Toggle Electric Switch on Hoover Tempo Upright

[eurekaprince]

Hi everyone,

Well, I decided to donate my old trusty 1982 Eureka Dial-A-Nap upright to another citizen of Vacuumland so that I could buy myself a carpet cleaner with better filtration. Since I am on a very, very tight budget. I went to the closest branch of Future Shop (a Canadian electronics chain owned by Best Buy), and brought home a Hoover Tempo Widepath for only CAD100.00. I was so excited.....and the machine works great on carpets! It is an excellent, powerful deep carpet cleaner - and relatively light to manoeuver and carry.

But......

After a week of use, I noticed something weird with the toggle power switch. Every time I hit the switch to turn off the cleaner, I saw a bright flash of light, like a spark, coming from the switch assembly. I flipped the switch off and on a few more times, and did not notice any burning or smoke at all. It's just if you do not slowly move the toggle to the off position, you get this really bright electrical flash of light....like a bright spark, coming from the switch area.

I thought this may be a flaw in the unit I bought, so I brought it back and exchanged it for an identical Hoover Tempo. Sure enough, after I assembled the second one at home and started her up, the same thing happened. A bright electric flash comes out of the gap around the red toggle switch whenever I shut off the unit. It does not happen when I turn it on.

My question to all you experts out there? Is this dangerous? Is this normal? Do all Hoover uprights with toggle switches do this? Should take the second unit back?

 

[vacman117]

That happens to some of my vacuums, I can't remember which ones, but I have seen that a lot. I just think nothing of it, and nothing has happened.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you Chase.....let's see if others agree. Don't want to get electrocuted while playing with my new toy!!!!!

 

[powertank]

Replacing the switch with one of higher quality will solve the problem, but I would just leave it for now. I doubt it would shock you. What you're seeing is the current jumping across the contacts of the switch for a brief moment. The current wants to keep flowing, and you've broken the connection (by moving the contacts).

 

[bagintheback]

Same thing has happened to mine from when I bought it. Nothing bad has ever happen from it.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you Peter and Chase. As long as the momentary flash of electricity does not melt the plastic switch, I guess it is not dangerous. It's important for me to hear that a higher quality switch would not do this - I guess you get what you pay for!!!!!

My concern comes from the fact that I remember Hoover recalling the Self-Propelled WindTunnels a few years back because of a faulty power switch that injured a few users (they replaced the switches for free). So I'm a bit concerned that this may be happening to the cheaper low end Hoover uprights now.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks for your post too Nathaniel.....this helps me with my decision to keep the vac.

 

[gusherb]

When a machine draws alot of current and you go to pull the plug out while it's still running and it sparks.... It's the same thing as the switch, it's just simply arcing right when you pull contact by flipping the switch. I see it happen with alot of things, if you ever flipped a lightswitch off sometimes you'll see it arcing. For the most part it's pretty normal.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you Jonathan....

Well that's 4 votes for keeping the Tempo!

All of your answers make a lot of sense guys, but I never saw the sparking or arcing happening on lower voltage vacs with similar switches. For instance, good ol' Goldie, our family's beautiful 1974 gold Eureka Rugulator with the Cordaway, had a three position toggle switch which never produced the mini "flash of lightening" I see coming out of the Tempo's toggle switch.

Does anyone in the vac repair shop world remember replacing switches on the Self Propelled WindTunnels several years ago? What was wrong with the Hoover switches on those models?

 

[powertank]

They're just cheap. Shoddy Chinese parts don't hold up as well. The switch on the Eureka is much higher quality (carling I believe), so you would never see it arc.

 

[gusherb]

powertank

The switch on my Boss Smart Vac never arcs, and it feels much much better than a Tempo's switch.

Eurekaprince: I will say between what you've said and the Tempo that I've used myself it looks like the arcing is inherent with the particular switch used on them, I remembered after responding the last time that indeed the Tempo I used had it's switch arc every time I turned it off.

 

[eurekaprince]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for confirming that I am not completely crazy with this. I am shocked (pardon the pun) that this kind of arking switch has received the UL stamp of approval. It's such a shame, because the Tempo really is an excellent carpet vacuum - a bare bones WindTunnel with great suction and brushing action. I think Peter's comment is spot on - the switch is a very cheap product, and who knows if the sparking isn't somehow melting the plastic around it so that the thing will malfunction just when the one year warranty is up.

My thinking now is: I'm going to keep it, and use the switch as if there is nothing wrong with it. If it dies on me, I will give it in to my AAA Vac shop and pay for the repair if it happens after one year. At least maybe by then Hoover will have provided a better replacement switch to the repair shops.

Thanks for all your help, friends!

Eurekaprince Brian

 

[eurekaprince]

Epilogue of my Hoover Tempo Adventure......

Well friends, here is the conclusion to the story:

I just did not feel happy with the lightening flashes coming from my Hoover Tempo's switch. Beyond that, I noticed that this Tempo from Canada's Future Shop looked a little different from the American one I had bought for my Mom from Best Buy in Florida in January 2009 (she needed a cheap vac for her vacation rental during that winter). The Best Buy Florida version had the exact same model number as the unit highly rated by Consumer Reports (U5140-900), and it had a headlight and a bag check meter. The box was white with a big red Hoover logo. It cost around USD80.00 at the time.

I remember being very excited to see the exact same model in our Future Shop stores a year ago here in Canada. The box looked identical and everything. The model number was the same...and the price of CAD99.99 seemed in line with the exchange rate on the dollar.

When I finally caved into temptation and bought my own Tempo a few weeks ago, I noticed a few differences: the box had changed to a black and red style with a photo of the blue vac on the front, and when I finally got it out of the box at home, the Canadian version of the U5140 was missing a headlight and a bag check meter.

I was willing to forgo these luxuries, but was bothered by the arcing coming from the cheap toggle switch. I figured: "maybe it's just this unit....I'll exchange it for another one and hope for the best." I exchanged Purchase One, and, like I said above, the toggle switch had the same problem. Purchase Two also had a few scratches, and the dusting brush was missing the little Hoover logo. When I wrote my last post here at Vacuumland on Monday morning, I had decided to keep Purchase Two, and if the switch was gonna die on me, I'd get it repaired and live with the extra cost - because I really like this machine and I can't afford a more expensive one.

Then yesterday, I happened to be in a Home Depot here in Toronto, and noticed they also had a Hoover Tempo. But these were identical to the US one that I had bought at Best Buy in Florida a year ago: with a bag check indicator and headlight. Even the box was the older version - white with a black sketch of the vac on the box (not a photo). BUT: the model number was a bizarre Canadian model number - UH30005CA! The other "but" - it was CAD129.00, not 99.99!

I wondered if this Home Depot Tempo might be from a different production run than the two I had bought from Future Shop. So I took a risk, and went ahead and bought one from Home Depot (I like having a headlight).

So here I was at home last night with 2 versions of the Tempo. I put Purchase Three together, and noticed immediately that the pieces came together better than the other two I had assembled. Even the dusting brush had a little Hoover logo on it. Then came the moment of truth - would this Tempo's switch create that same annoying flash of electric arcing? Guess what? It hardly flashed at all! There was a very weak flash, but sometimes no spark at all. I flipped the switch several times, and this switch was much much better.

The moral of the story is: some production runs of the same model of vacuum result in better quality than others. Purchase Two is now disassembled and back in the box, waiting to be returned to Future Shop. Purchase Three is now proudly sitting in my closet. The extra 30 bucks was worth it!!!!