Maytag M700 Lifetime Belt

[panasonicvac]

It's a shame to me now that Tacony doesn't make higher end Simplicity vacuums like Riccar. It personally made sense for two close dealers to sell both Tacony vacuums with different brands on them. I can understand the move from a business point of view but at least dealers can now sell both brands so that it would give consumers more options to choose from. We'll see how well Simplicity does now at the department stores because I hope they would go back into making higher end vacuums but I doubt that would happen again anytime soon.

 

[desiredname]

Do Tacony products damage carpet fibers with those super aggressive brushes? It is nice to see plastivacs with partial metal brushrolls though! I enjoy fixing them for people. There are plenty that come in where I work.

 

[dysonman1]

I do not believe they damage the carpet fibers. In all my years of fixing those machines, and I fix a TON of them, I’ve never really seen any quantity of carpet fuzz in the bags. Just lots of dirt.

 

[electromatik]

Sorry to hear this about Tacony

They made some excellent machines. They had the near perfect canister with the Immaculate(?). Powerful, quiet, well made, and with excellent filtration. I wish they had continued to improve that model. I was getting ready to buy when they discontinued the damn things.

Oh well, I guess we better get down on our knees and pray Rexair stays in business somehow because they are one of the fast dwindling makers of quality full size canisters.

Sad times for us canister-lovers...

 

[honestjoe68]

I’m beyond confused!

I own the Maytag M1200, M700, M600 Cordless and the M500 Vacuums. I bought two of them on one of the shopping channels (See Pic 1) Before they were available locally and the other two much later from a local dealer. The M600 cordless, my Dealer called me and I bough it the very first day he received them in his store! Anyhow.. The one M1200 arrived from I think QVC and the hose had been damaged/torn (See Pic 2) even though the retail box and shipping boxes arrived with not even a scuff or ding. So from previous experience I knew QVC would want me to send the entire Box back and I was Not in the mood. The M1200 came with Bonus Two Boxes of Bags and an Extra Filter Kit to replace All Three filters when the installed ones were dirty. That would have been a lot of re-packing so I didn’t want to do that. I just called Maytag instead 855-653-1114 (number was in my instruction manual) and I got a very nice gentleman and I explained what happened and he IMMEDIATELY apologized and said, I’m sorry I will send you out a new hose assembly and no charge today and you should get it by tomorrow. I even went so far as to ask this nice guy if he wanted the old/torn hose back or even pictures of the damage emailed to him. He said, No problem and he didn’t want to inconvenience me so he told me to throw it away when the new part arrived. He then told me he’d email me a No charge invoice with the details, including a tracking number and the Hose assembly part number. He thanked me again and asked If there was anything else I needed... I said, nope I’m good and thanked him. I got it the next day and had it replaced in under a minute! (See Pic 3)

The next experience was with my M700 and this time it was the Lifetime Belt and it was MY Fault! I accidentally vacuumed up a sock, hidden under my bed and it jammed the belt and the red indicator light came on. Well I thought I was being careful but when I pulled the sock free it must have moved the belt off the grooves or misaligned it, so when I turned the vacuum back on the Belt caught somehow and it tore a chunk out of the belt! (Very similar to this ladies, so I’m assuming she had something caught in hers too and didn’t tell the guy she Yanked it out and maybe caused this chunk to come out?.. Just too similar to not wonder) These belts are made so tough and to me look very well made, so I don’t think it would be a matter of it “Just Tore” under normal vacuuming situations. After replacing the New Lifetime Belt they shipped me.. I took the Old Belt and tried to cut it and BROKE a pair of scissors on the belt.. had to use my heavy cutters to cut the old damaged Lifetime before throwing it away.

Anyhow, this was just 4 or 5 months ago and I got a very nice woman on the phone when I called and spoke with her about what I’d done accidentally picking up the sock and then what happened when I removed the sock and turned the vacuum back on. Again, the first thing I heard was a sincere apology and then she went down a list of solutions. She asked if I wanted to try and replace the belt myself or would I want to call my nearest dealer and she would get ahold of them and put in a work order, where MAYTAG would pay the entire repair for me as it was still well under the Four year warranty. I told her how I am a vacuum collector and I would have no problem and not mind replacing it myself. So she then verified my model again M700 and then she said, Ok Mr. McConnell I will get a replacement Lifetime Belt for your M700 in the mail today and you should get it tomorrow. This woman also added, if you don’t see it arrive UPS tomorrow, please call us and we will track it or send you another. It arrived the next day and I followed the detailed instructions she sent along with the Lifetime belt and I had it all done it a few minutes and my M700 was like new again.

This makes me mad and so confused and I’m wondering if this woman gave them attitude or was rude? it should NOT make any difference as they are customer service and should have still helped her.. but I was very polite and said thank you and such to both people I spoke with and I gave them respect. NOT that you have to.. but I have found I ALWAYS get better results with whoever I call, when I am polite and ask them nicely. Who knows and I’m NOT pointing a finger at her.. just so baffled and confused that she claims she was so mistreated??

I have not had any other problems with any of my four Maytag and I keep my Vacuums SO pristine and clean.. Thanks Roger Lang (ibaisaic) for all the tips and polish types, etc. I just prefer to keep all my vacuums clean and polished. I can’t locate my M600 or M700 pics as I have 5,000 miscellaneous pics on my iPhone and sometimes I forgot to put my new Vacuum pics in the “Vacuum Cleaner” file. I have about 250 vacuums, so it’s difficult to keep track and so many are stored in different rooms of the house and closets, etc. Anyhow I am sharing pics of the other two so you all can see how beautiful these vacuums are and how I love to keep them looking brand new.

I called Maytag today and left a message for them to call me and I’m going to flat out ask them the same thing and what they would do for a broken “Lifetime” belt and I will definitely let you guys know my answer given by Maytag. But I do know that I have ALL four of My Maytag Vacuum Registers on Maytagvaccums.com and I did the registration within a few days of purchasing them.. so I’m not sure if that helped me as they could look at the purchase dates and the models I own.. Maybe I get better care since they can see I own ALL four of their Vacuums and I’m not sure if they can see the other registrations but I even own one of the Maytag M1200 Clothing Irons too. (yes they gave it the same model number as the vacuum Lol) So it might be a case like Dyson.. I have 25 Dyson products registered and a Dyson Supervisor informed me I am the FIRST Customer she has helped where my “Your Dyson” List was SO long it had a “click for page TWO” for her to see all my Dyson products.

Maybe that is why I got such great service.. if not I have no idea why that lady didn’t get help other than she might have gotten a new employee that misinformed her. Either way she should have asked for another employee or a supervisor if available. That might have saved her the headache. But I can assure you all I got the best service ever from Maytag in my two experiences.

Thank, Patrick

 

[dysonman1]

She picked up the machine.....

And now I know much more about what happened.

She bought the machine from the Tacony Factory Outlet Store located at the factory (8 miles away). It has a 5 year warranty. The lifetime belt, according to the instruction manual, has a lifetime warranty.

The belt touches a part called the "Hall Sensor", which sends the speed of the belt that's touching it, to the circuit board. When a stall condition occurs (throw rug in this case), the Hall Sensor is supposed to stop the motor. But stopping a 12 amp motor is not the same as stopping a 5 amp tandem or ultra lite model motor. Many times, the motor itself will chew through the lifetime belt right at the pulley before it stops. In any event, the belt is warrantied in such conditions.

My customer went to the Factory Outlet Store with her broken vacuum, to have the belt replaced. The Outlet Store is chained closed. She called the factory phone number (it's a local number) and was given the 'corporate office' phone number. The 'customer service' person she reached told her it must be her fault, and refused to send a new belt.

She went back to the factory, but could find no one who could help her (she was already perturbed). A factor worker who was outside smoking told her about the new vac shop that might be able to help. She brought in the machine, I ordered the
belt, put it on, charged her for it and she picked up the machine. She's happy with our service, but still has a bitter taste in her mouth with regards to the run around she got from 'customer service' at the corporate level. I don't know who she talked to, and it makes no difference. I also sold her bags, and she's now my customer (hopefully, for life).

If the belt ever breaks or gets chewed by the motor again, I'm selling her an Electrolux.

 

[vacuumdevil]

@dysonman1 I called it two years ago when I had problems with "a no-go" catching fire. You're not the third dealer I've seen talk about them giving them a hard time about warranty. The inside group" vac talk with the pros "on Facebook is full of vacuum shop people complaining about Tacony lately.
I'm glad you kept your integrity and got out of there!

 

[dysonman1]

@vacuumdevil

My best friend (and my best man at my wedding) worked at the factory for three years. He worked on the assembly line. One day, the line was having trouble with the hall sensors not stopping the direct air motor when they were testing them at the end of the line, before the box. They jam them with a towel to make sure the sensor stops the machine. The motors were not stopping, and some even smoked (the motor). One caught fire. He took cell phone pics and video because he was amazed that a $1000 vacuum would fail so miserably. Instead of stopping the shipment of the entire run - in order to locate and isolate the problem - he was told to pile them on a pallet and ship them. Only the ones that smoked were not shipped. I would hate to be a customer who bought a new vac, and the first time I caught a rug or sock, instead of stopping, it smoked and caught fire. That was 3 years ago so I don't know what happened to the machines that were shipped. He showed me the cell phone video that day at lunch. Thank God I hate tandem air cleaners. Never sold one.

