Vacuum cleaner problem?

Question

I'm a guy who isn't extremely familiar with vacuum cleaners so maybe someone can help. I was running around the house with my Kenmore Progressive vacuum cleaner and I accidentally pushed the adjustable thingy that lets you set the height of the vacuum. This adjuster thing is about halfway down the silver tube. The second I touched it, the carpet cleaning part shut off so it's just sucking air. I pushed everything together as hard as I could trying to get it to come back on but with no luck. I had been vacuuming for quite a while. Do these things shut off when they get too hot and stay off until they cool? It seems kind of fishy that it died right when i touched the adjuster thing though. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I interpret your description to mean that the motor that drives the beater brush stopped running.  

If that motor is really an electric motor (and not one of those "turbine" brush drives), and the problem of it shutting off when you hit the height adjustment is related, then it would seem reasonable to look for a broken wire.    One other possibility is that maybe the brush dug into the carpet (did you adjust it downward?) and stalled the motor and that might have caused it to burn out (usually a fusible link in the motor windings), or with luck, it's just a breaker that you can reset.  

If it was a thermal protection device that tripped, it would had to have been quite a coincidence, because if it tripped from an over-temperature condition, it would not likey happen so instantantly after you hit the adjustment control.

Answer 2

Lol..I was going to say to reset it! You most likely lowered it to low and it turned itself off.

Answer 3

sounds like you may have broken your belt when you adjusted the height. turn it over and turn it on, if the brush doesn't spin, you have to take the stupid thing apart and change the belt. this is the most common problem that people have with vacuums.

Answer 4

I suspect that your vacuum shuts off the beater bar (carpet cleaning part) when the height adjustment is put on low.  This allows the vacuum to clean a non-carpeted floor without the beater bar kicking dirt all around the kitchen.

Once you figure out how to properly re-set the height adjustment, the beater bar should work again.  You may have to check to make sure the beater bar drive belt is still in place.  I don't know why you had such a hard time re-setting the height adjustment, but evidently you were doing something wrong, as it should not take that much muscle.