Vacuum Cleaner Maintenance 101- Recently my vacuum cleaner decided to try to suck up one of my scatter rugs, which caused it to slip the belt. This happens from time to time, but it does give me a good excuse to clean out the threads and hair wound up in the roller at the same time.
Now my vacuum is an OLDIE- meaning it is not bagless (which I do not care for, as dumping out the "dust and debris" causes more issues with airborne allergens, in my opinion) and has relatively few working parts to mess with. I actually found my vacuum on a curbside during a city wide clean up day, at least 10 years ago. The previous owner- presumably male, given it had a playboy bunny sticker on it- decided it was broken and tossed it. Actually, the belt had slipped and they had appeared to have sucked up a pen, causing a log jam of gunk. Once cleared and cleaned, and sticker removed, belt replaced, it has worked perfectly fine ever since.
But I digress... here is my step by step pictorial guide to changing out the belt and cleaning the roller of your vacuum. If you have a newer model, I am not certain what the inner workings looks like, but would hope that they all have similar abilities to general repair. Check with your owner's manual if you do decide to take matters into your own hands.
Unplug your vacuum and tip it on the back side revealing the base.
Locate screws holding the covering plate on the bottom and remove with a screwdriver. (usually a Phillips head)
In my case there were four screws to remove...
Remove the base plate and set aside.
Note the belt is not broken, just slipped off. You can replace broken belts in a similar manner. Every belt is a different size so make sure you are buying the correct one for your specific machine.
Using a scissors, trim off threads and hair wound up in the roller.
Yuck!
Locate the bottom of the belt. I had to remove the roller bar in order to reattach the belt. It was hard to get a photo, but I basically pulled the roller gently toward me and then used the screw driver to help hook/guide the belt back onto the attachment rod.
Note that it is attached to a metal rod sticking out.
Replace the roller bar, pulling the belt tight. My roller bar has fitted notches to guide the piece in securely.
Now that it is all attached (see arrow) I screwed the protective base plate back on, and voila! my vacuum was once again "fully operational."
Back together...and yes, the outline of the sticker is still on there. I never got around to removing it with rubbing alcohol.
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