He also took pictures of ALL the Chinese stuff they use to make the cleaner as well as the Chinese plastic pellets they mold the plastic housings from. After he quit in disgust and moved, he got rid of every single machine in his collection that was made there. He was also a prototype tester for the factory, and had many of the new ones that he thought would eventually be valuable with their extremely low serial numbers. I didn't have a store then, and I watched him throw away a perfectly good Prima that he called 'Chinese junk'. He gave the uprights to Goodwill. Only Miele and Sebo for him now.

 

[desiredname]

Tom, yesterday I was unboxing a brand new factory sealed Riccar Vibrance commercial model, with the lifetime belt. I tested it on my bench and the brush stopped as soon as it touched the carpet. It was followed by a burning belt smell. I took it apart and the belt looks slightly too long. That "lifetime " belt was dead right out of the package.

 

[dysonman1]

Samuel

I saw the quality control falling for the last year I was at the factory. After they fired Clovis, the quality control manager, as well as Mike the engineer, you could see it right before your eyes. Things were failing right out of the box. I know, because I never sold anybody the box. I always assembled them. For the most part, it was the little stuff. I do remember one day I sold a vacuum in the morning, and she brought it back that afternoon because there was smoke coming out of the handle. I took it apart, and discovered the wires have been pinched between the 2 halves of the handle. The wiring to the switch had melted, in less than 15 minutes use. That was the only time this particular problem happened. But if it happened once to me, how many more dealers was it happening to? The problem for me, there was no one in quality control anymore to show the problem to. So I just put a new handle assembly on the machine, re-sold it, and I didn’t hear from it again. The original customer wanted her money back, which I didn’t blame her for. If my brand new $500 vacuum was smoking within 15 minutes and smelling like it was on fire, I would want my money back too. So glad that I don’t have to sell that brand anymore, nor deal with anybody at corporate.

 

[mark40511]

so basically

stay away from any Tacony vacuum?

 

[madman]

"The belt touches a part called the "Hall Sensor", which sends the speed of the belt that's touching it, to the circuit board."

The technical term is 'hall effect sensor.' It's basically a speed sensor, yes, but the whole point of it is that it doesn't touch anything. Sort of solid state, so it won't wear out. It requires metal to pass by it (and the absence of metal), so likely there are metal bars inside the brush roll for this purpose. I'd be very surprised if the belt itself had metal in it.

 

[dysonman1]

No. That’s not it.

This part is called a “hall sensor“. When you order it from Tacony that is what it is called. The belt touches the black wheel which spins with the belt. There is a magnet in the black wheel. The magnet is spinning with the belt, communicating the speed of the brush roll to the circuitboard. When the revolutions have slowed by half the hall sensor stops the machine.

 

[dysonman1]

Mark

I wouldn't say to stay away from Tacony vacuums. The R20SC is still one of my favorite vacuums. NO Circuit Board. No switch in the handle. Steel brush bar. Excellent suction and cleaning ability. It's the workhorse of the line, and I've never regretted selling a single one. The 8 pound machine from Tacony is awesome. I've sold at least a thousand, and they hold up very well. Just not the models with circuit boards, hall sensors, or other electronics destined to fail. The more simple the machine, the better.

 

[luxlife]

I'm still highly confident in my 8 pound machine.

I've owned it for 5 1/2 years. It has the Hall sensor and I've never had an issue with it. I guess it was built before quality control started to drop off.

My sister-in-law has one of the 8000 series that's probably 15 years old. I'll tell her to hang onto it because the quality isn't coming back.

 

[dysonman1]

They just keep coming....

I traded in just now this Maytag M600. It was one of the Proto types, so it has an hour clock under the hood. This machine has run for 88 1/2 hours and it will never run again. Bad charger, bad battery, motor screams like hell. The machine has not been abused. There are tons of Tacony vacuums. My goal is to trade them all in. This customer for example now has an Electrolux. I’m going to keep all of the trade in Tacony vacuums, and we will have a huge bonfire at the next vacuum cleaner collectors convention this coming May.

 

[madman]

Dysonman, I'll repeat, the TECHNICAL term for the device is 'Hall effect sensor.' It's called that because it operates on the principle of the Hall effect. Just because one company has a shortened internal name for it does not change what it actually is. Of course, I was just getting technical about it, 'hall sensor' is a perfectly legitimate short version. I was trying to explain the technical side of how it worked because from your description it seemed like you didn't quite understand.

Of course, what I didn't understand was that, on this machine, the Hall effect sensor was reading from an idler or tensioner pulley. So I misunderstood your description.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect