but the power nozzle would not come to life for anything. We wanted to find out where the problem was, so we popped the nozzle from the bad vac onto the NIB one. It worked fine. Then we had to see if it was the hose or the machine itself. We traded hoses, and now the power nozzle doesn't work on EITHER machine. There was a burning and then a pop. He (an engineer) opened the "bad" one up and found that the previous owner had jumped the circuit with a wire and soldered it to try to bypass the problem. It obviously didn't work and he decided to pawn it off on e-bay. Why would the electronic hose ruin two machines? THAT'S TERRIBLE! What junk'

 

[my-ellie]

TriAc board

Just like on an Electrolux Renny, Guardian, etc., there is a TriAC board in the hose handle that communicates with the circuit board in the machine. The "new" machine's circuit board has been fried, just like the 'used' machine.

I'm just waiting for the day someone tries to do that to their Miele. The electronic hoses and circuit boards are not cheap by any means. Hopefully, when a problem occurs, the customer will allow US to open up the machine (and hose) and take care of it, rather than a home-made "fix".

C.D.

 

[compactc9]

To replace a Miele hose and board...

The hose would have to be completely replaced for about $200 (maybe more) and the main circuit borad for another $150, and maybe even the motor board for yet another $130. That would be very unfortunate for them. thankfully our customers leave the repairs to us, saves both of us a lot of time, and them a lot of money.

 

[my-ellie]

Can You Imagine???

Reggie:
Can you imagine a customer who bought a Red Velvet, Carpricorn, etc. opening up their electronic hose handle and using a straight pin to 'jump' the circuit board so the power head would run? I can't begin to imagine a Miele having problems with the electronics in the hose handle to begin with. The ONLY problem I've ever seen with a Miele hose was the 'drain elbow' used on the S300 series. And those were all taken care of under warranty.

 

[compactc9]

So far we have had a few with electronic problems, but very few. And its almost always due to customer abuse, or a very very rare factory problem. Either way, the problems almost never come up because they do use very good quality circuit boards.

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Bobby..

That is a TRAGIC story! I am very sorry to hear that. I was impressed with Tom Gasko's Kenmore Iridium at the convention in St. Louis last June...wanted one ever since!

Again very sorry.... And I bet replacement parts from Sears are a fortune...

Corey

 

[converto-skip]

Corey

You are so right replacement parts at Sears are very expensive sometimes it's cheaper just to get another one instead of fixing it.

Skip...

 

[vacuumfreeeke]

off the record

I used to work at Sears... pretty familiar with their exchange policy. I'm not going to tell you how we are going to fix the problem with both machines because it isn't exactly the most moral thing to do... BUT I've gotta do it twice... read between the lines. He and I will both have properly working Iridiums FOR FREE very soon.