Morphy Richards vacuum switch replacement

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Bacms

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Hi everyone,

Recently my vacuum has gone kapu in spectacular fashion since somehow the switch button half melted. I am guessing this must have been caused by a short on the switch itself since everything else seems to be working.

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As you probably know to try to get spares for anything no longer being manufactured is pretty much impossible so I have tried to get a switch that I could replace myself. Now the original switch is a 3 position switch with position 1 turning the motor on and the second powering the rotatory brush at the bottom. However, the one I acquired despite being 3 positions as well seems to function rather differently with powering either the motor or the brush but not both at the same time.

I am assuming I just bought the wrong type of switch but can anyone point me on the direction of what the switch I need is called?
 
i have searched RS and farnell and I cant find one either. you could try ringing RS and see if they have any ideas. could you either fit two switches or just one and have the brushes and sucking on at the same time and live with it
 
Not much to show on that switch but i assume there were three wires originally?

What you need to search for is a SPDT switch.
Thats a Single pole (one live in) and Double Throw, which means its an on / on switch.
The trouble was almost certainly caused by loose crimp connections.

List the make of the vacuum cleaner and its most likely we can find a part for you.
But with that kind of damage to the switch, you will need to replace all the wires as well even if they dont look burnt.
 
I had a Vax I rescued from the recycle center.
It started shorting, and I took it apart and tried working on it.
Strange strange world of vacuum cleaner enthusiasts out there, that I never would have believed existed :lol:

My toggle switch ended up welding itself, on the last attempt of repair.
I reckon it was the motor shorting, as it sounded funny after the time I assembled it, so apart again to work on it
I'm not knowledgeable about electricity, but this sounded like something was caught up somewhere inside the armature.
It could have been something expanding, rather than something caught inside it.
I would not be hoping for this thing to work again if you replace the switch and wires, after that switch burned up.

My toggle switch was salvageable and turned out out to be handy for my VFD.

Tom
 
a DPDT switch might work with the in to one centre contact, the motor fed from the switched side of each side and the brush linked to the motor on one side via the middle contact I think I have got my reckoning right!
 
Wow, that is a lot more replies than what I was expecting. The vacuum cleaner is a Morphy Richards Never Loses Suction Complete Clean 73415. It is a bit of a mouthful and none of the spares websites seems to list switches. The original switch did indeed have 3 pins, 2 parallel to each other which are the melted ones and the seemly unaffected one still visible.

I have replaced the connectors and shortened the cables and have tested it by connecting things directly and it is definitely working, the problem is as I mentioned the switch I got is the on/off/on so I can either have the brush or the motor but not both. A simple solution is to indeed wire them both together so I only have an ON a position which powers both, in fact, I have it running it like this at the moment.

My main concern with this is that the main section lifts away from the motorised brush so you will have live contacts at the bottom of the machines. Mind you they are quite well recessed so you really need to try and get electrocuted but I would rather be safe than sorry.
 
There used to be a member of the forum called scrimperuk who I think repaired this sort of thing for a living.
Maybe do a search for him on the forum and send a pm.
 

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