Henry Hoover

[Triumphman]

Anyone know anything about Henry hovers? Mine is poorly. It's a few years old and has been very reliable and useful in the workshop but now it has failed.
It turns on, fires up then almost immediately turns itself off again. Tried the fuses a couple of times, but it's made no difference.
Loathed to scrap it if its a simple fix.
Any ideas?

 

[piman]

Hello Triumphman,

has it got a brush motor, as that would be my first thing to look for, i.e. worn brushes? Easy and cheap fix.

Alec (Another Triumph man)

 

[ajlelectronics]

Which is it, a Henry or a Hoover? Depending on the motor type, it could be worn brushes, a loose connection or a break in the mains cable. Favourite place is where the cable enters the body.

 

[AndyStobbs]

Thermal protection switch?

 

[KemppiFrog]

Got one in bits on the bench right now. The motor is a brushed type and has a thermal trip (looks like a neon bulb) The felt wrapping round the motor was well clogged with dust and had inhibited the cooling, so it tripped out. Leaving it for a bit will reset it. In this case the guy I was working with asked me to have a good look at it, so stripped it down. As said, another point of interest is the wire coiling drum. This has two brass slip rings to carry the lecky to the fixed part. These are a bit worn, but still functioning. Each has two brass 'brushes' to make contact. One was OK the other had lost one part.
A good clean of the felt will get it back to running trim, until the brushes fail, when the cable will be hard wired in. Worth fixing as they are quite well built. This one had given years of service.
KF

 

[mike os]

as above really... the motors generally only need new brushes and a clean, replacement motors used to be available and probably still are, reasonable cost to as i recall

 

[Triumphman]

From what you've said, It sounds like its tripping out, as its starting and then cutting out.
I think it's quite an old model, it's a yellow one with a single on/off switch and no hi/low switch which some of them have now.
It was second hand about five years ago and I've used it without a bag so I suspect it could be clogged.
In bits tonight then

 

[KemppiFrog]

Be careful when stripping it, there are 4 little rollers that are in recesses. The cable roll sits on them. If you undo the screws and lift the motor off the top body, they will fall out. The thermal trip is clipped to the motor body and is fragile....
KF

This is a red, single speed one.

 

[MrFluffy]

If you buy the latest henry headunit, beware of the soft start feature they have now. They start up in low speed and have to be selected into high everytime to reduce inrush currents starting in high.
I say beware, because it means if you unplug and then plug it back in, you have to walk the unit itself to put it back on high suction. The older models you could just leave the rocker in the high position.

Tiny detail, but suprisingly irritating when we bought a replacement a bit back. The new one is kept as a spare now and we're using the rebuilt original as a result.

 

[arceyered]

The one we have used to do that turned out to be the moulded plug when you waggled the wire as it enters the plug it came on .?
replaced the plug and it as been working ok .

 

[Wedg1e]

My Henry was free
Someone at work had used it to suck up a load of cat cr*p or similar and it was eye-wateringly stinky.
I binned the afflicted bag etc., got a new one off the 'Bay, sloshed some bleach around in the plastics and hey presto.
It lives alongside the free Vax 121 I got given under similar circumstances: the previous owner bought it new to clean out his big aviary.
When he got bored with the birds he found his mother (he was in his 50s and still lived with her) didn't like the Susie Wong coming from the Vax when he used it in the house so he was going to bin it. I got there first
Gave it the same treatment, works fine. Just a shame he'd already binned all the carpet shampoo and 'wet' attachments.

 

[Triumphman]

Latest
I took it apart and took the felt wadding from around the motor and gave it a bit of a clean. I put it back together and the result was the same, it fired up briefly then died.
I let it cool down (if it was the thermal cut out stopping play) but its still dead.
I tried it with the felt removed, it still won't even try and start. Fuse is ok.
So either it's the thermal trip has got issues or perhaps it's the moulded plug?
Any thoughts?
I'm not the best with electrical issues.
Thanks gents

 

[KemppiFrog]

You need to check if the power is getting to the motor. Did you check the brushes? As in: Long enough and free movement. A simple cheap multimeter from Aldi will be enough to see if the system is OK. I would have another look at the wire drum contact brushes too. As for the thermal cut out, simple to find out if is duff, meter for continuity across the slip rings (with the mains plug OUT) and turn the motor by hand. No reading=U/S. If you are not comfortable doing this, perhaps a mate is?
KF

It does sound a bit like the trip..

 

[chunkolini]

I confess to murdering Henry The Vacuum cleaner.
For many years I have nurtured a murderous dislike of vacuum cleaners, can't explain why but I absolutely hate them.
Leads that tangle, noise, tools that barely function. Death to the hoover.

Anyway.
At work many years back, I was then a stressed out worker in a care home. I was vacuuming the landing, I caught glimpse of his mocking smirk and kicked him right in the chops. OhmIgod! Crash bang wallop all the way down the stairs.
That wiped the bloody smile off his face.

I apologise to Henry the Vacuum cleaner, but he deserved it. The designers also deserve a kicking for anthropomorphising a stupid and badly engineered machine.

 

[mike os]

Chunko.... the rebel without a pause

 

[arceyered]

Mine had the same problem
I replaced the plug 90p and it worked fine.
Worth a try?

 

[Bsmith]

Sounds like what ours did, sorta ran half speed erratically. New set of brushes from http://www.espares.co.uk/ sorted it.

 

[migmag]

I must confess I have not read this thread fully however I have used this firm for years regarding power washers cleaners of all types.
http://www.cleanstore.co.uk/manufacture.asp?ID=Numatic

They do as new refurbished units spares and maintenance advice so give em a try?

 

[Triumphman]

Latest,
I removed the thermal trip from the system. It ran until I turned it off then would'nt restart. (I believe it was the thermal trip anyway, it was a little blue bulb shape object wired with a resistor between the blue and brown leads on the back of the switch).
I then changed the plug. Still no improvement.
How do I check the motor bushes?
Cheers

 

[Bsmith]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gipyxKxOjjQ
How to change henry hoover brushes.