What ho one and all,

Unfortunately, not a building question but definitely green related.

I have a Parkside (Lidl) wet/dry vac that had seen many years of excellent service. Yesterday, annoyingly, it gave up the ghost. With two options available, discard or check the problem and perhaps repair, I chose the latter.

Very simply, it was a burnt ot carbon brush that is theoretically, easy to replace.

The attached photo is what I took out and I can find many possible matches on the internet (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383709765591?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&toolid=10001). But none have measurements.

I mailed one ebay seller and had the following reply, "Fits for 30/60/70/80/90L Industrial Vacuum Cleaners." Which is not exactly an answer to my question.

My vac is a Parkside 30/7E but given its age, I cannot find any parts related reference.

Am I correct in assuming that all this 'type' for 30/60/70L vacs are a universal fit?

Thanks and toodle pip.

Looks like a pretty standard item fitted something similar in size to a vac a while ago. Have you a local electrical shop that do repairs they are likely to have a selection and may be willing to sell you a set.

Thanks for the replies.

Have a Euro something locally but they are only interested in fridge and washing machine sales.

There is a Repair Cafe some distance away, but my guess is, they will know less that I do and I am able to repair it, just need the part.

Will give Parkside a call but not holding my breath. Agreed that the best way is to buy a pair for the few £s that they cost and in all likelihood, they will fit. But if not, not a great loss.

Posted By: Rexdoes the brass (or is it copper) disk at the end just make spring pressure contact with the fitting at the top of the part in my photo? Or would it be a soldered length of wire?

I think the brass disk is just there to hold the spring in place, and to provide a good contact surface onto the housing.

If you needed to reduce the cross-section of the brush, you might also need to reduce the size of the disk a bit too, so it will fit in the housing.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183739038793

everything after the ? is usually tracking junk

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41119355

Prior to 2017, vacuum cleaners had large and inefficient motors and fans, because consumers chose "the most powerful" ones. Even if most of that power was emitted directly as heat and noise without first becoming suction!

Many models were redesigned when the product efficiency regulations came in, replaced by models that do the same job but with much less energy consumption. (Edit- the regs require 98% of dust to be picked up with less than 900W power consumption. They used to require efficiency labels A-G, this was suspended a few years later due to legal actions, but the efficient motors are still being used)

It perhaps might be a false economy to repair rather than replace an energy-hungry vacuum cleaner? A bit like repairing an incandescent light bulb!

It would be great if we could buy a new efficient motor and fan and keep all the plastic body bits, but that's unlikely to happen.

I fell in this trap by replacing the brushes in our old washing machine. It was a lot of work and my satisfaction quickly wore off as other components wore out soon afterwards (door lock and then drum bearings). We replaced it, and the new one is much more economical to run and quieter.

Posted By: Rexdoes the brass (or is it copper) disk at the end just make spring pressure contact with the fitting at the top of the part in my photo? Or would it be a soldered length of wire?

The brass disk is fixed to the wire (soldered or spot welded) and it is the disk and wire that provides electrical conduction to the brush. The spring should play no part in the electrical connectivity, it is just there to provide the necessary pressure of the brush to the commutator.

Just thought I would give a Boxing Day heads-up.

After one failed delivery of the brushes from China, a fleaBay refund and trying again, the brushes finally arrived just before Christmas.

Fitted them this afternoon, but of course, they would not fit. Took advice from above, removed the carbon and spring from the new housing, sanded it down to fit into the original housing, reassembled everything and the vac is working again.

Brilliant result and many thanks for the advice.

Happy New Year to all

Ozone forms when there are sparks, clean commutator and fit new proper carbon brushes

>can't be bothered to work out what's actually needed

@Ed in an eBay url, everything upto the first question mark should be fine :)

Removed the brushes to check them and they looked fine. Upon reinstall, and testing, an RCD on the main switch board flick off.

So figure it was time to take to the dump. As it happens, my favourite tool shop, Lidl had wet/dry vac so have bought one. Not quite so convenient as it does not have a 13a power through socket but I can live with that.

Must admit, it almost breaks my hear to throw away a perfectly good item, just because something trivial on the brushes is unrepairable. And when one sees the amount of stuff in the skip, what kind of society have we created?

On a different but disposable topic, my lovely Dell UltraSharp monitor stopped working recently. I have reluctantly bought a larger replacement, but decided to investigate the inside of the old one. Seems the main capacitor on the incoming poser circuit is a common monitor problem and yes, that was obviously the issue. A £5 cap from eBay, bit of soldering and it works again (almost!!!) Unfortunately, in struggling to remove the bezel, I evidently applied too much pressure to the screen so now have an area of dead pixels that radiate vertical and horizontal lines; so I guess it will be destined for the dump.