Our expert is back with more advice for fixing common problems with your vacuum cleaner. This time he looks at what you should do if your upright vacuum cleaner becomes difficult to push…
Vax expert says:
So you’re using your machine in the way that you always have (or perhaps it is the first time you have used it!) and you find that you cannot push it with out a lot of effort. What has happened? Well, there are 4 possible reasons why your machine might be difficult to push. These are:
1. Your brushbar is not turning:
Many upright machines use the turning of the brushbar to help the machine move across the carpet. If the belt breaks, or the drive fails, then clearly this assistance will be lost. The brushbar can be driven in many ways, for example by belt or by a separate motor, and the safest way to check this is to review the user guide that came with the machine. This will give you the instructions for your particular machine - in general this will involve removing some screws and a cover.
IMPORTANT - brushbars spin very quickly and can cause injury if care is not taken!
2. The height adjust control is not set correctly:
The height adjust control, if fitted to your machine, sets the height at which the brushbar spins against the flooring that is being vacuumed. If this is set too high then the brushbar will not help the machine move, but if it is too low then the machine will be fighting against the pile of the carpet and so holds the machine back. The brushbar should just skim the top of the carpet, it should not be thrashing it!
In most cases the easiest way to set the height is to start at the highest setting and then work down until the brushbar is just skimming the carpet and, of course, cleaning it.
3. Your flooring is not fitted correctly:
This is apparent when you find the machine is hard to push only on certain areas of the flooring. The areas that are not held down are difficult to push over because the flooring is pulled up to the machine. Where it is secure, by the edges for example, the machine is easy to push over as the flooring is not pulled up. This is something that I cannot help you with – my floor-laying skills are limited, to say the least!
4. The brushbar is worn:
If the bristles on your brushbar are worn, or missing, then they will not be helping to move the machine forward. Again, most user guides advise on how to check this, but basically you need to turn the machine over and then lay a straight edge across the brushbar soleplate and see if the bristles hit it as you spin the brushbar by hand, as illustrated here:
