URGENT! My Fantom Fury has died!

[niclonnic]

Ladies and gentlemen, my new to me Fantom Fury has...died today. I got it refurbished a couple weeks ago from electroluxxxx here on Vacuumland. I used it as my daily driver for the past 2 weeks. Today, I used the hose and floor nozzle on my laminate floors downstairs, and it worked perfectly fine. But then, I went to vacuum a rug using the brush roll, and within 1 second of turning it on and giving it a little push, it shorted out on me! I then smelled a slight electrical burning smell. I tried turning it off and on, and nothing happened.

Does anybody know of a way to revive this Fury? I really want this vacuum back. I love it; it's my favorite in the whole wide world.

I have uploaded a video of the issue.

 

[human]

I know nothing about Fantoms, just not my thing, but the fact that you smelled something burning would make me think that if you could open the machine up, you would likely see an area inside--circuit board, perhaps--that is blackened, melted or otherwise damaged. I have no idea what that part might be or whether replacements are available short of acquiring a donor machine but that's my $0.02.

 

[dysonman1]

Isn’t there a reset button on the back of the machine? I know there is a reset button on the fantom thunder

 

[niclonnic]

The culprit

With permission from electroluxxxx, I took apart the Fury and took a look at the motor. It looks like the motor has gone out. That was a brand new motor, too!

electroluxxxx offered me to send in the motor to see if he can fix it and send it back, or refurbish another one. I'm unsure if I should do it or not; I mainly got this Fury as a collectible.

Below is a pic of the bad motor.

 

[niclonnic]

Dysonman1

My Fury does have a reset button on the back of the machine. I tried pressing it, but it won't click. Even after letting the motor cool, the vacuum still won't turn on.

 

[madman]

Now when you say it 'shorted out,' do you mean it actually tripped your house circuit breaker? Or are you just referring to the electrical zappy noise it made during failure?

At any rate, get out the screwdriver and get crackin.

 

[niclonnic]

MadMan

At first, when this happened, I thought the Fury tripped my circuit breaker. But everything was still on.

What happened was the motor suddenly changed to a lower pitch after turning the machine on, and I immediately shut it off. That's when I noticed a slight burning smell. Then the vacuum wouldn't turn on after that. Well, after letting it cool for half an hour, I tried running the Fantom again, and the motor stuttered, then it died almost instantly.

 

[huskyvacs]

No disrespect to electroluxxxx, but was it a brand new never used motor, or a used motor that was brand new to that vacuum? That commutator looks pretty bad, not sure if that's smoke damage from what just happened or a lot of carbon buildup. If it's carbon buildup, maybe that's why it's not working?

I watched this video last month on how to polish a motor commutator:

 

[electroluxxxx]

Huskyvacs

Nice of you to quickly question. YES it was a BRAND NEW motor from a vac shop that had closed. There were a couple of motors left and I wound up with one of them. these machines if you know ANYTHING about them had dirt pass through them quite often with their dual cyclonic design and motors were a common issue. Not to mention it is definitely not my first rodeo with completely servicing a fantom cleaner. So offense taken? No not at all. I take great pride in my work otherwise I’d be sending out filthy non working machines advertised as clean working machines.

 

[electroluxxxx]

Also one last thing... before people start second guessing or getting ideas and wild hairs up their asses keep in mind I have been in touch with nick to fix the issue unlike a lot of “other” people who take the money and run.

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh OK, I was just trying to help with process of elimination. I've bought vacuums off Amazon that claim they are refurbished, but only just washed, and no motor repairs done or they use recycled parts, so you never know what people actually mean when 'refurbished' is used.

I'm going to be learning motor repair this summer so I've just been trying to study things that go wrong with motors so I know what to do if I encounter this problem. And no, I don't know anything about the Fantoms because I just became a member here last fall and I'd never heard of this vacuum before then. I do have an Amway ClearTrack though, which people says was similar to the Fantom.

So I guess there has been dirt got inside there that jammed it up and killed it?

 

[electroluxxxx]

Not necessarily true, these machines were noted for issues especially motor issues. the motor is a bypass motor meaning that air passes through the motor to keep it cool which is something fantom should not have done with this machine. Because it is an early dual cyclonic machine it has its flaws. One big flaw is that there is no filter to really catch debris before entering the motor housing therefore fine dirt goes through the motor and into the hepa filter. There used to be a piece of coarse screen but it didn’t do much. It would catch lint but by the time it was full the motor was already off balance and on its way out. The thunder I feel was a little more thought out but then again that too had its flaws. The fury was a cheaper and smaller option than the thunder. Although a decently built machine with a little bit of work and improvements it could have been better.

 

[kirbylux77]

Huskyvacs, back down & leave Electroluxxxx, Mike, alone! I have known him for many years & he is definitely one of our more reputable members here. I assure you, Mike would NEVER intentionally send a vacuum out in bad condition or with a bad motor! The fact he has been in contact with Nick to help him out & try to resolve the issue speaks to his character. If you have any further doubts, ask John Long, he knows Mike even better than I do.

As to issues with the Fantom Fury, I completely agree with Mike on this. The Fantom Fury was introduced as a lower tier model to the Fantom Thunder, & even Tom Gasko has criticized Iona, Fantom's parent company, for how poorly made the Fantom Fury was, both here & in Floor Care Professional, the trade publication for vac shops. There's good reason why that company went under, everything after the Fantom Thunder was garbage. James Dyson ending their agreement to use the Dual Cyclone technology was the icing on the cake that had done them in.

Rob

 

[niclonnic]

The Fantom Edge

I think the reason why Fantom vacuums were so popular is because they cleaned well. While the suction isn't the strongest, they do a very good job on carpets. I believe it's the brushroll. In addition, they started the bagless revolution in North America, during a time when bags were your only option. Fantoms were easy to use and maintain, have a user-friendly design (for example, the clean-out ports in case you get a blockage) and are 2 machines in 1, featuring a hose stored on the back as part of the handle, and removing the handle instantly converts it into a cleaning wand for easy above floor cleaning. This is in contrast to many vacuums at the time where you had to attach a separate hose in order to convert it to tool mode.

In addition, Fantom achieved their success with television infomercials. For example, here's the infomercial for the Fury. Lots of everyday people fell in love with them.

 

[niclonnic]

Anybody?

Isn't anybody interested in seeing this infomercial?

 

[man114]

Just looks like a bad motor, dirt won’t kill these that fast. I’ve got at least a dozen of them. After a few years they get clogged with larger lint and if you don’t take em apart and take a pipe cleaner through the vanes they get filled with lint and efficiency decreases, then they die. If this vac doesn’t last 6-7 years untouched it’s unusual.

 

[madman]

Commutator looks pretty gnarly. And not the good kind of gnarly, either.

Are the brushes... like still there? Worn down? Non-existent? Maybe the brushes got oil on them? Maybe the bearing holder (if plastic) melted? I mean it's kind of hard to speculate without looking it over in person. Kind of hard to guess if we can't see a smoking gun.

I mean... I'm sure electroluxxx did his best. But it could just be rotten luck, like a shorted armature or whatever. I've had worse happen with motors refurbished by even the best people.

 

[niclonnic]

The solution

The problem with repairing the motor is that I do not know how to do electrical repairs. So what I need to do is mail the motor to electroluxxxx so he can fix it for me.