Miele Red Star - motor slowed and slight burning smell. Help!

[friendlynerd]

Hi all -

My beloved Red Star, about 10 seconds into vacuuming, slowed down a little and started to smell bad. I turned it off right away.

My instincts point to motor brush issues, but before I tear into this thing I wanted to see if anyone's been through it before. Are the brushes in this motor replaceable? Could it be something else? I really love this vacuum and I want to save it. I'm pretty handy so I should be able to handle the work myself, but I value the opinion of those who have been there before!

Thanks in advance!

 

[electroluxxxx]

either motor brushes or armature are bad, the brushes should be replaceable but would look more toward the armature, how old and how often used is the machine?

 

[friendlynerd]

I'm not totally sure how old it is, I got it from a thrift store 6 or 7 years ago. It didn't seem heavily used when I got it. It gets used maybe once a week or less, since I have a cordless Dyson that does a lot of the day-to-day stuff.

 

[electroluxxxx]

ok then I would definitely look at the armature as a possible cause, Brushes could be worn but it is unlikely seeing how long these motors usually run.

good luck and please let us know about your finds

 

[loganvac]

Alot of the vacuums these days have motors that are real junky and are hard to service. Since you said you bought your Meile about 7 years ago, its probably one of the good easy to service motors.

 

[magic-clean]

I wonder

if the cordwinder could be the root cause. Have had similar problems with my Miele.

 

[friendlynerd]

I pulled it apart and there's nothing that stands out to me as a problem (not that I'm any expert.) The brushes have plenty of life left and I don't *see* anything wrong with the armature but I don't really know what I'm looking for either.

I might just spring for a new motor, I feel like this vacuum is worth it.

It's the 4424240 motor if that means anything, and the vacuum's model number is S312i. The tag has 1999 on it so maybe that's the mfg year.

 

[friendlynerd]

Well, I put it back together and it doesn't seem to be having a problem anymore. Maybe I was being overly cautious. At any rate, I'll see if I can locate a cheap motor to have on hand just in case. Thanks!